Analysis Brendon Lade

[Adam Marrett23]

Where do you think our problems stem from?

The gameplan. It's hard for Lade to coach a forward line, when we play 70% of a game without one. I noticed during the members convention the plan of keeping 3 deep, and having 3 high half forwards was the original plan but it's morphed into something else entirely now.

Defensively we are fine, but we have handicapped ourselves with this defensive, dour football. I don't think it can be rectified now, it's to late in the season, but it has to be addressed in the summer. A team with Robbie Gray, Chad, Dixon, Watts, Motlop, Polec and either of Lindsey Thomas and Sammy Gray can't be averaging 80 points a game. It's laughable.

 

[OneGreatClub]

The gameplan. It's hard for Lade to coach a forward line, when we play 70% of a game without one. I noticed during the members convention the plan of keeping 3 deep, and having 3 high half forwards was the original plan but it's morphed into something else entirely now.

Defensively we are fine, but we have handicapped ourselves with this defensive, dour football. I don't think it can be rectified now, it's to late in the season, but it has to be addressed in the summer. A team with Robbie Gray, Chad, Dixon, Watts, Motlop, Polec and either of Lindsey Thomas and Sammy Gray can't be averaging 80 points a game. It's laughable.

We either have just about our whole team along with the oppo locked in our forward line so it’s impossible to get easy marks and runs at goal or on the rare occasions we get the ball from an oppo turnover and we are running towards our goals we have an empty forward line with no forward to kick to and no overlapping run to support the player with the ball.
Then we watch the oppo get easy marks and goals in their own uncluttered but functional forward line.
It seems we press wrong.
It’s just terrible. It looks terrible and the results are obvious.

 

[Adam Marrett23]

We either have just about our whole team along with the oppo locked in our forward line so it’s impossible to get easy marks and runs at goal or on the rare occasions we get the ball from an oppo turnover and we are running towards our goals we have an empty forward line with no forward to kick to and no overlapping run to support the player with the ball.
Then we watch the oppo get easy marks and goals in their own uncluttered but functional forward line.
It seems we press wrong.
It’s just terrible. It looks terrible and the results are obvious.

Agree 110%. Something isn't right, and I dare say this gameplan is why we've won our last two at the SCG as the ground is smaller and plays into our hands. Once we play a side like the Giants yesterday, West Coast or sides of that ilk on a bigger ground our press is null and void due to the extra space and run those teams have.

I'm not sure what we go into the draft looking for, we need some quality users of the footy, after watching the Magpies we need some key position talent added as well, on top of a quality ruckman. I think this off season is crucial to our future. We muck this one up and we are in trouble going forward.

 

[Schulzenfest]

Unpopular opinion time: I don't think its Lades fault.

When Nicks was our forwards coach, our forward line was s**t and BF said it was Nicks' fault. When Hocking was our forward coach, our forward line was s**t and BF said it was Hocking's fault.

I'm not particularly impressed by Lade either but our forward line issues stem from a more overarching issue than the line coaches IMO. It's a combination of our overly defensive gameplan and our selections favouring smalls and tacklers over talls and goalkickers.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Umpires took Dixon out of the ruck. I would love to see our ruck coach explaining why. Was it fair or did Charlie get rooted?

I'd love to see a comparison between Charlies actions in the first quarter and their trucks actions in the last quarter blocking Dougals run repeatedly.

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[Enviable Tradition]

Sure, the way we play has a lot to do with our scoring struggles. So:

- Is Lade arguing for modification to the gameplan to improve our attack? It appears not.
- Have our forwards improved their craft under his guidance? Nope, it's gotten worse. Our forwards don't run to the right spots, don't lead properly or at all, struggle with goal kicking accuracy, etc.
- When he speaks about our gameplan, does he seem knowledgeable? Anyone who hears him speak seems to come away with the impression that there isn't much rattling around in that scone of his.

There is no metric by which you could possibly say Lade has been successful. Get a forwards coach in who:

- Is prepared to argue for modification to the gameplan to improve our attack;
- Can improve the forward craft of our players; and
- Has tactical nous.

Lade isn't solely to blame for our scoring struggles, but he's part of the problem so therefore should be cleared out along with most of our other assistants.

How would you know?

Do you expect an assistant to come out publicly and say that the head coaches game plan is s**t?

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[Visenfest]

How would you know?

Do you expect an assistant to come out publicly and say that the head coaches game plan is s**t?

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I don't. But we haven't tweaked the gameplan at all to improve our attack under his tenure, so I'm assuming he either isn't arguing for a change, or isn't forceful enough in doing so. The craft of our forwards hasn't improved under him either. But hey, if you think all is well at the club, let's just keep on going as is.

 

[Macca19]

Sure, the way we play has a lot to do with our scoring struggles. So:

- Is Lade arguing for modification to the gameplan to improve our attack? It appears not.

What Lade argued for was for us to be more efficient going inside 50. So we got Watts and Motlop to help improve our efficiency inside 50. The modification to our game plan that we have seen under Lade has been wanting to get as close and as in front of goal as possible to improve our goalkicking, which has been an issue for a few years.

- Have our forwards improved their craft under his guidance? Nope, it's gotten worse. Our forwards don't run to the right spots, don't lead properly or at all, struggle with goal kicking accuracy, etc.

Under his guidance last year we had Dixon, S Gray and you could maybe argue R Gray having their best year up forward. We scored our second most goals in a decade under his guidance last year.

This year is a different kettle of fish, but as I mentioned in my previous post, how much is to do with our forward craft, how much is to do with our completely disjointed unpredictable gameplan out of his control?

There is no metric by which you could possibly say Lade has been successful.

I'm not arguing he has been successful. I'm arguing that Lade has not been the main problem. Everyone agrees we are not an attack minded side. Piling on the forward coach when we play so defensively, are constantly undermanned up forward and have the worst ball movement known to man kind I think is not looking at our issues correctly.

 

[Macca19]

The gameplan. It's hard for Lade to coach a forward line, when we play 70% of a game without one. I noticed during the members convention the plan of keeping 3 deep, and having 3 high half forwards was the original plan but it's morphed into something else entirely now.

This is right. The plan was to keep at least 3 players as deep as possible. No matter what we were always going to have at least 1 player in the F50 at all times.

The plan has obviously changed because our ball movement is terrible, we can't hit targets and we need to rush the midfield with extra players to try and win the ball by numbers as opposed to by keeping it with skill.

 

[Macca19]

When Nicks was our forwards coach, our forward line was s**t and BF said it was Nicks' fault. When Hocking was our forward coach, our forward line was s**t and BF said it was Hocking's fault.

I'm not particularly impressed by Lade either but our forward line issues stem from a more overarching issue than the line coaches IMO. It's a combination of our overly defensive gameplan and our selections favouring smalls and tacklers over talls and goalkickers.

I'm not sure we do favour smalls over talls. I think the club thinks our best side is with Dixon, Watts & Marshall in the side. We are 6-1 when Marshall plays this year. Unfortunately we haven't been able to keep all three together with Dixon spending a large percentage of about 5 games in the ruck, Marshall losing his father then getting injured and Watts being dropped for a few weeks. Sadly, we've only had Ryder, Dixon, Watts and Marshall play together only once this year. It also coincided with our best win for the year.

I'm hoping we get to see all three in the side again before the end of the year. I think thats our best chance of winning.

 

[MrMeaner]

I'm not sure we do favour smalls over talls. I think the club thinks our best side is with Dixon, Watts & Marshall in the side. We are 6-1 when Marshall plays this year. Unfortunately we haven't been able to keep all three together with Dixon spending a large percentage of about 5 games in the ruck, Marshall losing his father then getting injured and Watts being dropped for a few weeks. Sadly, we've only had Ryder, Dixon, Watts and Marshall play together only once this year. It also coincided with our best win for the year.

I'm hoping we get to see all three in the side again before the end of the year. I think thats our best chance of winning.

I think that's right. The problem is in not having a contingency plan for not being able to have them all on the park as an injury to one or other of them at any time is completely foreseeable. It seems obvious that replacing one of them with any of Thomas/Neade/S Gray/Johnson/Amon throws out our structures and makes scoring difficult. It is bad planning to have not prepared for it by either ensuring players are replaced like for like or having alternative structures to ensure that we can score when any are missing.

I agree that's not all on Lade though. It is a broader coaching problem.

 

[afl2004]

I'm not sure we do favour smalls over talls. I think the club thinks our best side is with Dixon, Watts & Marshall in the side. We are 6-1 when Marshall plays this year. Unfortunately we haven't been able to keep all three together with Dixon spending a large percentage of about 5 games in the ruck, Marshall losing his father then getting injured and Watts being dropped for a few weeks. Sadly, we've only had Ryder, Dixon, Watts and Marshall play together only once this year. It also coincided with our best win for the year.

I'm hoping we get to see all three in the side again before the end of the year. I think thats our best chance of winning.

Not having jonas and hartlett in our defense also does no favours on our ball movement to the forward line

 

[Macca19]

Not having jonas and hartlett in our defense also does no favours on our ball movement to the forward line

Yes, as well as Broadbent. I think we've missed Broady more and more as the year has gone on.

 

[Adam Marrett23]

I'm not sure we do favour smalls over talls. I think the club thinks our best side is with Dixon, Watts & Marshall in the side. We are 6-1 when Marshall plays this year. Unfortunately we haven't been able to keep all three together with Dixon spending a large percentage of about 5 games in the ruck, Marshall losing his father then getting injured and Watts being dropped for a few weeks. Sadly, we've only had Ryder, Dixon, Watts and Marshall play together only once this year. It also coincided with our best win for the year.

I'm hoping we get to see all three in the side again before the end of the year. I think thats our best chance of winning.

I can't work out why Marshall was dropped in the first place. He kicked a couple against Carlton, and we had the chance to have those 3 and Ryder in the side and dropped Toddy to the Magpies. I don't see what the thinking was behind it. The SANFL doesn't do Todd's development as much good as playing in the AFL side, then he was subsequently injured playing in a SANFL game he shouldn't have been playing in. It baffles me.

 

[PortWTF]

I don't know where you can find this information, but I would suspect we would be doing very well on the "Scores from turnovers against" stat. We set up so that if we turn it over then we are hard to score against. Hinkley has said it so many times that we are defence first. That includes while we are attacking. Thankfully it no longer means kicking to the pocket when we go inside 50, at least it doesn't seem to be to me, but I believe our players do get in to a defensive position rather than an attacking position outside of a few key players. Is this why Dixon is a target more than any other player in the league?

 

[Janey]

I can't work out why Marshall was dropped in the first place. He kicked a couple against Carlton, and we had the chance to have those 3 and Ryder in the side and dropped Toddy to the Magpies. I don't see what the thinking was behind it. The SANFL doesn't do Todd's development as much good as playing in the AFL side, then he was subsequently injured playing in a SANFL game he shouldn't have been playing in. It baffles me.

I'm not sure it isn't better for Todd long term if we take things slowly with him for the rest of this season. He's had an awful couple of years off field and, while he was keen to get back into playing, it might be better for him to see the season out without the pressure of AFL. I think another pre-season to build him up a bit more physically would be good too.
I love Todd and really want him to be a great player for us, but maybe slow and steady is the way for him atm.
I think there would be plenty of discussion between Todd, coaches etc as well about what he feels is best for him too.

 

[Adam Marrett23]

I'm not sure it isn't better for Todd long term if we take things slowly with him for the rest of this season. He's had an awful couple of years off field and, while he was keen to get back into playing, it might be better for him to see the season out without the pressure of AFL. I think another pre-season to build him up a bit more physically would be good too.
I love Todd and really want him to be a great player for us, but maybe slow and steady is the way for him atm.
I think there would be plenty of discussion between Todd, coaches etc as well about what he feels is best for him too.

Very true. Good point actually, I was only thinking from a footy point of view.

 

[Zakk Wylde]

Voss, Nicks, Lade and Greaves can all **** off.

Particularly Lade and Voss.

TRIPLE THREAT GUYS SEE THIS FOOTAGE OF SAM GRAY IN SPACE - THAT'S SUPER HARD TO DEFEND IN BASKETBALL I HEARD - Lade during his presentation for "inside port adelaide"

Change imminent.

 

[Doctor Feel]

Change imminent.

It had better be a triple threat.

 

[JimmyBeerCans]

Change imminent.

So just shuffling and replacing blokes around the giant elephant in the room huh it's the true Prot Tradition.

 

[Doctor Feel]

Why isn't Lade the ruck coach? Why isnt Stevie Nicks doing the rocknroll coaching? Why isnt Voss doing the purified water? Why isnt Greaves wearing greaves?

 

[JimmyBeerCans]

Why isn't Lade the ruck coach? Why isnt Stevie Nicks doing the rocknroll coaching? Why isnt Voss doing the purified water? Why isnt Greaves wearing greaves?

Why isn't Kernie in a Geelong used car lot

 

[1954]

Change imminent.

Mate, in you I trust!

 

[PowerLil]

Change imminent.

Waiting with bated breath. Know assistants have to be told by August 1.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Change imminent.