Dislike as removes the possibility of STRAIGHT SETS
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Stuff you guys putting Essendon in the bottom four.
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Agree on the Eagles. You’re right that their ceiling probably hinges on Yeo getting fit but their spread otherwise is still very good. Would have them well ahead of the Saints and personally have them ahead of Port and Brisbane.
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- Brisbane
- Port Adelaide
- Geelong
- St Kilda
- Western Bulldogs
- Richmond
- Carlton
- Fremantle
- West Coast
- GWS
- Sydney
- Gold Coast
- Melbourne
- Collingwood
- Adelaide
- Essendon
- Hawthorn
- North
Premier - Port (beat geelong)
Brownlow - Neale
Coleman- Daniher
Essendon B&F - McGrath
Sacked - goodwin, Buckley
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Normally we finish anywhere between 8th-14th.
We only finished bottom 4 a few times over the years and one of those times was due to having half the team banned for a year.
We could very well finish bottom 4 but I can also see us playing a final I just don’t think it’s guaranteed that we finish bottom 4 like most seem to think on here.
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Wtf?
From watching the early practice matches it seems like this man on the mark rule is going to be a significant game changer which might see a big change in tactics.
I think teams are going to exploit it by going back 2-3 meters from the man on the mark and then just running past them while they are rooted to the spot, so all of a sudden what used to be a 10 metres gain play (15m kick, 5m back on the mark) now becomes a 20 meters gained play.
That probably means a few things:
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Backmen with pace and agility become more valuable (boo Saad, boo McKenna)
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Teams will be more reluctant to give up short kicks in the back line because once you hit the fat part of the ground on the wings it will be really, really hard to stop a chain of possessions
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Any mark within 60m of goal becomes a viable scoring opportunity for most players
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Forwards who are quick on the lead will probably become more valuable because the angles become less predictable
Interested in @ivan ’s thoughts here too.
What I would expect is that the ladder looks significantly different this year and that the forward press will come back into vogue. Teams that rely on the turnover at half back are going to have to change their plans because a guy marking on the wing and running past his opponent opens up significantly more angles of attack than what he has had in the past. Much tougher to cheat on defense and go two up.
(Or in simpler terms it’s going to look like 18 Brent Harveys versus 18 Brent Harveys)
Stuff Essendon for being a bottom 4 side.
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It’s crazy how many people rate St. Kilda.
I think they are fairly average and just had a year where everything went right.
If Ryder’s body fails, his ability to jump and tap is gone, and is ineffective being a threat up forward… st. Kilda are screwed.
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i’m not sure we did a good job defending generally so i’m hesitant to read too much into it. That said we certainly got punished for conceding short kicks to back flanks/pockets.
i think fark carlton had made some adjustments to the way they were protecting channels either the side of the mark and i don’t think we were. i also don’t think we did a very good job of moving around ahead of the ball and leading to the ball carrier to take advantage of the rule and still favoured slowing down if we couldn’t run the ball. We’re still our own worst enemy.
I agree though leading players are going to become more important. It’s another reason i’m not sure about moving lav and stewart back because both are leading players.
We need to see more games really and the clubs neeed to time to work on their response. I still think we’ll see sides just give up the mark a bit and then umps will be in a flap working out what to do. if you just run off and then turn around and re-engage once play on is called you might be at less of a disadvantage than having a guy rooted to the spot.
There is no rule which says you have to man the mark as far as i know. the trick will be to get out of there before the stand command is given but i don’t see how they can say that until your on the mark.
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Their best asset is they were so cohesive last year, which counts for a lot.
Their list itself, I’m not seeing it. They have holes everywhere, but no doubt some strengths.
I don’t see them near top 4, in fact i would not be surprised in the least if they missed the 8
you’re underrating Marshall i think. Ryder was a bit of icing for them.
i think steele is their most important player now. Followed probably by King.
my picking them for the 8 has more to do with how rubbish most every side i have out of the 8 looks and less to do with how the saints are going.
I don’t think they are a premiership threat but they sit pretty comfortable in the upper mid table for mine.
Did I hear Marshall has a pretty big injury atm?
seems you did, foot, possible stress fracture. there goes that point
Yeah, he is a gun no doubt, and sounds like he will be back early. Hopefully for him it doesn’t turn into one of those continuing things that drags out for a year
And the thing with this is, they have brought in a lot of players from other clubs over the last 18 months… surely that must interrupt any cohesion that club had.
We would know. We tried it and we got a lot worse.
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Yeah. The sceptic in me feels like they are reaching for a flag ahead of their time.
Given the financial stress the AFL is under due to COVID (I’m sure the saints are hit harder than most) then I can understand why. But it rarely ends well. Feels like a ‘hail mary’
Curnow one looked like he got pinged for not manning the mark and there was a couple of instances e.g. the Daniher goal and one in the West Coast game (?) where the blokes on the mark weren’t able to defend because they weren’t called to play on in time.
That’s the big issue with the rule:
- Once you’ve taken the mark you’ve got to be static until the umpire calls play on
- The umps are going to miss some deviation from the mark due to human error and line of sight / angles
- Even when they do catch it, there is a reaction time, let’s say 0.2s between when the player runs off his line and when the umpire calls play on
- Then there is a reaction time, let’s say 0.2s, between the umpires call and the player being able to act on it
0.4s in total time is absolutely heaps for someone who already has momentum behind them. If you stand the mark you’re going to get cooked
Like you said, you can put someone behind the protected area to cover the angles but then you’re leaving space in your zone and the player can still run past the mark
So either you don’t stand the mark (in which case 10m gains still become 20m gains) or you do stand the mark (in which case 10m gains still become 20m gains).
Will be a very different game, I expect the ladder to be shaken up considerably and the more forward thinking tactical clubs to prosper.
i think the trick will be to allow the play on but to force that next disposal long to a contest. good defensive structures, discpline and work rate should still be able to achieve that. we got burned beause we kept giving up uncontested marks.
i think it will open up things a bit while clubs adjust. They will adjust though.
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