AFL Toast Practice Game: 74 point win over Melbourne

[Runk]

Booked

Well yeh, it was our VFL team. Our seniors play Adelaide tomorrow. Embarrassing to only win by 12 goals against a VFL team really.

Chill out precious. You’re bringing down the mood whilst I stand here in line at ticketek trying to buy grand final tickets.

 

[ant555]

Well yeh, it was our VFL team. Our seniors play Adelaide tomorrow. Embarrassing to only win by 12 goals against a VFL team really.

 

[Runk]

It does beg the question why we organised a game against a team unlikely to play many senior players.

Does it? Other clubs have done the same this year.

 

[Ambrosia]

It does beg the question why we organised a game against a team unlikely to play many senior players.

I don’t mind it. From what I’ve been told/read most of our bonafide senior players had enough limited game time that they should have no problem playing in Perth next week

 

[JayJ20]

It does beg the question why we organised a game against a team unlikely to play many senior players.

Well at least we know that our "VFL standard players" aren't actually VFL standard

 

[OsteitisPubis22]

I'm not the most positive person around, but we essentially fielded a VFL side with half a game to some best 22 players. I doubt we'd have seen how we'll play. Seemed more like blowing out cobwebs before a genuine practice match next week.

My other concern is James Kelly has admitted the game plan hasn’t changed a great deal.
In his presser


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[horj89]

Looking at the highlights Harrison Jones took a few nice marks and had a few good moments. Anyone have anymore info on how he went yesterday?

 

[Lore]

My other concern is James Kelly has admitted the game plan hasn’t changed a great deal.
In his presser


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You should listen to Dylan Shiel’s radio interview as well. Also mentioned it hasn’t been changed wholesale, gave a bit more info.

 

[JayJ20]

My other concern is James Kelly has admitted the game plan hasn’t changed a great deal.
In his presser


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Remember that the wind yesterday may impact how we played yesterday. Probably more long bombs inside 50 than the coaches hoped for.

I don't think our game style needs a huge overhaul. Our list composition will never suit a defensive lock down or a heavily contested style. Speed is the biggest asset we have in our team.

We need to tinker two areas of our game. Our forward ball movement (as we tend to turnover the ball in our defensive half or bomb it long inside 50 to no one in particular) and our team defence, particularly the pressure throughout the midfield + forward line.

I think we were bottom 4 for causing turnovers in our forward half. We did it well in the second half of 2018 (led by D Smith) before everything turned to crap last year.

Luckily, we have Caracella who was the forward ball movement coach at Richmond, who are easily the best in the competition at this and Rutten, who knows all about Richmond's manic defensive pressure.

From reports, Caracella is aiming to change our running patterns to build a more sustainable attacking brand. Contrary to popular belief, Richmond aren't the most skilled side in the competition. It's actually their running patterns that make them so good. Once they kick to attack, there's always at least two to three players waiting for the ball to come down. Same thing when the opposition kicks. Very high work rate to prevent clean possession.

We'll see how it goes next week.

 

[owen87]

Looking at the highlights;

Ham looks a genuine AFL quality player, moves well and makes good choices. Might take a few years before he’s got the size to really compete at AFL level but already looks like a quality outside runner as-is.

Defensive pressure being non-existent probably makes it hard to know how our ball movement has changed. D50 exits and F50 entries are where we needed to make changes and we probably can’t take much either way from this one.

Seeing the younger guys all listed amongst the better players is important, guys like Parish, McGrath and Francis developing are what we need to progress. Laverde looks fit, Langford didn’t feature in the highlights but in the write-up it was said he played well.

Not a huge amount to take away otherwise, but I think the signs we’ve seen show the younger guys are developing and the result is about what it should have been for a mostly AFL side versus a mostly VFL side.

On to Perth next week and hopefully we see some better defensive work from the Eagles to see how our ball movement stacks up.

 

[bennyg12]

Looking at the highlights;

Ham looks a genuine AFL quality player, moves well and makes good choices. Might take a few years before he’s got the size to really compete at AFL level but already looks like a quality outside runner as-is.

Defensive pressure being non-existent probably makes it hard to know how our ball movement has changed. D50 exits and F50 entries are where we needed to make changes and we probably can’t take much either way from this one.

Seeing the younger guys all listed amongst the better players is important, guys like Parish, McGrath and Francis developing are what we need to progress. Laverde looks fit, Langford didn’t feature in the highlights but in the write-up it was said he played well.

Not a huge amount to take away otherwise, but I think the signs we’ve seen show the younger guys are developing and the result is about what it should have been for a mostly AFL side versus a mostly VFL side.

On to Perth next week and hopefully we see some better defensive work from the Eagles to see how our ball movement stacks up.

 

[bennyg12]

The upside on Hams is huge big watch this year

 

[ant555]

My other concern is James Kelly has admitted the game plan hasn’t changed a great deal.
In his presser


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Plan does not really have to change a lot. The execution does. Less turn overs and more pressure in the forward half.

 

[Old Campaigner]

It does beg the question why we organised a game against a team unlikely to play many senior players.

Probably more competitive than an intra club match. Barring a game against actual children, any sort of game is likely better than normal training and match sim. Also maybe we don’t have enough fit players for a decent intra club hit out.

 

[yodellinhank]

Really liked Ham! Think he will be an important player for us. Has gotten noticeably bigger and made great decisions.
Unfortunately game plan has not changed a great deal. We played a reserve team and still were not convincing in the contest. It just won’t stack up when the whips get cracking.




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Did you watch the game at Casey?

 

[OsteitisPubis22]

Did you watch the game at Casey?

Yep



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[OsteitisPubis22]

Plan does not really have to change a lot. The execution does. Less turn overs and more pressure in the forward half.

My concern is more so the reliance on uncontested possession and capitalising on opposition turnovers in our D50. It just isn’t sustainable.


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[cobra land]

What stood out for me was our tackling and hardness at the contest, doesn't matter the standard of opposition it was good to see that we have been doing a lot more work on the defensive side of the game.

 

[ant555]

My concern is more so the reliance on uncontested possession and capitalising on opposition turnovers in our D50. It just isn’t sustainable.


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No it is not but if you push that pressure up the ground then you are not relying on D50 turnovers. The stats are misleading , the reason we attack from the back half more than anything comes from the fact we either let the ball out of the forward line with little pressure or we turn the ball over through the middle leaving us out of position.
I can tell you we would much rather be getting repeat efforts in the forward half. They let Brown go because his forward defence was deemed to be poor. To be blunt I find it laughable that some say our game is based on attacking from half back. Do people really think we allow the ball to get back their so we can launch another attack ? The reason we attack from the back half is the fact we are very poor in the forward half defence department or we simply kicked it to the opposition allowing them to move the footy back up the ground easily. Back half attack is a strength for us but it is not what we want to hang our hat on.

 

[yodellinhank]

No it is not but if you push that pressure up the ground then you are not relying on D50 turnovers. The stats are misleading , the reason we attack from the back half more than anything comes from the fact we either let the ball out of the forward line with little pressure or we turn the ball over through the middle leaving us out of position.
I can tell you we would much rather be getting repeat efforts in the forward half. They let Brown go because his forward defence was deemed to be poor. To be blunt I find it laughable that some say our game is based on attacking from half back. Do people really think we allow the ball to get back their so we can launch another attack ? The reason we attack from the back half is the fact we are very poor in the forward half defence department or we simply kicked it to the opposition allowing them to move the footy back up the ground easily. Back half attack is a strength for us but it is not what we want to hang our hat on.

We discussed it last season, it was a bit chicken or egg but we seem to always have players flop back when we could be pressing.

In terms of "the way we want to play" the phrase makes my eyes glaze over. Remember the goal JD kicked out of the ruck v Collingwood? That's the way I want them to play, they should just do that.

 

[blitzer]

There's something about Ham - I reckon should be playing seniors most weeks this year.

He's got pace, skills, a good tank and applies good defensive pressure. Basically he's got the game that translates perfectly to be an outside midfielder that can rotate up forward at AFL level. Whenever he played AFL last year he always made a positive impact from his touches and defensive actions.

I'd play him ahead of guys like Langford, Laverde, Snelling, Mosquito, Begley and Guelfi. Basically I think he's the most promising of our current lot of fringe players.

 

[owen87]

No it is not but if you push that pressure up the ground then you are not relying on D50 turnovers. The stats are misleading , the reason we attack from the back half more than anything comes from the fact we either let the ball out of the forward line with little pressure or we turn the ball over through the middle leaving us out of position.
I can tell you we would much rather be getting repeat efforts in the forward half. They let Brown go because his forward defence was deemed to be poor. To be blunt I find it laughable that some say our game is based on attacking from half back. Do people really think we allow the ball to get back their so we can launch another attack ? The reason we attack from the back half is the fact we are very poor in the forward half defence department or we simply kicked it to the opposition allowing them to move the footy back up the ground easily. Back half attack is a strength for us but it is not what we want to hang our hat on.

Agreed; I think our 'style' is less attack from half back and more that run and carry linebreaking we see, it just so happens that because our defensive pressure forward of centre is poor this starts from half-back. If we improve our forward pressure and create turnovers through the centre of the ground or closer to our F50 then the damage guys like McKenna and Saad do is only going to be increased. Instead of relying on Saad breaking out of D50 and hoping to find a target to link us from D50 - F50, Saad can do the same thing but moving from centre-wing directly to a contest inside F50.

Redman, Saad, McKenna, McGrath are all used across half-back but are more than capable of being in more aggressive positions closer to the forward side of centre if our team defence allows them to drift up.

Imagine a world where Francis is able to play loose between the D50 and F50 lines, his intercept marking and disposal are elite.

 

[yaco55]

It's not just about defensive pressure in the forward half - Ultimately you need to execute skills to a high level which has been our biggest issue in the last three or four years.