Opinion Your 2025 expectations

[Punts]

I hope he does regardless of the minor premiership

We are now known for the biggest chockers come gf in history almost , a label that will stick for a long time.

Worse than the port chokes and Collingwood one they had for decade

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

I hope he does regardless of the minor premiership

We are now known for the biggest chockers come gf in history almost , a label that will stick for a long time.

Worse than the port chokes and Collingwood one they had for decade

Thats not gonna change untill we breakthrough if we ever

The Decade that could of been really

 

[The King!]

Worst part of our losses is apart from probably 2022 we were arguably the better team before

 

[wolftone57]

I'd like to think we are good enough to bounce back. I think Coxy has been brutal pre-Christmas with extra fitness work. They downed the balls for running & aerobic exercises. The drills seemed all about stamina. That is something that has been sadly lacking. We need to start well & finish off matches. We need a different mindset about games. An all in hard from the first bounce. I mean hard, bone breaking hard.

We need the Development coaches to bring the young blokes NOW. I think their development was sadly lacking last year. I'd like to see at least 10 players AFL ready by season's end.

As for the senior players. I'd like to see players play where they are best utilised. My problem with Horse in the last few years is he was sacrificing specialty players over flexibility. Not only that, he left Heeney as a forward & Mills as a back for far too long. I think the same applies to Campbell, who has been played in every position except the ones he played as a junior & at which excelled. Forward/Mid 50/50 or 65/35. There was far too much reliance on too few last year & when some were out the others actually stepped up but we're slotted to take a back seat when they returned instead of sharing the load. Too many favourites I think.

I do not believe Cox has the same mindset. I think he is just a little more ruthless, cruel to be kind, he, I am sure, has his own ideas about how the game should be played in the new AFL environment. A couple of things he needs to fix. The mids getting flogged _ therefore us leaking goals. Contested footy. Forward entries. Back 6 cohesion. Bring back the shepherd (Brisbane shepherd & they won the Premiership. Actually thinking about it all the recent premiers shepherd), protect the man with the ball at all time. Time to get some more tackling lessons from the NRL coaches. Being an expert NRL tackling coach in the teach the skills needed. Some of our tackling was terrible last season.

I would like to see a lot of Gus this year, on the field & playing. Break a leg, it's only a scratch Gus. Edwards is a player who looks to have a bit of talent & seems to work hard. He & Mitchell would have to be Smokies. Snell is another who has had a year to develop & will have another season in the gym. Same with Green.

Next year we are damned sure to take three Academy boys if they continue their development this year. All three are rated top 25 in the draft order at the moment. That is huge.

On Infinix X6525 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Big Blood]

Prior to Horse departing I was expecting a re-run of 2023, just making up the numbers in the eight.

I still think that's the most likely but maybe a fresh voice will have an impact. Seasons run in two halves and we were runaway leaders in the first half last year but were merely the best of the rest in the second half as other teams worked us out. We need to improve clearance and contested work and see a much greater contribution from our forwards. And take a mark. All of those got exposed in the GF and while we may improve over summer so will other teams.


Ladder: 5th-7th.
Membership: Slight drop from 2024.

 

[wolftone57]

Thats not gonna change untill we breakthrough if we ever

The Decade that could of been really

At least the Pies got close on occasions. They drew a couple & won in '90 & 2010. They pushed Lions who were unbeatable. But as you say they made the Big Dance on multiple occasions before Matthews took them back to Premiers. The one against Carlton where Harmes is OOB & Carlton win by the slimmest margins still grates on Pies folk

On Infinix X6525 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[WillHayward]

Until we learn to embrace body contact we will be bottom 8.

We need grappling, blocking, shepherding, bumping to be a priority.

Every single player wanted to run free and kick a goal. We spent the whole GF day jumping out of the way of Lions player to avoid any body contact.

We can't keep playing bruise free football and now every club would have figured us out.
Body on Warner Heeney and Gulden and it's game over.

The good news is we don't get many injuries.
Hard to get injured when you don't make body contact. The lads certainly know the art of self preservation.

 

[Dubai Quacker]

I'd like to think we are good enough to bounce back. I think Coxy has been brutal pre-Christmas with extra fitness work. They downed the balls for running & aerobic exercises. The drills seemed all about stamina. That is something that has been sadly lacking. We need to start well & finish off matches. We need a different mindset about games. An all in hard from the first bounce. I mean hard, bone breaking hard.

We need the Development coaches to bring the young blokes NOW. I think their development was sadly lacking last year. I'd like to see at least 10 players AFL ready by season's end.

As for the senior players. I'd like to see players play where they are best utilised. My problem with Horse in the last few years is he was sacrificing specialty players over flexibility. Not only that, he left Heeney as a forward & Mills as a back for far too long. I think the same applies to Campbell, who has been played in every position except the ones he played as a junior & at which excelled. Forward/Mid 50/50 or 65/35. There was far too much reliance on too few last year & when some were out the others actually stepped up but we're slotted to take a back seat when they returned instead of sharing the load. Too many favourites I think.

I do not believe Cox has the same mindset. I think he is just a little more ruthless, cruel to be kind, he, I am sure, has his own ideas about how the game should be played in the new AFL environment. A couple of things he needs to fix. The mids getting flogged _ therefore us leaking goals. Contested footy. Forward entries. Back 6 cohesion. Bring back the shepherd (Brisbane shepherd & they won the Premiership. Actually thinking about it all the recent premiers shepherd), protect the man with the ball at all time. Time to get some more tackling lessons from the NRL coaches. Being an expert NRL tackling coach in the teach the skills needed. Some of our tackling was terrible last season.

I would like to see a lot of Gus this year, on the field & playing. Break a leg, it's only a scratch Gus. Edwards is a player who looks to have a bit of talent & seems to work hard. He & Mitchell would have to be Smokies. Snell is another who has had a year to develop & will have another season in the gym. Same with Green.

Next year we are damned sure to take three Academy boys if they continue their development this year. All three are rated top 25 in the draft order at the moment. That is huge.

On Infinix X6525 using BigFooty.com mobile app

I think Horse WAS ruthless.

Ruthlessly loyal to his favourites & ruthlessly rigid when it came to his game plan.

Horse was a good coach. However, Cox has an opportunity to be less stubborn and hence surpass his predecessor.

 

[caesar88]

Dean Cox said it plainly. Contest & pressure.

We can have a great ladder position, win-loss record, All Australians, points for/against, a home final, etc.

They're nice but none of those win you a grand final, so I'm just not interested in them.

Improve in the contest & pressure areas of the game, and the rest will follow.

 

[Kiama Chris]

Dean Cox said it plainly. Contest & pressure.

We can have a great ladder position, win-loss record, All Australians, points for/against, a home final, etc.

They're nice but none of those win you a grand final, so I'm just not interested in them.

Improve in the contest & pressure areas of the game, and the rest will follow.

Sorry caesar88 but that's too simplistic. Yes, improvement in contest and pressure will improve our chances, but not by themselves. The rest will not follow automatically.
We also need to improve our midfield structure and tactics, our forward structure and tactics, our defensive structure, our leadership, our reward mechanisms, our coaching and our in-game flexibility. All doable IMO, though it will prove interesting just who will do the doing.

 

[caesar88]

Sorry caesar88 but that's too simplistic. Yes, improvement in contest and pressure will improve our chances, but not by themselves. The rest will not follow automatically.
We also need to improve our midfield structure and tactics, our forward structure and tactics, our defensive structure, our leadership, our reward mechanisms, our coaching and our in-game flexibility. All doable IMO, though it will prove interesting just who will do the doing.

I think my point of view is less simplistic, and more optimistic. The way I see it is we won a minor premiership and made a grand final with a very average midfield and a forward line with very average pressure. If we improve in either facet, that alone is a massive, massive boost to our chances.

Those things you mentioned - our structures, leadership, reward mechanisms, coaching etc. - are the ways I think we get that improvement in those two areas.

 

[McGowan3]

I'd like to think we are good enough to bounce back. I think Coxy has been brutal pre-Christmas with extra fitness work. They downed the balls for running & aerobic exercises. The drills seemed all about stamina. That is something that has been sadly lacking. We need to start well & finish off matches. We need a different mindset about games. An all in hard from the first bounce. I mean hard, bone breaking hard.

We need the Development coaches to bring the young blokes NOW. I think their development was sadly lacking last year. I'd like to see at least 10 players AFL ready by season's end.

As for the senior players. I'd like to see players play where they are best utilised. My problem with Horse in the last few years is he was sacrificing specialty players over flexibility. Not only that, he left Heeney as a forward & Mills as a back for far too long. I think the same applies to Campbell, who has been played in every position except the ones he played as a junior & at which excelled. Forward/Mid 50/50 or 65/35. There was far too much reliance on too few last year & when some were out the others actually stepped up but we're slotted to take a back seat when they returned instead of sharing the load. Too many favourites I think.

I do not believe Cox has the same mindset. I think he is just a little more ruthless, cruel to be kind, he, I am sure, has his own ideas about how the game should be played in the new AFL environment. A couple of things he needs to fix. The mids getting flogged _ therefore us leaking goals. Contested footy. Forward entries. Back 6 cohesion. Bring back the shepherd (Brisbane shepherd & they won the Premiership. Actually thinking about it all the recent premiers shepherd), protect the man with the ball at all time. Time to get some more tackling lessons from the NRL coaches. Being an expert NRL tackling coach in the teach the skills needed. Some of our tackling was terrible last season.

I would like to see a lot of Gus this year, on the field & playing. Break a leg, it's only a scratch Gus. Edwards is a player who looks to have a bit of talent & seems to work hard. He & Mitchell would have to be Smokies. Snell is another who has had a year to develop & will have another season in the gym. Same with Green.

Next year we are damned sure to take three Academy boys if they continue their development this year. All three are rated top 25 in the draft order at the moment. That is huge.

On Infinix X6525 using BigFooty.com mobile app

You don't make a GF lacking fitness and stamina. Mentally we were way off the mark on the day. Again. And we started slowly which was a problem all year. Fatal combination.