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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by kruddler -
Quote from: DJC – on
One thing that annoys me about our play is that we continually give up ground when there's a mark or a free.  We tend to go to "outside five" between the arcs and in our forward 50 and when we "stand", it's usually a couple of metres back from the actual mark.  Short's kick from the 50 would have struggled to make the distance if our player hadn't retreated a couple of metres.

I understand that it's about guarding territory trying to minimise passing and playing on options giving up metres within range of the goal is just dumb.
The couple metres back is an umpire directive and i cant understand it.

Forever and a day, wherever you take a mark, a player stands on the mark.
This got tricky when a player took a mark on a lead, with the player on the mark asked to come back a bit as his chasing momentum took him over the mark. Fair.

However in the modern game the umpire almost always asks the player to come back off the mark for no reason.

I commented on it in our game. A player took a Mark on the centre square line. The man in the mark was wanted to stand in the 50m arc. Thats a good 3-4m back of not more. This is not an outside 5, or a stand. That's where the umpires marked the line.
Forget who it was but the player kicked a goal, just clearing the players on the goal line.

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Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Iran, I ran so far away - flock of seagulls
Last post by DJC -
Operation Epic Fury, or perhaps that should be Epic Foolishness, is a classic clusterf*ck.

No defined justification, no clear objectives, no exit strategy, no consideration of the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz, underestimating the capacity and doggedness of the Iranians, taking the pressure off the Russians, weakening South Korea's air defences, screwing the economy ...

Then there's the human toll.  Apart from death and injury, it's estimated that between 25% and 75% of military personnel serving in the Middle East will suffer from PTSD - and that includes our Wedgetail crew and support staff.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Lapses- Physical or Mental
Last post by kruddler -
Quote from: LP – on
Quote from: madbluboy – on
Every side loses the stoppages and clearances at some point but find other ways to win.
@madbluboy‍ Is part of our problem we are trying to win everything, instead of just focussing on maximising what we are best at?

Have we spent too much time focussed on our weaknesses, and that is having a negative effect on what we are good at?

Mbb can answer for himself, but i need to comment on this.

I think this is a huge issue that is evident in the players we pick. Before i explain, let me digress.

There are 2 types of mentality when trying to win games of footy....with a subtle difference.
1. Kick more goals than the opposition.
2. Keep the opposition to less goals than you.

1. Is attacking.
2. Is defensive.

In reality, you need a bit of both.

We WERE offensive, then we changed and now we are defensive.

Now back to my point.
We are too focused on defense, to the detriment of our offense.

The 'need' to keep playing someone like fogarty because of his 'pressure' is evidence of this.
First of all, his pressure is not that significant....and his attacking output is sub-par.
Add to fogarty is the off- season is the rebadging of someone like williams. Is our best small forward. Kicked our only goal in the 2nd half to win is the game.... but had spent majority of his time being rebadged as a defender and midfielder.  Why? 

Change the focus slightly to being more attacking, then essentially williams will kick you more goals than fogarty saves....and we are better off as a result.

Players get more joy out of attacking and kicking goals. As a club, we get more wins too. You may argue you don't get wins in finals playing that way (or enough wins) which might be so.....but ross lyon playing ultra defensive hasnt got any either.

So lets try to win games instead of trying not to lose them.....and pick a side that can do that.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by DJC -
One thing that annoys me about our play is that we continually give up ground when there's a mark or a free.  We tend to go to "outside five" between the arcs and in our forward 50 and when we "stand", it's usually a couple of metres back from the actual mark.  Short's kick from the 50 would have struggled to make the distance if our player hadn't retreated a couple of metres.

I understand that it's about guarding territory trying to minimise passing and playing on options giving up metres within range of the goal is just dumb.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Lapses- Physical or Mental
Last post by Baggers -
Quote from: PaulP – on
Starts as mental IMO, then becomes physical and then it's a vicious circle. I don't think fitness is the issue.

Yep. Not rocket surgery. The second half wiltings are right there for all to see... between the lugholes and taxing game-plan. Has been for yonks.

Now on top of that, we're blooding newbies and adapting to a strong game-plan change. Not fitness, not list.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Lapses- Physical or Mental
Last post by LP -
Quote from: madbluboy – on
Our problem is and Hoyne pointed it out before finals of 2023 is we have to dominate stoppages to win.
The problem for Hoyne was he works off stats and averages, but stats and averages do not account for opposition or personal changes or other real world influences.

If I recall correctly after Hoyne made that declaration we won a couple of games despite being beaten at clearances, and ironically the stats gurus then tried to justify those events with spin.

Of course, Cripps can dominate and we can lose, but then again so could Judd, two very different style of player. The winning stoppages stat in that regard, taken in isolation as some sort of waypoint, is completely useless.

When we had Charlie and McKay in tandem, creating and winning stoppages inside F50 which we did with monotonous regularity gave us nothing, because stoppages inside F50 is the antithesis of creating space.

A friend of mine thinks we are goal post obsessed, we spend all our time defending the goal posts on the last line, or trying to push deep into the goal square in F50. We win stoppages inside both 50m arcs, and either have a unless crack hack at scoring, or a hack out of D50, when we often have an option standing unattended in the clear on the defensive side, often inside range in the F50. Smith is different, he's the first player for a decade that I've seen at our club that isn't goal post obssessed.