Well the debacle continues, the only players to fire a shot today are some of the ones the NSW Cricket mafia want kyboshed!
In the meantime someone like Boland remains relegated to watching on, as the entrenched bowling solution will no doubt mop up cheap wickets in trying conditions. Then the mafia will point to the stats and claim they already have the better options.
Yet it seems the same doesn't apply to the batting selection, the batting failure is written off as a sticky wicket.
It's good bowling, relative to something mystery measure, and the batting is only poor due to the wicket!
We've seen a roll out of a change in tactics, and it's fine, but it's new and we haven't seen it capably implemented yet at AFL level, we are doing it in bursts and as we go we are learning about opposition countertactics.
For a long time we bemoaned the apparent absence of a Plan B, now we have it some fans want it thrown out because we aren't getting an instant result, but it's new and fans need to be patient.
I'm not nearly as upset about the tactics and coaching as I am about the poor implementation, because where it falls down are in the execution of basic skills.
We only need one or two quick players, or one or two quality bilateral players, and time and space opens up for everybody and you'll see the basic errors diminish. This is what the likes of Daicos, Pendelbury and Sidebottom bring to the Filth.
In the past, our slower endurance and strength based list missed a massive trick, they all should have been incessantly training their offside and the lack of leg speed would be a non-issue, like it's a non-issue for Sidebottom and Pendlebury. If our list had developed 80% of Diesel's handball skills and the same percentage of Scotland's kicking they be laughing, but it's too late as 28 year olds!
The idea that someone like Saad can make it through a whole AFL career and still be effectively a unilateral ball user is a condemnation on our club and the AFL system in general. It's a fundamental high level skill that is almost completely absent in our list.
Whether they are capable or not has little relevance to how hard they are trying, I'm arguing the assertion that they aren't making an effort is bullsh1t, in fact it's an insult!
Someone like Evans tries just as hard if not harder in the AFL, he wants the gig desperately, but he is competing against a whole other level of opponent.
The solution to last Thursday was Saturday night. Keep running forward, keep moving forward, don't go in your shell when you make mistakes, trust your team mates will keep having a go, and try and kick and handball the ball to your team mates, and finally, don't give up.
Send them a note.
Do you genuinely think the AFL team aren't trying to do this?
I think it's easy to confuse a perceived difference in tactic with an inability to implement a tactic. Structurally I can't see any real difference between the AFL and VFL game tactics from last weekend, but the tactics are significantly easier to implement against Port Melbourne in the VFL than they are against even a weaker AFL opponent. We can do it in the AFL, but not for 4-qtrs.
Anyone watching Evans and Durdin struggle in the AFL should be acutely aware of that.
Could Cowan and Carroll do in the AFL what they did in the VFL for 4-qtrs, possibly, but most likely only partially, certainly it would be to a lesser extent. Without Cowan and Carroll breaking lines and hitting those targets forward of the contest, Evans, Durdin and Camporeale would find themselves in heavy traffic and the outcome would be very different, they would lose effectiveness. That surely seems familiar.
If it was as easy as moving into the AFL and repeating the VFL procedure everybody would be doing it!
Glad Luke Power seems to value the modern more expansive style than the 1960s game the seniors play.
I think our VFL game tactics Saturday night were closer to the AFL teams tactics than they have been all season, which against Hird's group make the game a shoot out.
The difference Saturday night was basically that we had Cowan and Carroll who both played 4-qtrs and mopped up in defence to kick things off on the attack with plenty of rebound.
There will be a lot of fans boosting Evans, Durdin and Moir, but they all really only played 1/2 a game, they can't do that at the next level and get away with it like they did Saturday night.
Austria was probably the best first 5 or 10 laps of the season, the racing between Norris and Piastri was as good as it gets before the team orders put the kybosh on it.
I felt sorry for Piastri, he suffered a bit from his past with Alpine doing it's best attempt at a trip pitting cars twice to send them out in front of him on fresh tyres while he was trying to close the gap between himself and Norris. In effect F1 politics robbed us of a grandstand finish, but that's F1.
The only thing that was a bit unsavoury was in the late stages Norris started begging the team for help as Piastri was 0.5s per lap faster and closing rapidly. Norris has a big weakness relative to Piastri, Norris burns tyres faster and is nowhere near as neat and tidy around the track.
One thing not being discussed is thast modern footy's extreme running style tactic has a significant impact when teams have a short break. We went from playing to the death against Norp to being run over by Port on an interstate trip just 5 days later.
This week we have 8 days to prepare for the Filth's who have only 6, let's hope WCE front up and push them to the death tonight.
