Level-Headed Discussion Round 6

[itsrobbiet]

A better one.

Yeah but what type of better one?

 

[Good_Old]

Mention gameplan in this thread and you may be asked to outline your own gameplan for the team.
Any takers?

So does that mean people who have never written a book cannot critique one? Or a movie? How about the styling of a new car...

 

[robertg22]

A few positives for mine:

- Cox & Smith in their second AFL matches showing glimpses/contributing meaningfully
- Crisp's 3rd term - got us back into the game. Was our best player
- Treloar's hard running
- Sinclair's courage - him going off was a real downer, was playing well

The decision to kick against the wind was a very poor one, we really needed to start well and that clearly didn't happen. West Coast really picked away at the zone at times.
Losing Sinclair and Langdon late really killed us, as did Smith's slip & WC's subsequent goal. From there it was pure junk time and the end score didn't reflect the contest IMO.

 

[Good_Old]

Yeah but what type of better one?

One that see's us winning more games.

 

[Pera]

We look so f****ng good everytime we move the footy quickly. And its usually right through the middle of the ground when it pays off handsomely.

Everytime we take a mark in our back half and slow it down, we eventually end up blazing it down the line for a turnover or kick the f***er sideways 30 metres for no bloody result.

Watch the third quarter on replay and you'll know what i mean.

 

[PieBeast]

Yeah but what type of better one?

The winning one.

Pay me a mil a year and I'll go into details.

 

[jathanas]

We need to play a 4 quarter game.

Cox is a keeper, and the during the 3rd quarter we saw some signs that the team can deliver good footy.

That final quarter was demoralising. Not all our defenders are good decision makers. The zone itself is not the problem, more the way it is applied during the game.

 

[PieBeast]

We look so f****ng good everytime we move the footy quickly. And its usually right through the middle of the ground when it pays off handsomely.

Everytime we take a mark in our back half and slow it down, we eventually end up blazing it down the line for a turnover or kick the f***er sideways 30 metres for no bloody result.

Watch the third quarter on replay and you'll know what i mean.

That 5 minute patch just before half time is probably a better example of it.

We had the momentum and were a goal or two away from getting right back in the contest yet refused to play with any sense of flair.
Either due to fear of burning the pill or due to coach's instruction.

 

[MightyPies2010]

Can someone tell me why, after clawing our way back into to the game in the 3rd, Pendles starts the last qtr on the bench?

Serious question. Game on the line, why wouldn't you plonk him in the centre at the start of the last qtr?

 

[Pera]

That 5 minute patch just before half time is probably a better example of it.

We had the momentum and were a goal or two away from getting right back in the contest yet refused to play with any sense of flair.
Either due to fear of burning the pill or due to coach's instruction.

Yep spot on. They do all the hard work to get back into the contest then shudder back into that preservation shell.

They need to take the game on right from the get go and it needs to be pumped into them by the match comittee. Playing this structural shit on the attack just isnt working with the personell we possess.

 

[PieBeast]

Any of you fellas can tell me what moves our coach made in order of changing the game?

Sidey to half back so he can lose a tag when we were 10 goals down doesn't count.

 

[PhiloBeddoe]

So does that mean people who have never written a book cannot critique one? Or a movie? How about the styling of a new car...

If you're critical of a book, movie or new car, you have identified aspects that dont meet your expectations. You'd also be thinking of how it could have been different.
So what would you like to be different about the gameplan?

 

[Leviathan Pie]

Thought the only real positive was Mason showing another level of improvement, he just needs to learn to attack the ball with two hands in a pack-marking situation.

 

[robertg22]

Any of you fellas can tell me what moves our coach made in order of changing the game?

Sidey to half back so he can lose a tag when we were 10 goals down doesn't count.

IIRC Oxley dropped further back to help us get it out of defense. Langdon seemed to push further up onto a wing. Cox spent more time in the ruck than he did earlier on. Crisp also seemed to be playing more outside but hard to say whether that was a coaching move or not.
I could be making all of this up though - lol. Just from what I recall.

 

[Jekyll and Hyde]

Just a thought.
To keep both sides of the Buckley debate happy....
If he fails this year we don't have to sack him! He can coach the women's team next year.
He likes a zone rather than man on man defence and in woman's footy...well there's no man on man.

 

[Babylove]

Overall an improved performance. Quarter 1 was abysmal, but quarters 2 & 3 were about the level we would expect. Looked like injuries and a six day break gave the eagles the running in the last. If we had've been better in the first quarter we might have run the eagles for a close finish, but unfortunately not to be.

It was good to see Crisp run into some form. Unfortunately Langdon didn't look good, have they given any report as to the severity? It looked like worst case scenario was on the table when he did it. Also concerning that Sinclair has copped another concussion only two weeks after his last one. Would pretty much rule him out for next week.

We all knew that this match was one we would struggle to win even if we were in good form, given how well the Eagles play the ground and to be honest if we had've gotten the Saints and Melbourne games as expected we would all say oh well and move on. Unfortunately we didn't and now sit 2-4 making the Carlton and Brisbane matches must win matches against opposition who have looked competitive despite being young and weakened teams.

 

[Good_Old]

If you're critical of a book, movie or new car, you have identified aspects that dont meet your expectations. You'd also be thinking of how it could have been different.
So what would you like to be different about the gameplan?

We get outscored by the opposing team too often. I would like it if that didn't happen as much a s it does.

 

[PieBeast]

IIRC Oxley dropped further back to help us get it out of defense. Langdon seemed to push further up onto a wing. Cox spent more time in the ruck than he did earlier on. Crisp also seemed to be playing more outside but hard to say whether that was a coaching move or not.
I could be making all of this up though - lol. Just from what I recall.

Won't accuse you of making it up, just of clutching at straws

Even if these moves did happen they were very marginal and certainly not the ones that can be considered game changing.

 

[itsrobbiet]

The winning one.

Pay me a mil a year and I'll go into details.

So no one can say how we should play? It's just easy to say we don't have a game plan when we lose. Or we got out coached.

 

[robertg22]

Won't accuse you of making it up, just of clutching at straws

Even if these moves did happen they were very marginal and certainly not the ones that can be considered game changing.

Yeah it was nothing drastic. I think (and I will agree with the coach here) it just goes to show that our nominal structure CAN see us playing good footy. But the best between our best and our worst, within games, is destroying us.

 

[PhiloBeddoe]

We get outscored by the opposing team too often. I would like it if that didn't happen as much a s it does.

So how do you change that with a game plan?

 

[Good_Old]

So how do you change that with a game plan?

By making teams not out score us.

 

[PhiloBeddoe]

By making teams not out score us.

This isn't going to go anywhere is it?

 

[Captain Embubry]

When we were cut up in the 1st and 4th quarters we lacked the urgency to get on our bike and move, on both defence an offence. I have no issue with us playing the zone but we have to commit to it and Bucks needs to make sure the players are 100% all over it. We know zoning works, and works well in the current style of AFL but it requires the team to work hard to get to the spots they need to, run both ways, and commit to either impacting the contest or covering off defensively. We have really slow players when setting up the zone that just roll along with it and find themselves flat footed and in no mans land way too often. We look like we don't know how to play the zone at all.

We looked amazing in the 2nd and 3rd quarters because we ran, we played on, took the game on, worked hard into space to create options, and applied pressure to their ball carriers. Its fine to kick backwards and set up a switch but we hardly ever seem to get guys out in space doing that. As soon as West Coast switch they have blokes sprinting to space to be able to work the ball forwards. Our switches are just moving the ball to the other side of the ground and stopping or slowing down so we are in the exact same position but on the opposite side of the field.

Thats my rant over. Positives I thought were:
- The fight back. Showed we can put it together and match it with the better teams, we just need to for 4 quarters.
- Big Cox. Showed good aggression, competed in the air all day.
- Smith. Second game in and he racks up 29 touches. A bit shaky with his skills at times but I think that will clean up when he gets more comfortable playing at this level.
- Treloar. Tough and classy. Love him. Most disposals on the ground for both teams, and most tackles on the ground for both teams.
- Pressure in the 2nd and 3rd was how it should be for 4 quarters week in and week out. Thats the pressure we were applying when we were at our best last season, it disappeared some time late last season and hasn't come back. We clearly still have it in us, it needs to become something we live and breathe by again.

 

[Markfs]

Finally someone who went to the game and saw it just as it happened.......ME!

I'm back. I had the leave the game early because my heart started bleeding and I needed to vacate the area...

So why did we lose? We're crap....

end of report