AFL Autopsy RND 13: Done by the Blues

[Nifft]

If you don't laugh, you cry...

 

[MiguelM]

Talk is cheap.

Obviously had zero impact.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

Talk is cheap.

Obviously had zero impact.

I know right? We should delist Lloydy.

 

[MNC Bomber]

Not sure where to put this ...The sporting globe 1942 found in a wall, go bombers, * Carlton..

 

[kleanr]

Not sure where to put this ...The sporting globe 1942 found in a wall, go bombers, * Carlton..


View attachment 1446321

very cool. I see Alan Hird of the HBF

pitty to see back then Blues were still beating us in the crucial stats of "alertness" and "robustness"

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Not sure where to put this ...The sporting globe 1942 found in a wall, go bombers, * Carlton..


View attachment 1446321

Still getting beaten in congestion …ffs have we learnt nothing in 80 years!

 

[ghostdog]

Still getting beaten in congestion …ffs have we learnt nothing in 80 years!

Also, "...showed little semblance of systematic football."

 

[Nifft]

Not sure where to put this ...The sporting globe 1942 found in a wall, go bombers, * Carlton..


View attachment 1446321

Who is this South Melbourne, Fitzroy and Footscray that they speak of?

 

[Donakebab]

Not sure where to put this ...The sporting globe 1942 found in a wall, go bombers, * Carlton..


View attachment 1446321

Amazing find, thanks for sharing!

Very interesting year for history buffs. Check out the box detailing where next weeks games will be played. Due to the unavailability of a number of grounds due to potential military appropriation (MCG, Junction Oval, Lake Oval and the Western Oval), Toorak Oval and Yarraville Park hosted their only VFL matches during the 1942-1943 seasons. We won the first Grand Final played at Princes Park that season.

I've had a dig and been able to find it on Trove if anyone is interested.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/20727405

 

[Alberto_Magnifico]

Amazing find, thanks for sharing!

Very interesting year for history buffs. Check out the box detailing where next weeks games will be played. Due to the unavailability of a number of grounds due to potential military appropriation (MCG, Junction Oval, Lake Oval and the Western Oval), Toorak Oval and Yarraville Park hosted their only VFL matches during the 1942-1943 seasons. We won the first Grand Final played at Princes Park that season.

I've had a dig and been able to find it on Trove if anyone is interested.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/20727405

I think it was around the end of 42 start of 43 that the HBO series The Pacific has the US marines staying at the MCG.

 

[Albertross]

Thread title needs to be changed to "Downed the Blues in 42".

 

[fairbump_playon]

Never under estimate what playing a lot of young players does to what you are working on. The mistakes they are bound to make create a bit of mayhem within the whole learning new styles / attitude. The fact the coach is trying to build a blue collar style with players who are not blue collar does not help either.
The break down in communication is coming from the lack of ability to transition from attack to defense quickly. Good sides have a number of players who make that decision quicker. They make less mistakes as far as transition goes. Right now we have a top end group of midfielders that are very attack focused but struggle to switch to defense consistently and they can ball watch a bit before shifting their focus. We also have a forward line with no real pressure forwards taking up the slack.

The confusion / breakdown comes from repeated mistakes not just from on or two guys but from various members of the team at continual stages. So it may be Perkins makes 5 or 6 errors due to inexperience. Parish and Merrett make 5 or 6 errors due to being hard wired attacking players. Shiel makes 5 or 6 errors due to be an attacking player and not always playing the defensive role he can actually play and so it goes on with others making mistakes as well. The confidence goes down and players go back in their shells not wanting to make mistakes.
Throw in a real lack of leadership across the side that ca help rectify some of the on field stuff and you get what we have.

Personally I think we need this to happen as bad as it is. Last year we got the usual spike from a new coach and a playing group escaping what was a pretty bad year in the bubble with a bit of infighting and players wanting to leave. A lot of the issues where left behind and the club was looking for a new direction.
This year the reality of the grind has set in. We get to find out if the coach can be up to it after not really running a proper process to appoint him. We also will find out about the top level of our playing group.

Previously we have floated around the mid table 90% of the time and never gone in either direction. We have not been good or really bad. Now we are seeing really bad which is how you learn a lot about where we are really at. There are a lot of issues. Is the coach any good ? How much of an impact has total list management / building really hurt the balance of the list ? Has the poor quality of the VFL side and total lack of footy for the players hurt our development ?
How much has the injury situation and having players not ready to play compromised the ability for pressure on selection ?

For me right now I do not know if Truck will be the guy or not. My gut says he will get sacked this year if we can get Clarkson or we completely fold up and win no more or one or two games and look totally uncompetitive. If he pulls something out of the fire and we win a few and play some half decent footy then he lives another year but will still be sacked if we are a 8 or 9 win side.

It sound strange but it doe not worry me as I have never been under the opinion we are close to a flag despite the club saying 2 or 3 years. I got seduced by the improvement in team defense in the back half of last year and thought we should be playing finals with no injuries but that bird got shot down quickly in the new year with the injuries just continually coming. The reason I am not worried is we need list changes and we need to be bad and not just mid range so the real issues are exposed.
In my mind this is a 3 to 5 year process to see if we can build something that is finals competitive. Right now we are in year two of that despite Truck having been the learner driver in 2020 . I think the process stays the same even if we replace the coach and the reason I say that is even if Truck can not deliver or sell the game plan the base of it is right. We need to get away from being the nice club with nice leaders. We need more Blue Collar. This means we do actually need to suck so this can be exposed.
It now comes down to Josh Mahoney to steer a similar plan he drove at Melbourne where they went after competitive players . They made selection mistakes along the way but in the end they found enough via draft / trade / FA to change things and become a serious side even with a few speed bumps along the way.
We may fail again but being what we where for the last 15 years and being a side that was just within reach was simply giving us more of the same mid table average stuff.

This was a particularly good post, even by your high standards. Very insightfully sums up what is happening this year.