Even the best sides don’t play well every week. You just need to bank the wins and hopefully your fit and firing when it matters.
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But we would if we were smart.
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Maybe I’ve missed it, but I’m not seeing a whole lot of commentary in here of people lamenting Stringers departure and suggesting our forward line desperately needs him.
I hope he has good success at GWS but last night was a good example of finding near 100 points without him.
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Someone mentioned elsewhere at a player event it was implied the club and list overall were pretty happy he left, something along those lines
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They are picking young sides without being silly picking skinny underdeveloped prospects and playing a style that seems to work.
If we win games we win games, you can’t suggest we intentionally throw matches, that’s a Melbourne thing.
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Caldwell made some comments previously about whilst he kicked 40+ goals, there were goals cost the other way due to lack of forward pressure.
It was on 7 news before the start of the season IIRC.
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Seven to eight of those guys will be picked by Brad every game when fit.
As a supporter, Injuries have been a blessing in a way for some as it’s given kids with a higher upside a chance.
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Our pressure was up and gameplan was there to beat melbourne, we did it well and did not give them an opportunity to get their game going.
Its silly to discredit the win because melbourne werent " at the top of their game " How many teams that lose did it at the " top of their game", zero is the answer.
Winning and losing is going the best you can while trying to restrict the opposition from doing the best they can. We did that better than melbourne who were desperate to not go 0 -5.
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I thought the game plan was pretty good. What we really need is player development to continue to improve and have a break from injuries for a change.
Really like the current crop of young players. A lot of potential there.
Hopefully 
the club has finally addressed or is in the process of doing something about the obvious shortcomings of past our coaching teams, processes and programs.
Time will tell…
As I said, we would if we were smart.
Our last 2 wins were a similar style of game to the Geelong preseason game, so maybe we need to give more credence to that game and that win
They were BOG
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Pretty funny hahaaa
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Quite possibly the final 8 is basically settled after only 5 rounds.
Could be a very long season for at least 7 clubs.
Dogs and Swans are massive chances of making the top 8 - people forget they are both missing 3 or 4 of their top players at the moment and still hanging in there.
I can’t see either winning the flag but they are dangerous.
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King said we came in with a plan to expose Melbournes weakness and excuted it perfectly he was very impressed
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I remember you were the eternal optimist last year and I told you we’d lose to the dees in the wet even though they were paying $3.50.
Now you’re a pessimist, which is fair enough after 20 years of ■■■■.
But in defence of our games the past couple of weeks - you can only play as good as your opponent lets you.
That saying couldn’t be more true than it is in AFL nowadays
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Belated review I know, but @Heffsgirl did ask nicely. I’ve now had the benefit of watching the replay after watching on TV last night.
That was the most enjoyable, and, in some ways, most complete win we have had under Brad Scott - made all the meritorious by the fact we lost our #1 ruckman in the first 10 minutes and had to restructure.
In the course of 2 weeks Scott has had an epiphany on team structure and gameplan or someone has been at him to make the changes. Part of our win last was built on what I saw in the game against Port Adelaide. Across the two games the changes seem to be:
- Balanced forward line structure - 3 talls, 3 smalls (has never happened before under Scott) and a hybrid who could be both (Perkins). We look way more dangerous up forward than earlier in the season. It’s no coincidence to see Menzies play well in this structure, as a small forward and not a high half forward role where he spends more time up the ground than inside F50.
- Much more 1:1 and much less zoning. Multiple times last night you could see this on the vision. It’s what kept Melbourne from having any flow in their game. they kept looking up and kept hesitating.
- Finally, we have decided not use an extra at a stoppage but have a spare back ourselves by having one of the mids drop back and bring a forward up to the stoppage. Gary Lyon actually called this out late in Q2 when, at a midfield stoppage, Martin dropped back and called Jones up to take his opponent. We continually won the ball off HB this way and the patiently moved the ball up the ground by players spreading and being in space as Melbourne players stayed too much in the corridor. We were aided by the Demons using Bowey as their spare - his kicking was poor most of the time. He went at only 65.2% efficiency despite having time and space to use the ball. Ridley was often our spare and he went at 88.5% efficiency. That comparison there sums up the game.
We also looked very switched on from the start and the players looked like they believed they could win so largely stuck with the game plan not bomb the ball forward.
It’s a pity Bryan went down because we looked most dangerous with Jones playing his natural role as a hit up CHF and taking 2 marks early on and kicking 1.1. Draper then had to play main ruck with Jones changing roles to play as the tall forward/back up ruck. Caddy and Perkins took turns then playing the Jones role. Yet, we didn’t seem to miss a beat.
The only concern was losing the centre clearances as badly as we did - we won’t get off so lightly against a better side. It was probably the only poor part of our game.
The best part was our discipline not to bomb the ball, often doing bounce, dribble short passes to a smaller forward. It created a couple of goals and robbed Melbourne of the use of their intercept marking (already badly affected by Lever’s absence).
Draper reinforced what i have seen live in the first 3 games - he is the most important player to us structurally and spiritually with his contested marking and bullocking style - he is a very difficult player to bring down. He now becomes our #1 ruckman. His dual with Gawn was the best battle of the night - Gawn winning the tap outs but Draper taking great marks and making contests around the ground.
The questions is where to from here. We go west to play the Eagles who, according to my Blues loving brother-in-law were so bad that a VFL side would beat them. He said the Carlton-Eagles was the worst game, skills-wise, he had ever seen. Historically, this is the sort of game we find a way to stuff up. By this time next week we will know whether the last 2 weeks were a flash-in-the-pan of whether we generally are on the way to becoming a good side with plenty of youth in the team.
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Thank you BWAS, that was great. I to thought it was a good win
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Thank you very much.
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