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FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018. -
I can't remember when I would have applied that description, 'genuinely steely team,' to us. Can you remember a year when that applied?
In 2016 we had some genuinely steely players. Moz, Picken, Clay, Boyd (of the Matt variety) come to mind easily. Bont and 'stone-cold' Jack too. But even then I don't think the team characteristic was that hard, steely, win-at-all-costs professionalism.
We need more of that.Comment
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So much of it is above the shoulders, and in today's system/structure based game mental lapses have never been more costly. The old cliche was always footy is 10% physical and 90% between the ears, and it's probably still true. The good teams are so good at taking advantage of opposition lapses in field dominance, and the really good ones with the quality make the most of it.TF is this?.........Obviously you're not a golfer.Comment
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I've gone either way on Beveridge (he annoys the shite out of me sometimes) but what I'll never accuse him of is having a balanced list of genuine quality behind and forward of the footy at the same time, and wasting it. Yes we have Bont, and we've had a particular type of midfield that's able to dominate the poor teams and sometimes match it with the best teams, but outside of that it's been a bit of a shambles during his tenure.
It's like prior to this year at least, everyone turns into Brownlow voting umpires when looking at our list quality, and just focuses on midfielders, and a half back here and there. Most of the top eight have Easton Wood and Dale Morris peak quality defenders or close enough at their disposal, the closest we've come to that in five years was eight weeks of Rory Lobb and a year and a half of Liam Jones......and that's being a bit generous. We've been fumbling around with Alex Keath and Ryan Gardner when the aforementioned haven't been available, and blooding JOD as a stop gap. That's not OK versus the top teams.
Geelong is a great example of a club that's always had an even mix of good defensive talls, defensive runners, quality inside and outside midfielders, and a good mix of tall and small forwards. How much of that is due to Chris Scott or another part of the football department I don't know, but whoever's responsible for the mix is doing the club a favour because it's so much easier to put a structure in place when you have league standard quality across the lines.
Perhaps Beveridge has been too loyal to players who should have been moved on to make space for new recruits from other clubs, especially given we're into our second rebuild during his tenure. Changing the mix up earlier, bringing in new mature players and aggressively trading out others would have lessened the need to play as many young lists as we have during those rebuilds. But at the same time we've made two grand finals with the latter approach in his eleven years. Chris Scott has made three grand finals with their lists in fifteen, and only has one more flag than Beveridge. So the ratio to grand final appearances (especially given Scott coasted into 2011) is pretty even between the two approaches, and each could have had another if circumstances were different in the grand final losses each experienced (nobody tends to talk about the 2020 bed shitting Geelong put on the table when assessing Chris Scott).
This year with a bit of luck we could have finished fourth or fifth, but my usual instinct of wanting to make finals no matter what has been numbed in knowing we need to make massive improvements to a list on which quality actually regressed from last year. We need to make massive improvements to defensive quality of all sorts and outside forward of the footy.
But TBB, it's not unusual for us to disagree on this topic!
TF is this?.........Obviously you're not a golfer.Comment
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Haha I don't think we disagree entirely. I've shared your view that the list isn't as good as the media makes it out to be, there's been a number of shortcomings or over reliance in certain areas. Namely midfield.
I've gone either way on Beveridge (he annoys the shite out of me sometimes) but what I'll never accuse him of is having a balanced list of genuine quality behind and forward of the footy at the same time, and wasting it. Yes we have Bont, and we've had a particular type of midfield that's able to dominate the poor teams and sometimes match it with the best teams, but outside of that it's been a bit of a shambles during his tenure.
It's like prior to this year at least everyone turns into Brownlow voting umpires when looking at our list quality, and just focuses on midfielders, and a half back here and there. Most of the top eight have Easton Wood and Dale Morris peak quality defenders or close enough at their disposal, the closest we've come to that in five years was eight weeks of Rory Lobb and a year and a half of Liam Jones......and that's being a bit generous.
Geelong is a great example of a club that's always had an even mix of good defensive talls, defensive runners, quality inside and outside midfielders, and a good mix of tall and small forwards. How much of that is due to Chris Scott or another part of the football department I don't know, but whoever's responsible for the mix is doing the club a favour because it's so much easier to put a structure in place when you have league standard quality across the lines.
Perhaps Beveridge has been too loyal to players who should have been moved on to make space for new recruits from other clubs, especially given we're into our second rebuild during his tenure. Changing the mix up earlier, bringing in new mature players and aggressively trading out others would have lessened the need to play as many young lists as we have during those rebuilds. But at the same time we've made two grand finals with the latter approach in his eleven years. Chris Scott has made three grand finals with their lists in fifteen, and only has one more flag than Beveridge. So the ratio to grand final appearances (especially given Scott coasted into 2011) is pretty even between the two approaches, and each could have had another if circumstances were different in the grand final losses each experienced (nobody tends to talk about the 2020 bed shitting Geelong put on the table when assessing Chris Scott).
This year with a bit of luck we could have finished fourth or fifth, but my usual instinct of wanting to make finals no matter what has been numbed in knowing we need to make massive improvements to a list on which quality actually regressed from last year. We need to make massive improvements to defensive quality of all sorts and outside forward of the footy.
But TBB, it's not unusual for us to disagree on this topic!
I think where we disagree is who shoulders that blame. List management is certainly in my hit zone but ultimately the coach has a significant say in the type of players recruited to the club. I mean, we lost Dalrymple because of it - and I don't necessarily disagree with that approach - but this is where I hold Bevo accountable as the main man.
He's the one who sets the game plan and recruits for it. Sometimes you miss out on players (ie. Barass) but I don't accept we've made defenders who defend a priority.
This offseason is enormous for the club. Address the clear deficiencies that we've refused to properly acknowledge, inclusive of how we actually play.W00F!Comment
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If he recruits for it then it's not the right model. He should set the game plan, ask for the player types he wants, and then adjust to what he gets. If he's not adjusted properly that's on him, but from what I see he's had to do a lot of adjusting because the quality just hasn't been there. Like you, what I don't know is how aggressive we've been in pursuing the quality we need, especially behind the ball, and how well or poorly our interview process has sold the opportunities. Possibly due to his loyalty to his troops, Beveridge might fall over in the latter but that's just speculation.
As for Dalrymple, the whole situation with him and McCartney, and Beveridge I guess seemed to have been pretty toxic because of the wrong mix of egos not being governed properly. Losing Graham Lowe early 2017 was a massive issue we struggled to recover from and it seemed it turned into an ego fest. However, what I will say, is if you're leaving the club based on taking peripheral players like Billy Gowers (who actually was our goal kicking champion one year) then everyone's missing the point!
I can't disagree with the last sentence in any way. However, what I will say is for a half of last year we showed an ability to play a different and more field balanced way when we had our personnel firing across the lines. We were the most balanced side for defence and attack a lot of those weeks, we didn't push/squeeze up because we didn't feel we needed to protect behind centre which we clearly did this year. If my uncle had tits he'd be my auntie and all that, but I don't think we'd have been half as close to making finals this year if we didn't protect our defence to the extent we did by reverting to our previous lock it in after repeat entries style of play from previous years. We also forget we scored heavily, and while the competition was in two halves driving that outcome, we still scored heavily in many of the games we lost against the better sides. We just couldn't defend for different reasons.
I'm not sure what might have happened against the better sides if we sat back and supported our defenders with more numbers. I suspect we'd have struggled to kick anything close to a score given they'd just have had their quality defenders squeeze up on us and smash us with repeat entries instead of vice versa. But uncles and aunties and all that, we'll never know.
TF is this?.........Obviously you're not a golfer.Comment
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Fremantles performance against us wasn’t anything special. Their style of play is just the exact counter to our current set up with our makeshift backline.
if we had Gold Coasts backline personnel, we would have beaten Freo comfortably.Comment
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Chris Scott is a smug bastard but he is the best coach in the competition IMO, and by some distance. He never allows the opposition to play on their terms - there are never any shootout "your mids v our mids" type matches because he is proactive at identifying the key dangers of the opposition and actually putting a plan in place for them. He also utilises the high half forwards really well for stints up the ground and the wingers into F50. He has versatile players and has them playing different roles in-game - good luck if you're the opposition coach planning against someone like Blicavs.
All the above pains me no end to write - but it is all true unfortunately."Look at me mate. Look at me. I'm flyin'"Comment
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That's fair enough. I just think it's an easier thing to do when you have the most balanced talent all over the ground all the time. You can rely on everyone to do their thing and not have to go for broke. Meaning you can genuinely put plans in place for specific players at different times to accentuate your strengths.TF is this?.........Obviously you're not a golfer.Comment
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You have to weigh in what the Steven Wells led recruiting team have meant over the last couple of decades. They do always seem to have an exceptional list and are able to make some really astute acquisitions.
But, grudgingly, some kudos must go Scotts way. Still cannot fathom why he annoys me so much.
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