Strategy Updated R6 : The Form Ladder

[The Magnificent Seven]

Some old cranky bugger that used to coach us had the hare-brained idea of a 'form ladder' to determine how a side was travelling through the year. The idea being that it doesn't matter about ladder position but how a side was playing itself into good or bad form.

What do you think about the idea of a Collingwood form ladder watch throughout this season? Get a rating system happening on Game Day on a scale of 1-18 (where 18 is tanking and 1 is Premiership-winning form) no matter if we win or lose? More about the combined coaching, execution and desire.

If I was to have a stab at our first 5 matches I would say the following:

Rd 1 - 14
Rd 2 - 8
Rd 3 - 7
Rd 4 - 7
Rd 5 - 6
Rd 6 - 4

Interested?

 

[Chilli Con Incarnate]

Some old cranky bugger that used to coach us had the hare-brained idea of a 'form ladder' to determine how a side was travelling through the year. The idea being that it doesn't matter about ladder position but how a side was playing itself into good or bad form.

What do you think about the idea of a Collingwood form ladder watch throughout this season? Get a rating system happening on Game Day on a scale of 1-18 (where 18 is tanking and 1 is Premiership-winning form) no matter if we win or lose? More about the combined coaching, execution and desire.

If I was to have a stab at our first 5 matches I would say the following:

Rd 1 - 14
Rd 2 - 8
Rd 3 - 7
Rd 4 - 7
Rd 5 - 6

Interested?

I'd agree just about 100 percent with your ratings so far apart from round one, which should be about 16/17. One quarter efforts are not good enough.

 

[ThisIsJake]

yeap, love it!

 

[Bard]

Looks good but I'd disagree with the Rd 3 rating. We were still in the game in the last 5 minutes, but from the way we played we really didn't deserve to be. Geelong were all over us the entire game, but couldn't get any scoreboard pressure going. Which I guess is both a positive and negative for us.. I'd say more like 9/10 though, but I guess in the end it's all subjective.

 

[Quicky]

I'll have a crack:

Rd 1 vs Freo
17 - Terrible effort first up against Freo albeit against a quality side. Given their recent vulnerabilities I would have expected a much better performance particularly in retrospect.

Rd 2 vs Sydney
4 - Good return to form against a team I still consider quality despite indifferent early season form.

Rd 3 vs Geelong
3 - Fantastic game in retrospect despite the loss. I think Geelong is the team to beat with Hawthorn and to be so competitive is great signs.

Rd 4 vs Richmond
4 - Did what we had to do to run out comfortable winners. Like a top 4 side should.

Rd 5 vs North Melbourne
8 - I didn't rate this win much at all beyond some really fantastic defensive pressure. I watched the replay again and North were absolute garbage even considering our pressure. We should have really smashed them in this game and it is a worry North were still in the game in the 4th. They had no right to be and I can't help but think we really should have killed the game off far earlier than we did. Still a comfortable win so need to rate it a top 8 performance as a minimum.

 

[Quicky]

Looks good but I'd disagree with the Rd 3 rating. We were still in the game in the last 5 minutes, but from the way we played we really didn't deserve to be. Geelong were all over us the entire game, but couldn't get any scoreboard pressure going. Which I guess is both a positive and negative for us.. I'd say more like 9/10 though, but I guess in the end it's all subjective.

I kind of want to re-watch the game now. I remember it a bit differently and maybe I am putting too much weight into the margin plus Geelongs fantastic win on the weekend.

 

[Bard]

I kind of want to re-watch the game now. I remember it a bit differently and maybe I am putting too much weight into the margin plus Geelongs fantastic win on the weekend.

I thought we butchered the ball all night, and even with his high possession game, personally wanted Sidebottom to be dropped after costing from memory 3 direct goals due to lack of effort... Obviously he and the team have turned it around a bit since .

 

[Quicky]

I thought we butchered the ball all night, and even with his high possession game, personally wanted Sidebottom to be dropped after costing from memory 3 direct goals due to lack of effort... Obviously he and the team have turned it around a bit since .

I thought we did against Kangaroos as well. It was papered over by our defensive pressure and their lack of. I think this is one area we really need to improve and I think we would have liked to have seen Seedsman and some of our 1st year recruits (Scharenberg, Freeman) come in over early season to give us an idea of what we can see in terms of disposal from them.

 

[Bard]

I thought we did against Kangaroos as well. It was papered over by our defensive pressure and their lack of. I think this is one area we really need to improve and I think we would have liked to have seen Seedsman and some of our 1st year recruits (Scharenberg, Freeman) come in over early season to give us an idea of what we can see in terms of disposal from them.

We still made mistakes, but without looking at the stats I'd guess we took far more marks than we had in previous games, it's certainly how it looked. We're never going to be one of the top 4 sides in kicking efficiency, but we make up for that in other areas of the ground. We still have to be far better than we have for mots of the last few seasons though. One of the biggest issues I have, is when a player like Steele gets the ball on the HBF, and looks up but can't see anyone to kick it to. They're not going to the centre with the kick (thank god for that), and they're not going to the wing, instead they're going to somewhere inbetween, on the edge of the 'spine' if you will. This is a terrible thing to do. If there isn't a clear player to kick it to, in advantage, then you absolutely must kick it to a contest on the boundary, so at worst we can force it over and create a stoppage. NM were even more suspect of this and it hurt them terrible, particularly because they were winning clearances.

 

[The Magnificent Seven]

Nice one fellas. I'll (try to) update this after each match to see how we're travelling. If I get super motivated I'll do an info-graphic.

 

[wednesdaywarrior]

This is an interesting concept. A team can also be either lucky or unlucky in what phase of a form ladder they meet an opponent. Teams like Gold Coast, Port (in recent years), North, Richmond, Carlton, Essendon and Adelaide have had fairly wild form fluctuations throughout their recent seasons so you can not know which version of that team you're going to meet.

There was a season about 10 years back where some boffin in the press worked out that Adelaide had made the top 4 without playing one side above them for the entire season. It showed that some teams really inflate their form through simple good luck/timing.

 

[wednesdaywarrior]

As far as our 'actual' form over the long haul. I'm interested in people's thoughts. I put it to a non-Pie colleague this week that we were a 'top 6-8' proposition based on current form. He thought I was over-rating the Pies and they will finish lower.

My reasoning is based on dispatching North, Richmond and Sydney, all top 4,8 aspirants and being competitive with Geelong minus our two key defenders and our gun small defender. Surely we've earned top 6-8 status based on that?

I think the ANZAC game will tell us more. Big pressure contest against a bitter rival on rebound and out to prove itself. If we win this week I think we deserve some respect (in defeating yet another team touted as top 4 material). Lose or get smashed and I'm probably likely to agree with my colleague's assessment.

 

[Old Spice]

Yeah, I think I might agree on North match having re-watched it twice. North should have run the ball out of defence on a number of occasions but were either ensnared by us or just butchered and over-possessed the ball.

 

[The Magnificent Seven]

Rd 6 vs Bombers
4 - Def. played like a Top 4 side. In any game you can expect a side to surge and produce 1 qtr of solid footy, especially on such a big-game stage. But it takes a depth of maturity, talent and work rate to not only recover but to sustain for the next 3 quarters and that's what we did. A great win, but more importantly it has shown the currently playing group what they're capable of and how much they can trust each other to go when it's their turn