Universal Love 2020 Positivity Thread

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Oct 19, 2013
1,752
2,723
AFL Club
Melbourne
If you listen to this podcast from earlier in the year:


The guest talks about how important cohesion is and how trading too many players, changing the team and constantly changing personelle can affect performance.

He has a metric to measure cohension and basically says a good coach can't make a team that hasn't played many games together better, but a bad coach can bring a team with a lot of experience playing with one another down. He uses the bulldogs under McCartney as an example.

So without radically changing the best 22 and assuming we have a more stable team due to less injuries, with McCartney gone and some other assistant coaches to persuade simple Simon to play a different way, we might resemble a football team?

We still need proper wingers and crumbing small forwards. However, this theory of cohesion is giving me a tiny bit of optimism, especially if it suggests getting rid of Goodwin coukd unlock the potential of a group with several years experience playing together.
 

Cannon82

Cancelled
10k Posts Melbourne Poster of the Year Melbourne Demons - Ben Kennedy Player Sponsor 2016 Melbourne Demons - Jeremy Howe Player Sponsor 2015 Melbourne Demons - Dom Barry Sponsor 2014 Melbourne Demons - Jeremy Howe Sponsor 2014
Oct 26, 2012
16,398
23,165
AFL Club
Melbourne
If you listen to this podcast from earlier in the year:


The guest talks about how important cohesion is and how trading too many players, changing the team and constantly changing personelle can affect performance.

He has a metric to measure cohension and basically says a good coach can't make a team that hasn't played many games together better, but a bad coach can bring a team with a lot of experience playing with one another down. He uses the bulldogs under McCartney as an example.

So without radically changing the best 22 and assuming we have a more stable team due to less injuries, with McCartney gone and some other assistant coaches to persuade simple Simon to play a different way, we might resemble a football team?

We still need proper wingers and crumbing small forwards. However, this theory of cohesion is giving me a tiny bit of optimism, especially if it suggests getting rid of Goodwin coukd unlock the potential of a group with several years experience playing together.

Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy though, isn't it? If you've got a decent team, there aren't going to be wholesale changes being made as only tweaking and a few solid additions are needed. Bad teams are going to be emptying out the deadwood and trying to build a solid core of kids that'll be the backbone of the side in 4 or 5 years. There's no easy way to bring in a heap of good players in AFL, what with the salary cap and limited trade currency, so a side making a lot of changes isn't going to be bringing in more than a few decent, ready-to-go players, so they're more likely to struggle the following season. If you then average this out over a number of seasons, all its going to tell you is that bad teams making changes are bad teams.
 

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Cannon82

Cancelled
10k Posts Melbourne Poster of the Year Melbourne Demons - Ben Kennedy Player Sponsor 2016 Melbourne Demons - Jeremy Howe Player Sponsor 2015 Melbourne Demons - Dom Barry Sponsor 2014 Melbourne Demons - Jeremy Howe Sponsor 2014
Oct 26, 2012
16,398
23,165
AFL Club
Melbourne
Best 17th place finish the club has ever had!

Just shows you how much we've improved that we can be disappointed with a 2nd last place finish with 5 wins when it wasn't so long ago we were finishing 2nd last with 2 wins. Typical fair-weather fans - you don't know how good you've got it, people.
 
Just shows you how much we've improved that we can be disappointed with a 2nd last place finish with 5 wins when it wasn't so long ago we were finishing 2nd last with 2 wins. Typical fair-weather fans - you don't know how good you've got it, people.
 
Apr 13, 2015
4,637
12,301
AFL Club
Melbourne
Realistic and simple ways to improve in 2020.

1) Let’s build a fort
We suck at the MCG. Even if you write off 2019, we were 13 wins and 12 losses from seasons 2017-18. Contrastingly, we were an excellent 15 wins 7 losses elsewhere. Our head to head record against our co-tenants (Collingwood, Hawthorn and Richmond) is poor with 3 wins and 10 losses since 2017. Basically, what should be a competitive advantage for us is a massive leg weight.

2) Shop early
2016 was the last time we were 3 wins and 2 losses at round 5 and that included losing to Essendon’s top ups. The beginning of the season can be a bit of chook lotto where wild results are thrown up before the good teams hit their straps and the s**t teams really start to sink. 2-3 or 1-4 at round 5, makes top 4 tight and top 2 virtually impossible considering 15 wins wins are usually needed for the former and 17 for the latter.

3) Capitalise on chances
Even though this year was horrible, doing the above would’ve made it much better. On the balance of play, Melbourne should’ve beaten West Coast x 2, Adelaide and North Melbourne but failed to put enough on the board before the momentum swung in the final quarters. Against the Bulldogs and Saints later in the season, Melbourne did not deserve to win, however, there were definitely chances to burgle both games by the sheer amount of chances blown by the Saints and Dogs. The Collingwood game was similar, Melbourne didn’t deserve to win, however if they had taken chances could’ve been four or five goals ahead earlier in the game putting more pressure on the Pies. Put simply, we need to get better at not only finishing off our own work but punishing the wastefulness of opposition teams.
 

Imet Hassa

All Australian
Aug 18, 2016
674
1,408
AFL Club
Melbourne
After reading this thread I now positively have a much fuller understanding of the words hijacked and fatuity.
 

Bazza97

Premiership Player
Nov 17, 2016
3,957
3,973
Melbourne
AFL Club
Melbourne
Pillow or blanket?
737661
 

Cobwebs

Team Captain
Oct 21, 2019
452
377
AFL Club
Melbourne
Found this one out the back gathering dust. Langdon, Tomlinson, Bennell, Harmes extending contract, in with a shot on Murray and picks 3 and 8 in the draft. Players turning up day 1 in good condition. Certainly got a positive feel about the season ahead.
 

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rhaz

Cancelled
Jun 30, 2008
8,490
6,819
AFL Club
Melbourne
Found this one out the back gathering dust. Langdon, Tomlinson, Bennell, Harmes extending contract, in with a shot on Murray and picks 3 and 8 in the draft. Players turning up day 1 in good condition. Certainly got a positive feel about the season ahead.

Soft draw too (if teams perform as expected / on par with 2019).
 
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