Unofficial Preview The Offseason

[kangaspurs]

And so ends a season that was once so full of promise.

I thought it would be a decent idea to have a thread to discuss all matters over the off season, including ideas on how we should change the list in terms of delistments, or what you want to see next pre-season, etc.

If the mods believe the Draft and the Trade/Free Agency threads are enough then so be it. But I thought they were a little too specific in their intended content.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Skills practice.

A metric * load of it.

 

[Shermanator]

It's gonna be long...

 

[Roosurgence]

Atley needs to be moved out of defence or traded.

That whole backline needs a rebuild.

Confident the forward line will be ok.

Midfield needs a big revamp. Someone needs to go and if I had my way it would be Swallow. Ziebell needs to play more time forward.

 

[The Nostradamus]

Trade Hansen, Gibson, Black
Retire Waite, Nahas and Ray

Let Wells go

Re-sign Majak to a 3 year deal

 

[trooroo4life]

It's gonna be long...

And very, very important.

Make or Break, cant afford to **** it up.

Make the big calls for once, review everything from the top down make sure we have the right people in the right places to make the right calls otherwise this one offseason could set us up for years of hurt.

 

[Only Forwards]

Coaching refresh, in terms of strategy and selection process.

F*** Utah off for next year, make them face actual adversity together as a team. Need to redefine themselves.

Trade but only for blokes who will play 100+ games.

Need pace.

And a lock down defender.

 

[osaka mick]

Atley needs to be moved out of defence or traded.

That whole backline needs a rebuild.

Confident the forward line will be ok.

Midfield needs a big revamp. Someone needs to go and if I had my way it would be Swallow. Ziebell needs to play more time forward.

Im okay with the thought of moving Atley on, BUT, did he do worse than Mullet. I thought Atley was beaten by Eddie, but he beats everyone. Atley at least gave us some run out of the back half, and I think he is far better than Mullet. I would easily move Mullet on before Atley....

 

[tazaa]

we need to practice hitting targets under pressure
I want campaigners lined up off the wing
Hit off the ball
Smashed to the ground
Repeatedly
If they can't hit the target they don't play seniors
Enough is enough

Also it is an indictment on the club that AFL players cannot execute precision handballs and set up hospital hand passes to unaware teammates
Our footy nous is ****ed
We are ****ed

 

[goalieboy82]

for the offseason:

 

[Gasometer]

Need to return to more rock papers scissors in pre season.

Nekminit Premiers 2017

 

[Gasometer]

Srs..how do you replicate game pressure at training.?

Our lack of composure is dreadful

 

[see see]

Ditch Utah. Send them to Portsea with a house brick in each hand and make them run the dunes. Use to money saved to hire an elite skills coach.

 

[Flawed Genius]

Ditch Utah. Send them to Portsea with a house brick in each hand and make them run the dunes. Use to money saved to hire an elite skills coach.

Portsea's too upmarket. They can run the dunes at Blairgowrie for half the price.

 

[Only Forwards]

Ditch Utah. Send them to Portsea with a house brick in each hand and make them run the dunes. Use to money saved to hire an elite skills coach.

They seriously need to do something different, arduous and different.

 

[Gasometer]

Ditch Utah. Send them to Portsea with a house brick in each hand and make them run the dunes. Use to money saved to hire an elite skills coach.

Mt Buffalo

 

[see see]

Portsea's too upmarket. They can run the dunes at Blairgowrie for half the price.

I was thinking that they could stay in Franga and ride down to Portsea each day.

 

[kangatragic]

It's clear we need to get fitter. We have a number of players who can't play out 4 quarters. The drop in rotations has hurt the likes of Cunnington, Zeibell, Wells and others.

We are not going to be able to hit targets when our players are to tired to present. And we aren't going to have any outside run either.

 

[Mixed Results]

While we have been harsh on Brad, he has shown the ability to adapt over an off season when his game plan is clearly past it. This needs to be one of those off seasons.

When you look at our team, it's built around being an attacking team, with it being clear that more emphasis has been put on that side of the game. Yet since round 9 our offense has been limp and our defence has not lifted to cover it. Over the next few seasons this won't change, as losing Wells, Petrie, Waite, Harvey and Dal Santo, some of our best attacking players, is obviously going to hurt. Yet how much it hurts will depend on how we want to play as a football team.

Firstly, our defensive pressure is completely embarrassing for a top 8 side. There is absolutely no comparison between the pressure in the first three finals and the mess that we served up. Now, why is that? In my opinion it mainly comes down to two things. The first is that in Harvey, Dal Santo, Gibson, Higgins and to an extent Wells and Cunnington, we are playing too many players through the middle whose offensive side of their game clearly outweighs their defensive contribution. This is exacerbated by how few players we actually have running through the middle, as once you account for the players mentioned before, we really only have Swallow and Ziebell giving consistent pressure through the middle. Now Dumont should be on that list, yet his influence is limited by the amount of time that he has to spend playing that half forward/mid hybrid role.

Now losing Harvey and Dal Santo should help, with their replacements in Jacobs and Dumont having good defensive sides to their game, but we still need to completely rework Gibson's role, who I believe could be a good pressure player if given the chance, and then address the other huge problem that we have: we don't have enough players rotating through the middle.

I can kind of see Scott's reasoning for taking so long to adapt to the trend that's going to dominate modern football, as our strength as a football side is our ability to win at the contest, so sacrificing that skill, our only skill at this stage, to cover other areas is a risky move that probably should be left to the off season. Yet the time is now and there will be no excuse if we come out in 2017 with the same stale game plan. When you ask so little to do so much, especially when that core isn't the fittest bunch that we have, it leads to obvious problems with defensive running. Cunnington especially is incredibly lazy off the ball, but can you really blame him?

While the club won't do it, anyone that isn't holding down a key spot (excluding medium sized forwards/backs such as Wright and Thomas) should be capable of running through the middle. If they aren't capable then we should slowly start phasing them out of the side. Also, in my opinion, another two mids should be added to our side at the expense of a key forward and a key back, which looking at what we've got should be Mountford, who has the ability to be the best defensive mid that we have, and a mid from another club with an adequate defensive game e.g Steele, Crisp, Hartlett and Koby Stevens.

The offensive side of our game does need work, which is where the cries for pace and skill come into play, but we can be a very good defensive team next year if we change up our game plan. If we do, we could easily play finals, if we don't, we'll struggle to be competitive.

 

[giantroo]

NORTH MELBOURNE
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-09-11/todo-list-west-coast-and-north-melbourne

Make this Majak's team

The Kangaroos tied with Fremantle for the most fascinating team during the season and they'll remain a "must-watch" throughout the next few months as well.

With four starting members of the best 22 – Michael Firrito, Drew Petrie, Nick Dal Santo and AFL games record holder Brent Harvey – shunted off into retirement, North is entering a new era. The spin will be one of recalibration, but rebuild is the more operative word.

The last two might play on elsewhere and 'Boomer' Harvey's next move will bear plenty of watching, but if the focus for North next year should be Majak Daw.

With Petrie gone and coach Brad Scott seemingly casting doubt on Jarrad Waite's playing future as well, North has 12 months to see whether Daw is a long-term prospect as a key forward.

Daw played well on Saturday night with four goals. He was the only North forward who posed any sort of threat, but he has still played just 25 games in four years, including nine this year.

The 25-year-old appeared to be the fourth in line on the key forward depth chart behind Petrie, Waite and Ben Brown. But as the club finally turns its focus to youth, (a long overdue development in the minds of some), the forward line can be built around Daw, Ben Brown and Mason Wood, who was emerging rapidly before his late-season knee injury.

How they structure up the forward line is among a raft of on and off-field questions for the Kangaroos, who will enter 2017 with a new president (Ben Buckley), head of football (Cameron Joyce) and lots of fresh faces on the ground.

 

[ArjenTheGreat]

And so ends a season that was once so full of promise.

I thought it would be a decent idea to have a thread to discuss all matters over the off season, including ideas on how we should change the list in terms of delistments, or what you want to see next pre-season, etc.

If the mods believe the Draft and the Trade/Free Agency threads are enough then so be it. But I thought they were a little too specific in their intended content.

What off season mate?

90,000 heaving spuz fans at Wembley on Wednesday will be quite possibly the most epic night ever!!!

 

[Dirty_11]

Atley forward to play a role similar to Gary Rohan. Would be uncatchable on the break and has the potential to apply insane forward pressure. No brainer really and beyond me why it hasn't been looked at yet.