Why I think Eagles can win the premiership next year

[GO EAGLES]

Adam Simpson has hit the nail on the head. He called for unity throughout the club.
The vibe in some of the games this year was bad, especially in the Hurn milestone game against Collingwood.
THE game against St Kilda where we were 33 points up and then capitulated was another game where care for teammates went out the window.

Getting Scofield and Knights are 2 personalities who will ignite the club.
Kennedy I believe will have a great season next year with a unified midfield and defense.
Shannon Hurn

25

Shannon Hurn

Age

37

Ht

187cm

Wt

95kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

20.9

5star

K

15.7

5star

HB

5.2

4star

M

7.0

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

389.5

5star

D

16.1

4star

K

12.1

5star

HB

4.0

3star

M

5.3

5star

T

1.0

2star

MG

271.6

4star

D

19.0

5star

K

11.6

4star

HB

7.4

5star

M

6.8

5star

T

1.6

4star

is good enough for 2 more years.

Simpsons game plan is fine.
I am writing this post straight after Melbourne's great performance in the grand final.
Melbourne is a team of unified players and they openly speak about this.
In 2018 we were unified even without Natanui, Gaff and Shepperd.

Natanui will play even a greater season than this and last years AA seasons.
If Eagles have a great pre-season with the new unity will not have many injuries like Melbourne experienced this year

I will be there at the pre-season training and will write reports wjth the emphasis on vibe

Missing the finals this year will also hurt the Eagles but a anither reason for their climb up the ladder

 

[mattyc75]

I hope you're right!! It'll be our last chance for 4 or 5 years I'd think

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[CM9000]

Well, the great one has spoken. All I need is a demondavey prediction and I’m booking GF tickets.

 

[GO EAGLES]

In the game against Port Adelaide early in the year Eagles showed what they can do.
Simpson obviously has seen that there was not much unity throuhout the year

 

[KERRPOW]

You lost me at "hurn has 2 more seasons"

 

[bzparkes]

You lost me at "hurn has 2 more seasons"

...of Prison Break to watch.

 

[Gizza]

Honestly, I don't think we will. But I actually do think we can. The talent is there. The game plan needs some tweaking. And it'd definitely take some luck on the injury side of things as well and great seasons from a few blokes who are nearing the end (Kennedy, Shuey, Hurn, Nic etc). But it could happen. There are guys like Yeo, Kelly, Darling, possibly even McGovern who should still basically be in their prime who should be able to be a very formidable spine.

What we probably really need is a few young guys having break out seasons, but more importantly, a bit more ruthlessness from our MC to drop non performing players, and maybe a bit more creativity in the roles of certain players. They need to have a really hard look at players like Gaff and really analyse whether his strengths are outweighing his weaknesses and how better he might be used to play to his strengths and lessen his weaknesses (like why the **** does he call for the ball when running onto his right so damn much? and why does he never move it quickly?).

 

[Broken_Chairs]

Thee prophet hath spoken. Lock it in.

 

[CursoryMercenary]

Don't see it, in 2017 we weren't that good but still we didn't get blown away like we did this year. Don't think we have that kind of rise in us and keeping Hurn and Kennedy will only make matters worse.

 

[ep2018]

Our delistings and re-signings tell me the club believe there is still a flag left in this group. And to an extent I agree. We have another top 4 finish left with this current team. Whether its enough to win a flag is another thing.

 

[Monocle]

Adam Simpson has hit the nail on the head. He called for unity throughout the club.

Simpsons game plan is fine.

It won't matter how much unity we have in the Club next season, if we keep the same game plan, we are going to get our arses kicked.

If you don't think there is anything wrong with our game plan, then you haven't been paying close attention to either:


The style that the two grand finalists and most of the top eight teams play.

Or

The way our game plan has been systematically been pick apart since 2018.







What we had in 2018 was very good and it was state of the art.





But that will be four seasons ago as we head into next year and things change, we need to change too, you either adapt and improve or you get passed, because superseded obsolete designs and plans, inevitably fall short to innovation, development and embracing the latest trends and ideas.




Sure a united Club at all levels will help, but without a change of game plan we wont be contenders in 2022.

 

[Keys]

It won't matter how much unity we have in the Club next season, if we keep the same game plan, we are going to get our arses kicked.

If you don't think there is anything wrong with our game plan, then you haven't been paying close attention to either:


The style that the two grand finalists and most of the top eight teams play.

Or

The way our game plan has been systematically been pick apart since 2018.







What we had in 2018 was very good and it was state of the art.


View attachment 1246251


But that will be four seasons ago as we head into next year and things change, we need to change too, you either adapt and improve or you get passed, because superseded obsolete designs and plans, inevitably fall short to innovation, development and embracing the latest trends and ideas.


View attachment 1246261

Sure a united Club at all levels will help, but without a change of game plan we wont be contenders in 2022.

We have to prioritise getting our hands on the ball first. It hasn’t traditionally been a strength of ours nor has Simpson seemed to prioritise it.

In the GF thread, Dylan82 made mention of how we need to maximise our centre clearances and he’s spot on - momentum shifted in the GF courtesy of quick goals out of the centre.

There’s tinkering around other parts of the game but none of that will matter if we can’t improve our contested ball winning

 

[Biggie]

I want to see us hunt players, become contested and for **** sake stick tackles.

I’m not sure this group has it in them, or at the very least maintain it for a period of time.

 

[shooshka]

We have to prioritise getting our hands on the ball first. It hasn’t traditionally been a strength of ours nor has Simpson seemed to prioritise it.

In the GF thread, Dylan82 made mention of how we need to maximise our centre clearances and he’s spot on - momentum shifted in the GF courtesy of quick goals out of the centre.

There’s tinkering around other parts of the game but none of that will matter if we can’t improve our contested ball winning

The positive behind this is that as long as we have Nic it is possible to address this quickly. He was almost a lone wolf fighting for the ball at stages this year, but if the mids can step up (and get fitter and stay uninjured) then it's possible.

I guess the obvious negatives are the over reliance on one player, the ongoing question of what happens during the 30% game time he is off, and whether the desire is there.

On SM-G986B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

We have to prioritise getting our hands on the ball first. It hasn’t traditionally been a strength of ours nor has Simpson seemed to prioritise it.

In the GF thread, Dylan82 made mention of how we need to maximise our centre clearances and he’s spot on - momentum shifted in the GF courtesy of quick goals out of the centre.

There’s tinkering around other parts of the game but none of that will matter if we can’t improve our contested ball winning

Simpson talks about fundamentals and a coaching/MC fundamental is to pick and then play people capable of winning the first ball that we saw in the GF - it was often dirty ball. Hard to win contests and must fight for ball seem to be left to Yeo. We have midfielders at the contest that are great on pretty ball delivered on a plate but not so flash on hard ball or dirty ball.

Kelly, Sheed and Gaff are best as outside players. Tremendous when it’s clean ball from the contest but not great turning clean ball out of a dirty contest.
Can we rely on Yeo, Shuey and Redden as the hard nuts? Is Trew going to be able to bulk up and build his tank in his first full preseason? Will West be able to play the Oliver or Libby role? We need to toughen up on contested ball. Why not try Nelson or Cole? Why pick West and play him on a flank? Our plan B when Yeo and Shuey are injured either did not exist or was piss poor.

I note as well that both Doggies and Dees look best when doing things at pace. Hitting the contest at pace. Leaving the contest at pace. Using hand ball to manipulate a clearance at pace. I did not see much corralling in the last month. Hopefully Schofield will address this.

If we get fast ball out, we have forwards that can finish. Adding Rioli back in will help but I feel three clunking talls up front is not the right balance. That is what scares me with JK going on another year. Perhaps it’s time to use Jack as more the Fritch alternative medium forward leaving Oscar and JK as the tall targets! Or do we try to isolate Ryan more in the goal square.

I think the key to success is to get the not only the midfield winning contested ball but to also ensure the midfield and forwards are in sync.

We only have a couple of years left with NicNat so we need to devise a new plan based around maximising what has been a once in a generation clearance ruckman.

If we can play to our strengths, we can find a plan to dominate clearances. We then need Bailey Williams to step up and be the second ruck because Oscar in the ruck has been a mitigated disaster. Bond tried to tell us post draft in 2017 that Oscar could play midfield. I had not expected ruck to be his definition of midfield. I love the player but hate the way it kills momentum and ruins connection when we try to squeeze him in as ruck. Can Williams play ruck at that level? Let’s simplify his game plan and give him purely ruck duties and see if he can play the role.

 

[Barrybran]

I'm in the 'we can but not with the current game plan/style' camp. As was highlighted last night, the #1 clearance team in the comp has won the past couple of flags. We have the talent to be that side but it can't be all up to Nic. Whoever is in the middle though needs to attack the ball like Yeo and West do. If we can get our hands on the ball first, the likes of Gaff are (capable of being) elite at moving the ball to the next line. If we don't get it, we need to lay and stick tackles. Our defense needs to be much better as well. We're no longer the best defensive team in the competition and even lower ranked clubs figured out how to create space against us.

The great news is we have two new midfield coaches and a defense coach still to come.

 

[The wily weagle]

Contested ball, ground ball, tackling
Contested ball, ground ball, tackling
Contested ball, ground ball, tackling

These are where the grand finalists excelled
These are also where we absolutely fail

And we fail because Simpson doesn't prioritise them

The only way we can turn this around is if Simpson does a complete 180 on his coaching mantra.

Less kick mark, keepings off, non contact football
More tough stuff and hunting the ball

Can he do it? We shall see

 

[The wily weagle]

The other thing we should do is approach Darren Burgess (Melbournes current fitness boss) with an open cheque book and ask him to name his price

Have met him personally and I really rate him, every team he has been associated with has consistently been arguably the best conditioned team in the comp under his watch

If we value running power so damn much, we should at least have the best fitness boss that money can buy

 

[Eastcoasteagle]

Demons kicked 16 goals to 1 last night in a quarter and a bit. They are the fittest team in the league, Darren Burgess has had them humming and they were fine tuned last night. Dogs who are a very good side just couldn't keep up.

We need a huge preseason, as our fitness this season was ordinary. We'd play a half of footy, even the Port game was only 3 quarters. This does rely on having a consistent midfield playing each week and two way running!

 

[Eastcoasteagle]

The other thing we should do is approach Darren Burgess (Melbournes current fitness boss) with an open cheque book and ask him to name his price

Have met him personally and I really rate him, every team he has been associated with has consistently been arguably the best conditioned team in the comp under his watch

If we value running power so damn much, we should at least have the best fitness boss that money can buy

Haha just posted same thing, I personally think he's the biggest reason for their dominance this year.

 

[Cornelius Roy]

For the past three years the message has always been the same, big offseason, come back stronger and focus on tackling/contest and it hasn’t really happened.

Petracca made a comment around working in the off-season which I’m sure meant they were doing more than sinking beers in Phuket and keeping up with their base running program as it really showed.

I don’t really think the current group has this mindset and our strength and conditioning team hasn’t inspired a lot of confidence so I hope I’m proven wrong.

 

[Eastcoasteagle]

Burgess has signed with the crows!

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Let’s hope Yeo calling out players for poor training standards might be a conduit to raising effort and raising standards. Of course this means jacksh1t if the match committee don’t follow through and only pick players who meet the standards.

 

[ausbacker]

Demons kicked 16 goals to 1 last night in a quarter and a bit. They are the fittest team in the league, Darren Burgess has had them humming and they were fine tuned last night. Dogs who are a very good side just couldn't keep up.

We need a huge preseason, as our fitness this season was ordinary. We'd play a half of footy, even the Port game was only 3 quarters. This does rely on having a consistent midfield playing each week and two way running!

We don't have the leg speed in the midfield let alone elsewhere to do what Melbourne did to the Bulldogs last night. That said, the game plan doesn't help.

 

[ziad]

Burgess has signed with the crows!

home town for him, who would cross over to the locked away wasteland?