On the Couch: The game has moved on

[liz]

Is anyone seriously arguing that the Dogs' style is the blueprint for the way the Cats and Pies have played this year? There may be some aspects they have adopted but far more significant surely has to be the intense pressure across all lines of the ground - something that owes far more to teams like the Swans over the past 3 years and the Dogs over the same period.

Furthermore, just because one or two teams have found a plan that is currently working well for them, it doesn't mean that any other style is inherently doomed for the rest of eternity, or that every other team would be best served by adopting that style.

Does it not come down to evolving a style that best uses the strengths and weaknesses of the squad at your disposal? After all, it can be no coincidence that 'Pagan's Paddock' evolved with Carey in the team.

I don't believe any one style is inherently better or worse, more or less likely to succeed than another so long as it is suited to the cattle available. Then it comes down to who is capable of best executing their plan - not to mention who is able to keep close to their best 22 on the field for most of a season and whose players are capable of executing basic footy skills, like kicking to a team mate, marking, and kicking straight for goal.

[floppinab]

Is anyone seriously arguing that the Dogs' style is the blueprint for the way the Cats and Pies have played this year? There may be some aspects they have adopted but far more significant surely has to be the intense pressure across all lines of the ground - something that owes far more to teams like the Swans over the past 3 years and the Dogs over the same period.

I couldn't help but thinking that it was standing out like a shaved pair of dogs testicarlys how much the Pies were looking like the Swans of 2H 2005 when we played them the last two times this year. It was their intense manning up when we had the footy in space thus denying us any loose man run through the middle (and causing many a turnover trying to create that run coming out of defence) and hard tackling when we had the ball within reach of Pie players (although that may be tempered somewhat by the amount of times we were incorrectly pinged for HTB).

Pies 2H 2007 = Swans 2H2005.

[Nico]

I couldn't help but thinking that it was standing out like a shaved pair of dogs testicarlys how much the Pies were looking like the Swans of 2H 2005 when we played them the last two times this year. It was their intense manning up when we had the footy in space thus denying us any loose man run through the middle (and causing many a turnover trying to create that run coming out of defence) and hard tackling when we had the ball within reach of Pie players (although that may be tempered somewhat by the amount of times we were incorrectly pinged for HTB).

Pies 2H 2007 = Swans 2H2005.

Yeh, I am still smarting after that belting. We were lucky to get as close as we did.

The reality is, apart from a handful of good players and a few battlers the Pies made us look like a bunch of second hand hacks.

The reality of the season for me was that we didn't get beaten by more than 27 points during the home and away matches and I think that is because most of our very good players produced week in week out and carried the rest of them. Goodes (2nd Half but not our worst in the first half) C Bolton, Kirk, Malceski, Fosdike (perhaps) Jolly, O'Keefe ( Kennelly injured and younger players such as Schmidt excused 50% ground time) were consistently good but the rest of them failed to have any consistency and I suspect that will be shown by a small team Brownlow vote.

That tells me that this group having been at the top level for 3 years is now on the slide and to expect this group to rise from the ashes in 2008 is folly. Hell Brisbane only stayed up for 3 years. Another year older, more war injuries, less pace, less desire and less to play for tells me that if we stick with roughly the same 22, half of them will merely be playing for wages next year. If that is the case then break out the Great Coats because it will be a long cold winter.

[NMWBloods]

Another thing about the game moving on - this year's GF is between the two highest scoring teams (by a fair way).

Geelong has the best defence but Port has only the tenth best.

[TheMase]

Yeh, I am still smarting after that belting. We were lucky to get as close as we did.

The reality is, apart from a handful of good players and a few battlers the Pies made us look like a bunch of second hand hacks.

The reality of the season for me was that we didn't get beaten by more than 27 points during the home and away matches and I think that is because most of our very good players produced week in week out and carried the rest of them. Goodes (2nd Half but not our worst in the first half) C Bolton, Kirk, Malceski, Fosdike (perhaps) Jolly, O'Keefe ( Kennelly injured and younger players such as Schmidt excused 50% ground time) were consistently good but the rest of them failed to have any consistency and I suspect that will be shown by a small team Brownlow vote.

That tells me that this group having been at the top level for 3 years is now on the slide and to expect this group to rise from the ashes in 2008 is folly. Hell Brisbane only stayed up for 3 years. Another year older, more war injuries, less pace, less desire and less to play for tells me that if we stick with roughly the same 22, half of them will merely be playing for wages next year. If that is the case then break out the Great Coats because it will be a long cold winter.

That was a great post. I am surprised it has not been better received.

[NMWBloods]

I completely agree, however this sort of sentiment - "That tells me that this group having been at the top level for 3 years is now on the slide and to expect this group to rise from the ashes in 2008 is folly" - is exactly what I've been saying for the past month or so.

[sharp9]

I don't think that the game has changed....but the game has GONE PAST Sydney.

As Collingwood and Geelong have shown, Sydney's 2005 gameplan is the motza...it'd just that these teams are far more talented than ours in attack and are as good at the pressure stuff as we were in 2005.

Nowadays our pressure is worse....(much worse....St. Kilda had great fun jogging down field without a Swans player near them to score early in the year and Geelong and Collingwood did it over and over) whilst our talent going forward has not improved at all. Theoretically we should be a match as we have a number of fabulous players, but the fact is we weren't...and as long as our midfield has all of Ablett, McVeigh, Bolton, Mathews and Fosdike in it we'll stay s***.