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.

 

[MasterSamurai]

İ hate this hype train crap. İt's either ' you're struggling' when you lose or '. You're the bees knees' when you win! I hope Sam keeps the boys feet ' grounded' for a little while yet

 

[CHUBBSS]

İ hate this hype train crap. İt's either ' you're struggling' when you lose or '. You're the bees knees' when you win! I hope Sam keeps the boys feet ' grounded' for a little while yet

Isn’t that just the media?

Internally all the speak was we came to win and were confident in winning, and we did, that’s all that matters

 

[Xtreme]

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...

There's no reason why we can't finish on top of the ladder!!

 

[CaptainWorpedo]

I feel Sam has the boys focused on one game at a time. Tick all the right box each game and that takes care of that game and the bigger picture at the same time.

An Scrimshaw is a better overhead mark than Birchall.

 

[Slainte]

Our midfield is quite comfortably the most "senior" part of our overall side. Guys like Mitchell, JOM, Wingard (when he's fit enough to go in there) are all 28, Shiels is 30. Whilst guys like Ward and McDonald are running through there now which is wonderful to see, it's a midfield that should be peaking right now and should be absolutely demolishing teams at the coal-face. It simply isn't, and hasn't for a large number of years. The aforementioned Mitchell and JOM, Worpel, Newc, Nash.. for whatever reason (maybe it's too many doing the same job at once) haven't clicked in previous seasons (18th for clearances in 2020, 13th I believe in 2021) and two games into Sam's reign not much seems to have changed there. Maybe it is simply too many hunting the ball at once is causing them to think someone else will do it, I don't have the answer. I don't agree with the notion that we're setting up to be a monster in the middle though. This midfield is what it is, and if anything it's probably going to dip in coming seasons before it gets better.

This makes no sense. JOM and Mitchell were the only senior mids that played a significant role in the rotations on Saturday. Worpel is only 23 and still honing his game. Nash, Newcombe McDonald, Maginness and Ward are all novices. There is nothing senior about our midfield.

 

[flinchfree]

..........

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 think we're one special player away in the middle, a point of difference player, one with absolute electric speed who can start 2m behind an oppo player chasing a bumbling ball and go past him in 4 steps.
With the size were putting together in the middle of Nash, Newk, Macdonald and Ward supplementing JOM and Tom, a litely built but screaming fast player could change the complexion and have us winning more than our share.
Dare to dream.

 

[Dipper]

Frosty underrated and as good as Lake for mine.

Sacrilege!



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[Roger Rogerson]

I think we're one special player away in the middle, a point of difference player, one with absolute electric speed who can start 2m behind an oppo player chasing a bumbling ball and go past him in 4 steps.
With the size were putting together in the middle of Nash, Newk, Macdonald and Ward supplementing JOM and Tom, a litely built but screaming fast player could change the complexion and have us winning more than our share.
Dare to dream.

CJ.

 

[TylerDurden]

I think we're one special player away in the middle, a point of difference player, one with absolute electric speed who can start 2m behind an oppo player chasing a bumbling ball and go past him in 4 steps.
With the size were putting together in the middle of Nash, Newk, Macdonald and Ward supplementing JOM and Tom, a litely built but screaming fast player could change the complexion and have us winning more than our share.
Dare to dream.

Chad.

 

[CJ To Finn]

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!

Yes Chopflop, I’ve noticed the same thing. We are regularly taking the option that Sam would have taken as a player and that’s a great thing but how we executed it Saturday night shows a real buy in by the players to play the corridor too

 

[Pinoy Hawk]

Yes Chopflop, I’ve noticed the same thing. We are regularly taking the option that Sam would have taken as a player and that’s a great thing but how we executed it Saturday night shows a real buy in by the players to play the corridor too

Interesting username, hopefully it lives up and come good.

Any takers for Ward 2 Long?

 

[flinchfree]

CJ.

That's interesting........
Personally think CJ is minted for the wing, has EVERY attribute to be All Australian in the position.
But agree, he could take to the middle and blow everyone away if given the opportunity.

Chad.

Too late.
23 year old Chad maybe. Not now.

I was thinking more of a young Charlie Cameron, but one who played with his head up.

 

[matey]

I would love to see Moore spend more time in the middle. He is built like my staffy but with nice skills. He is tenacious as they come!

 

[Opens positions]

 

[CJ To Finn]

Interesting username, hopefully it lives up and come good.

Any takers for Ward 2 Long

Interesting username, hopefully it lives up and come good.

Any takers for Ward 2 Long?

Hi Pinoy, The username came about not so much how because that’s how things may play out in the midfield but my son’s name is Finn so we have a vested interest in how Finn Maginness is going and we both love CJ!

 

[burner1]

I think we're one special player away in the middle, a point of difference player, one with absolute electric speed who can start 2m behind an oppo player chasing a bumbling ball and go past him in 4 steps.
With the size were putting together in the middle of Nash, Newk, Macdonald and Ward supplementing JOM and Tom, a litely built but screaming fast player could change the complexion and have us winning more than our share.
Dare to dream.

Bramble. But don’t discount Finn. He has some serious wheels.
But reckon we’re more than one player away in midfield. Especially if taking a longer view of post Tom/JOM/chad.

 

[Davo-27]

I would love to see Moore spend more time in the middle. He is built like my staffy but with nice skills. He is tenacious as they come!

i think his skill set is more specialised as a HFF, he played wing/inside mid at Box Hill for a year or 2 and was nowhere near as affective as a HFF where he was a dominant factor in our last BHH premiership where we won it from 6th i believe? and fought out every final(which Moore was one of our best in every game i think), it was also the season Jiath transferred from forw/wing where he struggled to a star HBF, Lewis, Nash(also struggled as a flanker until he found himself a better role as inside mid/ruck) and Worpel were also in that team and even though Pittonet left to Carlton he was a dominant ruck in that team as well (2018 box hill premiership team) but Moore and Jiath really showed their worth in that season/final series and thankfully they were able to take the next step a few years later, so putting them back in positions where they struggled compared to keeping them in positions where they star might not be a good idea imo.

 

[KermitJagger]

i think his skill set is more specialised as a HFF, he played wing/inside mid at Box Hill for a year or 2 and was nowhere near as affective as a HFF where he was a dominant factor in our last BHH premiership where we won it from 6th i believe? and fought out every final(which Moore was one of our best in every game i think), it was also the season Jiath transferred from forw/wing where he struggled to a star HBF, Lewis, Nash and Worpel were also in that team and even though Pittonet left to Carlton he was a dominant ruck in that team as well (2018 box hill premiership team) but Moore and Jiath really showed their worth in that season/final series and thankfully they were able to take the next step a few years later.

The inside skillset was definitely a strength as a junior which is why he slid so far, a short and not super quick inside midfielder isn't jumping too high up many draft boards. He's one of the competition's form players on the HFF but think his work in tight would make him useful in bursts through the midfield.

 

[Davo-27]

The inside skillset was definitely a strength as a junior which is why he slid so far, a short and not super quick inside midfielder isn't jumping too high up many draft boards. He's one of the competition's form players on the HFF but think his work in tight would make him useful in bursts through the midfield.

maybe, he did play mostly on the wing and didnt really shine there for Box Hill, so maybe he could be a rotation as an inside mid? but i just think when you find a role that a player shines in, why would you make them play elsewhere? in a lot of cases you can ruin players careers by doing that imo.

i know its a game, but i take a lot of this back to FM(football manager/soccer) series where you get information on players, what their strengths are from a technical angle, a physical angle and a mental angle, then you also get how "natural" they are in each position, i think this also plays out in real life with players, play them in a position they arent natural or experienced in and they can perform poorly, its just identifying where their best positions are and giving them opportunities in those positions to see if they can handle the pressures of AFL ect, make a poor decision and you can stunt a players development or career.

 

[KermitJagger]

maybe, he did play mostly on the wing and didnt really shine there for Box Hill, so maybe he could be a rotation as an inside mid? but i just think when you find a role that a player shines in, why would you make them play elsewhere? in a lot of cases you can ruin players careers by doing that imo.

It wouldn't be a positional change though, it'd just be a circuit breaker style rotation like we've done with Cyril, Puopolo and Breust in the past. Put him in the midfield for a different look. I definitely wouldn't move him full time because he is thriving and rated elite for his position.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

it's already been pointed out but the biggest difference for me is how we execute ahead of the ball due to structural changes

because we're now way more 1v1 heavy when we do intercept the ball we actually have a clean way to move the ball forward really quickly

i don't think fundamentally the ideals are that much different to last year's – create turnover through pressure, intercept and then transition forward from half-back. at the very least, that is how we've won the first two games. problem was last year our set up was so defensively minded even if we tried to go fast we'd just handball it around looking for a way forward that never came. so we'd do as much as we could to avoid chip kicking it around and being that 'slow, boring' team from 2020, but we ended up looking like that anyway, because we'd either have to go down the line, or end up overdisposing it

so far, we're once again in the upper echelon for intercepts and tackles, but this time we're actually managing to transition the ball quickly and creating mismatches with our fwds

a lot of this is also on our insanely high workrate. we're number 1 for metres covered this year, the only team close is sydney who are also 2-0 and are the highest-scoring team in the comp. so even if our list is a bit behind others, we've been able to pull out wins based on top-tier pressure and then utilising the elite running power of guys like Moore, Finn, Flip, CJ and so on. there will be games where we just don't get it right and things look like last year, or even worse, but i think we'll be competitive in a lot of games and end up running some teams off the ground because we are just so fit.

 

[Tassie Cryptik]

He's elite at what he does doing it where he does it. Why move him?
Mitch is all about utilising strengths to score.

 

[Brishawk]

It wouldn't be a positional change though, it'd just be a circuit breaker style rotation like we've done with Cyril, Puopolo and Breust in the past. Put him in the midfield for a different look. I definitely wouldn't move him full time because he is thriving and rated elite for his position.

I don’t think Moore is as suited to on ball play at afl level as he was at under 18 level but I agree that he could be used as bursts on the ball. Just partner him with the a bigger body or two and let his nous get him the ball.

 

[BIGHAWK23]

Once Sam Butler starts playing, the hype on our youngsters will go through the roof

Very Bullish

 

[I got the outside word]

Once Sam Butler starts playing, the hype on our youngsters will go through the roof

Very Bullish

What are we seeing? What’s the comparison?