Coach Sam Mitchell's direction for the club and 2024 news

[Strapping Young Lad]

If anyone wants to have a listen about what the data is saying in regards to whether we have actually gotten worse this year have a listen to this from the 9:15 mark.

I know a few people have already touched on it, but the data is also showing that our results this year have been slightly better despite actually putting out a younger team and dealing with some injuries.




And here.

 

[Brishawk]

Lots of talk about our speed and direct use of the ball, and rightly so. But what was just as pleasing was our defensive systems, zoning, intercepting, and general hardness and intensity in the contest. SPP came up aggressively and hit Mitchell with a big bump early, to try to set the standard against a young group. Frost got him back not long afterwards, and we kept playing the ball and focusing on moving it the way we wanted, and collective intensity in a hostile environment was 'on'. Sam said a while back that we wanted to keep our 'defensive DNA' while focusing on attack, and that stood out for mine.

Defence creates most of your offence in afl. Can’t ignore it. The pressure through the midfield has been great the first two weeks.

 

[Toasted]

Watching this game plan, you can see why Jeka was kicking bags of goals each week for Box Hill. The ball was kicked in there fast to a big leading forward.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Ned Ryerson]

With some of these media 180° turns - will be very interesting to hear what Cornes has to say for himself tonight.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[theiaofseed]

I said in April last year that the current backline will be better than our 12-16 backline and was laughed at, not backing down from this statement any time soon.

H00t Judd2Sewell Billyc

 

[KermitJagger]

I said in April last year that the current backline will be better than our 12-16 backline and was laughed at, not backing down from this statement any time soon.

H00t Judd2Sewell Billyc

I wouldn't laugh at that, I said similar a few years back that Hardwick, Sicily and Scrimshaw could be the most damaging rebounding cohort I've seen with their kicking - that was before the CJ revolution. Sicily has all the penetration and accuracy of Suckling without the frustrating wind up and semi-regular scrubber across the ground. The one thing I do think it'll be hard to top is the Lake, Gibson and Frawley combination purely from a defensive point of view.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

I wouldn't laugh at that, I said similar a few years back that Hardwick, Sicily and Scrimshaw could be the most damaging rebounding cohort I've seen with their kicking - that was before the CJ revolution. Sicily has all the penetration and accuracy of Suckling without the frustrating wind up and semi-regular scrubber across the ground. The one thing I do think it'll be hard to top is the Lake, Gibson and Frawley combination purely from a defensive point of view.

purely defensively i think people underate how good Frost is. i really think his contested work is right up there

it's just the... other stuff

 

[KermitJagger]

purely defensively i think people underate how good Frost is. i really think his contested work is right up there

it's just the... other stuff

I agree, Sicily is a brilliant 1:1 player also. If I had to pick a flaw for Frost, it isn't even necessarily his kicking which has generally been fine, it's that he invariably gives away free kicks that lead to goals.

Just that Frawley, Lake and Gibson were so good. That 2015 year we were both the best defense and the best offense in the AFL.

 

[eldorado]

I love the Frosty that wins the hard ball, sprints free 20 metres, and bangs a 60 metres bomb to a free player, or at least to a contest.

The Frosty that tries to finess a short chip pass in the defensive 50...not so much.

And agree, he is quite the contested beast.

 

[Hodginator]

Robbo just always seems to be on another planet.

 

[eldorado]

Robbo just always seems to be on another planet.

The planet "Stupider"...

 

[Blackhawk42]

Just imagining a world in 12 months time where Kennett isn't president and Sicily is captain.

Also, who knew that the answer to our midfield woes could end up being as simple as one top 10 pick, a mid-season rookie selection and an international rookie selection reborn as a 197cm rover.

 

[FactsNotBS]

I wouldn't laugh at that, I said similar a few years back that Hardwick, Sicily and Scrimshaw could be the most damaging rebounding cohort I've seen with their kicking - that was before the CJ revolution. Sicily has all the penetration and accuracy of Suckling without the frustrating wind up and semi-regular scrubber across the ground. The one thing I do think it'll be hard to top is the Lake, Gibson and Frawley combination purely from a defensive point of view.

DGB showed some good signs on the weekend. Frosty underrated and as good as Lake for mine.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Roger Rogerson]

Just imagining a world in 12 months time where Kennett isn't president and Sicily is captain.

Also, who knew that the answer to our midfield woes could end up being as simple as one top 10 pick, a mid-season rookie selection and an international rookie selection reborn as a 197cm rover.

I have said this many many times you can ALWAYS find midfielders. Talls are the ones.

 

[nelk boys]

Just imagining a world in 12 months time where Kennett isn't president and Sicily is captain.

Also, who knew that the answer to our midfield woes could end up being as simple as one top 10 pick, a mid-season rookie selection and an international rookie selection reborn as a 197cm rover.

Didn't we get absolutely smashed in the midfield? Alongside last week lol?

Still gotta draft some top 10 picks to get some absolute A graders.

Although I'll grant you I'm liking the different mix of players going through now.

 

[Blackhawk42]

DGB showed some good signs on the weekend. Frosty underrated and as good as Lake for mine.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

It's a shame nobody has mentioned the intercept mark Denver took on his chest under pressure running at full speed. Was excellent.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Robbo just always seems to be on another planet.

Is Liquor Land a planet?

 

[chopflop]

Can someone tell me if I am imagining things or not with this take -

Most of our kick ins are targetting the point of the square and not the boundary?

In previous years it would be long and boundary side but it looks like we are trying to hit the edge of the corridor?

Has anyone noticed this?

I can only speculate that the idea is to put a defensive zone under more pressure because if we win it, we can go fat side or down the line, forcing the opposition to defend almost the width of the field.

The kick not being directly down the middle somewhat mitigates the risk of the kick.

Interested if anybody else noticed that this was a change or if I just have a bad memory!

 

[Blackhawk42]

Didn't we get absolutely smashed in the midfield? Alongside last week lol?

Still gotta draft some top 10 picks to get some absolute A graders.

Although I'll grant you I'm liking the different mix of players going through now.

The clearances were misleading. Nobody watching that game without the context of a stat sheet believed we were smashed through the middle. Port had stat-padders. We had influencers.

Ward, Newcombe and Nash haven't resulted in a positive centre clearance statistic. But they've broken a formular that wasn't working by being 3 different players with different strengths and allow a better balance of defence alongside our typically plodding ball-hunters.

 

[eldorado]

Port had stat-padders. We had influencers.

Jai Newcombe, yesterday...

 

[H00t]

I said in April last year that the current backline will be better than our 12-16 backline and was laughed at, not backing down from this statement any time soon.

H00t Judd2Sewell Billyc

Our current defence is showing some good signs. Still got a fair way to go though to get to the level of our 3 peat teams defence.

It’s not a slight on our current backline. But an acknowledgment of how good our 3 peat backline was.

 

[Roddy]

Wow, a little too much hype going on for my liking. We've played two games, against last year's spooners and a good side but with plenty of their best players out. Let's revisit all this in 9-10 rounds time. If we turn at the half way point at something like 7-4, then and only then will the lid start to come off...

 

[theiaofseed]

Wow, a little too much hype going on for my liking. We've played two games, against last year's spooners and a good side but with plenty of their best players out. Let's revisit all this in 9-10 rounds time. If we turn at the half way point at something like 7-4, then and only then will the lid start to come off...

They were missing 4 players from their best 22 the over exaggeration of their outs is amusing. We had 3 our self

 

[tommyk72]

Can someone tell me if I am imagining things or not with this take -

Most of our kick ins are targetting the point of the square and not the boundary?

In previous years it would be long and boundary side but it looks like we are trying to hit the edge of the corridor?

Has anyone noticed this?

I can only speculate that the idea is to put a defensive zone under more pressure because if we win it, we can go fat side or down the line, forcing the opposition to defend almost the width of the field.

The kick not being directly down the middle somewhat mitigates the risk of the kick.

Interested if anybody else noticed that this was a change or if I just have a bad memory!

I noticed this as well. I wonder whether it is linked to confidence in our defensive structures. Sam feels happy and confident that if things to go wrong and we turn it over directly we will be able to quickly structure up to prevent it from coming back over our head too quickly. Will be interesting to see whether it is tried/works with the higher calibre teams!