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2017 Game Plan

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I've always found the concept of a "game plan" in Australian Rules football really difficult to define. It's a truly 360 degree sport with a funny shaped ball and no offside. Plus obscure and difficult to interpret rules. And a large amount of players. And no proven and solidified history of long term strategy and tactics.

All of that creates a lot of unpredictable variance and makes it pretty difficult to have X's and O's on a whiteboard. In fact, I would go as far as going all Bruce Lee and "no fixed position" as a preferred method of thinking.

The difficulty is how that fits into a sound football structure and what broad focus points/strategies are needed to maximise performance. And what indicators are used to measure.

The result is hopefully something that is instinctive and muscle memory as much as understanding the theory of a game plan.

All of this nebula is what makes our game the greatest in the world. Easy to understand, no-one has mastered.
 
Schulzenfest said:
We're not going to play Austin, Hombsch, Jonas, Trengove (as a defender) AND Clurey. That's at least one tall defender too many, arguably two.
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I don't care about height, I care about agility, speed and versatility. When Bassett talks about being too tall, it's a polite way of saying 'too slow'. Clurey is plenty fast enough and aggressive enough to play that defence/wing role that I'm suggesting.

If you want, you can drop Austin, swing Hombsch across into FB and play Byrne-Jones in the pocket. But we played Hombsch, Carlile, Jonas AND Trengove in defense in 2014 and it worked well enough. Hell, we even added O'Shea in the later stages of the year.
 
wharfie_1870 said:
Bonner must be smoking in the pre-season to have got ahead of Byrne-Jones.
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Yeah, but felt like putting one smoky in there and I saw something in Bonner's debut game that makes me think he can make an immediate impact at AFL level. Plus having his and Jasper's raking kicks off the HBF will be something to behold (although being both left footers they may not fully complement each other).
 

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Janus said:
I don't care about height, I care about agility, speed and versatility. When Bassett talks about being too tall, it's a polite way of saying 'too slow'. Clurey is plenty fast enough and aggressive enough to play that defence/wing role that I'm suggesting.

If you want, you can drop Austin, swing Hombsch across into FB and play Byrne-Jones in the pocket. But we played Hombsch, Carlile, Jonas AND Trengove in defense in 2014 and it worked well enough. Hell, we even added O'Shea in the later stages of the year.
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Clurey and Jonas both have plenty of strings to their bow but 'agility and speed' aren't on that list.

I wouldn't drop Austin. I'm a massive rap for Austin, I've got him pencilled in as our starting full back for the next decade, and Hombsch is a much better player when he has a stopping full back alongside him rather than having to play that role himself. It'd be one of Clurey or Jonas falling out of that lineup for mine, and being replaced by DBJ to take the opposition's best small forward (I note your selected defence doesn't feature a player suited to that role).
 
Janus said:
But we played Hombsch, Carlile, Jonas AND Trengove in defense in 2014 and it worked well enough. Hell, we even added O'Shea in the later stages of the year.
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Fair point.....although I don't think all four were on the ground in defence too often....when the first 4 were picked together one was almost always benched or utilised when Trengrove went to ruck. And O'shea picked up a few games but it seemed to be either when Trengrove or Carlile or both! were out injured or...when the opposition had 2 big rucks and Trengrove would need more spelling. But playing all of them did roll into a fairly successful Sept!
So maybe we'll see Clurey, Homsch, Jonas, Trengrove and Austin in the same side, it seemed to be a ploy of Kens in 2014 but probably not in defense at the same time....


(*Geez big Lobbe had a massive 2014, did a mountain of work.....how quick we jump off these poor players!)
 
Schulzenfest said:
We're not going to play Austin, Hombsch, Jonas, Trengove (as a defender) AND Clurey. That's at least one tall defender too many, arguably two.
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Jeez I can only imagine the cuffuffle getting the ball out of our D50.
 
Schulzenfest said:
Clurey and Jonas both have plenty of strings to their bow but 'agility and speed' aren't on that list.

I wouldn't drop Austin. I'm a massive rap for Austin, I've got him pencilled in as our starting full back for the next decade, and Hombsch is a much better player when he has a stopping full back alongside him rather than having to play that role himself. It'd be one of Clurey or Jonas falling out of that lineup for mine, and being replaced by DBJ to take the opposition's best small forward (I note your selected defence doesn't feature a player suited to that role).
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That's fair enough too. :)
 
BillyW said:
Fair point.....although I don't think all four were on the ground in defence too often....when the first 4 were picked together one was almost always benched or utilised when Trengrove went to ruck. And O'shea picked up a few games but it seemed to be either when Trengrove or Carlile or both! were out injured or...when the opposition had 2 big rucks and Trengrove would need more spelling. But playing all of them did roll into a fairly successful Sept!
So maybe we'll see Clurey, Homsch, Jonas, Trengrove and Austin in the same side, it seemed to be a ploy of Kens in 2014 but probably not in defense at the same time....


(*Geez big Lobbe had a massive 2014, did a mountain of work.....how quick we jump off these poor players!)
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I read along and thought you were setting it up perfectly Matty, but then you went and spoiled it by playing the you card too soon. It's like when you're playing poker. You can't go hard on every hand. Let people get use to getting little wins first, grease the wheels. Then when it's all in your favour:

upload_2017-1-11_16-13-51.png


BANG. A full Matty.
 

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"A lot of these sides (Western Bulldogs, Sydney), there's no key back down there." - Matthew Nicks
 
malcolm said:
That's what happens when you are second to the ball and lack of skill means giving the ball to the opposition - more holding the man and in the back against Port.
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The "second to the ball" fallacy would make total sense if we didn't lose the free kick count to Brisbane en route to winning by 94.
 
Doctor Feel said:
I don't reckon I ever got as furious at umpires as I did in 16. It was a special kind of awful.

That and the HTB in the dying seconds of 2014...
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Irony of ironies, our greatest positive rub in literally years came in the narrow loss to the [Free Kick] Bulldogs at home.

How bad would that graph look if not for that outlier.
 

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tribey said:
Irony of ironies, our greatest positive rub in literally years came in the narrow loss to the [Free Kick] Bulldogs at home.

How bad would that graph look if not for that outlier.
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You mean it was like the 24-10 Carlton loss at Eithad in 2015 that effectively ****ed over our season?

23-10 isn't even that much of a rub when you consider that there were about 7 legitimate dead to rights holding the ball decisions that couldn't have been paid any other way.

Imagine if both North and the Dogs didn't get so many bullshit calls. Neither would have made finals. Funny that those are the two Victorian teams struggling the most. Meanwhile, Port received 16 less free kicks than their nearest rival (GWS with -42).

It's garbage manipulation of playing style by the AFL.
 
Sewer de Lance said:
Isn't there still some doubt whether Austin will get up for round 1? I'm of the belief that he is still on a restricted program.
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yep

http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2017-01-11/burgess-updates-preseason
Port Adelaide should have its entire list training fully by the end of February according to head of high performance Darren Burgess. The Power, which returned to training this week after their break over the New Year, have only four players in rehab from surgery at present – Charlie Dixon, Angus Monfries, Logan Austin and Dougal Howard – with the quartet to return over the coming weeks.

Dixon (ankle) and Monfries (shoulder) had corrective surgery in mid-November last year, and have returned to running as part of the rehab group. Austin had surgery to his ankle at the end of last season and has been in rehab since the start of pre-season training. He will return to a full program in 4-6 weeks. ......
http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2017-01-11/burgess-updates-preseason
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
yep

http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2017-01-11/burgess-updates-preseason
Port Adelaide should have its entire list training fully by the end of February according to head of high performance Darren Burgess. The Power, which returned to training this week after their break over the New Year, have only four players in rehab from surgery at present – Charlie Dixon, Angus Monfries, Logan Austin and Dougal Howard – with the quartet to return over the coming weeks.

Dixon (ankle) and Monfries (shoulder) had corrective surgery in mid-November last year, and have returned to running as part of the rehab group. Austin had surgery to his ankle at the end of last season and has been in rehab since the start of pre-season training. He will return to a full program in 4-6 weeks. ......
http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2017-01-11/burgess-updates-preseason
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Cheers mate. Even if everything goes smoothly for the kid, that still doesn't leave him much time to get fully match conditioned. Strong chance he will start his season in the Maggies. Clurey is a lock for mine v Swans rd 1, which I don't mind at all.
 
Janus said:
You mean it was like the 24-10 Carlton loss at Eithad in 2015 that effectively stuffed over our season?

23-10 isn't even that much of a rub when you consider that there were about 7 legitimate dead to rights holding the ball decisions that couldn't have been paid any other way.

Imagine if both North and the Dogs didn't get so many bullshit calls. Neither would have made finals. Funny that those are the two Victorian teams struggling the most. Meanwhile, Port received 16 less free kicks than their nearest rival (GWS with -42).

It's garbage manipulation of playing style by the AFL.
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Having won their flag, the Dogs' honeymoon is now hopefully over, and they don't have so many frees gifted to them this year. They played some great footy in the grand final, but they also got away with blue murder with the umps.
 
With the Family day set for Feb 17, you would probably rule out Austin, Monfries and probably Dixon. But I expect both will play at least one pre-season game.

The two i'm aching to see back are Hombsch and Ryder.
 
Janus said:
You mean it was like the 24-10 Carlton loss at Eithad in 2015 that effectively stuffed over our season?

23-10 isn't even that much of a rub when you consider that there were about 7 legitimate dead to rights holding the ball decisions that couldn't have been paid any other way.

Imagine if both North and the Dogs didn't get so many bullshit calls. Neither would have made finals. Funny that those are the two Victorian teams struggling the most. Meanwhile, Port received 16 less free kicks than their nearest rival (GWS with -42).

It's garbage manipulation of playing style by the AFL.
Click to expand...
How are we struggling? on or off the field?
 

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2017 Game Plan

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