Coach John Longmire - Part IV

[hairy biker]

We've been poor in recent times rebounding from our defensive 50 and I thought that is what drove the move of Logan back and Campbell also playing back.

Logan is more mobile than Hamling and Francis and could take a medium or a tall, thereby freeing up Blakey who had more license to run off and Campbell could also use his kicking to advantage on the rebound.
Worth noting that Logan and Blakey lead our marks with 7 apiece.
It just seemed we wanted to be more flexible down back, so for example Florent moved further up the ground and it enabled greater options, in an attacking sense down back.

It also allowed a different dimension up fwd, with 2 talls plus Parker and Hayward who both impacted the scoreboard.
I would have preferred for Parker to rotate more mid/fwd with Heeney and Warner although at least when the moves were made in the last qtr they were effective.

And also happy for Logan to go fwd last qtr to chase the win and terrific kick from him to nail a goal in that qtr.

We were coming off a shocking loss, so rather that status quo, Longmire identified potential solutions and although we fell over the line I thought there was a greater freedom and Horse was prepared to move the magnets prior to and during the game and deserves recognition for that.

 

[Ballarat Bob]

Logan being played back is an old move of Horses he used to do with Reid. Reid used to struggle down back unless he was the extra body that could take intercept marks. Horse has even thrown Logan in the ruck a few times. I hope that Horse is not trying to turn him into a swingman / utility.
Logan has to stay as a forward who can roam out of the fifty and use his mobility. I don't see any reason to play him as a defender when we had a fit Hamling or Francis in the reserves.
Horse is probably a bit set in his ways and his persistence with Mills over the last few games I didn't think was in the best interests of the team or Mills.
The dramatic drop off in form over the past six weeks or so can be down to injuries and maybe player fatigue as well but the coaching and man management has to come into consideration.
Last night was a great fifteen minutes of football in the last quarter. It may be papering over the cracks for a week or hopefully it will kick us back into top form.
On the fence with Horse at the moment his inability to turn the tide when other teams have got a jump on us (excluding last night) and poor starts is happening far too often.

 

[Dubai Quacker]

He is an outstanding individual with a great temperament. Outstanding leader.

I agree with the first sentence.

The second? Not 100% sure. He hasn’t really demonstrated an ability to get a team “up” for a GF.

The remainder of this season will drive a significant part of Horse’s legacy.