Janus
Advocatus Diaboli
- Sep 9, 2007
- 23,350
- 57,117
- AFL Club
- Port Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bulls
"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - The Dark Knight
Everything in this world is cyclic. What was popular 40 years ago can be reborn into popular culture, like flares, platform shoes and disco funk. The same can be said of football, and specifically the perceptions of a team. When a club is at it's zenith, it is hated for its success, but with a grudging respect. Look at Geelong, Sydney, Hawthorn. Then, when it falls down the circle of football life, people start reminiscing about how great that team was in retrospective adulation - "That Geelong team of 07-11 was awesome!". After awhile, that adulation is replaced with derision as the club regenerates, until it emerges from the dark side of the moon and its rise is celebrated again.
For the past two seasons, Port Adelaide has shot out from that dark place like a comet. And people - fellow supporters, opposition supporters, opposition teams, the media - have gazed in wonder at how bright this shooting star, which was thought to be dead, has radiated. But now, that wonder is slowly being evaporated and the seeds of that jealous hatred are starting to manifest. Do not shy away from this. Embrace it. While everyone is looking for the next feelgood story, we will quietly go about our business of winning the 2015 AFL premiership. And it starts against Fremantle in Round 1.
Subiaco has been a graveyard for many a premiership campaign over the past few years. It's like ultimate success has an aversion to the colour purple. But no matter. If we are to rise to the peaks of Mt. Olympus, first we must traverse the underworld that is the Dockers and the Purple Horde.
The real reason why we played the way we did against Adelaide was to simulate the kind of pressure we will face against Fremantle. Lyon loves playing a rolling zone a kick behind the play, so any blind kicks will easily be cut off. Instead of kicking around the corner, you really need to think through with handball until you get to the other side of the ground where there is some free space. That's why we went at half rat pace with our own defence - we wanted more opportunity to put ourselves under manic pressure, hence the use of handball. Now of course, in real matches, we add our own defensive pressure which mitigates the opposition and restricts the easy freewheeling goals that Adelaide kicked. As a side note - Round 5 is going to be a lot of fun when Crows supporters realise what happens when two teams play the same sort of style instead of one playing only half of it...
Anyway, back to Fremantle. The Dockers will still believe that we stole their chance at redemption against Hawthorn. Maybe we did...or maybe they just aren't good enough. Expect the same tsunami game plan to try and blow us away before the last quarter. The difference is that we have another pre-season under our belts.
Pavlich once said to his players to "Put on your superman capes, boys." Well, our preparation, desire and application makes us Batman. And everyone knows Batman can kick Superman's ass.
#r1portvfreo
Everything in this world is cyclic. What was popular 40 years ago can be reborn into popular culture, like flares, platform shoes and disco funk. The same can be said of football, and specifically the perceptions of a team. When a club is at it's zenith, it is hated for its success, but with a grudging respect. Look at Geelong, Sydney, Hawthorn. Then, when it falls down the circle of football life, people start reminiscing about how great that team was in retrospective adulation - "That Geelong team of 07-11 was awesome!". After awhile, that adulation is replaced with derision as the club regenerates, until it emerges from the dark side of the moon and its rise is celebrated again.
For the past two seasons, Port Adelaide has shot out from that dark place like a comet. And people - fellow supporters, opposition supporters, opposition teams, the media - have gazed in wonder at how bright this shooting star, which was thought to be dead, has radiated. But now, that wonder is slowly being evaporated and the seeds of that jealous hatred are starting to manifest. Do not shy away from this. Embrace it. While everyone is looking for the next feelgood story, we will quietly go about our business of winning the 2015 AFL premiership. And it starts against Fremantle in Round 1.
Subiaco has been a graveyard for many a premiership campaign over the past few years. It's like ultimate success has an aversion to the colour purple. But no matter. If we are to rise to the peaks of Mt. Olympus, first we must traverse the underworld that is the Dockers and the Purple Horde.
The real reason why we played the way we did against Adelaide was to simulate the kind of pressure we will face against Fremantle. Lyon loves playing a rolling zone a kick behind the play, so any blind kicks will easily be cut off. Instead of kicking around the corner, you really need to think through with handball until you get to the other side of the ground where there is some free space. That's why we went at half rat pace with our own defence - we wanted more opportunity to put ourselves under manic pressure, hence the use of handball. Now of course, in real matches, we add our own defensive pressure which mitigates the opposition and restricts the easy freewheeling goals that Adelaide kicked. As a side note - Round 5 is going to be a lot of fun when Crows supporters realise what happens when two teams play the same sort of style instead of one playing only half of it...
Anyway, back to Fremantle. The Dockers will still believe that we stole their chance at redemption against Hawthorn. Maybe we did...or maybe they just aren't good enough. Expect the same tsunami game plan to try and blow us away before the last quarter. The difference is that we have another pre-season under our belts.
Pavlich once said to his players to "Put on your superman capes, boys." Well, our preparation, desire and application makes us Batman. And everyone knows Batman can kick Superman's ass.
#r1portvfreo
Last edited by a moderator:
. Will post anyway.
