Analysis What's Actually wrong?

[malpaso]

Agree in part to what you are saying, however Geelong finished 10th, only 1 game out of the 8… They still played respectable football and won a pile of games, almost making the finals….We are so much further away from the ‘Geelong fall’. I wish that was as bad as our season got, winning 11 games. Also remember we almost had a full squad against Gold Coast, Bulldogs and Wet Taost….and got smashed to bits…

I hate to say it but I believe we've tanked and injuries made it palpable (Fyfe/Sandi/Johnson). We started poorly and then it was 'Ok, what can we get out of this season?' Answer: Good draft pick and increased playing time for the youngsters.
It's going to be an exciting off-season that's for sure.

 

[Big Animal]

Agree in part to what you are saying, however Geelong finished 10th, only 1 game out of the 8… They still played respectable football and won a pile of games, almost making the finals….We are so much further away from the ‘Geelong fall’. I wish that was as bad as our season got, winning 11 games. Also remember we almost had a full squad against Gold Coast, Bulldogs and Wet Taost….and got smashed to bits…

sure. But I wonder how Geelong would have gone last year if they also lost Harry Taylor, Enright, and Selwood to injury for basically the whole season?

 

[Fred Ziffel]

I hate to say it but I believe we've tanked and injuries made it palpable (Fyfe/Sandi/Johnson). We started poorly and then it was 'Ok, what can we get out of this season?' Answer: Good draft pick and increased playing time for the youngsters.
It's going to be an exciting off-season that's for sure.

Convenient answer.

 

[Fred Ziffel]

Has to be game plan. Yesterday we had Mundy, Hill, Neale at center bounces who are no crabs but we were absolutely spanked out of the guts. Even when Clarke accidentally tapped to advantage a few times it just didn't look organised in there.

Sydney in comparison streamed out of the middle running forward in packs and moved the ball with great skills.

We suck.

And yet Ross was asked in the post match " Ross, did you miss Blakely's work in the middle today " ?
Ross Answer. " No I wouldn't have thought so "

 

[Fred Ziffel]

was thinking this today at the game, how it was good to see Yarran because he just looks like a footballer, the way he took a good strong contested mark and then just eased it through from 45m out. And I laughed because I realised I'm used to the likes of Mayne or Taberner who either can't take a contested mark or make the distance from 45m. Supposedly professional footballers who aren't really footballers.

Even his mark on the northern wing and when all other players were just kicking it long down the line he weighted it perfectly to drop into a hole for Mayne to mark on his chest. He would get out on leads and we would kick it to his opponent. Yarran would fit perfectly into a Hawthorn game plan but we have only a few with skills and decision making like his. Pity he is 27 not 22.

That was a beautiful kick. Everything that is wrong with our side summed up right here; Yarran at 27 in his 2nd AFL game makes most of our players look unimaginative and unskilled. No wonder half our team is exhausted the amount of energy it must have taken to get to a grand final playing brute force weight of numbers football.

He will probably be dropped for Apeness next week while Mayne will stay in doing whatever he does.
Also very good on his left . One beautiful left foot stab pass yesterday that I saw just reeked of class.
Great mark, great skills, excellent kick, fantastic speed and knows how to kick goals . It is depressing when I see him running around on the fullback line.

 

[Rion]

Don't underestimate the impact of injuries. If you look at the current best teams (Hawthorn, Geelong, Adelaide etc) they've got hardly any quality out on the sidelines. Reckon we just reached critical mass early on and decided to can the season.

In saying that we definetly need to work hard this pre-season to solidify some sort of a gameplan.

 

[BStaff17]

One query i do have is why did mundy spend the whole gold coast game in defence as a Key defender defending on sam day who kicked 4 yet in other games in the past month or so he has been in the middle for the majority like yesterday he spent the whole game in the middle.

Why was he in the defensive line in a winnable game and only spent 1 centre bounce in the middle at the start of the 4th qtr in the GC game. Surely mundy could have gone into the middle when the game was on the line. Unless ross wanted to see who stood up in crunch moments.

 

[XXRL]

Yes, injuries played a part. You can't take Fyfe, Sandilands and Johnson out of any team (along with the retirement of McPharlin) without it having a big impact.

I think the simple answer is the best however. We're ****ing shit. No ifs, no buts, we're shit. We were shit in Rd 1 and we're shit now.

No gameplan, no skills, no effort. How can Sydney and Hawthorn manage to bring in kids and still be up the pointy end, while we fall to the bottom four and look like we thoroughly deserve to be there?

I said to a Carlton fan after they beat us over here - "both teams were terrible in terms of skills, but at least your lot had structure and a gameplan". I think this point is even more evident now after yesterday's debacle.

I was a little optimistic after the Q&A with Lachie's manager (great thread!) but that optimism is waning quickly. Maybe this would've been better in the melt thread, but whatever.

So what's actually wrong? We're shit - no skills, no structure, no gameplan.

 

[Admiral Byng]

IMHO - structure around half-forward. We don't have one. We don't have a half-foward line. With Ross taking a man or two to play the extra body in defense or midfield (his high half-forward concept) it means that player comes out of the forward structure.


Looking at teams that score well, their midfields control the ball for that one extra possession, they bring the ball up to about 60m out before they look for the inside 50 with a short or medium kick, always to a moving target.
We get to about 80m out and look for the inside 50 from there, usually a long kick not to the advantage of a target, because we try to by-pass half-forward. We need to have short HF options presenting to control the ball going inside 50 better, and a structure between the mids and the hight forwards to clear space so everyone knows who is going to run where. Player with the ball in that situation needs to be coached to look for and kick low to the shorter options and not bomb it long to the cold spot 15-25m out. Then the next kick can be low and precise too.

 

[Lach72]

I'd personally like our games over the next four weeks to be 100% banzai attack.
Play on, with a deep 6 man forward structure.
We need to get some enjoyment back.
Back the mids to win some ball and give them a moving feast to hit

 

[darkshines]

I'd personally like our games over the next four weeks to be 100% banzai attack.
Play on, with a deep 6 man forward structure.
We need to get some enjoyment back.
Back the mids to win some ball and give them a moving feast to hit

Exactly. What is to lose, in his own words we are hanging out for preseason to start.

 

[E Shed]

I'd personally like our games over the next four weeks to be 100% banzai attack.
Play on, with a deep 6 man forward structure.
We need to get some enjoyment back.
Back the mids to win some ball and give them a moving feast to hit

Yeah cause that will happen while Ross is coaching us. Not.

 

[ydraw]

I'm probably alone in this but I think Clarke lone rucking is much better than Griffin. The problem is that we have expected him to have a presence up forward as well.

Not alone there, Clarke has always been better than Griffin.

 

[chinggis77]

A lot of the reasons for our demise have been explained by the players, coach or are pretty obvious for those who haven't been paying attention, so I will list them here with some links/references. A lot of other reasons stem from this, apart from some obvious ones like injuries and father time.

New coaches, Lyon delegates, new game plan, pre-season, players struggle to adapt, loss of confidence by players, loss of confidence by coach in game plan or aspects of game plan introduced by new coaches

We clearly realised that the Hawks had our measure and sought to address it by bringing in intel from the Hawks. Enter Hale and Guerra. Lyon clearly listened to these guys and we tried to change to a new game plan over the summer, taking aspects of the Hawks game plan and trying to be more attacking.

The turnovers and poor kicking are something that is HIGHLY affected by game plans. Look at how Simpsons Eagles were turnover merchants as they learned his game plan (his Hawks inspired game plan!!), they were crap for over a year. Guys like Ibbo, Johnson etc were turnover merchants before Lyon arrived, then his game plan took the guesswork out and they always knew where they had to put the ball, no hesitation = better looking skills.

Here is what our own coach (and Fyfe) had to say about it:

Lyon on our preseason and changes in tactics:

Lyon: We thought we needed some invigoration and we did target David Hale in particular and then Brent Guerra came across to add to our ball use. We wanted to change our pre-season and, in hindsight, we lost some high-density running that we think has affected us. Learning that new ball use which has a premium on kicking – our ability to teach it hasn’t been as sharp as we wanted it to be and for the first time in my tenure as a coach, players at times have had some confusion under pressure and there’s even been some debate behind closed doors. Not in a nasty sense, but we’ve had to work our way through that. Thinking about it today, it’s really firmed my belief in what players need under pressure; they need to be on the one page, really flint-hard and really working together. If you have to second-guess or you have to think about an AFL field, it’s too late and the teams that don’t think about it get away from you. I think that’s what’s happened to us a little bit and I think our players and coaches would acknowledge that as well.

Healy: Does it refocus your demands of your recruiting staff to pinpoint guys who can kick, though, if that’s where the game has gone?

Lyon: I think we’re quite skilful in a real sense. I don’t think we’re the most skilful list in the competition but it’s about principles that allow them to know where the options are and what they need to do under pressure. If you have to think about it, it doesn’t matter how skilful you are - it’s too late.

http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2016-07-05/ross-lyon-q-a-on-the-couch

Speaking to Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday, Lyon admitted to analyst David King that he oversaw mistakes made during pre-season.
“I felt like I’ve delegated to the right people,” Lyon said. “(But) at the end of the day, you’ve got to have quality control, clearly there were a couple of issues that I probably should have addressed. “I think centre square bounces, I let a method happen that didn’t work for us. We were top four last year for both areas of attack and defence, so did that need to be changed? There were a couple of things we probably didn’t need to change that I let change because we were in the mindset for change.

“When the game was up for grabs, our centre square bounce work in the first 10 minutes was deplorable,” he said. “We’ve identified it. We’ve had some changes through there in personnel and coaches. I’ve matured and I’ve evolved, but I’ll give solutions and work with them. We clearly need to grow some coaches and our system in there.” Marc Webb and Simon Eastaugh were both appointed as the club’s midfield coaches to end 2015, having previously held different roles within the team before that.

“We’ve got plenty of work to do,” he said. “Clearly we’ve shifted the way we’re playing a bit and with that comes a premium on kicking skills. There were some terrible turnovers.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/how...e/news-story/99d6ea31ab89acd37d45edaa84fcde41

Fyfe

Fyfe told the AFL.com.au site on Sunday, "Fremantle's confidence had been shaken" by the players' inability to adapt to Lyon's new game plan.
"It's clearly not good enough," he said. "There has been some change and some shift.

"Our old structure worked quite well for a number of years and we are trying some new things to try and give us an edge, to take us to a higher level. "Clearly they're not working at this point. But it's our job to keep the faith in them and keep working hard and hopefully the results will align with the mentality."

"Players don't lose any ability overnight. But they lose their confidence in their ability and that was clearly a sign tonight and last week as well."

http://www.watoday.com.au/afl/frema...gling-with-new-game-plan-20160403-gnx7mz.html

Fyfe again:

“I think with the interchange rotations and players spending more time on the ground and players spending more time resting, the game has changed.
“A lot of teams have adapted really well to that and our attacking model is certainly trending that way, but we’re leaking heavily in our defence and that’s a full 18-man issue, but we’ll continue tightening up on that.
“I actually think that the game is definitely not easier, but the running is different to what it was in the previous years where your midfielders particularly came on and off the ground like ice hockey players.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/31388109/freo-paying-for-new-game-plan-fyfe/#page1

Lyon said the unprecedented fall from minor premiers to cellar dwellers could in part be attributed to a change in his club’s training approach over the pre-season, which had an increased focus on disposal over running.

“We’ve identified a few things we changed over summer in the pursuit of getting better,” Lyon told 6PR. “One of them was we didn’t do any high-speed running outside of our football. We think that’s probably cost us a little bit. “We could go into the specific numbers and all that, but needless to say, we think the density of work was a bit thinner than we would have liked in hindsight.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...k=f79613722ea34c66dcfdb61a5f28548a-1470079703
​

My opinion: after our horror start, due in large part to the changed game plan and loss of confidence did Ross not stick fat and tinker significantly with the game plan mid season?

This is probably the most controversial aspect of what Ross has done. It appears he has not stuck with the game plan. Every team that has had to dramatically change their game plan, takes almost a whole season to do it. Saints in Ross' first year. Dockers in Ross' first year. Eagles in Simpsons first year etc...

However it appears that Ross grew fed up early on at the fact that our team struggled with the changes, regretted delegating to coaches and started tinkering with the game plan early in the season, rather than sticking fat. I would think this only increases confusion within the playing group and potentially destroys any longer term benefits that the new game plan was designed to address (more attacking footy).

Father time catches up with several players on our list

Pretty obvious one.

Firstly the retirements with Mcpharlap being the big one. Then father time clearly catches up with Pav, Johnno (injured) and to an extent Mundy (output start to decline). Griffin could be here also.

Decline of the "role" players that needed a strong "system and game plan" to prosper

I am looking at you Ibbo, Clancee Pearce, Sutcliffe, Spurr, Mzungu, Dawson, De Boer and Co. Ibbo was made to be almost All Australian through finding a role in Ross' game plan (a largely unaccountable one at that as a loose man most of the time). Take that away and he returns to the bumbling, turnover merchant he was pre Ross.

Decline of players that were sidelined by the "new high skill game plan"

Barlow clearly. De Boer also. Both were demoted out of central (Barlow) or role player roles (De Boer). With Barlow only making it back once he learned a new role (tagger).

Injuries

Pretty obvious one again. Fyfe, Sandi, Bennell, Johnson, A Pearce.

Injuries, loss of form, fathertime = increased opposition focus on our remaining key players

Hill and Walters fall into this category. They have still played well, to very well at times, but have also focused from a much bigger opposition focus on stopping them due to our lack of other stars to shut them down.

Some of our next tier may not be capable of stepping up

We always thought our depth and "next tier" was pretty strong last few years, as such players plied away in the WAFL. Crozier, Sheridan etc. Viv Michie was in this group until he left.

Sheridan has been disappointing this year. Crozier though appears to have stepped up a bit, and may end up a Duffield type serviceable type.

Zac Clarke had a huge opportunity with Sandi out and should be in his prime, his fall has been astounding. Often a whipping boy for struggling as a forward, he was always a ruckman and previously had brilliant games as a sole ruckman when Sandi was out, but appears either lame or totally devoid of confidence.

Summary

So thats my wrap. Partly coaching mistakes regarding the game plan/misreading of fitness levels required under the interchange cap, partly loss of confidence by players and by the head coach in the new game plan, father-time, injuries and the knock on effects of all of that - role players out of position/no longer relevant, players out of position due to new focus on skills, players handling tags due to injuries to other stars, some players not stepping up.

Can we fix it?

Ross seems pretty confidence with a new pre-season, that he is going to fix the mistakes of last season and take control this next pre-season after delegating a lot to line coaches last year. With a stronger game plan, more confidence in the new game plan by players, that can make a huge difference. Whether the new game plan will be good enough to eventually take us the "next step" is debateable though, it may instead be that Ross returns to what he knows.

Injuries will heal. Mistakes last pre-season in the lack of high intensity running, which are thought to have contributed to our injuries won't be replicated.

With a better game plan, bit players will become very good players (e.g. Crozier, Collins, etc), players skills will look fantastic again knowing where they need to move the ball, players who struggled under tags this year will be released due to the return of Fyfe, Bennell and Co.

Players who are past it will be moved on and replaced. We may welcome Mccarthy, Hill another gun youngster at Pick 3 and a kid called Harley Balic who many thought was a first round pick if it were not for his wrist (from his draft profile: Balic is similar to Jack Macrae in the sense that he finds the ball and shows excellent vision and poise. He’s a very creative passer around the forward 50 and he’s also unselfish. Balic has shown to pick out leading forwards, both in and out of traffic).

Tabs and kids like Weller, Blakey, Langdon (if still here), A Pearce, Yarran, Tucker, Apeness will benefit from another pre-season, time in the gym and come back bigger, better and stronger.

This year sucks. But I am looking forward to next year already.

 

[blue shark]

All sounds wonderful, and Ross will go back to doing what he knows best, problem is our besr wasnt good enough, and it wont get any easier with sides,
coaches emulating hawks gameplan.
Then there is GWS, a soulless juggernaut created for continued success whatever the cost, and endless amount of talent, and the AFL ensuring they change
the rules to play attacking football.
The game is always evolving, it all depends where you are on the curve, Swans are the perfect example of where we need to be.

 

[nurries]

The warning bells rang for me with the below :
“One of them was we didn’t do any high-speed running outside of our football. We think that’s probably cost us a little bit. “We could go into the specific numbers and all that, but needless to say, we think the density of work was a bit thinner than we would have liked in hindsight.

We can see now that we are being out run by pretty much every team apart from a few. I know fewer rotations affect this but with capped rotations, you would think that the running program, in any form, would of been stepped up not decreased.

 

[Bicco]

Yeah cause that will happen while Ross is coaching us. Not.

This plays into one of the other great mysteries. 'What happened between R1-R10 last year? We played some of the most dominant, beautiful attacking football I have ever seen. Our game plan and style was the envy of every supporter. We played football everybody wanted to watch. Was it only Fyfe? Was he the main reason?
I remember in many contests, one player would lay a tackle while the other mids looked to cut off the opposition options, rinse and repeat until they lost possession and we would run forward/spread. A few quick handballs at pace to give some time and then a well directed kick to a leading forward.
We were awesome. What happened?

 

[rgauci]

This plays into one of the other great mysteries. 'What happened between R1-R10 last year? We played some of the most dominant, beautiful attacking football I have ever seen. Our game plan and style was the envy of every supporter. We played football everybody wanted to watch. Was it only Fyfe? Was he the main reason?
I remember in many contests, one player would lay a tackle while the other mids looked to cut off the opposition options, rinse and repeat until they lost possession and we would run forward/spread. A few quick handballs at pace to give some time and then a well directed kick to a leading forward.
We were awesome. What happened?

This is 100% accurate. Our backline was rebounding at will. McPharlin and Johnson were in ripping form. We didn't get a spilled mark in our defensive 50, we got intercept marks and were dominating key forwards. Pavlich also wound back the clock and was destroying key backs. We had Fyfe putting together the most dominant half of a season in history.

Johnson got injured, McPharlin and Pavlich both got slower as the season wore on. Fyfe was injured and we returned to being a top 4-8 side beating the also rans by small margins but not putting together top 2 footy.

As good as Collins and Alex Pearce have been this year. They aren't McPharlin and Johnson level strut. Both those guys would shimmy around or simply sprint past a key forward and start the rebound.

 

[Ragtooth]

A lot of the reasons for our demise have been explained by the players, coach or are pretty obvious for those who haven't been paying attention, so I will list them here with some links/references. A lot of other reasons stem from this, apart from some obvious ones like injuries and father time.

New coaches, Lyon delegates, new game plan, pre-season, players struggle to adapt, loss of confidence by players, loss of confidence by coach in game plan or aspects of game plan introduced by new coaches

We clearly realised that the Hawks had our measure and sought to address it by bringing in intel from the Hawks. Enter Hale and Guerra. Lyon clearly listened to these guys and we tried to change to a new game plan over the summer, taking aspects of the Hawks game plan and trying to be more attacking.

The turnovers and poor kicking are something that is HIGHLY affected by game plans. Look at how Simpsons Eagles were turnover merchants as they learned his game plan (his Hawks inspired game plan!!), they were crap for over a year. Guys like Ibbo, Johnson etc were turnover merchants before Lyon arrived, then his game plan took the guesswork out and they always knew where they had to put the ball, no hesitation = better looking skills.

Here is what our own coach (and Fyfe) had to say about it:

Lyon on our preseason and changes in tactics:

Lyon: We thought we needed some invigoration and we did target David Hale in particular and then Brent Guerra came across to add to our ball use. We wanted to change our pre-season and, in hindsight, we lost some high-density running that we think has affected us. Learning that new ball use which has a premium on kicking – our ability to teach it hasn’t been as sharp as we wanted it to be and for the first time in my tenure as a coach, players at times have had some confusion under pressure and there’s even been some debate behind closed doors. Not in a nasty sense, but we’ve had to work our way through that. Thinking about it today, it’s really firmed my belief in what players need under pressure; they need to be on the one page, really flint-hard and really working together. If you have to second-guess or you have to think about an AFL field, it’s too late and the teams that don’t think about it get away from you. I think that’s what’s happened to us a little bit and I think our players and coaches would acknowledge that as well.

Healy: Does it refocus your demands of your recruiting staff to pinpoint guys who can kick, though, if that’s where the game has gone?

Lyon: I think we’re quite skilful in a real sense. I don’t think we’re the most skilful list in the competition but it’s about principles that allow them to know where the options are and what they need to do under pressure. If you have to think about it, it doesn’t matter how skilful you are - it’s too late.

http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2016-07-05/ross-lyon-q-a-on-the-couch

Speaking to Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday, Lyon admitted to analyst David King that he oversaw mistakes made during pre-season.
“I felt like I’ve delegated to the right people,” Lyon said. “(But) at the end of the day, you’ve got to have quality control, clearly there were a couple of issues that I probably should have addressed. “I think centre square bounces, I let a method happen that didn’t work for us. We were top four last year for both areas of attack and defence, so did that need to be changed? There were a couple of things we probably didn’t need to change that I let change because we were in the mindset for change.

“When the game was up for grabs, our centre square bounce work in the first 10 minutes was deplorable,” he said. “We’ve identified it. We’ve had some changes through there in personnel and coaches. I’ve matured and I’ve evolved, but I’ll give solutions and work with them. We clearly need to grow some coaches and our system in there.” Marc Webb and Simon Eastaugh were both appointed as the club’s midfield coaches to end 2015, having previously held different roles within the team before that.

“We’ve got plenty of work to do,” he said. “Clearly we’ve shifted the way we’re playing a bit and with that comes a premium on kicking skills. There were some terrible turnovers.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/how...e/news-story/99d6ea31ab89acd37d45edaa84fcde41

Fyfe

Fyfe told the AFL.com.au site on Sunday, "Fremantle's confidence had been shaken" by the players' inability to adapt to Lyon's new game plan.
"It's clearly not good enough," he said. "There has been some change and some shift.

"Our old structure worked quite well for a number of years and we are trying some new things to try and give us an edge, to take us to a higher level. "Clearly they're not working at this point. But it's our job to keep the faith in them and keep working hard and hopefully the results will align with the mentality."

"Players don't lose any ability overnight. But they lose their confidence in their ability and that was clearly a sign tonight and last week as well."

http://www.watoday.com.au/afl/frema...gling-with-new-game-plan-20160403-gnx7mz.html

Fyfe again:

“I think with the interchange rotations and players spending more time on the ground and players spending more time resting, the game has changed.
“A lot of teams have adapted really well to that and our attacking model is certainly trending that way, but we’re leaking heavily in our defence and that’s a full 18-man issue, but we’ll continue tightening up on that.
“I actually think that the game is definitely not easier, but the running is different to what it was in the previous years where your midfielders particularly came on and off the ground like ice hockey players.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/31388109/freo-paying-for-new-game-plan-fyfe/#page1

Lyon said the unprecedented fall from minor premiers to cellar dwellers could in part be attributed to a change in his club’s training approach over the pre-season, which had an increased focus on disposal over running.

“We’ve identified a few things we changed over summer in the pursuit of getting better,” Lyon told 6PR. “One of them was we didn’t do any high-speed running outside of our football. We think that’s probably cost us a little bit. “We could go into the specific numbers and all that, but needless to say, we think the density of work was a bit thinner than we would have liked in hindsight.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...k=f79613722ea34c66dcfdb61a5f28548a-1470079703
​

My opinion: after our horror start, due in large part to the changed game plan and loss of confidence did Ross not stick fat and tinker significantly with the game plan mid season?

This is probably the most controversial aspect of what Ross has done. It appears he has not stuck with the game plan. Every team that has had to dramatically change their game plan, takes almost a whole season to do it. Saints in Ross' first year. Dockers in Ross' first year. Eagles in Simpsons first year etc...

However it appears that Ross grew fed up early on at the fact that our team struggled with the changes, regretted delegating to coaches and started tinkering with the game plan early in the season, rather than sticking fat. I would think this only increases confusion within the playing group and potentially destroys any longer term benefits that the new game plan was designed to address (more attacking footy).

Father time catches up with several players on our list

Pretty obvious one.

Firstly the retirements with Mcpharlap being the big one. Then father time clearly catches up with Pav, Johnno (injured) and to an extent Mundy (output start to decline). Griffin could be here also.

Decline of the "role" players that needed a strong "system and game plan" to prosper

I am looking at you Ibbo, Clancee Pearce, Sutcliffe, Spurr, Mzungu, Dawson, De Boer and Co. Ibbo was made to be almost All Australian through finding a role in Ross' game plan (a largely unaccountable one at that as a loose man most of the time). Take that away and he returns to the bumbling, turnover merchant he was pre Ross.

Decline of players that were sidelined by the "new high skill game plan"

Barlow clearly. De Boer also. Both were demoted out of central (Barlow) or role player roles (De Boer). With Barlow only making it back once he learned a new role (tagger).

Injuries

Pretty obvious one again. Fyfe, Sandi, Bennell, Johnson, A Pearce.

Injuries, loss of form, fathertime = increased opposition focus on our remaining key players

Hill and Walters fall into this category. They have still played well, to very well at times, but have also focused from a much bigger opposition focus on stopping them due to our lack of other stars to shut them down.

Some of our next tier may not be capable of stepping up

We always thought our depth and "next tier" was pretty strong last few years, as such players plied away in the WAFL. Crozier, Sheridan etc. Viv Michie was in this group until he left.

Sheridan has been disappointing this year. Crozier though appears to have stepped up a bit, and may end up a Duffield type serviceable type.

Zac Clarke had a huge opportunity with Sandi out and should be in his prime, his fall has been astounding. Often a whipping boy for struggling as a forward, he was always a ruckman and previously had brilliant games as a sole ruckman when Sandi was out, but appears either lame or totally devoid of confidence.

Summary

So thats my wrap. Partly coaching mistakes regarding the game plan/misreading of fitness levels required under the interchange cap, partly loss of confidence by players and by the head coach in the new game plan, father-time, injuries and the knock on effects of all of that - role players out of position/no longer relevant, players out of position due to new focus on skills, players handling tags due to injuries to other stars, some players not stepping up.

Can we fix it?

Ross seems pretty confidence with a new pre-season, that he is going to fix the mistakes of last season and take control this next pre-season after delegating a lot to line coaches last year. With a stronger game plan, more confidence in the new game plan by players, that can make a huge difference. Whether the new game plan will be good enough to eventually take us the "next step" is debateable though, it may instead be that Ross returns to what he knows.

Injuries will heal. Mistakes last pre-season in the lack of high intensity running, which are thought to have contributed to our injuries won't be replicated.

With a better game plan, bit players will become very good players (e.g. Crozier, Collins, etc), players skills will look fantastic again knowing where they need to move the ball, players who struggled under tags this year will be released due to the return of Fyfe, Bennell and Co.

Players who are past it will be moved on and replaced. We may welcome Mccarthy, Hill another gun youngster at Pick 3 and a kid called Harley Balic who many thought was a first round pick if it were not for his wrist (from his draft profile: Balic is similar to Jack Macrae in the sense that he finds the ball and shows excellent vision and poise. He’s a very creative passer around the forward 50 and he’s also unselfish. Balic has shown to pick out leading forwards, both in and out of traffic).

Tabs and kids like Weller, Blakey, Langdon (if still here), A Pearce, Yarran, Tucker, Apeness will benefit from another pre-season, time in the gym and come back bigger, better and stronger.

This year sucks. But I am looking forward to next year already.

Nice. The one thing i liked about Ross is that he didn't seem to panic, and seemed to have a clear consistent message for most the year, hence why we saw us play in lots of 'honourable losses'. However this steely resolve has seemed to diminished over the last few weeks, making odd decisions that reek of a desperation to find something or of complacency. I hope he swings back to the right

Only time will tell if he should have 'stick the fat' or whether it was the right decision to change what wasn't initially working.

One thing is for sure, there is no silver bullet and only slow gradual improvements are realistic from here on in.

 

[salim malik]

If it goes pear shaped next year after a revised pre season, the return of the prime movers and new stock introduced it will be time for the blood letting. Until then I'll sit on my hands and wipe this season from my memory and wait with increased anticipation for pre season to start.

 

[malpaso]

Convenient answer.

For who? We are shit but I think there's more than the performance too it.. I'm not actually looking for answers because from my perspective the answer is 2017, the club knew it, knows it and the season end can't come quick enough.

 

[Fred Ziffel]

If it goes pear shaped next year after a revised pre season, the return of the prime movers and new stock introduced it will be time for the blood letting. Until then I'll sit on my hands and wipe this season from my memory and wait with increased anticipation for pre season to start.

I just hope we stop playing with one hand tied behind our back by having only five forwards.

 

[manpurple]

I would not think that Ross has given up on the season. I think that for the last few games we are going to continue to see weird things like Dawson playing forward. Because Ross is using these games for next season. How better to find out how Mundy goes as a defender that giving him a run in that role in a game that is ultimately not going to affect your finishing position. If there is no Dawson/Johnson how are the youngsters going to go as defenders can they keep their men covered do they know when to peal off without a general down back. Can Mundy translate his midfield leadership into marshaling the back 6. How does a midfield go with only two extractors as we have run in the last few weeks (Mundy and Neale this week) or do we still need a third such as a Blakely, Barlow or Suban. Can the quicker "outside" mids compensate for their loss. How much pace can you put in and sacrifice "hard ball get" players.

Answering questions like these decides if next year you can have a back six without an "experienced head". What sort of people are needed in your midfield makeup. It is when someone is missing that you discover what they contribute that is not measured by the stats people. You can add in the knowledge of who at a pinch can play unfamiliar roles, what kind of roles and if they drop their bundle because it is all changing quick and on the field. It tells you who can be delisted/traded without it blowing you out next year.

My thought for the rest of the year is ignore the scoreboard and look at what are the experiments that RTB is making. What does it tell us about players and positions for next year. IMHO there were a number of useful things learned in the last game but none of them where what people seem to be talking about.
For example; we did not learn that Dawson is not forward material what we learned is that when there is no Johnson or Dawson in the backline the structures collapse like the proverbial pack of cards. One little bit of pressure and they leak like a sieve. Those with more than 100 games of experience who were in the back 6 all game (3 I think) could not get it organised. Is that a training thing, a personnel thing or a tall thing I could not say. It's worth thinking about.

 

[dockerfemme]

I would not think that Ross has given up on the season. I think that for the last few games we are going to continue to see weird things like Dawson playing forward. Because Ross is using these games for next season. How better to find out how Mundy goes as a defender that giving him a run in that role in a game that is ultimately not going to affect your finishing position. If there is no Dawson/Johnson how are the youngsters going to go as defenders can they keep their men covered do they know when to peal off without a general down back. Can Mundy translate his midfield leadership into marshaling the back 6. How does a midfield go with only two extractors as we have run in the last few weeks (Mundy and Neale this week) or do we still need a third such as a Blakely, Barlow or Suban. Can the quicker "outside" mids compensate for their loss. How much pace can you put in and sacrifice "hard ball get" players.

Answering questions like these decides if next year you can have a back six without an "experienced head". What sort of people are needed in your midfield makeup. It is when someone is missing that you discover what they contribute that is not measured by the stats people. You can add in the knowledge of who at a pinch can play unfamiliar roles, what kind of roles and if they drop their bundle because it is all changing quick and on the field. It tells you who can be delisted/traded without it blowing you out next year.

My thought for the rest of the year is ignore the scoreboard and look at what are the experiments that RTB is making. What does it tell us about players and positions for next year. IMHO there were a number of useful things learned in the last game but none of them where what people seem to be talking about.
For example; we did not learn that Dawson is not forward material what we learned is that when there is no Johnson or Dawson in the backline the structures collapse like the proverbial pack of cards. One little bit of pressure and they leak like a sieve. Those with more than 100 games of experience who were in the back 6 all game (3 I think) could not get it organised. Is that a training thing, a personnel thing or a tall thing I could not say. It's worth thinking about.

I have said this a number of times already, but I just have to reply. I am most disappointed that any experimentation that has occurred has been player positions. Mundy back, Dawson forward etc as you have indicated. I want to see structural experimentation. Lets have some forwards in our forward half of the ground so we can bring the ball out of defence. Lets attack up the middle of the ground. Lets have a high risk high return kick in after a behind. Lets run and bounce the ball. Moving Mundy or Dawson is just deckchairs on the Titanic at the moment.

 

[Proud SJW]

Yeah cause that will happen while Ross is coaching us. Not.

I'd like to see it too, but you're probably right.
Also, when the AFL has basically come out and publically said they're watching us like hawks, we're probably better advised not to. Because they'll think we're trying to lose and punish us one way or another.

heck... now I'm the one with the crazy negative bullshit


*edit - "glory be"?????