If you don’t think that at the elite level, what separates most is above the shoulders.
Look at Motlop last night.
Switched on, focused and played to his potential.
Poles apart from last week and the last few years.
Chris Scott ■■■■■ me to no end, but whatever he said was pretty special to get the best out of every single player last night.
Geelong have wayyyy more run in midfield than us. As such they can get to more contests, spread more, pressure more, present more.
The tagger who did job on Kennedy is an elite runner.
And also on the bigger ground they exposed Swans as well based on their running power.
I fully expect our midfield mix to change significantly next season.
Absolutely spot on Speedy.
Chemistry is critical. We had very little midfield chemistry this year.
Swans have also proven to be very beatable at the MCG in big games because the ground is different. horse probably needs to alter their gameplan so they are less invincible at the SCG but more effective at the MCG.
But I think MCGRath and Parish are very busy players that will bring others into the game. They are automatic upgrades on our 2017 midfiled in my opinion
Chris Scott is the most underrated coach of the modern era. He’s brilliant
A lot of Cats supporters on big footy hate him, He seems ok to me.
This x 1,000,000!!!
You mean we’re now “Ninthdon” ?
What’s he done to deserve that accolade ? The premiership in his first season was down to his predecessor. Since then he’s spun his wheels. We beat Geelong comfortably enough in Round 8.
Relevant for our recruiting strategy and those who think we’re closer to a flag than we really are…
BOMBERS NOT READY FOR FLAG FAIRYTALE
ESSENDON great Tim Watson doesn’t believe the Bombers are capable of replicating the Western Bulldogs and Richmond’s fairytale premierships.
The Bombers made a surprise return to finals this year after finishing last in 2016 in the wake of the club’s supplements scandal suspensions.
The Bulldogs and Tigers broke long droughts in 2016 and 2017 but Watson - a three-time premiership Bombers - said it was highly unlikely his club could follow suit.
“If that’s the new way to play, we are a long way away from being able to produce that consistently so we are able to compete for a flag,” Watson told SEN.
“You can fall into the eight or you can find your way into the eight because you have a draw that might be a bit favourable to you and I think that’s what happened with Essendon.
“I would think we are a fair way off being able to compete for a flag based on what I’ve seen over the weekend and from what I saw over the course of the season for the Bombers.
“That’s one of the great challenges now. I think Essendon play a great brand of football. It’s open, it’s lively and it’s exciting, but the gap between attack and defence is too broad for me as an Essendon fan to think we can be a flag contender at the end of next year.”
Richmond became the first club in VFL/AFL history to come from 13th the previous year and win the premiership. Essendon finished eighth this year.
Instead, Watson nominated the club that finished 13th this year, Collingwood, to be the big surprise.
Wato taking the ■■■■.
Fk all sides came anywhere near the Tigers or Dogs pressure of 2016, so he can say that about most
On the back of talk in the parish thread I just went and watched the first quarter again. He was very good, brave, clean and composed. Ditto McGrath.
Now for some grizzles.
Should still have been a goal up at quarter time.
Gleeson BOG for the Bombers by a mile.
his bit of play to set up hepp for what should have been a mark and shot on goal at the end of the quarter was exceptional
Based upon this i decided to watch again myself. Got mostly through the second quarter until i started to feel a bit sick watching it so switched off. You are right, Parish was superb, lead the possession count in the first quarter with 9 and his hands were clean. Makes me question why the hell worsfold started the second quarter with jobe and hep in at the centre bounces, something that never worked the entire season and parish was on the bench. Once that happened we got smashed out of the center and it was game over within about 5 minutes. So yeh on reflection our young guys parish, gleeson and mcgrath were better than i thought, our experienced leadership guys hurley, hepp (both played terribly)… then jobe, zaharakis, z merrett (those 3 not as bad but still ordinary) were much worse than i even remembered. Also in the first we were more in the contest than i remembered and played well.
May be Parish does not yet have the physical maturity and body strength/physique of McGrath and others to play four quarters in that position.?
By the end of the first quarter, in spite of good play by Parish in the midfield, we were behind on clearances about 14 to 6.
IMO the coaches reacted by putting 2 big bodies in the middle to redress the issue. It. Did. Not. Work.
It was game over by half time, and we then started to even up the clearances, sydney had taken their foot off the accelerator.
I think a big part of their clearance was tbell getting absolutely schooled
God there are some masochistic folk on this forum.
I checked to see 50 odd posts unread in this thread and read only the previous one to this one and none previous. Why would anyone have any desire to ruminate over that night is beyond me.
Yeah. 1984-5 GFs for me!