How do we take the next step to a premiership?

Lazza16

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Petracca's hands look elite to me. He'll only be 26 next year. I agree with your comments on Clug . He's elite in traffic and our best option is to try to build his strength to stand up over 4 quarters in big games.
I remember saying to my son during the opening qtr....Petracca is fumbling lots so far. I dont think he was that clean with his hands during the match. He is just so strong and quick he was getting away with little fumbles juggling on the run.
 
Nov 26, 2018
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Personally i believe the best way to win a premiership is not try and play like recent winners
If you try to go down that path you are just playing catchup.
No way you get better at Melbourne's game than Melbourne in the next few years
Same applies to previous winners Richmond
You have to develop something over time with tweaks along the way. Fagan hopefully feels he is close

Also you have to have the personnel to fulfill that plan. The bottom few players don't have to be world-beaters just need to do the job
Melbourne won by 74 points yet had the 4 lowest possession players on the ground
Hibbard 7, Spargo 7, Petty 6, Pickett 4

Lions list is in a fairly good position. Just need a few things to fall into place
We need Rayner to get back to his best by midseason.
Hippy playing good footy again by the later part of H&A games. Find someone to fill his role adequately
Cockatoo to have a big preseason and show he can playout a game of AFL
More steady improvement from Bailey, McCluggage, Danhier, McStay
Someone from this group to breakout: Answerth, T Berry, Fullarton, Madden, Payne, Prior, Robinson & Sharp

Jarrod Berry is our midfield issue. At his very best he would fill that gap needed.
Berry senior is going into his 6th season however his last two have been interrupted by illness and injury
Will the club push someone else into that role preseason
 

briztoon

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Nonsense. Anyone watching the Dees run defensively in this game and comparing it to us would consider us lacking but it's an entire team effort. We just happen to have two very good ball winning mids who are poor the other way.

imo We're the clear third best team in the competition we even made the premiers looks second rate for a half before they got on top of us in the midfield and their running made it look like they had 20 players on the field.

In my opinion we need a big bodied mid, a lot more speed on the outside and particularly in defence along with a concerted effort to run the other way from our entire team. I don't think we need five years for that. We've probably got it on our list now.
So in other words, rebuild half the side, and then give them time to mature and gel together.

Which is what I said.

I was looking at rebuilding through the draft, because we can’t guarantee we’re going to recruit best 22 players via trade every year.
 

mattsmob

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So in other words, rebuild half the side, and then give them time to mature and gel together.

Which is what I said.

I was looking at rebuilding through the draft, because we can’t guarantee we’re going to recruit best 22 players via trade every year.
To be fair I think we have a lot of those things already on the list.
Big bodied mid - Rayner, Berry, Starcevich
Speed on the outside - Bailey, Sharp (if Sharp can really develop he could have a huge impact on our ceiling as a team imo)
Speed in defence is one we do need to work on however replacing Birchall with anyone of Answerth, Prior, Ah Chee would make a big difference. Drafting well and adding Fletcher and Ashcroft next season would just a massive bonus to the list we already have.
 
So in other words, rebuild half the side, and then give them time to mature and gel together.

Which is what I said.

I was looking at rebuilding through the draft, because we can’t guarantee we’re going to recruit best 22 players via trade every year.

What you said and what he said really aren't that similar. They identified some key needs that could potentially be addressed with what we currently had and you called for a fundamental, 5 year, rejig of the midfield through the draft

Comments like "it's going to take half a decade to rejig our midfield" are just plain ridiculous.

5 years in footy is an eternity.
 
To be fair I think we have a lot of those things already on the list.
Big bodied mid - Rayner, Berry, Starcevich
Speed on the outside - Bailey, Sharp (if Sharp can really develop he could have a huge impact on our ceiling as a team imo)
Speed in defence is one we do need to work on however replacing Birchall with anyone of Answerth, Prior, Ah Chee would make a big difference. Drafting well and adding Fletcher and Ashcroft next season would just a massive bonus to the list we already have.
A fit and firing Answerth is the key to Starce moving into the midfield.
 
If we can find a way to get Coleman and madden into the defensive unit alongside answerth that'd help immensely with the speed thing.
 
I think of all teams in the competition, you guys probably have the best game plan to be able to take it up to the Dees if you have the right troops available. Even in the QF, you were pretty much within 2 kicks in the fourth despite missing 3 crucial pillars of your forward line.

I think the Swans do as well, but might be a year or two off yet. Here's hoping you guys stay fit next year, could see you and Melbourne playing some absolutely cracking matches.
 
You don't rebuild half a side when you've made the top 4 three years running. "Winning" the draft is cool and all but better to focus on improving the current quality side you've got out there rather than starting afresh.
 

briztoon

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To be fair I think we have a lot of those things already on the list.
Big bodied mid - Rayner, Berry, Starcevich
Speed on the outside - Bailey, Sharp (if Sharp can really develop he could have a huge impact on our ceiling as a team imo)
Speed in defence is one we do need to work on however replacing Birchall with anyone of Answerth, Prior, Ah Chee would make a big difference. Drafting well and adding Fletcher and Ashcroft next season would just a massive bonus to the list we already have.
What you said and what he said really aren't that similar. They identified some key needs that could potentially be addressed with what we currently had and you called for a fundamental, 5 year, rejig of the midfield through the draft

Comments like "it's going to take half a decade to rejig our midfield" are just plain ridiculous.

5 years in footy is an eternity.
There are quite a lot of posters to reply to, I’m not really able to reply to each individually.

Berry really hasn’t shown he’s up to being a full time inside mid. Yes, largely due to injuries and illness, but he’s yet to show he can do it. He’s also slow, so doesn’t address our issue of speed in the midfield, rather he compounds our current weakness’s.

Neither Rayner or Starcevich have shown they can run through the midfield for extended periods.

Starcevich’s issue as a junior was that he didn’t accumulate the ball. He still hasn’t shown that as a defender. He has the skills and athletic profile, but hasn’t shown he can do it.

Rayner in his best season, hasn’t even come close to Petracca’s early years. Petracca has always shown more ability to impact through the midfield.

Yes, they share similar attributes, physical build, skills, athleticism, etc. But Rayner has yet to show the endurance to impact the midfield in the way Petracca did in 2019, let alone the last two seasons.

My comment about taking 5 years to build a contender is based on more than just current needs.

I’ve said repeatedly that I don’t believe we can WIN a premiership with Neale and Lyons in our midfield.

I envisage we’ll need to replace Robinson, Zorko, Rich, Daniher, Lyons or Neale, and potentially Gardiner (injury plagued).

Robinson and Zorko are potentially the easiest with next year’s father son prospects, Ashcroft and Fletcher.

A tall athletic balanced mid would be nice. So to a classy skilful running defender.

Daniher is probably the hardest to replace. Mac Andrew from this draft would be a potential prospect.
 

briztoon

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You don't rebuild half a side when you've made the top 4 three years running. "Winning" the draft is cool and all but better to focus on improving the current quality side you've got out there rather than starting afresh.
I believe my new post covers most of this.

We’re the new Geelong, post 2010. Perennial contenders, who fall short.
 
I believe my new post covers most of this.

We’re the new Geelong, post 2010. Perennial contenders, who fall short.

Lol bro our list is the third youngest in the league. If anything we're much closer to Richmond pre 2017 than Geelong.
 
I believe my new post covers most of this.

We’re the new Geelong, post 2010. Perennial contenders, who fall short.
Both of the teams last night were in the low 100’s as far as games experience goes.
Without Birchall next year that is exactly where we will be.
Geelong was up around 160 all year This year.
 
Both of the teams last night were in the low 100’s as far as games experience goes.
Without Birchall next year that is exactly where we will be.
Geelong was up around 160 all year This year.

We'll be under 100 per player next season.
 
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I believe my new post covers most of this.

We’re the new Geelong, post 2010. Perennial contenders, who fall short.
Likewise I think people are too optimistic on the likes of Rayner in particular ,Berry and Starcevich as ready made midfielders. It's not impossible though, and we have what we have and have to make them as good as we can.

We don't have anyone in our team who comes anywhere near doing what Petracca did yesterday and in other games this year. Nor does any other team. He's a one off.

Our best chance of competing with say a Melbourne is to put a lot of work in to nullifying the electric bursts they get during the course of games and exploiting their backline setup at the drop of the ball. It all starts in the centre and at stoppages and we need a 2 ruck set up to compete effectively imo. Because Gawn is a total champ and Jackson is improving every game.

We've still only won 1 of our 6 recent finals games. Melbourne played 3 this year and won every one of them convincingly and tellingly yesterday when intense pressure was applied were able to step up to a much higher level. So we've got work to do.
 
We've got enough talent on our list to win a premiership. Whether we win one is a different story but I don't think we need to rebuild half our list.

If we had a fit and in form Rayner, Hipwood and McStay and the Dees were missing Petracca, Fritsch and Brown - who'd win week one of finals?

Point being: it's incredibly simplistic to say our team isn't good enough to win it when we're missing key players. If we got lucky with injuries like the previous two years, I think we'd have seen a Demons v Lions GF.
 
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