Analysis Season 2020 - What should the season look like now?

Dec 1, 2013
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Whatever happens, it's impossible to imagine we are going to get through this cramped block of games with "No change", "no Change", "no change" as is Fages' wont.

It's kind of exciting that we are going to see how a number of the "B" list handle their opportunities

I'd like to think there is an opportunity for anyone on the list to step up and show us what they've got
If they are going to comer in, surely they would get a run of 2-3 games. We can't just expect them to come in for 1 game and perform for a spot.
 
Apologies for my rants yesterday. Wasn’t my best effort. Anyway, today I’m an optimist and our players are going to own this.

The training load will be dropped so along with shorter games and the breaks after each goal they may cruise through the games.

Problems could be limited to

- fewer skills sessions. Most skill sessions are done in pre season, and skill sessions don’t directly correlate to performing the skill during the game (goal kicking!). Maybe Eric and dan will flourish in the next 20 days as theyare immersed in practicing during games.

- recovering from niggles. Normally players need to get through the heavy mid week training session without problem to get selected, which means most of them are recovered and ready to go by that session. there’ll be a few selected that shouldn’t be, but the very capable medical staff will be highly focused and should be all over this.

- less time for opposition analysis and developing counter strategies. But maybe hub living means players are bored and spend extra time on this.

- players being promoted to the ones and fitting in the structure. fagan instigated the twos playing the same structure early on in his tenure so this may actually be a strength for us.


GO 🦁 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁👌👌
 
Luke beveridge says
-coaches were consulted before the draw came out.
- it’s all quite exciting
- and he expects players will want to play every game especially as there are fewer games this season

 

Dylan12

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Luke beveridge says
-coaches were consulted before the draw came out.
- it’s all quite exciting
- and he expects players will want to play every game especially as there are fewer games this season

Bulldogs play 3 games in 11 days, whilst we play 4 games in 13 days. I'd be thinking it is quite exciting too if I was them; not so much for us.
 
Jan 9, 2019
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Whatever happens, it's impossible to imagine we are going to get through this cramped block of games with "No change", "no Change", "no change" as is Fages' wont.

It's kind of exciting that we are going to see how a number of the "B" list handle their opportunities

I'd like to think there is an opportunity for anyone on the list to step up and show us what they've got
I can assure you that it's very "possible to imagine" that players & coach's will want to go through this block of games with minimal changes. If we continue on our winning way & all players come up for each game day ready to go, there will be no changes. The younger players on our list should handle the 4 day breaks pretty easily and our list is full of younger players.
There is no player on our list who would want to be rested and give up his spot in the 22 to another player and risk not getting back in...why would anyone think they would absolutely stuns me. They will ALL be very eager to not miss any of these games 100%.
It will be an interesting 3 week block thats for sure.
 
Jan 9, 2019
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Players win you games
Squads win you premierships. More so this year i think.
Unfortunately i believe we may go down the win every game route. No resting of players unless prevented by injury or suspension
A big risk which may pay off marginally in the next few weeks.
But i worry about the remaining block of fixtures which could also be compromised

On the other hand i would be happy for players that are in a 50/50 regarding fitness to just miss the next fixture.
All others that are just sore and recovering from the game should be up for selection.
Players will always put there hand up to play.
Coaches in the past have always left it up to the medical staff. For me this should only be step one regarding selection in rounds 9 to 12.
More thought and consideration required for this next block of games
Are you downgrading our "excellent & best in the business" medical team? Dont neglect to have that in your equation when looking at this next block of games. :think: ;) :drunk::laughing:
 
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Jan 9, 2019
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I think it's very possible to have most players getting up for all 3 games in that 8 day block. Obviously I'd be ruling a player out even if they were slightly sore. But a 4 day break should be enough time to recover as long as the Essendon game isn't too physical. Assuming there is no training and the players are only recovering. I really can't see Fagan resting 10 players against Richmond.
If you rule every player out for being slightly sore, there would be 4-5 players every week ruled out in a normal season. Part of being a top level AFL player is to play with challenges such as soreness or slight injury. There are a couple of players not selected in our best 22 specifically because of this.
 
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Dylan12

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I'll preface this by saying that I do not follow any form of basketball at all, but being a sports lover, I generally have some idea about what is going in major sports across the world and who the key players are.

Anyway, I stumbled across this before and I thought, I wish this NBA player's attitude on life in a hub was similarly reflected by the many AFL players that have issues with hubs or expressing how hard they're doing it, particularly when hundreds of thousands of people have lost jobs, living in terrible living arrangements and the list goes on:

 

Ralphy2017

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I really hope this allows Skinner to break into the side. I already think he's a better Forward than Hipwood and I cant believe he hasn't been given a chance. What more can he do? He literally ignited the pre-season and was the best performing forward before the season even begun.
You would hope he gets a chance, with contract ending this year. I know it is a simple argument but McStay has scored a total of 2 games in the past four games. Yes he leads up and provides a link and contest and gets the ball to the ground for our small forwards, but as a KPF, brief would be to score goals, and that includes from set shots. Give Sam a few games.
Also appears to me that Lester is keeping Payne out and it is not as if Lester is performing exceptionally well, IMO his last three games has been ordinary. Because Payne is not taking the second tall, Gardner is taking the tall and he has given away a few frees taking the taller/bigger forward, 5 against the Crows and 3 against Geelong.
Lester out Payne in. McStay out Skinner in. Birchall to be managed in the next few weeks and Answerth in.
 

Ralphy2017

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I can assure you that it's very "possible to imagine" that players & coach's will want to go through this block of games with minimal changes. If we continue on our winning way & all players come up for each game day ready to go, there will be no changes. The younger players on our list should handle the 4 day breaks pretty easily and our list is full of younger players.
There is no player on our list who would want to be rested and give up his spot in the 22 to another player and risk not getting back in...why would anyone think they would absolutely stuns me. They will ALL be very eager to not miss any of these games 100%.
It will be an interesting 3 week block thats for sure.
I agree totally, that our younger players in the best 22, should deal with the shorter turnarounds, current shorter Q's and modified training assist.
All of the current best 22 will nominate to play as many games as possible, because there is the possibility that they could lose their spot. Martin, Lester or McStay are not going to put their hand up for a rest. Perhaps any changes will come down to player management, so older players Zorks, Martin, Birchall are 'managed' during the upcoming 4 or 5 games. I do see changes to the emergency list over the next few weeks, as having the same emergencies denies them the chance to play scratch matches against the other teams.
I hope for our Melbourne friends that the 'festival of footy' provides some enjoyment in what is a tough situation.
 

briztoon

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I'll preface this by saying that I do not follow any form of basketball at all, but being a sports lover, I generally have some idea about what is going in major sports across the world and who the key players are.

Anyway, I stumbled across this before and I thought, I wish this NBA player's attitude on life in a hub was similarly reflected by the many AFL players that have issues with hubs or expressing how hard they're doing it, particularly when hundreds of thousands of people have lost jobs, living in terrible living arrangements and the list goes on:


The NBA bubble is a bit complicated. There are a lot of players who chose not to go.

I haven’t been across the nba for a couple of seasons now, but my understanding is teams out of finals contention didn’t go, and that some individuals on attending teams opted out.
 

Dylan12

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I hope for our Melbourne friends that the 'festival of footy' provides some enjoyment in what is a tough situation.
Personally, I think the 'festival of footy' is overkill and again shows the AFL is pandering to the AFLPA for this need "to get games away". Sounds like there is no care for the quality of the game, provided there is quantity. But that's right, because the Big Bash does it (which I've not watched one single game), the AFL should do it as if there is some massive success to the secret of a glut of the same product, day after day after day.

Quite a few people I've spoken to have no desire to watch every game(s), every day for 20 days straight. I know I don't. A lot of people don't and many don't watch every game of every round, even if they're able to so now being afforded the opportunity to watch St Kilda play Sydney, North Melb v Melb etc on some random night throughout this 'festival' is certainly not going to provide enjoyment because we're stuck at home.

These condensed rounds are just stupid IMO and will only detract from what should be some good games of footy, but when your team is backing with 4 games in less than 2 weeks, don't tell me that is supposed to enjoyable or those games will be high quality spectacles particularly those 3 games across 8 days.
 

Dylan12

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The NBA bubble is a bit complicated. There are a lot of players who chose not to go.

I haven’t been across the nba for a couple of seasons now, but my understanding is teams out of finals contention didn’t go, and that some individuals on attending teams opted out.
The point is, players and those with partners are staying in luxury 5 star accommodation resorts in warmer climates away from Melbourne that is now locked down (i.e. no one is supposed to be going out anywhere to visit family / friends), freezing and you now have to wear face mask just to walk out the front door. As the bloke said, this isn't Syria and not that hard, so reading between the lines, suck it up princess and quit your whinging; no offence to any princesses.
 
I know it is a simple argument but McStay has scored a total of 2 games in the past four games. Yes he leads up and provides a link and contest and gets the ball to the ground for our small forwards, but as a KPF, brief would be to score goals, and that includes from set shots.
You need to read this article to get a better understanding of what is expected of our forwards.



"We will never as a footy club, forward line or coaching group judge players on touches or goals. It's something that we don't talk about and we steer away from, but we love the fact we have eight or nine goalkickers every week," Adcock said.

"We don't rely on Charlie [Cameron], we don't rely on the talls, we don't rely on Cam. It's really important part to our game that you want to have different avenues to goal, and in the last couple of years we've been able to do that."
 

jackess

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You need to read this article to get a better understanding of what is expected of our forwards.



"We will never as a footy club, forward line or coaching group judge players on touches or goals. It's something that we don't talk about and we steer away from, but we love the fact we have eight or nine goalkickers every week," Adcock said.

"We don't rely on Charlie [Cameron], we don't rely on the talls, we don't rely on Cam. It's really important part to our game that you want to have different avenues to goal, and in the last couple of years we've been able to do that."

Sounds like they get each player to judge each situation to determine which set of actions from them will give the team the best chance of scoring.

Sounds pretty good to me.
 

Ralphy2017

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You need to read this article to get a better understanding of what is expected of our forwards.



"We will never as a footy club, forward line or coaching group judge players on touches or goals. It's something that we don't talk about and we steer away from, but we love the fact we have eight or nine goalkickers every week," Adcock said.

"We don't rely on Charlie [Cameron], we don't rely on the talls, we don't rely on Cam. It's really important part to our game that you want to have different avenues to goal, and in the last couple of years we've been able to do that."
interesting statement saying we don't rely on one of the most dangerous small forwards in the AFL. Not that there are many around but I guess the statement also rules out recruiting a powerful or dynamic KPF for next year. I am not the only one concerned about lack of goals from our two key forwards, current commentators Lyons and Brownie have made mention of this. However the team is winning, but I think a couple of spots could be improved upon.
 

Ralphy2017

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Personally, I think the 'festival of footy' is overkill and again shows the AFL is pandering to the AFLPA for this need "to get games away". Sounds like there is no care for the quality of the game, provided there is quantity. But that's right, because the Big Bash does it (which I've not watched one single game), the AFL should do it as if there is some massive success to the secret of a glut of the same product, day after day after day.

Quite a few people I've spoken to have no desire to watch every game(s), every day for 20 days straight. I know I don't. A lot of people don't and many don't watch every game of every round, even if they're able to so now being afforded the opportunity to watch St Kilda play Sydney, North Melb v Melb etc on some random night throughout this 'festival' is certainly not going to provide enjoyment because we're stuck at home.

These condensed rounds are just stupid IMO and will only detract from what should be some good games of footy, but when your team is backing with 4 games in less than 2 weeks, don't tell me that is supposed to enjoyable or those games will be high quality spectacles particularly those 3 games across 8 days.
I think you underestimate the ability of fit young professionals to backup, NRL players have been doing it for years with the State of Origin. Which is a brutal game and high intensity, and for decades players have backed up a few days after origin to play for their club.

If you feel the quality of the AFL games are going to be diminished that's your opinion and the beauty of sites such as this is that all can provide an opinion. I respect your's but don't agree with it. I am looking forward to possibly seeing some young guys perform, the next star might be discovered if given an opportunity.

Given what the players are going through and how much the AFL is spending on hotel accommodation for teams and now more family members, I think the AFL was keen to negotiate with the AFLPA re the draw. AFL also mentioned that the shorter quarters were to account for the likelihood the draw would be compressed when suspending the season back in March, and this has now occurred so no real surprise.

Players could have decided not to play this year and still receive 30% of their contract for the last 5 months but decided to leave their families for extended periods for 50% of their contract, because they want to do their job, and also understand that there are many people employed directly and indirectly because of the AFL competition that would not be employed if the season did not resume after the suspension in March.

I don't watch every game of AFL either, because of the nice weather in Brisbane (not today), i rarely watch any afternoon games unless the Lions are playing. However there might be people currently in lockdown in Melbourne who might be happy to watch the 'festival of AFL'
 

royboys4eva

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I would rest half or 3/4 the team for the Richmond game. Keep guys like Harris Andrews - Rich- Neale - McStay - gives you a spine at least. Bring in guys like Mathieson - Skinner - CEY - Robertson - Christensen - Answerth - Ely Smith - Coleman - Cox - Allison - Archie Smith - Payne.

We won't win and no one will expect us too, but give ourselves every chance to win the other 3 games. And for Richmond game tell them to rip in and cause carnage.
 
Oct 13, 2015
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Personally, I think the 'festival of footy' is overkill and again shows the AFL is pandering to the AFLPA for this need "to get games away". Sounds like there is no care for the quality of the game, provided there is quantity. But that's right, because the Big Bash does it (which I've not watched one single game), the AFL should do it as if there is some massive success to the secret of a glut of the same product, day after day after day.

Quite a few people I've spoken to have no desire to watch every game(s), every day for 20 days straight. I know I don't. A lot of people don't and many don't watch every game of every round, even if they're able to so now being afforded the opportunity to watch St Kilda play Sydney, North Melb v Melb etc on some random night throughout this 'festival' is certainly not going to provide enjoyment because we're stuck at home.

These condensed rounds are just stupid IMO and will only detract from what should be some good games of footy, but when your team is backing with 4 games in less than 2 weeks, don't tell me that is supposed to enjoyable or those games will be high quality spectacles particularly those 3 games across 8 days.

I'm reasonably sure that the AFL is not pandering as much to the AFPLA as it is to the reality that if they don't get the season done, they lose a lot of money. They had to negotiate with the AFLPA to get the restriction on 1 4 day break per team lifted from the CBA.

I think being concerned about overkill is very reasonable. Having said that, given that I am locked up atm I'm not complaining about the option of watching footy every night even if its two random teams. Like the Big Bash though I'm pretty sure I'll get over it once this season has gone as I did after the initial FTA on CHannel 10.
 
Jan 9, 2019
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interesting statement saying we don't rely on one of the most dangerous small forwards in the AFL. Not that there are many around but I guess the statement also rules out recruiting a powerful or dynamic KPF for next year. I am not the only one concerned about lack of goals from our two key forwards, current commentators Lyons and Brownie have made mention of this. However the team is winning, but I think a couple of spots could be improved upon.
Well Ralphy2017.... It's probably safe to say that the forward line coach along with Fagan probably know a little more about the game & how we best play it to win match's and hopefully a grand final. In my opinion Gary Lyons is a self loving piece of crap however Brownie...well.....I am sure he understands what the game plan is but he's in the entertainment industry isn't he. ;)
Like I have consistently said all season, our keys continue to tick the boxes for the roles they are given each week despite several BF posters like yourself saying otherwise. At the end of the day, I think we are in safe hands and if there were opportunities to improve on by replacing our key forwards, Fagan would/will make it. For now its not gonna happen. Go Lions.:brisbane:
 

Dylan12

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FYI to those attending the Lions v Bombers game next Friday:

Essendon vs Brisbane on Friday, July 31 was previously scheduled for 7:50pm EST, it will now start at 8:10pm EST to accommodate for the Carlton vs Hawthorn lead in as a double-header.



Wish they'd have made the changes that Ironmonger suggested a day or two ago.
 
FYI to those attending the Lions v Bombers game next Friday:





Wish they'd have made the changes that Ironmonger suggested a day or two ago.


It's not a good sign that the AFL is doing this after release.

Maybe there'll be more changes.
 

X AE A12

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Well Ralphy2017.... It's probably safe to say that the forward line coach along with Fagan probably know a little more about the game & how we best play it to win match's and hopefully a grand final. In my opinion Gary Lyons is a self loving piece of crap however Brownie...well.....I am sure he understands what the game plan is but he's in the entertainment industry isn't he. ;)
Like I have consistently said all season, our keys continue to tick the boxes for the roles they are given each week despite several BF posters like yourself saying otherwise. At the end of the day, I think we are in safe hands and if there were opportunities to improve on by replacing our key forwards, Fagan would/will make it. For now its not gonna happen. Go Lions.:brisbane:
Let's win a final first before we chirp too loudly
 
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