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

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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.
 
A lot of talk about how good players generally don't make good coaches, but people forget he was a very smart player.
He wasn't the quickest (super quick off the mark but hit top pace in 1 second), he had to work to get to where he got to as a player. Even his sublime skills are because he worked his arse off to get there.

He isn't a naturally talented athlete who coasted by
Amen. Very different
 
A lot of talk about how good players generally don't make good coaches, but people forget he was a very smart player.
He wasn't the quickest (super quick off the mark but hit top pace in 1 second), he had to work to get to where he got to as a player. Even his sublime skills are because he worked his arse off to get there.

He isn't a naturally talented athlete who coasted by
Sam did have one athletic ability that was off the charts though and that was an incredible sense of balance.

You always felt he was in complete control of his movements and that combined with a football brain that was running at a faster level than everyone else made him such a unique player.

My favourite memories of Sam as a player were watching him stand up with the ball out of a pack, shimmy around a couple of players without seeming to move more than a couple of steps then watching him drill a 30m bullet pass on his left foot.
 
Might be mixing things up here but I vaguely recall reading something about him having exceptional peripheral vision as well? And that this is something you can actually train for?
 

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Sam did have one athletic ability that was off the charts though and that was an incredible sense of balance.

You always felt he was in complete control of his movements and that combined with a football brain that was running at a faster level than everyone else made him such a unique player.

My favourite memories of Sam as a player were watching him stand up with the ball out of a pack, shimmy around a couple of players without seeming to move more than a couple of steps then watching him drill a 30m bullet pass on his left foot.

Watching him change which foot he was going to kick with without barely impacting his ability to get the kick off was just insane. He was like Neo in the Matrix - he operated in his own time and space.
 
Watching him change which foot he was going to kick with without barely impacting his ability to get the kick off was just insane. He was like Neo in the Matrix - he operated in his own time and space.
I can still remember Miutchell vs GWS.

Weight fully shifted on his non kicking foot, sees another option open up. Without changing which hand was holding the ball, in one clean motion he was able to shift his weight and kick on his opposite foot and nail a teammate on the chest. You try doing that yourself without pressure and youre odds on to go arse over ****.
 
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I can still remember Miutchell vs GWS.

Weight fully shifted on his non kicking foot, see another option open up. Without changing which hand was holding the ball, in one clean motion he was able to shift his weight and kick on his opposite foot and nail a teammate on the chest. You try doing that yourself with pressure and youre odds on to go arse over ****.

Watching that golden era - getting to watch Buddy, Mitchell and Rioli all do their own version of indescribably good things at ground level, we were so bloody spoiled.
 
Will be interesting what form our gameplay takes next year as like the Clarko Custer it may have run its race, as every club has a blue print of how to beat this game plan now.

Will be interesting how we perform next year with a harder draft, move to prime time games and a expectation, we will see if we were just on a great run or we have arrived, need to finish top 2 next year.
 
Will be interesting what form our gameplay takes next year as like the Clarko Custer it may have run its race, as every club has a blue print of how to beat this game plan now.

Will be interesting how we perform next year with a harder draft, move to prime time games and a expectation, we will see if we were just on a great run or we have arrived, need to finish top 2 next year.

One game where we had the most fumbles all night, where we missed easy targets, and didn't make quick decisions, were umpiring was atrociously one sided for nearly a whole half was not the opposition beating our gameplan.

No doubt Port brought immense pressure last night but the game was still on our boot and we only lost by a Sicily post.

Just look at Wiz, our team will be more confident to kick to him more often next season, and his production will go up.

I think the group would've got a lot of confidence we arrested the momentum in an away final, and players like Morrison and Finn looked best 22. We'll genuinely have the deepest list on the AFL next season, 32 players deep and the club will continue to try and acquire new talent on top of that.
 
Sam loves our club, and he loves his boys.
He loves to win, and he loves to do it the right way.
I love Sam Mitchell

I loved seeing him seething. He plays such a straight bat that we never see this 'ruthless' side in press conferences, but it was there in raw emotion after the game.

I think we couldn't have asked for a better experience as a young group for finals. Now confidence they can perform after win against Dogs, but also a reality check of heart breaking loss when things aren't on your terms, but still fought it out to give ourselves a chance. Lots of learning, some pain to drive us, and enormous upside in our list and development to come.
 

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This article sees Jake Niall ring Rob McCartney and say I have your team plan from a senior official (my speculation, Bert Harvey left in a huff?) and have him over a barrel to talk. McCartney seems a decent and cluey person, saying something can soften what they want to keep in house.

"The Hawks and McCartney agreed to provide some context and detail around the 2022 strategy after The Age learned about the plan from a senior official who served during that period."


 
This article sees Jake Niall ring Rob McCartney and say I have your team plan from a senior official (my speculation, Bert Harvey left in a huff?) and have him over a barrel to talk. McCartney seems a decent and cluey person, saying something can soften what they want to keep in house.

"The Hawks and McCartney agreed to provide some context and detail around the 2022 strategy after The Age learned about the plan from a senior official who served during that period."



Never forget that a midfield consisting of Jaeger O'Meara and Tom Mitchell and coached by Robery Harvey was absolutely putrid, while a midfield of Jai Newcombe, Will Day, Connor Nash and James Worpel coached by David Hale has basically been elite since day 1.

You CANNOT get by it footy on reputation alone.
 
Will be interesting what form our gameplay takes next year as like the Clarko Custer it may have run its race, as every club has a blue print of how to beat this game plan now.

Will be interesting how we perform next year with a harder draft, move to prime time games and a expectation, we will see if we were just on a great run or we have arrived, need to finish top 2 next year.
Absolute dribble that our game plan has been found out, we aren't even at the end of our evolution.

All we need to do is work out how to adjust to a narrower ground and we will be fine.

Hell, we might not even need to adjust, just win enough games for a home final.
 
Absolute dribble that our game plan has been found out, we aren't even at the end of our evolution.

All we need to do is work out how to adjust to a narrower ground and we will be fine.

Hell, we might not even need to adjust, just win enough games for a home final.

I disagree every year a team needs to change its game plan in some way even by a little, Im not saying throw the whole thing in the bin, Port gave the clubs a blue print on how to beat us in this evolution, Yes we aren't at the end of our evolution, but this years game plan I will change in little ways.
 
This article sees Jake Niall ring Rob McCartney and say I have your team plan from a senior official (my speculation, Bert Harvey left in a huff?) and have him over a barrel to talk. McCartney seems a decent and cluey person, saying something can soften what they want to keep in house.

"The Hawks and McCartney agreed to provide some context and detail around the 2022 strategy after The Age learned about the plan from a senior official who served during that period."



It's good to see the club don't see the club as a finished product and start to top up, but to keep developing.
 
I disagree every year a team needs to change its game plan in some way even by a little, Im not saying throw the whole thing in the bin, Port gave the clubs a blue print on how to beat us in this evolution, Yes we aren't at the end of our evolution, but this years game plan I will change in little ways.
We are adding in Battle and Barrass .
Straight away we will structure up differently and teams on that alone will have to plan differently
 
Will be interesting what form our gameplay takes next year as like the Clarko Custer it may have run its race, as every club has a blue print of how to beat this game plan now.

Will be interesting how we perform next year with a harder draft, move to prime time games and a expectation, we will see if we were just on a great run or we have arrived, need to finish top 2 next year.
Realistically port did it with manic pressure. That sort of pressure beats just about every game plan. It’s just whether the oppo can sustain that level of pressure for long enough. In most cases they can’t.
In saying that there will always be tweaks and changes to game plans season-season and even during a season.
 
I disagree every year a team needs to change its game plan in some way even by a little, Im not saying throw the whole thing in the bin, Port gave the clubs a blue print on how to beat us in this evolution, Yes we aren't at the end of our evolution, but this years game plan I will change in little ways.
Game plans are always being tweaked. I also don’t think port gave a blueprint more than what would be the plan against any team.

Brutal pressure at the contest to prevent us getting the ball to our runners as well as cutting off the switch and preventing us from moving the ball.

Something all teams try to do every other team. It’s difficult for teams to apply as much pressure as Port did to force us to go away from our game.

Now that we’ve experienced that sort of pressure we will adjust and be ready for it. Will make it even harder for teams to beat us through pure pressure.
 
Game plans are always being tweaked. I also don’t think port gave a blueprint more than what would be the plan against any team.

Brutal pressure at the contest to prevent us getting the ball to our runners as well as cutting off the switch and preventing us from moving the ball.

Something all teams try to do every other team. It’s difficult for teams to apply as much pressure as Port did to force us to go away from our game.

Now that we’ve experienced that sort of pressure we will adjust and be ready for it. Will make it even harder for teams to beat us through pure pressure.

Yeah good point
 
Game plans are always being tweaked. I also don’t think port gave a blueprint more than what would be the plan against any team.

Brutal pressure at the contest to prevent us getting the ball to our runners as well as cutting off the switch and preventing us from moving the ball.

Something all teams try to do every other team. It’s difficult for teams to apply as much pressure as Port did to force us to go away from our game.

Now that we’ve experienced that sort of pressure we will adjust and be ready for it. Will make it even harder for teams to beat us through pure pressure.

Tbh port took the last week off. Would have had lots of energy

Ross Lyon at freo would tell you can’t keep that a few weeks in a row
 

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

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