Well he better start showing a bit more because he’ll become like Parish and no one will want him on what he’s producing.
I’m actually a fan but he isn’t AFL standard this year.
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My daughter said to me yesterday that you don’t say anything positive anymore at the footy. She is right but there is literally nothing exciting that happens. The crowd is so quiet now. One nice Duursma mark yesterday but that was about it. I can’t think of another football year in my life with so few moments of joy. On the Daniel’s Footy Page Podcast he showed vision from the stands that he filmed yesterday. The effort of the players without the ball was quite pathetic. They were just jogging when the ball was in the vicinity with Kako, Cox, Perkins and Bryan the worst offenders. Their efforts would be used in an illustrated dictionary to define tanking and/or laziness.
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Exactly. This dates back to the days where Shiel and McGrath weren’t dropped for being lazy and not chasing. Kill one to educate a thousand
Mate you’re being pretty disrespectful to a good Blitz contibutor.
You mentioned teams in the 70’s then follow it with Copping who played in the 80’s.
Then you spell Max Crow’s name incorrectly !
C’mon man…
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I don’t think it’s just injury. But it is a factor.
Firstly, he isn’t getting prioritised in the midfield as much, so he is playing elsewhere on the field. His TOG is also down a bit. I do suspect he ‘isn’t 100%’ and he did visibly play injured in the Dreamtime game when we had no other choice, but his form before that wasn’t at the same level as last year.
I think the biggest part that has shifted though is the way the game is being played now compared to a few years ago. Caldwell is better in the contest. Both defensively and offensively, but outside the contest wasn’t a strength of his. That style worked with the forward press style of footy that was king because it was contest to contest pushing the ball forward. But the last few years, the game has opened up because team’s are combatting the forward press better and this year it’s gotten even more towards outside run and being as good outside a contest as you are inside the contest because of the stand rule meaning uncontested footy is becoming more important.
I’m not sure if he’ll ever be decent outside the contest as much as inside it or even be able to bridge the gap enough to worry the opposition. But I’m confident that Sharp and Robey are a far better balance in this aspect. I think they can develop into the good balance of inside and outside run that’ll work. Whether they actually do, is another matter.
For Caldwell, we can just wait and see. Maybe 2024/2025 were a copy of Parish’s 2021/2022 and that was his ‘ceiling’ that he’ll never reach again. Maybe Sharp and Robey experience the same situation. In the end, I hope we bring in enough talent so that those guys ‘ceilings’ can last a little longer without having the need for them to be sustainably great. I’m not sure we experience another Zach Merrett who plays at such a high level for so long whilst the players around him a worse year on year. It’s rare to get that result if your peak is mid ladder.
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FEELING GOOD PREGAME
HALF TIME
POST GAME REALITY
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What looks like jogging is actually “zoning”.
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Zoning out more like it.
None of them want to actually do they hard work and expect their teammates further up the field cover them. 3/4 of the team have zero defensive accountability about them
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There is every chance this does occur.
The problem with our prospects is they need to become top 5 players on our team whilst playing in a pretty poor system with pretty poor players. It’s unlikely you see that kind of development consistently unless you’re bringing in better talent than throwing out (which we weren’t).
But put the same player in a good system where they can be 15th or 16th best player on the team and they are well set up to get the best out of themselves without having to be great.
Draper is a good example. A lot didn’t like that he didn’t take another step in his development. I think 2025, he was on his way to taking that step until he got injured. He can easily slot in to a better team, with better support, that allows him to be him and still get the best out of himself. Joe Daniher experienced the same. He was as much of a terrible kick for goal with us as he was with Brisbane, but in a better team, he still got the best out of himself. With us, not so much. Stringer the same too.
Personally, I think Langford fits with Hawthorn perfectly and he can play the lead up forward role that Gunston plays whilst Mitchell and Chol are the get of jail kick to the pack forwards. Ridley could slot in to another team too. Whether that’s Brisbane or Gold Coast, they both have enough of a decent midfield so he isn’t torn apart in isolation and also have good defenders that he can slot in to rather than lead our dross of a defensive group.
We have some poorly skilled players. Players with rather obvious flaws, but I don’t for a second think that at another clubs with better systems and players capable of stabilising a game somewhat, that they wouldn’t find ways to get the best out of themselves. And by ‘best of themselves’ it doesn’t mean Brownlow Medalists. It could just be going from bad to average or average to good is ‘getting the best out of themselves’.
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That was 20 years ago. How’d they build the 2022 team?
Was it through VFL dominance?
Look at the last few AFL premiers and the VFL form leading in to their period of dominance…
Brisbane didn’t win a VFL premiership. Never even came close.
Collingwood haven’t won one.
Geelong last won won in 2012 (they won an AFL premiership in 2010).
Melbourne won one in 2022 (they won the AFL one in 2021).
Richmond won one in 2019 (they won their first AFL one in 2017).
Bulldogs last did it in 2014 and 2016 (won their AFL one in 2016).
Hawthorn won one in 2013 and 2001 (won their AFL one in 2013 and 2008).
The closest team that did what Geelong did was the Bulldogs. And their premiership team had Jong (lol), Goodes (the other one), Liam Jones, Tom Campbell, Sam Darley, Liam Jones, Tory Dickson and Jason Johannisen. It’s hardly a like for like in quality and development. There were multiple Brownlow Medallists / AAs in the Geelong team vs nothing from the Bulldogs one.
Geelong is probably the only team that took a dozen players from a VFL program into an AFL program. I think it makes them more the exception than the rule. Most of the better teams have successful VFL programs because they also have very few injury riddled seasons meaning they get a full list to choose for their VFL team.
I think trying to build through VFL still can work, but it’s just different. The jump up between VFL and AFL 20 years ago when Geelong did it is very different to now. In fact, it’s probably bigger because the AFL has improved and there’s a greater onus on being able to run 15km per game at varying pace, whereas VFL is still predominantly the same contest to contest footy it was 20 years ago. There’s probably also a factor that WAFL and SANFL teams pay is is better and that in some cases, EDFL pays better
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He’s not wrong but who the hell is Miles Pfizner?
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Piles Mfitzner
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Yep, the fans are now in a comatose state.
Guys I haven’t watched a full game this year. It has been great. Less stress less anger less disappointment.
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if caldwell can ever mage one of them shiel, string one off big seasons he is a must trade, unlikely, seems just another failure who will leave at some stage
I was actually just sitting here thinking, we really need to know what miles pfitzner thinks about all this…
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Cheers for pointing that out I must have missed that
As the saying goes, “winners have parties, losers have meetings”
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