I was wrong about Chris Scott!

[PhatBoy]

Hallelujah!!! Some one that actually understands. Thank u dear Lord.

It seems incredible that it even gets brought up by anyone. Stanley IS a capable ruckman he proved that often this year and in a few past years

But his misses were as frequent as his hits when that match took place and he sure hadn’t earned his recent reputation as someone who can balance out his mediocre efforts against mediocre opponents with good efforts against the stars.

We were never winning that battle with Grundy with or without Stanley playing on him. Grundy was arguably the most influential player in the comp at the time.

So Scott took a risk, put a player on Grundy who at least can athletically match him, curb some influence in the air, and MAYBE do some damage the other way, and try and use the whole defensive group to make up the shortfall in the back 50.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

No, definitely not.

But one thing that seems to be interesting is Brad Close and Tyson Stengle - both had recent premiership wins in their pre-AFL careers.

I think there was some thought about stacking the side with winners, who didnt falter in the heat of finals.

I think that they had an idea of how they wanted to play (SDK getting to stay as FB even if he was pantsed), having a style of game plan where when they upped the ante, it didnt look vastly different to their normal play, a bit more movement of the ball instead of static play (Tuohy, Stewart and Smith to provide more run) and Blicavs on the wing.

This was not designed to win a premiership, rather to rejuvenate a mentally and physically tired team that kept hitting the same wall in the finals. It was a building block and a slight change of direction of the ship for future years.

What evolved during the season, and what they took advantage of because it worked for their style - was what won the premiership. This included seeing Blicavs start really being a spanner in the works for other teams in the midfield. Holmes start to be a jet on the wing. SDK holding his own and letting other players have some freedom. Zuthrie getting confident to cover Stewart's absense. Resting players in game for burst impact. Atkins taking on a midfield role as Danger was out for conditioning. Miers and Stengle and Close really connecting together. Understanding that the midfield team didnt have to be as vaunted as the Bulldogs or Melbourne to actually take control there (they used great defensive positioning, aggression, perfectly timed rests in games and almost a predatory mindset to hunt those teams). Cameron starting to roam up the ground and really confusing and overmatching opposition midfields and wingers, not to forget - and poor defender that went with him.

Then add the excellent medical and conditioning team input and getting the ideal injuries (time of rest) and when we got them. It sort of became a goldilocks things. ANd the more wins we had in a row, the less pressure was on the team and the more confident they were. They were getting feedback that the system was really working.

What I am excited at, is that this year was supposed to be the beginning of how we will go. It was not a last gasp - Selwood must win a premiership thing. No, this team will compete for quite a while and it's going to be awesome.

Yes, I forgot some in my initial post. I think Blicavs has his best season for the club, they changed Miers' role and he was solid by seasons end. I think Close had a fantastic season.

The coaching panel also worked out that they didn't necessarily have to give a player a whole week off to rest them, they could rest them within games by giving them less minutes and different roles. Joel and Danger hit the finals fit and firing rather than being exhausted.

 

[richoplzbreed]

I come in peace. I just wanna congratulate Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

47

Ht

182cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

on floating the idea of making Daisy Pearce an assistant coach for next year. Once his number one fan Caro kept pumping it up and it was obvious no other team took the bait and "swooped in and poached her after months dragged on, cos that's what ya do when you highly regard someone, you tell your opposition of your intent then don't act out on it right...." he was left with no choice than to follow through. Hopefully it means she's forbidden from commentating and a lot of us can watch the footy again with the volume on. Never liked Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

47

Ht

182cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

until then. Now I reckon he's a good fellow for taking one for the team. Lol to be a fly on the wall when she's instructing your senior citizen players on how to go about it. Delicious!!!!!

 

[Chris Catscatcatscats]

I would never say that Richmond supporters are inconsistent....

 

[PhatBoy]

I come in peace. I just wanna congratulate Chris Scott on floating the idea of making Daisy Pearce an assistant coach for next year. Once his number one fan Caro kept pumping it up and it was obvious no other team took the bait and "swooped in and poached her after months dragged on, cos that's what ya do when you highly regard someone, you tell your opposition of your intent then don't act out on it right...." he was left with no choice than to follow through. Hopefully it means she's forbidden from commentating and a lot of us can watch the footy again with the volume on. Never liked Chris Scott until then. Now I reckon he's a good fellow for taking one for the team. Lol to be a fly on the wall when she's instructing your senior citizen players on how to go about it. Delicious!!!!!

I would like to think our players are mature enough to, like anyone with a brain, not give a f*** who is delivering the message and be smart enough to think about the message itself.

And I would listen to Daisy Pearce 100 times over as a commentator before I’d listen to half the morons on the coverage that identify as male.

 

[fpm84]

I come in peace. I just wanna congratulate Chris Scott on floating the idea of making Daisy Pearce an assistant coach for next year. Once his number one fan Caro kept pumping it up and it was obvious no other team took the bait and "swooped in and poached her after months dragged on, cos that's what ya do when you highly regard someone, you tell your opposition of your intent then don't act out on it right...." he was left with no choice than to follow through. Hopefully it means she's forbidden from commentating and a lot of us can watch the footy again with the volume on. Never liked Chris Scott until then. Now I reckon he's a good fellow for taking one for the team. Lol to be a fly on the wall when she's instructing your senior citizen players on how to go about it. Delicious!!!!!

Daisy is more insightful than any of the male 'special comments' commentators out there and 1000x times more articulate than the thick-as-a-brick former player mentioned in your username (who is surely employed under no other guise than 'jobs for the boys'), so yeah, we're happy she's joined the reigning premiers.

 

[cats_09]

I come in peace. I just wanna congratulate Chris Scott on floating the idea of making Daisy Pearce an assistant coach for next year. Once his number one fan Caro kept pumping it up and it was obvious no other team took the bait and "swooped in and poached her after months dragged on, cos that's what ya do when you highly regard someone, you tell your opposition of your intent then don't act out on it right...." he was left with no choice than to follow through. Hopefully it means she's forbidden from commentating and a lot of us can watch the footy again with the volume on. Never liked Chris Scott until then. Now I reckon he's a good fellow for taking one for the team. Lol to be a fly on the wall when she's instructing your senior citizen players on how to go about it. Delicious!!!!!

 

[Phipppppa]

I come in peace. I just wanna congratulate Chris Scott on floating the idea of making Daisy Pearce an assistant coach for next year. Once his number one fan Caro kept pumping it up and it was obvious no other team took the bait and "swooped in and poached her after months dragged on, cos that's what ya do when you highly regard someone, you tell your opposition of your intent then don't act out on it right...." he was left with no choice than to follow through. Hopefully it means she's forbidden from commentating and a lot of us can watch the footy again with the volume on. Never liked Chris Scott until then. Now I reckon he's a good fellow for taking one for the team. Lol to be a fly on the wall when she's instructing your senior citizen players on how to go about it. Delicious!!!!!

I thought you said you came in peace.

 

[D BRIDGE]

I come in peace. I just wanna congratulate Chris Scott on floating the idea of making Daisy Pearce an assistant coach for next year. Once his number one fan Caro kept pumping it up and it was obvious no other team took the bait and "swooped in and poached her after months dragged on, cos that's what ya do when you highly regard someone, you tell your opposition of your intent then don't act out on it right...." he was left with no choice than to follow through. Hopefully it means she's forbidden from commentating and a lot of us can watch the footy again with the volume on. Never liked Chris Scott until then. Now I reckon he's a good fellow for taking one for the team. Lol to be a fly on the wall when she's instructing your senior citizen players on how to go about it. Delicious!!!!!

The Tiges also took one for the team recently for us.

Enjoy slomo Hopper, Mr. Come in peace man.

 

[goyoucatters]

It seems incredible that it even gets brought up by anyone. Stanley IS a capable ruckman he proved that often this year and in a few past years

But his misses were as frequent as his hits when that match took place and he sure hadn’t earned his recent reputation as someone who can balance out his mediocre efforts against mediocre opponents with good efforts against the stars.

We were never winning that battle with Grundy with or without Stanley playing on him. Grundy was arguably the most influential player in the comp at the time.

So Scott took a risk, put a player on Grundy who at least can athletically match him, curb some influence in the air, and MAYBE do some damage the other way, and try and use the whole defensive group to make up the shortfall in the back 50.

I was passionately against the move before the game. And still feel like it was a silly mistake now, notwithstanding the fact that we could have still won the game without Rhys out there.

To your bolded point here, though, the most profound reality in all this for me is that the M.C. definitely took a risk to change our set-up dramatically for that game. And I believe that was driven to a great degree by their general sense that neither our personnel at that time (nor the game style we were running, based on that line-up) was likely to overwhelm the opposition. We had the sense (correct, in hindsight) that our playing group and the resultant game plan weren't demonstrably better than the best of the rest. So we were flailing around for any incremental advantage we thought we could find.

And that concern led us to gamble with the 'too clever by half' approach to try to win a one-off tactical advantage against what we knew would be stiff opposition. Ended up being an ordinary decision for mine. But the contrast to our eventual confidence with this year's personnel and playing style really couldn't be more pronounced. Once the coach and the M.C. for this year knew they were onto a system and squad of players that could genuinely dominate games when the fire was fiercest, all the apparently arbitrary (and actually desperate) selection anomalies just evaporated.

In the end, when you have the players and the process right, there's just no need for radically 'different looks' and Sheedy-esque catapulting of magnets for (or during) big games. And our 2022 season was magnificent vindication of that reality.

 

[00VicWard001]

I was passionately against the move before the game. And still feel like it was a silly mistake now, notwithstanding the fact that we could have still won the game without Rhys out there.

To your bolded point here, though, the most profound reality in all this for me is that the M.C. definitely took a risk to change our set-up dramatically for that game. And I believe that was driven to a great degree by their general sense that neither our personnel at that time (nor the game style we were running, based on that line-up) was likely to overwhelm the opposition. We had the sense (correct, in hindsight) that our playing group and the resultant game plan weren't demonstrably better than the best of the rest. So we were flailing around for any incremental advantage we thought we could find.

And that concern led us to gamble with the 'too clever by half' approach to try to win a one-off tactical advantage against what we knew would be stiff opposition. Ended up being an ordinary decision for mine. But the contrast to our eventual confidence with this year's personnel and playing style really couldn't be more pronounced. Once the coach and the M.C. for this year knew they were onto a system and squad of players that could genuinely dominate games when the fire was fiercest, all the apparently arbitrary (and actually desperate) selection anomalies just evaporated.

In the end, when you have the players and the process right, there's just no need for radically 'different looks' and Sheedy-esque catapulting of magnets for (or during) big games. And our 2022 season was magnificent vindication of that reality.

Really well said.

What now interests me are the comments by other coaches and players about how our style really worked this year and how they were looking to incorporate it into their own.

Gawn had an article out about him and Grundy partnering up. He's already said - Geelong used Stanley to shore up their defence, that's something I can do quite well too. I am curious to see what other coaches do next year. Some things are unique and anomolies - and we have quite a few of them. JC roaming the ground - not sure there are many others who can do that. Hawkins rucking in the forward 50. There's no other forward who can do that. Blicavs aerobic ability and his actual skill and defensive pressure. There's no other ruck who can do that.

Other teams have other strengths that we don't have - but is it possible for them to get the most out of them at the right time?

 

[Lana]

Really well said.

What now interests me are the comments by other coaches and players about how our style really worked this year and how they were looking to incorporate it into their own.

Gawn had an article out about him and Grundy partnering up. He's already said - Geelong used Stanley to shore up their defence, that's something I can do quite well too. I am curious to see what other coaches do next year. Some things are unique and anomolies - and we have quite a few of them. JC roaming the ground - not sure there are many others who can do that. Hawkins rucking in the forward 50. There's no other forward who can do that. Blicavs aerobic ability and his actual skill and defensive pressure. There's no other ruck who can do that.

Other teams have other strengths that we don't have - but is it possible for them to get the most out of them at the right time?

I hope teams over analyse our setup in the finals, for them to adopt them as a truth would be a mistake. The Stanley move in particular was a circumstantial solution to our problems at the time.

In the last 5 rounds of the Home and Away season Stanley only completed a single full game. With Ceglar only playing the single game in that time we had no 1 for 1 replacement should Stanley breakdown, we had to protect him. By limiting Stanley to centre bounces and back half stoppages we could significantly limit how much ground he'd have to cover.

We had some good fortune in that the three teams we ended up playing had a good mixture of mediocre KPF and mediocre Ruckmen. Teams which didn't have the tools to exploit our gimmick. Imagine how Cameron would have dealt with a Stanley type match up

 

[AM]

I hope teams over analyse our setup in the finals, for them to adopt them as a truth would be a mistake. The Stanley move in particular was a circumstantial solution to our problems at the time.

In the last 5 rounds of the Home and Away season Stanley only completed a single full game. With Ceglar only playing the single game in that time we had no 1 for 1 replacement should Stanley breakdown, we had to protect him. By limiting Stanley to centre bounces and back half stoppages we could significantly limit how much ground he'd have to cover.

We had some good fortune in that the three teams we ended up playing had a good mixture of mediocre KPF and mediocre Ruckmen. Teams which didn't have the tools to exploit our gimmick. Imagine how Cameron would have dealt with a Stanley type match up

Do think you need an amount of good fortune to win the silverware. Stuff like a good run with injuries, players peaking at the right time, impact players hitting their stripes et al.

Sneaking over the line against the Maggies was helpful too as it gave us the easier path into the GF

 

[Lana]

Do think you need an amount of good fortune to win the silverware. Stuff like a good run with injuries, players peaking at the right time, impact players hitting their stripes et al.

Sneaking over the line against the Maggies was helpful too as it gave us the easier path into the GF

Luck can make a huge difference. But the team with the least gaps needs the least amount of luck. IMO we've been good enough to win in pretty much every year, but every years there are generally 4-5 teams that are good enough should things fall their way.

 

[Goggin Our Best]

Do think you need an amount of good fortune to win the silverware. Stuff like a good run with injuries, players peaking at the right time, impact players hitting their stripes et al.

Sneaking over the line against the Maggies was helpful too as it gave us the easier path into the GF

I think you most definitely do

However to the Premiership winning team - re their supporters and it doesnt matter which team it is - who really cares about if buts and maybes- just enjoy the Premiership win

Hawthorns 3 peat - they won the 3 PFs by 6 pts or less - they could have lost all 3

All eventual Premiers get a scare - this could have happened - or they could have got eliminated their etc

But the bottom line is Geelong are Premiers in season 2022 - its in the record books - so enjoy the win

 

[Kitcat]

I think you most definitely do

However to the Premiership winning team - re their supporters and it doesnt matter which team it is - who really cares about if buts and maybes- just enjoy the Premiership win

Hawthorns 3 peat - they won the 3 PFs by 6 pts or less - they could have lost all 3

All eventual Premiers get a scare - this could have happened - or they could have got eliminated their etc

But the bottom line is Geelong are Premiers in season 2022 - its in the record books - so enjoy the win

Excellent assessment.

 

[Vdubs]

Really well said.

What now interests me are the comments by other coaches and players about how our style really worked this year and how they were looking to incorporate it into their own.

Gawn had an article out about him and Grundy partnering up. He's already said - Geelong used Stanley to shore up their defence, that's something I can do quite well too. I am curious to see what other coaches do next year. Some things are unique and anomolies - and we have quite a few of them. JC roaming the ground - not sure there are many others who can do that. Hawkins rucking in the forward 50. There's no other forward who can do that. Blicavs aerobic ability and his actual skill and defensive pressure. There's no other ruck who can do that.

Other teams have other strengths that we don't have - but is it possible for them to get the most out of them at the right time?

Melbourne and Richmond have the best chance of tweaking a little and gaining a lot next year.

 

[00VicWard001]

I hope teams over analyse our setup in the finals, for them to adopt them as a truth would be a mistake. The Stanley move in particular was a circumstantial solution to our problems at the time.

In the last 5 rounds of the Home and Away season Stanley only completed a single full game. With Ceglar only playing the single game in that time we had no 1 for 1 replacement should Stanley breakdown, we had to protect him. By limiting Stanley to centre bounces and back half stoppages we could significantly limit how much ground he'd have to cover.

We had some good fortune in that the three teams we ended up playing had a good mixture of mediocre KPF and mediocre Ruckmen. Teams which didn't have the tools to exploit our gimmick. Imagine how Cameron would have dealt with a Stanley type match up

I'm actually looking forward to Cameron dealing with Gawn trying to block that space; as well as Blicavs running Grundy off his feet.

 

[goyoucatters]

Melbourne and Richmond have the best chance of tweaking a little and gaining a lot next year.

I hear you on the Richmond front. Taranto and Hopper could be very helpful additions in true areas of need.

But I'm not really getting why the Dees are likely to be demonstrably better. Their second-half of season 2022 wasn't a mirage; they were absolutely a mediocre team with a middling W/L record. And got embarrassed by a team on their home ground in a final that just never wins there. Their forward line issues (as evidenced by their repeated inability to score later in the year) don't get meaningfully addressed by bringing in Grundy. So I'm not as bullish as you about their likelihood to bounce hard in 2023.

 

[Mattttty]

I would like to think our players are mature enough to, like anyone with a brain, not give a f*** who is delivering the message and be smart enough to think about the message itself.

And I would listen to Daisy Pearce 100 times over as a commentator before I’d listen to half the morons on the coverage that identify as male.

Agree with this. Daisy Pearce is one of the most clear and insightful commentators going around.

 

[Vdubs]

I hear you on the Richmond front. Taranto and Hopper could be very helpful additions in true areas of need.

But I'm not really getting why the Dees are likely to be demonstrably better. Their second-half of season 2022 wasn't a mirage; they were absolutely a mediocre team with a middling W/L record. And got embarrassed by a team on their home ground in a final that just never wins there. Their forward line issues (as evidenced by their repeated inability to score later in the year) don't get meaningfully addressed by bringing in Grundy. So I'm not as bullish as you about their likelihood to bounce hard in 2023.

Sure, they were cooked second half 22, as were we 21.
They have shown enough talent and power to regroup, but I am not worried if they don't. Gawn going fwd a lot more next year will be a hard matchup.