Review NAB Challenge game Rnd 2. Sydney V GWS at Drummoyne Oval

[Wolftone]

I'm watching the replay.
We kick the first goal.
Razor and the bald cheat then combine to give GWS 7 free kicks in a row - gifting them absolutely undeserved momentum and high possession - meaning our guys are under defensive pressure for the next 20 minutes. I saw multiple in the backs and our blokes being taken out - but umpires "choose" to ignore this.

So - it's a practice game, it means nothing - except GWS will not only get 27 million bucks from the AFL this year - they'll have the umpires under AFL instruction as well.

I do agree the umpires were very kind to them. They weren't paying the same frees to us. I think GWS and Suns will both get plenty this year as the AFL tries to shore up the support for them to make them viable.

 

[Wolftone]

Plus the venue was an unknown

no it wasn't we played there last year against Freo

 

[kickthething]

I am still hoping its just early days and nothing is really meaning too much at the moment, I am concerned at the drop off of some of our established players, particularly KJack and Smith. Clearly the trade restrictions are starting to show their teeth, however we have enough class on the list, we are just so damn slow with the all in hand, and so disorganised going forward with it.

One shining light is Papley, if we can keep him at Tippo's or Bud's feet crumming he will be good for 1-2 goals a game you would think. I thought he showed a bit and the courage he displayed made him look ready to go.

I would love to see a little more flair next week.

 

[Wolftone]

We'll step up in the finals where it matters

We have to make the finals first. If you don't see a problem with the game plan then you must be blind on Horse love.

 

[Wolftone]

You can't have it both ways - you can't both claim that the gameplan is bad and that our players executed it poorly. If our players are executing basic skills poorly then they are not giving the gameplan any chance to work.

Longmire's analysis regarding uncontested possessions was spot on. Our work rate was atrocious and GWS were too often given a paddock to play in. This was compounded by our younger, inexperienced players who lack two-way defensive discipline and then topped off by 30 less rotations.

Just one point. The game plan caused most of those turnovers in the first place. The fact we just bombed into the forward 50.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

No excuse for errors under Etihad on Friday.

 

[Wolftone]

I pretty much agree with your analysis about how we recruited but I think it's a little silly to say our players have don't have adequate skills and then demand in the next breath that we adopt a free flowing brand of footy. Drills can only develop a player so far and you also normally have to sacrifice something else in the process - gut running fitness, defensive pressure, structures around stoppages and two-way running.

We've consistently had one of the best defensive records in the league and it's not because we have a bunch of superstars back there. It's because our midfield has the fitness and discipline to get back there to help and that takes extensive training to develop. I guess I'm asking is, what are you happy to sacrifice to get the gameplan you want and do we have the right players to do it?

I think the major problem is the game plan was developed some time ago for a different player group and it worked ok with them. But since everybody woke up to the slingshot and we insisted on still bombing the ball to the forward line that had an ageing Pyke and no Mumford who both were capable of taking the huge pack mark. Reid is not there and he is most likely to take that sort of mark. Tip does occasionally, generally when he either outweighs or is far taller than opponents. He has trouble with monster backmen (Lake etc). Franklin is basically a lead up forward and so is Tip. They both get more ball that way. ROK, Bolton, Malceski, Bird, Jetta, Shaw, Pyke, Morton, Benny, Johnson, Mattner, Mumford, LRT etc are all gone now but we haven't changed game plan with the introduction of new players with different skill sets. Instead we are getting them to play the same roles as those who are gone but most are not suited to this type of game. If we wanted to carry on the same type of footy we should have drafted players that play that type of footy. But we didn't. We drafted highly skilled players and are trying to make them play a low skills game.

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Franklins best was 2014 it will now be a gradual decrease. He will still pull off some magic but we can't expect him to carry the forward line.

He's what, 29 and on a million a year? Yeah I think I expect him to have at least 3-4 more strong seasons.

 

[The King!]

no it wasn't we played there last year against Freo

Looked a different grass seed this year

 

[Big Blood]

Just one point. The game plan caused most of those turnovers in the first place. The fact we just bombed into the forward 50.

Deja vu all over again.

The only change is Buddy is often in the middle and we're bombing to a small midfielder resting at FF. When Franklin's on the ball can't we organise ourselves so that Tippett or Sinclair or JPK play deep?

Plus some amazingly sloppy work around the ground. At one point in Q2 our disposal efficiency was 50% vs 67% for GWS.

As Horse said, that's partly our work rate - Giants worked a lot harder than us on and off the ball. But also just unforgivably poor execution.

 

[The King!]

He's what, 29 and on a million a year? Yeah I think I expect him to have at least 3-4 more strong seasons.

So sign all 29 year olds to big deals and bam 3-4 strong seasons

 

[GoTheSwannies]

Is there somewhere I can catch a replay of the game

 

[Tedeski]

5 year plan underway.

 

[Lakeside Swan]

On the subject of Mitchell, isn't it better if he works on his kicking game in meaningless pre season games instead of just relying on what he does well?

I would have thought he'd be doing that at training.

 

[Bandicoot]

Is there somewhere I can catch a replay of the game

You couldn't possibly want to watch it, would you???

 

[GoTheSwannies]

You couldn't possibly want to watch it, would you???

I watch every game. For some reason I forgot this was on. Even if to watch the kids get a go

 

[hairy biker]

I watch every game. For some reason I forgot this was on. Even if to watch the kids get a go

It's being replayed a few times on Foxfooty.
Listed 2 am and 2 pm tomorrow*.
And the AFL are running a free trial of the AFL live pass, so it will be available for replay on there.
https://id.afl.com.au/livepass?cid=LivePassHomepageTile

For certain Telsta customers they can sign up for a full 2016 season free AFL Live pass;
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threa...lstra-mobile-customers.1124978/#post-43178523

*Not sure if the cancellation of the Lions/Saints game will change their broadcast schedule.

 

[cinderella man]

5 year plan underway.

One that neither Franklin or Longmire will go the journey. Longmire because he has NFI how to structure or balance a football side and Franklin because he will be sick of being used as a sideshow. Being paid a million dollars a year to run around around the midfield like a headless chook when he knows he is the best forward in the game but does not get played there will finally see the poor bastard in a straight jacket.

 

[Banyo Bloods]

Give the team and coaches a bit of faith

 

[Swansujelly]

To anyone who thinks we werent trying or it didn't mean anything should rewatch Longmire address in the rooms at HT.

not sure he was about the result, more the execution. He's a coach, if he didn't fire up at such a poor level of skills, he'd be unemployed.

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

So sign all 29 year olds to big deals and bam 3-4 strong seasons

Think you missed the point.

 

[MarkP]

Give the team and coaches a bit of faith

For the last few years I have had every faith in the players and continue to do so this year. Coach/s not so much.

It is a testament to the playing group they get so far with this ridiculous game plan. They have the patience of Job to be honest and are a bunch of terrific football players.

 

[Banyo Bloods]

For the last few years I have had every faith in the players and continue to do so this year. Coach/s not so much.

It is a testament to the playing group they get so far with this ridiculous game plan. They have the patience of Job to be honest and are a bunch of terrific football players.

We were a player short (Franklin) of going straight through to a preliminary final last year never mind the players missing from injury. If the game plan is so terrible we would be nowhere near it. We don’t have the skills for a precise kicking gameplan and the contested possession has worked for many years. Pretty sure they recognise that they can’t compete with the highly skilled clubs and are recruiting (maybe too late, thanks AFL) to address that. A sudden change of plan is a big risk if their mantra is to always stay a successful club. Looks like what they are trying isn’t playing to our strength’s but unless we get to the point where Sinclair can do the majority of the ruck work then we have to rob Peter to pay Paul. Last year quite often the structure wasn’t right because we always seemed to have somebody out. Would love to have seen Reid with a injury free pre season which could have changed the dynamic dramatically with him going forward and pinch hitting in the ruck. Anyway I’m not convinced by what I’ve seen this year so far and last year was frustrating too but still think at this stage we should have some faith in the players and the coaching panel. P.S. Kirk’s back J

 

[J_Moore]

Surely it is possible to have doubts about aspects of the game plan without going into full 'LONGMIRE HAS NO IDEA ABOUT FOOTBALL' mode? It's difficult to take some poster's otherwise reasonable criticisms seriously because they're wrapped up in hysterical cellophane. Under his tenure, the team has objectively performed pretty well. So if he's as bad as some people suggest, that means our list is approaching GOAT levels.

Like a lot of people, I agree that he seems to overemphasise effort/hard work at the expense of things like structure and adaptability. But his plan A has produced results that all other clubs bar 1-2 would envy. And I think expecting us to adopt an approach that relies on Hawks-like-precision is asking a bit much, because our players can't kick like that. And it's not like we haven't tried recruiting otherwise - just most of those picks have been busts.

I would like us to bring in more coaches from outside the club's system.

 

[Wolftone]

In early 2011 we were playing a pretty dreadful type of game. Bomb the ball into the forward line and hope that young bloke Reid takes a mark or Mumford for that matter. Our indiscriminate disposal into the forward line upset and frustrated many of us here. But something happened in about the 8th round. We started playing a totally different brand of footy. We were playing on a lot, kicking the ball to leads in the forward 50 and using Jetts to slingshot. The unfortunate problem is Jetts didn't have his kicking boots on and only managed 19 points, if he'd kicked accurately we would have won quite a few matches by a lot more. It was an exciting brand of footy. Pykie came out of nowhere and we had this bloke who could tak a massive pack mark alongside Mumford and he did quite often. The thing that was obvious was that the players were enjoying their footy.

In 2012 as history tells we went on to win the Premiership. The amazing slingshot and our accurate passing were winning us games and now a Premiership. The players enjoyed their footy.

In 2013 & 2014 we were still pretty good but sides had woken up to the slingshot and things had to change. We didn't change enough and had problems against Hawthorn and Freo. Their pressure game brought us undone in 2013 and again in 2014. Our blokes were susceptible under hot finals type pressure apparently. This didn't happen in 2012. In 2012 we moved the ball with much more precision but we also relied on handball and the opposition woke up to this and countered by putting huge pressure not only on the ball carrier but also the receiver. They cut off the options. The top sides were onto it the others couldn't get past our highly skilled and fast moving mids who ran both ways. Gerard Healy once referred to our two way running style as running 20 Olympic marathons with no purpose in mind. He thought it was a fer too energy sapping game style. I tend to agree. We need backs that can hold their own one on one. We did well both years but the cracks were appearing.

2015 was a year that we didn't beat many teams in the top eight. Hawks in the first half of the season, only to have them absolutely cane us in the return match on our turf. We beat Norf, enough said. We beat Adelaide just after they lost Walsh. Even if wee had a full side we would have been hard put to win a match in finals time the way we were playing. Our disposal percentage was crap. Our percentage of score per forward 50 entry was appalling. We bombed. We bombed and we bombed. We handballed backwards into trouble again and again. We were very lucky our draw was very kind as if it wasn't and we played Freo, West Coast, Western Bullies or even Richmond twice we might have been on a hiding to nothing. 2015 is a season we would like to forget I think. other than poor performances there were the injuries.

So what has changed in the preseason of 2016? Nothing that I can see still relying on an outdated game plan. Still one of the worst teams for effective disposals in the AFL and still looking for the messiah. Sorry but Bud is not the Messiah, merely a highly paid ambassador. Heens is not the Messiah either he's a kid. Let him have fun playing the bloody game. In fact it would be nice to see a new game plan that the players really enjoy playing and they can get back to having fun playing the game again. I don't think the players are necessarily enjoying playing this style of footy. When we run the ball, precision pass, handball slickly and use the hit up a player on the lead game the players really enjoy playing. But this indiscriminate kicking to the forward line is crap and the players can't enjoy just banging it in anyhow. There was a time Kizza, Macca, Joey, Hannas etc hit targets, see 2012. Not now.

Solution; Get back to playing a game that has some excitement to it, not just this totally defensive s**t we play because we waste the ball so often due to the game plan.