hawthorns first couple of years under clarkson (05 and 06) were a real process of; slowly integrate, upskill and educate players into a system that gives us at least a fighting chance of scoring enough to compete with the better teams in modern footy.
The hardest task for any coach is to balance stakeholder expectations with implementing a game plan/strategy that is capable of winning a premiership. Those two things are often in direct conflict because the average person, however passionate they are, generally assesses success or failure based purely on win/loss (and margins). But progress is never linear, especially when implementing a new game plan. The vast majority of spectators (often those that have never coached themselves) will whinge and whine if their expectations (winning or winning comfortably) aren't being met. People will often overreact to both losses and wins based on how optimistic or pessimistic they are (you definitely don't see that on here at all
).
Agree on the tackling issue for sure.. way too often the oppo has been able to break tackles and get clean disposals away..
Surely the reason is most likely to be coaching. Either as a specific part of the forward game plan, an acceptance by the coaches of a players preference/strength, or as a failure by the coaches to address it. And again in terms of coaching, a complimentary forward to partner Taberner who does lead towards the ball carrier seems obvious. Treacy should be that guy.
Yes, we are second inside 50m marks but the differential is only 3 marks over 8 games.The hardest task for any coach is to balance stakeholder expectations with implementing a game plan/strategy that is capable of winning a premiership. Those two things are often in direct conflict because the average person, however passionate they are, generally assesses success or failure based purely on win/loss (and margins). But progress is never linear, especially when implementing a new game plan. The vast majority of spectators (often those that have never coached themselves) will whinge and whine if their expectations (winning or winning comfortably) aren't being met. People will often overreact to both losses and wins based on how optimistic or pessimistic they are (you definitely don't see that on here at all
Unlike the guy sitting on a couch with a beer bemoaning "Why it is so hard to just win? Surely you've just got to score more than the opponent?"... getting a team of 22 from a squad of 40 odd players to implement a game plan consistently over four quarters each and every week against teams with differing game plans, strengths and weaknesses is a fair bit more complex. When you make changes it has knock on effects. Not sure of your workplace but say you were in an office you'd have training sessions to implement any changes to how you do things. You'd be a naive manager to think every single person goes back to their desk and from that moment everything works seamlessly. It takes time for it to all come together and even then it will never be perfect.
In an industry that is funded by eyes watching there is only so much you can just completely ignore the demands of the simplistic viewer base and instead do whatever you want with the end goal of a cup in sight. But if you give in completely and continually chase short term success to appease the fans then you are probably going nowhere overall in the long run.
I think it is far too early to assess Longmuir either way. I think last year we saw him implement a team defence that held structure as well as we've seen in our history in both directions. Our kicking efficiency skyrocketed from our players moving the ball downfield via short kicking. But it was too slow and allowed the opposition time to congest our forward line, meaning we'd often resort to bombing the ball inside 50 at the end of the chain (or earlier) and it getting intercepted. We didn't create nearly enough scoring opportunities but because of the slow ball movement our defensive structure behind the ball also made it harder for the opposition to move the ball on the rebound and we intercepted plenty despite missing our two key KPDs.
This year it is clear the focus has been on delivery inside 50 and creating more scoring opportunities from marks inside 50 (not bomb it in, hope to bring it to ground and lock it in until we finally score). As well as being 2nd for marks inside 50 we are 5th for shots on goal. Last year we were second last and we've been bottom 4 or so since 2016. We were only 12th in 2015 when we won the minor premiership. That is some incredible (attacking) improvement (something us supporters have been wanting for years) but fan expectations aren't being met because we aren't converting our chances and piling on scoreboard pressure. Most Freo fans wouldn't have a clue we were 2nd for marks i50 and 5th for shots on goal. They'd just see no scores over 100 and equate that to still being sh*t offensively. In fairness, if we aren't finishing off the job they aren't completely wrong.
We still have plenty of gaps. Our forward line is still mostly dysfunctional. It is crazy we can have 7 defenders out and even manage to field a back line, let alone one that isn't doing the worst job. Although the mids have been far better retaining the ball, they've also been burned the other way on the spread plenty.
Personally I've been impressed by some things (eg mid-forward connection/tactical nous/skill based changes) but also disappointed by others (eg execution/pressure/accountability). We're 4-4 having endured a pretty long injury list so far this season. I think we're on par with where we should be all things considered. I've learnt not to get overly emotional over the results of individual games. But in a few weeks time I'm expecting to see overall improvement in a number of areas on top of what we've already seen. But if supporters want to jump up and down every time we lose or get overly excited every time we win then power to them. Fans come in all shapes and sizes and I think that is what makes sport great.
tldr - np, I just wanted to get all that off my chest really
All losses were away (I include WC as we never beat them) and after this week we have played 6 away and 3 home so will have 8 out of 13 games at home.
Sure we are doing ok at the minute, our win loss record.
Like Danny Western did to Suma.
Compass is broken?
This. If we win tomorrow we go to 5 wins with 8 games at Optus to come. If you told me before the season we’d finish round 9 with two wins on the road and undefeated at ‘home’ with our injury list I’d take it every time. You can look at who we’ve beaten and say pfft but I’d rather look at who we’ve lost to. Winning interstate against top 8 teams is a challenge for every team as is beating WC at Optus. (Carlton was a s**t show but all teams have bad games). If we can get our contested ball mojo back we might surprise a few teams in the back half of the season. To mine it is all very close to clicking into place forJL and the boys.
Different fella. VERY different.
www-foxsports-com-au.cdn.ampproject.org
Different fella. VERY different.
‘I thought he was dead’: Western Bulldogs defender Danny Southern relives near-fatal headlock
‘I thought he was dead’: Bulldog relives near-fatal headlock
The playing group was poor today, the game plan had Essendon covered most of the the day. A lack of composure often by the players cost us that game & to say methods aren’t penetrating when there are so many poor errors, is not correct.
lol really.
