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- Aug 4, 2015
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- AFL Club
- Port Adelaide
I find myself looking at Carlton, Melbourne etc and thinking we don’t have players. I don’t think it’s only the coach - apart from Ollie & maybe SPP where are our big bodied midfielders? Without Charlie we end up with 3 forwards who are pushed off the ball all night. Without Alir we cant find an intercepting defender. Sadly, we don’t have the depth/talent and next week when we get thrashed by the cows they’ll be completely mentally shot.How is it that middle of the road Melbourne based clubs can suddenly find all the right answers? Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and even though it is early days it looks like Hawthorn and Carlton have suddenly moved from 'also rans' to contenders in 2022. in the case of Hawthorn and Carlton a new coach appears to be part of the deal. Maybe there is a message there for Mr Sunrise, David Koch?
These days I find myself sitting watching Melbourne, Hawthorn and Carlton play and think to myself why can't Port play like that? These teams actually focus on moving the ball downfield to a leading player rather than playing a possession based game handballing around in circles and kicking across ground. Of course it gets back to Hinkley's outdated game plan. Hinkley's game plan is similar to the one used by Mick Malthouse when he coached Collingwood to it's last premiership in 2010. Hinkley picked it up when he started coaching and the plan has not changed save for an enlightened season in 2014.
It is hard to fathom what happened in 2015 and how we reverted from the fast direct style of 2014 to our current convoluted game plan but I think Sleezy may be on the money as 2015 coincides with the time Phil Walsh left and Hinkley was on his own.