Bigman’s Training Reports

[FullyBigKPro]

My concern/focus much on the personnel now (as we actually now have depth and some talent, on paper anyway)

My main focus from here will be squarely on Nicks and the coaching group.

A sh** sideways, slow, tentative, bruise free gameplan along with playing people out of position and giving gold passes out to cooked senior blokes will keep us locked into the bottom 4 next year regardless of who we put on the park.

 

[pjcrows]

Its now in a position whereby Pedlar doesnt NEED to be an A grade mid and we'll be a good side.

I think we'll be competitive across a season. To win a premiership you need to be a Top 4 side for a few cracks at it, and to do that you need to hit on your midfield first rounders.

 

[Sizzlepack]

Apologies for the public tag bigman but I sent you a DM that I'm hoping you can take a look at!

 

[Crow_Magnon]

With this years additions of express pace trio of Draper, Cumming and Peatling, joining Rankine and above average speed Max, Hinge, Worrell and Jones (if he plays), I just wonder if we now have one of the fastest teams in the league?

Reckon the Hawks have us covered there. They way they destroyed us, Collingwood and Carlton was evidence of that. Just hope with these additions we can match it better with them in 2025.

 

[Crow till I die]

Its now in a position whereby Pedlar doesnt NEED to be an A grade mid and we'll be a good side.

A fully fit and in form Pedlar cpuld be a 30/70 player. Spend 30% of his time in the midfield and the other 70 up forward. His burst speed and power around the ball in spurts would be a good weapon

 

[WeeBlake]

A fully fit and in form Pedlar cpuld be a 30/70 player. Spend 30% of his time in the midfield and the other 70 up forward. His burst speed and power around the ball in spurts would be a good weapon

burst and aggressiveness could be a weapon in centre clearances

 

[TryAnHit]

Who amongst the backline log jam has potential to move position somewhere? I.e. Hinge as a midfield pinch hitter or Dowling on a half forward flank? Etc...

Thoughts anyone?

I think Hinge could move up to atleast a wing. Hes the only one

 

[TryAnHit]

My worry this year is if we mess around with Dawson position. He was at FF some. HBF some. Needs to be at every CBA and every stoppage. He is out best player. Great disposal and can win his own ball.

Will be interested if bigman can see if they keeping him as a pure mid during sims or playing mix and match with him.

Need to be running a tight midfield of Dawson / Crouch / Soligo and Rankine.

Rankine benefits huge with having Crouch / Dawson so feed him the ball

 

[Floating Doughnut]

My worry this year is if we mess around with Dawson position. He was at FF some. HBF some. Needs to be at every CBA and every stoppage. He is out best player. Great disposal and can win his own ball.

Will be interested if bigman can see if they keeping him as a pure mid during sims or playing mix and match with him.

Need to be running a tight midfield of Dawson / Crouch / Soligo and Rankine.

Rankine benefits huge with having Crouch / Dawson so feed him the ball

Pulled this from a pre season interview that I posted 24/2 when Laird was discussing Dawson being tagged the year before on radio and how they were going to combat it.
It played out exactly as he said. Seems a good tactic when the heat is on him.

“Laird said in a recent podcast that the last 8 or 9 games Dawson was tagged quite a few times including by Swallow and Mills, Dawson being strong in both positions was able to drag tags back or forward, he expects Daws to get more of the same this year.

 

[Shifty Crow]

My worry this year is if we mess around with Dawson position. He was at FF some. HBF some. Needs to be at every CBA and every stoppage. He is out best player. Great disposal and can win his own ball.

Will be interested if bigman can see if they keeping him as a pure mid during sims or playing mix and match with him.

Need to be running a tight midfield of Dawson / Crouch / Soligo and Rankine.

Rankine benefits huge with having Crouch / Dawson so feed him the ball

Premiership threat teams run deep midfields, not tight midfields of 4-5 players

We are not as reliant on Crouch as you are suggesting - Peatling is a strong clearance player and can play multiple roles

I would like to think by end of year Crouch will be fighting for his spot and our transition to a preferred midfield core of Soligo, Dawson. Rankine, Curtin and Draper is well in place - this core is supported by Dowling, Taylor and Berry

What will be Crouch’s undoing - he can’t play any other role - all other players mentioned can play another role which gives the team greater flexibility


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[Cromulant]

My worry this year is if we mess around with Dawson position. He was at FF some. HBF some. Needs to be at every CBA and every stoppage.

No he doesn't

The best thing about Dawson is he can play anywhere. We brought in a CB player with speed in Peatling, it reduces the need for Dawson to play every CB

 

[Big Dub]

Premiership threat teams run deep midfields, not tight midfields of 4-5 players

We are not as reliant on Crouch as you are suggesting - Peatling is a strong clearance player and can play multiple roles

I would like to think by end of year Crouch will be fighting for his spot and our transition to a preferred midfield core of Soligo, Dawson. Rankine, Curtin and Draper is well in place - this core is supported by Dowling, Taylor and Berry

What will be Crouch’s undoing - he can’t play any other role - all other players mentioned can play another role which gives the team greater flexibility


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I would have thought that you were correct, but I just checked the last 3 premiership teams.

Brisbane and Collingwood ran 3 core midfielders (>50% cbas) with 2 in support (<50% cbas). Geelong the year before ran 4 midfielders with just over 50% cbas and Blicavs playing mid/ 2nd ruck.

But they did each blood other midfielders during the year and I agree that we will have other options than Crouch by end of year.

 

[Mostyn]

My worry this year is if we mess around with Dawson position. He was at FF some. HBF some. Needs to be at every CBA and every stoppage. He is out best player. Great disposal and can win his own ball.

Will be interested if bigman can see if they keeping him as a pure mid during sims or playing mix and match with him.

Need to be running a tight midfield of Dawson / Crouch / Soligo and Rankine.

Rankine benefits huge with having Crouch / Dawson so feed him the ball

No, disagree.

Dawson's versatility is an asset - and it allows us to roll other players through the midfield to give us different looks.

He can step in to help in a lot of different ways.

 

[MRB37]

What needs to happen for Rachele is the changes we made to his game in 2024 to become his natural instinct, and for everything to get a touch quicker, which will happen with practice (and will likely be second nature come this year). Not go back to what was occurring seeing the main switch to his game is a serious step in the right direction.

One thing we've likely been working on with Josh and where this opinion has come from is that Josh has seen a dramatic downswing in the number of shots he's taking from >40 m. 2022 he took 17, 2023 it jumped to 26, which dropped to 15 in 2024. The thing is, Josh sucks from >40 m, going at <40% goal accuracy (lowering to < 30% >50 m), and a lot of the shots in this region are corridor. Inversely, between 15-30 m, Josh shot count rose from 27 to 33 and his goal accuracy rose from 40-55% to 66% in both sectors (source: https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_xscores.html?id=140b1db).

What you're seeing is not a kid getting overcoached, it's a kid developing a proper judgement what shots to go for with his skill set. We came nowhere near to "Jonesing" Rash, and that the vast majority of comments around him are just bed wetting.


(Also one thing our coaches have been good at is developing shot selection, seeing we were the 6th most accurate side in the last four years).

One thing i'd heard Burns had pushed was for players to pass off more than just take shots because you're in range to kick it.

My immediate guess would be the statistics guys put out the probability of players goaling from certain angles/distances vs the retention rate of an I50 entry and worked out popping it to the square you score more goals than guys taking a shot from 50 m out by the boundary for example.

Obviously there's exceptions to the rules like a Fogarty or Tex who you tell take your shots when you get them, or even Rankine on the tighter angles, but I'm sure it'd be heavily data driven type move.

 

[Coopers]

One thing i'd heard Burns had pushed was for players to pass off more than just take shots because you're in range to kick it.

My immediate guess would be the statistics guys put out the probability of players goaling from certain angles/distances vs the retention rate of an I50 entry and worked out popping it to the square you score more goals than guys taking a shot from 50 m out by the boundary for example.

Obviously there's exceptions to the rules like a Fogarty or Tex who you tell take your shots when you get them, or even Rankine on the tighter angles, but I'm sure it'd be heavily data driven type move.

I like to think that it would be heavily data driven and not just Burns doing stuff the way he likes things.

That reeks of something a competent organization would do.

 

[Shifty Crow]

One thing i'd heard Burns had pushed was for players to pass off more than just take shots because you're in range to kick it.

My immediate guess would be the statistics guys put out the probability of players goaling from certain angles/distances vs the retention rate of an I50 entry and worked out popping it to the square you score more goals than guys taking a shot from 50 m out by the boundary for example.

Obviously there's exceptions to the rules like a Fogarty or Tex who you tell take your shots when you get them, or even Rankine on the tighter angles, but I'm sure it'd be heavily data driven type move.

I posted earlier in the year that Burns doesn’t have a strong connection worth the playing group

There’s no relationship rifts - he’s just not as connected to the group as he should be


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[Cromulant]

I posted earlier in the year that Burns doesn’t have a strong connection worth the playing group

There’s no relationship rifts - he’s just not as connected to the group as he should be


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

It does look like that.

He's purely there as a coach and nothing more. There's so much more to being a coach at any level these days

 

[Carmo]

What needs to happen for Rachele is the changes we made to his game in 2024 to become his natural instinct, and for everything to get a touch quicker, which will happen with practice (and will likely be second nature come this year). Not go back to what was occurring seeing the main switch to his game is a serious step in the right direction.

One thing we've likely been working on with Josh and where this opinion has come from is that Josh has seen a dramatic downswing in the number of shots he's taking from >40 m. 2022 he took 17, 2023 it jumped to 26, which dropped to 15 in 2024. The thing is, Josh sucks from >40 m, going at <40% goal accuracy (lowering to < 30% >50 m), and a lot of the shots in this region are corridor. Inversely, between 15-30 m, Josh shot count rose from 27 to 33 and his goal accuracy rose from 40-55% to 66% in both sectors (source: https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_xscores.html?id=140b1db).

What you're seeing is not a kid getting overcoached, it's a kid developing a proper judgement what shots to go for with his skill set. We came nowhere near to "Jonesing" Rash, and that the vast majority of comments around him are just bed wetting.


(Also one thing our coaches have been good at is developing shot selection, seeing we were the 6th most accurate side in the last four years).

Rachele would bang through goals from 40m+ at training no worries.

One factor that reduces this is heavy legs that are fatigued from running.

The fitter Rachele gets (and it sounds like he's taken a step up from last year) the better he'll be at those long ones.

Mental is also a lot of his goal kicking issues. He'll get past it. Got all the technique no worries.

 

[whattagun07]

I posted earlier in the year that Burns doesn’t have a strong connection worth the playing group

There’s no relationship rifts - he’s just not as connected to the group as he should be


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Burns seems ok as an assistant.

Would have been good to get Montgomery

A Montgomery Burns combination would have been 'excellent' *



*i dont necessarily think this, I just wanted to use the gag

 

[FullyBigKPro]

Have seen little to virtually no commentary or reports on Michelanney

Really hope this is his year to explode and hopefully turn into our next Dawson.

 

[DaKids]

Have seen little to virtually no commentary or reports on Michelanney

Really hope this is his year to explode and hopefully turn into our next Dawson.

Ah he’s a ripper young Maxy. I reckon the next time you’ll hear about him is when he’s playing his 200th game ha ha

 

[Ciao Giacomo]

My worry this year is if we mess around with Dawson position. He was at FF some. HBF some. Needs to be at every CBA and every stoppage. He is out best player. Great disposal and can win his own ball.

Dawson is our best inside midfielder.
Dawson is our best outside mid/wingman.
Dawson is our best rebounding half back flanker.
Dawson is our best high half forward.

I think we should play him where we have the least depth. We have plenty of high quality half back flankers and high half forwards but our wingmen? I would play him as a combination of inside and outside mid.

 

[conVINCEd]

Thanks for sharing. Clearly our most talented elite player and a Norm Smith type player. He and TT (and friends) to lead us to glory in many big games in the future.

Rankine and Thilthorpe played one full game together in 2024 and we smacked a finals-bound Dogs outfit.

Were also leading Port in the half those two played together before Izak was knocked out.

 

[conVINCEd]

Have seen little to virtually no commentary or reports on Michelanney

Really hope this is his year to explode and hopefully turn into our next Dawson.

I like Bond in the team because it releases Max to be more attacking.

It might end up our best mix using Max as a stopper but I can’t help but feel it limits our full potential if he’s knackered when he gets the ball because he’s been chasing a Charlie Cameron around.

 

[moogerfooger]

Burns seems ok as an assistant.

Would have been good to get Montgomery

A Montgomery Burns combination would have been 'excellent' *



*i dont necessarily think this, I just wanted to use the gag

Particularly in combination with Smithers.

*I don't think this either but the low hanging fruit was too good to resist.