Preview Round 2: Port Adelaide v Carlton

[Janus]

The players that were responsible for the disconnect and fluctuations in team performance are now gone.

I seriously can't believe people are being negative about this game. Let me remind you all that Melbourne had a dream start in R1 and were 20 points up and cruising in the first quarter. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for us in terms of disposal etc.

But the team trusted the plan, cleaned up their disposal and went to work. Because the game style is solid and will only get more dynamic as the season wears on. We're going to get ******* better each week. It's not like that performance was some great thing - it was a 6/10.

The only thing I'm worried about is players showboating the way that Richmond did in their game against Carlton. I don't mind playing with flair and fantasy, but don't play with delusion and try on stupid kicks that aren't there. Don't play hero ball. We would still win if we did, but it would mean that we aren't a premiership threat. The best thing about the games of Butters, Drew, Duursma and Rozee was that they consistently made good decisions more often than not.

This team should set its sights on improving each week. Improving connection, improving execution, improving belief. Every year a team from the bottom eight makes top four, and this year, it's going to be us.

 

[GremioPower]

Every year a team from the bottom eight makes top four, and this year, it's going to be us.

No, it won't. Last year, North and Port were the teams that finished outside both the Top- and the Bottom-8.

 

[Janus]

No, it won't. Last year, North and Port were the teams that finished outside both the Top- and the Bottom-8.

Bottom ten, whatever I meant outside the finals.

 

[TeeKray]

I'm more nervous when we play home than away these days to be honest. We can serve up some unexpected utter s**t at home.

For good reason - since mid 2014, our winning percentage away is better than our winning percentage at home.

 

[Pappagallo]

For good reason - since mid 2014, our winning percentage away is better than our winning percentage at home.

This is an awful stat and it needs to be rectified. At least we don’t have to play West Coast at AO this season so there’s half the battle won.

 

[OneGreatClub]

For good reason - since mid 2014, our winning percentage away is better than our winning percentage at home.

Yet the club constantly bangs on about the supporters getting them over the line

 

[Interstater]

The players that were responsible for the disconnect and fluctuations in team performance are now gone.
...

What frustrates me about your posts is you write your opinions as if they are fact.

 

[Janus]

What frustrates me about your posts is you write your opinions as if they are fact.

"I know a lot of the guys are talking about the connection within the group as being the highest it's ever been since we've been at the club.

"It's important to hold that close to our chest and build on that each week, but there just seems to be a smoldering feeling within the group we can achieve something pretty big.

"It seems like we've consolidated, we've steadied our feet and we just feel we're better off this year than the last couple of years." - Justin Westhoff

 

[Tibbs]

"I know a lot of the guys are talking about the connection within the group as being the highest it's ever been since we've been at the club.

"It's important to hold that close to our chest and build on that each week, but there just seems to be a smoldering feeling within the group we can achieve something pretty big.

"It seems like we've consolidated, we've steadied our feet and we just feel we're better off this year than the last couple of years." - Justin Westhoff

I wouldn't bother mate, so many still in denial here that the two departing stars were proving to be a frustration to the rest of the squad, and not contributing to team harmony!

Insiders have spelled it out, the club has pretty much confirmed it, and team spirit it through the roof since. But it's all all imagination ... Carry on.

 

[crafty_bernardo]

What if both Wingard and Polac had stayed this year and they joined the Noosa camp, would the team have achieved the same/similar re-bonding.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Yep, it'll be close...that's why we had 1 less contested possession, 29 more uncontested possessions, 31 more effective disposals, 3 more contested marks, 7 more marks inside 50 and 12 more intercepts. The only thing Carlton was better at is centre clearance...and that was considered to be Melbourne's strength as well.

Total distance covered - Port 276.3, Carlton 298.1 km (Richmond 288.0 km)
At high speed - Port 37.1, Carlton 36.1 km (Richmond 38.3 km)
Average speed in attack - Port 7.9 km/h, Carlton 8.6 km/h (Richmond 7.7 km/h)
Average speed in defence - Port 8.1 km/h, Carlton 8.0 km/h (Richmond 8.2 km/h)
Total sprint efforts - Port 82 km, Carlton 101 km (Richmond 119 km)
Total repeat sprint efforts - Port 4km, Carlton 2 km (Richmond 5 km)

So in order to play as well as they did, they ran 23 more kilometres...all of which were sprint efforts on the fast break on turnover (hence the high attack speed).

They are basically Port Adelaide 2013.

I think Carlton will have a better year than many have predicted and I've said that I believe they will finish closer to Adelaide than Adelaide fans will like (they've got a real great shot of beating the Crows actually)...but this week is a bridge too far. Concentrate on beating a slow side like Sydney next week.

P.S Here's a funny stat. Total sprint efforts across the league:

1. St Kilda - 292 km (13.2 km per player)
2. Gold Coast - 262 km (11.9 km per player)
3. GWS - 243 km (11 km per player)
4. Fremantle - 213 km (9.7 km per player)
5. Essendon - 196 km (8.9 km per player)
6. Western Bulldogs - 195 km (8.9 km per player)
7. Sydney - 191 km (8.7 km per player)
8. North Melbourne - 188 km (8.5 km per player)
9. West Coast - 188 km (8.5 km per player)
10. Brisbane - 149 km (6.8 km per player)
11. Richmond - 119 km (5.4 km per player)
12. Carlton - 101 km (4.6 km per player)
13. Collingwood - 95 km (4.3 km per player)
14. Hawthorn - 93 km (4.2 km per player)
15. Adelaide - 89 km (4 km per player)
16. Geelong - 88 km (4 km per player)
17. Melbourne - 84 km (3.8 km per player)
18. Port Adelaide - 82 km (3.7 km per player)

This is why you play this system where everyone fills positions on the field regardless. There isn't that useless running back to position which burns energy unnecessarily. I told you...Jeet Ken Do. A player positions himself in defence, he becomes a defender....a player fills a position in midfield, he becomes a midfielder...Be like water, friend.

What do you think is going to happen to all those teams that are burning themselves out? Even Brisbane did almost double the amount of sprinting that we did.

"I can't wait to play this week, it was so much fun." - Robbie Gray

So how many bloody Kms did the teams who sprinted 200+ Kms run in total if we ran 276.3kms of which only 82 km were sprint efforts??

5m/sec or faster is considered a sprint effort by CD so at 5m its not that hard a sprint, but at 7m~9m/sec that's close to flat out.

 

[Janus]

So how many bloody Kms did the teams who sprinted 200+ Kms run in total if we ran 276.3kms of which only 82 km were sprint efforts??

5m/sec or faster is considered a sprint effort by CD so at 5m its not that hard a sprint, but at 7m~9m/sec that's close to flat out.

I made a mistake with that...those figures don't measure total distance, but total speed. I fixed it on thread on the main board, but not here...my bad

We ran a total of 82 km/h total speed. Those teams ran in excess of 200 km/h in total speed. The point is the same about energy conservation though

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This team should set its sights on improving each week. Improving connection, improving execution, improving belief. Every year a team from the bottom eight makes top four, and this year, it's going to be us.

Not quiet. That was broken when St Kilda, Geelong, Collingwood and Western Bulldogs didn't budge from the top 4 two years in a row in 2009 and 2010 and then again with the GC + GWS effect.

I've been watching this since I started the Making the Top 4 and building for a flag thread in 2008. So since 1994 when Richmond finished 9th and in 1995 finished 3rd the only misses have been

2008: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2009
2009: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2010
and
2012: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2013
2013: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2014

So I'd put money on it to happen again this year again and we had bloody better win 15 or 16 games so it can be us. 14 wins wont cut it. We don't have the 2009-10 situation of 4 strong top 4 sides doing the repeat and no GC and GWS effect in play. Since then;

2014 WCE 9th --> 2015 2nd and make a GF
2015 GWS 11th --> 2016 4th and make a PF
2016 Rich 13th --> 2017 3rd and win flag
2017 Haw 12th --> 2018 4th but out in straight sets

I have to update my file of top 8 sides who next year finish bottom 4.
2009 Essendon 8th to 2010 14th was the last year before the entry of GC and then GWS broke the sequence in 2011 and 2012.

 

[Canoogs]

I made a mistake with that...those figures don't measure total distance, but total speed. I fixed it on thread on the main board, but not here...my bad

We ran a total of 82 km/h total speed. Those teams ran in excess of 200 km/h in total speed. The point is the same about energy conservation though

What's total speed mean?

 

[Janus]

What's total speed mean?

The total speed every player ran in km/h.

The record is St Kilda - they ran a combined total of 434 km/h against North last year - and it was looking at that that made me realise my error.

 

[raman]

What frustrates me about your posts is you write your opinions as if they are fact.

I don't think it's necessary for someone to preface every declarative statement with "in my opinion". The fact that they are the ones writing it is enough.

 

[Canoogs]

The total speed every player ran in km/h.

The record is St Kilda - they ran a combined total of 434 km/h against North last year - and it was looking at that that made me realise my error.

I just don't get what it's supposed to measure. If you take everyone's speed and integrate it, that's just the distance covered.

If you divide it by 22, that gives below 4km/h/person, which is barely walking pace. Haven't found anything that details how it's measured, but I'll keep searching.

 

[Janus]

Not quiet. That was broken when St Kilda, Geelong, Collingwood and Western Bulldogs didn't budge from the top 4 two years in a row in 2009 and 2010 and then again with the GC + GWS effect.

I've been watching this since I started the Making the Top 4 and building for a flag thread in 2008. So since 1994 when Richmond finished 9th and in 1995 finished 3rd the only misses have been

2008: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2009
2009: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2010
and
2012: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2013
2013: NO ONE who missed the eight finished top-4 in 2014

So I'd put money on it to happen again this year again and we had bloody better win 15 or 16 games so it can be us. 14 wins wont cut it. We don't have the 2009-10 situation of 4 strong top 4 sides doing the repeat and no GC and GWS effect in play. Since then;

2014 WCE 9th --> 2015 2nd and make a GF
2015 GWS 11th --> 2016 4th and make a PF
2016 Rich 13th --> 2017 3rd and win flag
2017 Haw 12th --> 2018 4th but out in straight sets

I have to update my file of top 8 sides who next year finish bottom 4.
2009 Essendon 8th to 2010 14th was the last year before the entry of GC and then GWS broke the sequence in 2011 and 2012.

That’s exactly why it broke - the top five from the previous year only got to play GWS and GC once, so that meant that they played other poor teams twice...which still gave the top 5 teams an easy win and kept the status quo.

It was the AFL not wanting their babies flogged twice that did it. Which was stupid because the concessions both teams got were meant to be used to trade for players so it was a self inflicted thing for both teams anyway.

 

[Canoogs]

After some digging, it's apparently total sprint efforts (unitless). I'm not sure whether they measure sprint based on effort or speed itself, but it means that on average our players did 4 sprint efforts on Saturday... or that the measurement is a bit wonky.

 

[Power Plus]

 

[TeeKray]

We turned over 50% of our list in 2 years. Turned over nearly the entire coaching staff. Changed our captain and leadership group. Did a 180 from playing boring, uninspiring, dour, physically tough football to playing free, exciting football.

There's been a lot more change at this club than just getting rid of two players.

And by the way, it's still March. This new found team spirit and harmony has been tested in exactly one game. And we've had plenty of great starts to seasons with a great feeling among the group before watching it all collapse before. Let's see how it's faring in the dog days of the season before declaring that Wingard and Polec were solely responsible for us being s**t.

 

[Janus]

I just don't get what it's supposed to measure. If you take everyone's speed and integrate it, that's just the distance covered.

If you divide it by 22, that gives below 4km/h/person, which is barely walking pace. Haven't found anything that details how it's measured, but I'll keep searching.

4 km/h is barely walking pace if you work under the impression that everyone is moving at the average all the time.

But when playing a system that says the majority of the team sits in a zone and doesn’t move unnecessarily, letting the system do the work...until it’s time to put in a burst effort...it makes sense.

4 km/h average can be done by running 4 km/h...or by running 20 km/h for 12 minutes and not running at all for the other 48.

 

[Janus]

We turned over 50% of our list in 2 years. Turned over nearly the entire coaching staff. Changed our captain and leadership group. Did a 180 from playing boring, uninspiring, dour, physically tough football to playing free, exciting football.

There's been a lot more change at this club than just getting rid of two players.

And by the way, it's still March. This new found team spirit and harmony has been tested in exactly one game. And we've had plenty of great starts to seasons with a great feeling among the group before watching it all collapse before. Let's see how it's faring in the dog days of the season before declaring that Wingard and Polec were solely responsible for us being s**t.

I’m saying there is no way in hell you could play this system with those two in your best 22. They aren’t team players. Both of them would have taken the opportunity presented to slalom through our carefully constructed zones and act like heroes so they could win the adulation and praise of the fans, like they did last year.

It only works if everyone is willing to work and share the load.

 

[Amarula]

I'm more nervous when we play home than away these days to be honest. We can serve up some unexpected utter s**t at home.

Unexpected by whom?

 

[Janus]

After some digging, it's apparently total sprint efforts (unitless). I'm not sure whether they measure sprint based on effort or speed itself, but it means that on average our players did 4 sprint efforts on Saturday... or that the measurement is a bit wonky.

It says km/h right here...