Game Day Round 2 vs. St Kilda, MCG, 7:30pm Thurs 21/03

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Chuck and AJ probably make the most sense to be outs.

Framp has to come in for some height, field Fin, bring Reef, bring back Titch?
 
According to the boys on the Pies insta stories, the focus at training today was high energy, high intensity.

Hopefully that combined with lots of footage to be shown of Nick this week to celebrate & honour his 50th game on Thursday, this all helps motivate the boys to pull their freaking finger out & get back to their best this week 🙏
Good. Sydney smashed us at our own game of applying more pressure and dealing with more pressure than the opponent. We have to win the pressure battle and cause more turnovers and move the ball slicker than our opponent - as our tall forwards aren't good enough for a battle of grinding territory footy and our defensive set up doesn't work against quick clean entries.
 
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Frampton training down back. Looks like it will be Frampton in for Dean and Reef in for Johnson.

I wouldn’t have minded Dean keeping his spot and Frampton replacing AJ.

Still, happy to go with Reef if they saw enough in that VFL practice match.
 
I agree with you in terms of Frampton - doesn't read it as well and also tends to be a leaner rather than playing with that confidence and genuine intent at the footy to disrupt attacks with a mark or clearing spoil. But I'd prefer him over Dean - unless Dean has been doing it at training and just needs the confidence for it to click in a game - as at least Billy has the strength to lean on blokes effectively.

Personally, I'd just go with Moore, Howe and Bruzzy until Dean is ready or Murphy is back - as I think that reading the game and ball flight and playing with genuine intent at the contest trumps size in our set up.
There is that with Billy being the bigger body and more experienced. Against King that’s probably the way they go, but Moore, Howe and Bruzzy worked alright 3 matches ago with Moore on one leg. The main problem is Moore’s woefully out of form otherwise I’d lean that way myself. Frampton to me just feels to much of a stop gap between developing one of Dean or Eyre and Murphy returning…
 
Both sides remain to be seen i.e. if Ginnivan continues his good form vs Schultz playing to the standard we believed he could achieve. I'd rather have kept Ginnivan. We persevered with De Goey's poor behaviour and it paid dividends. Seems to me with Ginnivan, we celebrated his larrikin manner then turned on him because of his race track appearance. Unless of course there was substance to the end of year rumour that the club denied.

We not only got rid of a player but a personality. Struck me as the sort of decision someone like Buckley might have made. Wouldn't be so bad if Schulz proved a significantly better player, but for the moment it's not shaping up so well.
Schultz has played in two big losses. He's performed well in my books or as well as he could.

Ginni left because he made mistakes and wasn't engaging in change. He kept on pushing boundaries. De Goey did. Old De Goey wouldn't have survived under Fly. It wasn't just his race track appearance. Fly's big about standards and the race track was an issue. Fly was annoyed, too and if you cross him, you've stuffed up. We as fans only know a fraction of what the coaches do but we wanted him gone.
 

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Schultz has played in two big losses. He's performed well in my books or as well as he could.

Ginni left because he made mistakes and wasn't engaging in change. He kept on pushing boundaries. De Goey did. Old De Goey wouldn't have survived under Fly. It wasn't just his race track appearance. Fly's big about standards and the race track was an issue. Fly was annoyed, too and if you cross him, you've stuffed up. We as fans only know a fraction of what the coaches do but we wanted him gone.
For a fan, you seem to know a lot about what the coaches think, lol.
 
Was chatting to another Pies Bigfooty member yesterday, about all the changes in our coaching department this year and wondering if it was effecting our performance ?.
As you can see below, Skipworth is the only coach remaining in the same area/role . We had a Premiership winning formula, are we seeing a drop off in form as players and coaches adjust to the restructure?
Last night on footy classified they also raised the coaching restructure topic.



2023 2024
Hayden Skipworth Joint midfield coach Midfield coach
Scott Selwood Joint midfield coach Forward coach
Jordan Roughead Opposition coach Backs coach
Justin Leppitsch Forwards coach Director of strategy
and innovation
Brendon Bolton Backs coach Director of coaching
Graeme Wright Head of football Away on leave

Hopefully the lads get it sorted & pump the Saints Thursday night ! 🙂
 
Absolutely there’s a balance you’ll find though that the post I quoted was referencing a call of Steene for Mihocek (I believe Steele for Allan was also mentioned). That spark, energy and perhaps even hunger often comes at the expense of system and as we discussed yesterday we’re a system team so we will lose if we make snap decisions on bringing youth through.

I’m all for a gradual introduction of emerging talent once they’ve earned their chance and once the chances of the incumbents have been exhausted. As we stand though aside from Macrae none of the emerging talent is knocking down the door and we’re scratching for experience that needs to go out. It’s why a Reef for AJ or Frampton for Cox or Noble for WHE are possibilities that might open the door for growth, but it’s tinkering at the edges really.
The problem is our system at the moment has us getting our arse handed to us.

Sure GWS and Sydney look like top teams this year but if our system’s not going to hold up against the top teams what the point with persisting with it?

And if it’s a desire issue not a system issue I don’t see how that doesn’t get fixed unless we add some selection pressure to the team.

This isn’t me suggesting the season is over and we drop everyone over 30 and play the kids before anyone chimes in with that. I think our system needs to be tweaked with the introduction of a couple players.

The biggest issue I see is aerial power at both ends. It’s making it really hard for us to hold onto possession and move the ball forward whilst making it in really easy for the opposition to score whenever they go forward. Frampton for Dean might help plug up the defence but it’s a stop gap as you mentioned in another post whilst Reef for AJ is just one undersized key forward for another. We’ll get improved competitiveness on the ground but it’s not going to help us greatly in looking more dangerous on slow entries or help us move the ball quicker for more dangerous entries.
 
Was chatting to another Pies Bigfooty member yesterday, about all the changes in our coaching department this year and wondering if it was effecting our performance ?.
As you can see below, Skipworth is the only coach remaining in the same area/role . We had a Premiership winning formula, are we seeing a drop off in form as players and coaches adjust to the restructure?
Last night on footy classified they also raised the coaching restructure topic.



2023 2024
Hayden Skipworth Joint midfield coach Midfield coach
Scott Selwood Joint midfield coach Forward coach
Jordan Roughead Opposition coach Backs coach
Justin Leppitsch Forwards coach Director of strategy
and innovation
Brendon Bolton Backs coach Director of coaching
Graeme Wright Head of football Away on leave

Hopefully the lads get it sorted & pump the Saints Thursday night ! 🙂
We did have a premiership winning formula, but perhaps Fly, Leppa, Bolton AND Wright knew the other clubs would be spending all summer working that formula out, therefore we also needed to make changes.

Fly seems big on saying we're not standing still, we need to keep improving, changing, etc.

It may just take a little while for it to sink in & probably unfortunate we had two of the most in form sides to start with.

Hopefully a focus on intensity & pressure this week sees a turnaround.
 
Frampton training down back. Looks like it will be Frampton in for Dean and Reef in for Johnson.

Probably the right moves.

Would also need to find a way to get Mitchell in too.

I'd probably be "managing" Sidebottom to bring in Mitchell. Hosk and/or Lippa can play on the wing just fine
 
Again...like last week I can't shake this nagging feeling they're mostly (except Nick) going to sit back and wait for it to just happen.

I'm actually far more confident of beating Brisbane in Brisbane than I am beating St.Kilda.
 
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