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Stuart Graham - Head of High Performance

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It’s a watch for sure.

Mind you, four of our games have been done by half time - pies, tigers, hawks, swans. Can see how we would drop away in these ones. The failure to lift against the Dons was terrible and may cost us.

However, it’s a young group. Shorter pre season too. Generally our older players have been the ones to stand up later in games.

Injury list is short. Returns have been quick. Guys like Sinn seem to be getting a good run at it.

I suspect that performances will be up and down across the AFL until the mid season bye.
 

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It’s fair to question our fitness. The stats on last quarters is bad reading.

There’s been excuses for a number of these fade outs. Collingwood were match hardened from opening round. After that we’ve played a few sides who had bigger breaks than us: Richmond +2 days; Hawthorn +8; Sydney +2- we won those games on the back of good starts but lost the last quarter.

For 50 years SANFL finals had teams coming off byes in the finals. Those teams usually started slow and finished fast. It’s natural that the more rested team finishes stronger.

So let’s wait a few weeks before sacking fitness staff- but it is a watch.
 
Maybe a changed game style has something to do with it. Champion Data's Daniel Honey last Tuesday after we beat the Hawks.




I was interested today to hear Josh Jenkins talk about Geelong wanting to play on Amber (not too fast, not too slow) so they can go fast when they need to and recover when they need to.
 
It is a bit of a follow on from Daniel Hoyne there.

At the start of the year, we changed the gameplan to have more handpassing. It didn't work.

In the last two games, and especially the game against the Sydney Swans, we looked very comfortable using the wings and playing a bit slower. A bit more conservative. However, what I liked about it was that it meant the slingshot from defence was not going to happen and we limited bad turnovers in the middle. The other thing that I really liked about it is that when there was an opportunity to go through the corridor we did and did it well. The gameplan for mine seems quite balanced. It will need a Charlie Dixon contested marker for it to be even more successful. Unfortunately, our ruck Sweet can't take a contested mark at all. That's a major downfall of his style of ruck. The Ollie Lord role needs to be more mobile to get a contested mark up the ground. He can't do that as well. They even started trying to find the Hornet for a contested mark. Now Blakey did get off the chain in the second quarter but someone, Powell-Pepper?,, quelled him later. Considering he ran off us in the prelim to the tune of a few goals, it was not the best starting matchup.

I mean, we've actually got quite a few Joe the Goose goals recently.
 
2025, Games 1 to 6

2nd Halves

COL, 15/12.3:75
POR, 8/2.6:18

POR, 11/8.3:51
RIC, 14/6.8:44

ESS, 15/6.9:45
POR, 10/4.6:30

POR, 10/5.5:35
STK, 9/4.5:29

POR, 12/6.6:42
HAW, 16/11.5:71

SYD, 18/8.10:58
POR, 9/6.3:39
__

4th Quarters

COL, 6/5.1:31
POR, 5/1.4:10

POR, 3/2.1:13

RIC, 7/3.4:22

ESS, 8/4.4:28
POR, 5/1.4:10

POR, 4/2.2:14

STK, 5/2.3:15

POR, 7/4.3:27
HAW, 9/7.2:44

SYD, 13/5.8:38
POR, 3/3.0:18
 

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Get Burgess back
Get David Rath first to teach our blokes how to kick properly and hit targets, and Ben Perkins to teach them how to convert straight forward set shots.

Usual Hinkley driven shit of dominating the game statistically and in particular the last quarter and failing to take advantage of having so much control of the footy. Its not a fitness issue - its a headcase game plan issue.

Farken Aliir and Ratugolea playing 20m off Thilthorpe and Walker, looking for easy seagull intercepts for 2.75 quarters , has nothing top do with fitness.
 
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Who is this guy's direct superior? I'm guessing it's probably Teflon Davies? By what metrics is he considered a success? Or is it just like every other position at Port where success is if one of the syndy dogs gets a place at Dapto?
 
Our fitness dept has been like a Pez dispenser over the past decade; the top one pops out and the next one takes their place.

We need new blood.
 
Get David Rath first to teach our blokes how to kick properly and hit targets, and Ben Perkins to teach them how to convert straight forward set shots.

Usual Hinkley driven shit of dominating the game statistically and in particular the last quarter and failing to take advantage of having so much control of the footy. Its not a fitness issue - its a headcase game plan issue.

Farken Aliir and Ratugolea playing 20m off Thilthorpe and Walker, looking for easy seagull intercepts for 2.75 quarters , has nothing top do with fitness.
Has Ben Perkins retired, REH? If he hasn’t, or even if he has and wants to unretire, he would be my first phone call the moment Ken finally leaves because, man, goal kicking is our biggest problem atm.
 

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Stuart Graham - Head of High Performance

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