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Joined August 2013
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Still can't understand how soccer has more supporters worldwide than AFL footy.
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With the announcement of new retrospective legislation, ASADA is faced with a backlog of pharmacological experiments to investigate. We await new disclosures on the…
There was much media talk last weekend about Tippett's six goals and about Tom Hawkins'continued poor form. Media analysts talk a lot about the…
Only a few years ago, if you said the half back line was where games are won and lost, people would have laughed. The…
With all the speculation currently flying around in the AFL, I thought I would write a little poem about the art of footy speculation.…
Obviously the risk would not be forced upon island (or other remote) communities. They would be given the choice of whether or not they’d like to host such a competition. And they’d have to be confident about the testing and quarantining regime before they said yes.
And it’s not about individuals watching sport. It’s about what this could do to lift spirits across Australia.
You might change your mind as the reality of mass unemployment and closed-off households hits Australian society over the coming weeks.
AFL should be a saviour, not a victim in difficult times
Yes, Cameron’s achievements so far this year deserve more attention.
The new 6,6,6 rule seems to be benefiting the more mobile full forwards, and Cameron has both mobility and height. He’s a difficult one-on-one match-up, particularly now that it’s harder for opposition teams to drop an extra man back to block his space.
He couldn't, could he?
Great analysis Jezza. There is a clear move back to the mid-size full forwards. Hadn’t thought about the implications of 6,6,6 set up but what you say makes sense. It does make it harder to drop an extra defender back in front of the full forward.
The legendary Geelong figure who's suddenly back en vogue
Great analysis Pinidu. The other Buckley tactic that worked beautifully was tagging Dusty. With Dusty covered and Shaun Griegg injured, the Tigers’ midfield looked small and inexperienced.
How Buckley dismantled the Tigers' manic press
Pete your analysis of the different roles of the Pies midfielders is great. I’m just not sure about yours and Ayden’s views on what makes a top midfield.
The current Pies midfield has plenty of class but doesn’t match the Hawks or Cats midfields of 2013-2015 and 2007-2011 for inside intensity. Taylor Adams is the only genuine inside midfielder (with Sier and De Goey still learning the craft). In big moments in games, we really need two of those hard-bodied in-and-under types at centre clearances, not a whole bunch of Rolls Royces (Pendles, Treloar, Sidebottom, Wells).
Why Collingwood’s midfield is now the best ever
Yes, well argued Samuel. Shiel will add some needed class to the Saints’ midfield but big games require midfielders with strengths in leadership, contested possession and tackles. Shiel has none of these and is not a recognised big game performer. The Saints should not over-spend on Shiel.
Dylan Shiel is not St Kilda’s knight in shining armour
Seems like a pretty speculative article Ryan – not really providing persuasive reasons why the Eagles won the flag. You’ve noted that ‘coaching panel changed significantly from last season….bought the positive change in attitude it fosters to the way it goes about its business [and]…are a serious commercial enterprise masquerading as a public trust, and that has played a far more important role than anyone from within or without the club may care to admit.
But you haven’t explored those factors in any detail or explained how they might have impacted the Eagles’ season. Your best analysis of why the Eagles won the flag was your observation that ‘The ball moved swiftly, but through the air, not on the ground’.
Or maybe I’m just feeling grumpy ‘coz I’m a Pies supporter.
West Coast changed everything - and won the premiership
I was happy enough with our coaching moves. We were right in the game throughout, so no need to take big risks with ‘shuffling the cards’. Agreed that it might have been good to give Thomas a run in the middle much earlier (he wasn’t getting much of the ball up forward) but the main move that they missed was Mayne to McGovern. Leaving Myacek on McGovern was costly.
AFL grand final player ratings: Collingwood Magpies
Sidebottom was great for most of September and even on Saturday his effort was huge, covering more kms than most players. The Pies’ problem is that we rely on Sidebottom too much, especially as other Pies players begin to tire and become less daring in the second half.
I think Bucks placed too much faith in another Magpie leader, Pendles, who should have swapped with Crisp for much of the day. Crisp is much harder at the ball than Pendles and much faster over the first few metres, and that’s what we needed on Saturday.
AFL grand final player ratings: Collingwood Magpies
Agreed, Grundy had no impact. And he probably wasn’t helped by his midfield, whose clearance work was below par. The dominance of Shuey and Sheed says it all. Pendles was okay in patches but lacks the reflexes that he once had; he needs to spend more time down back than in the midfield next year.
AFL grand final player ratings: West Coast Eagles
Kelly, Duncan and Ablett are more outside than inside, and many of their forwards are also a bit too outside. Geelong would definitely benefit from recruiting a Dalhaus-type for their midfield and demanding more pressure from forwards like Narkle, Menzel and Ratugolea.
Losing elimination finalists Geelong and Sydney share many parallels
The Eagles have a B-grade midfield but it was their midfield that drove the Eagles’ great final quarter. I thought Lysett matched Grundy over the 4 quarters, which was a feat.
The match showed there’s a huge difference between a mobile tall forward like Darling or Kennedy and a less mobile one like Cox, especially on the hard grounds out west.
Five talking points from West Coast vs Collingwood
Dougie your 5/6 theory for the forward line may be correct. It’ll be tested next year.
I’ve got another theory – 5/6 members of the backline must have played a lot of games together as a unit. Your doggies stretched that theory a bit last year but it’s held up pretty well this century. (In contrast, the Tigers in 2017 have shown that the forwards don’t need to have played that much together at all!).
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
And PD’s well qualified to make that observation, having watched his Bulldogs’ disinterested play in 2017.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
A questionable cultural influence? Ablett was the most professional bloke at the club. Have you heard Campbell Brown talking about Ablett’s strict diet and other preparation?
I agree with Cat that the club let Ablett down.
Gold Coast needs to hold its ground on Ablett trade
Cat, Richmond just won a premiership with a more extreme version of the Bulldogs’ plan.
But I think you’re mostly right. New ideas can give an enormous edge. Some new strategies in 2018 might be to more effectively use blocking to open up space, to load up the defence with speedsters, or to increase the speed of handballing in the backline to cope with the forward press. Just speculating.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
Interesting comment about Graham’s pace but his stats say he averaged 7 tackles per game in 2017, the highest among all rising star nominees (see https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pp-richmond-tigers–jack-graham).
So perhaps he doesn’t contradict the Tigers’ game style.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
Don this is probably a good note to end our ‘debate’. It’s how you end most of your debates.
But I’d be keen to read any article you wrote to inform the rest of us plebs about Freo. Please include some objective data in it.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
Thanks Aransen. And just to add to Aransen’s list, Mason Cox, Kurt Tippett, Jack Redpath, Josh Jenkins, Levi Casboult and Ty Vickery all have the turning circle of a mack truck. This is increasingly a disadvantage in today’s footy.
Alongside Charlie Dixon, another power forward who may survive is Jonathan Paton but the tall forwards who can provide consistent value are the more agile ones like Jack Riewoldt, Buddy Franklin, and Jeremy Cameron. I’m tipping Wylie Buzza to edge out Hawkins at Geelong in 2018 and Darcy Moore to be the only tall forward (bar injury) in the Pies forward line in 2018.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
Actually I agree with Anon. Lyon has just woken up and realised that instead of wasting time on dud talls up forward (trying to replace Pav), he should have been breeding a mosquito fleet that could lock the ball in. I think he’ll go that way in 2018.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
Philby I didn’t say the guys with sublime foot skills would be dropped. I think, as we saw with guys like Laird, Walker and Lynch in the GF, that the guys with sublime foot skills will have less time to execute their sublime foot skills. Subsequently, other skills will become more important.
Certainly the skilled players will need to apply elite pressure. But they’ll also need to learn to execute their sublime foot skills under increased pressure if they want those skills to remain key to a team’s success.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
N Y Hawk you’re right about that fantastic pressure Freo applied in the 2013 prelim.
But they did that on the smaller Freo ground. They couldn’t apply that pressure against the Hawks on the MCG a week later because applying such pressure on the bigger MCG requires more speed and they didn’t have enough speed.
Yes the Pies of 2010 had a great forward press (I’m a Pies fan) but we still had some slower guys like Cloke and Didak in that press, so it wasn’t the same standard as the 2017 Tigers.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
Don we’ve all seen plenty of supporters like you who quote their list of up-and-coming players endlessly as stars and implore other supporters to see the light. With depth like Blakely, Grey, Langdon and Balic (and Ballas clearly past his use-by-date), no wonder Freo struggled in 2017 (in fact most of those guys got a run in 2017 BECAUSE you lacked depth).
I’m not a Tigers’ fan but I’ve seen enough of Bolton, Lennon, Menadue and Llloyd (and seen that the new look Tigers can seamlessly slot new role players into their team) to know they represent genuine depth, and the fact that the Tigers’ reserves team made the VFL GF is pretty objective evidence of their depth.
Richmond's rise sounds the death knell for foot skills, slower players and old blokes
Gordon that’s a pretty convincing argument for the rise of Richmond’s backline and for giving them more kudos for their finals work. They were a great unit.
I’m surprised that Houli was given so much latitude in the GF, much as Johanissen was given too much latitude in the 2016 GF. Another tactical error that Adelaide made up forward was playing a 3rd tall (Otten), which reduced the Crows’ forward line’s defensive pressure and was never going to stretch the Tigers’ defence (which contains plenty of guys who can play on talls). A 3rd tactical error was that the Crows really didn’t adopt a plan B when they were sinking fast in the 3rd quarter.
So yes the Tigers’ backline deserves plaudits but I think the Crows’ tactics up forward also deserve criticism..
It was defence that pushed Richmond to the top
Doc your idea is well worth debate, and you’re getting a good mix of responses.
My radical plan to save the AFL