Not too long. A good read.True, and I'm certainly no expert...
I've watched the Collingwood game, and I just think they were off... some of that was down to us, but some of it was just seemed like they were underdone. Their pressure was off, their connections were off, even their hand passing and kicking was off. We played well, but nothing like the way we're playing now... our pressure was up and down.
I've also watched the Suns game, and they were making the exuberant youth mistakes that we were a year or two ago. The longer the game went, the better we got (which seems to be a theme at this point) but again, our pressure was up and down. There was no Rampe in this game, and Blakey really stood up... so did Roberts, and it was McCartin's first game back and he was solid as a rock!
That's not to put us down, I think we have got better as the season progressed and I absolutely love watching us play.
Re-watching these early games has shown me how much they are training and developing McDonald and Amartey (and McLean to a lesser extent) during games, alternating their roles, having them play high on the F50, then back in the square; one marking, the other covering/blocking for them. Same with Wicks and Hayward... and Papley has certainly been banged up for a considerable part of the season. The backs have played without Rampe, without McCartin, with Francis and Campbell playing roles as required, with Lloyd, Fox and McInerney playing roles down back as and when required, with only Melican playing the same role week in and week out. Obviouly, the same can be said of our mids... The commentators talk about tweaking the team to ensure that we are unpredictable in the back half of the season, but it seems to me, they obviously haven't really been watching, as it appears we've been doing that the whole season. Even Grundy plays two roles at all times, ruck and mid...
It seems astounding to me that we are playing so well, and yet every game is a training and development session. My respect for the coaching group and the players has ratcheted up another few notches, and I feel fairly certain that regardless of injury, our style (game plan) will hold up.
caesar88, I get that its a personal preference, but the Collingwood game is a hard for me to get excited about. If we beat them up in round 22, then I'll be ecstatic, but the round 1 game, I just though they looked off. The Carlton game, I'm on board with as our best game of the season, although they had injuries during the game and played it out short manned. I loved the way we continued to put the foot on the gas all the way to the end (which has been a solid feature of our game this year!).
This is our run home, with the bolded being those currently in the 8; and those in red being the teams that are likely to test us, and if they play well enough on the day, stand a chance of beating us. Mind you, I'm not expecting to lose any of these games... I just think these teams could on their day, with Freemantle and Brisbane having the game plans most likely to upset ours. caesar88, what do you think?
Adelaide, GWS, Freemantle, St Kilda, North, Brisbane, Bulldogs, Port, Collingwood, Essendon, Adelaide.
EDIT: Bloody hell, I didn't this post was so long... sorry all... I was just kind of thinking and typing...
Terrific observation about changes within the games. I love how all three of our talls can feed a runner into an open goal with ridiculous accuracy. I don't know any other team with that skill level.
Of the games to go IF we bring our best or close only Pies or Brisbane are a serious threat. Key injuries or drinking our bathwater could change that in an instant of course.
I think those two games will tell us where we are at.
