Changes for Rnd 20 V Geelong

[Ludwig]

What's wrong with Tippett/Reid/Sinclair?

Tippett is easily our best ruckman IF he's fit, needs to play seniors in preparation for finals.

Reid and Sinclair are quite agile for their size, and I suspect Reid and Buddy will rotate between each other i50 and up the ground. Having Sinclair at FF will allow guys like Rohan and Reid to get mismatches.

Can't point to our 0-6 as difinitive "proof" this lineup doesn't work. Everyone was playing badly, and our hardness/pressure around the ball was down. If we get 50+ i50s our forward line will be hard to stop

I can see your point. I, for one, have not referenced the 2 ruckmen in the 0-6 start, but include those games that we also won, but felt we could do better if structured differently.

Maybe the thinking is that we are playing 3 talls coming back from injury, if we include Sinclair's ankle roll. So perhaps they will have some limited game time and may see a game time split something like Tippett, Sinclair and Reid with 70% each and Buddy with 90%, so we only have 3 of the 4 on the ground at any one time, and If we do have 4 it might be Reid playing deep in defence as he often does at the end of quarters, or perhaps Reid playing a bit through the midfield.

I think it's a mistake playing 2 ruckmen because regardless of who we play in the ruck we will probably lose the hitouts to Smith, so we should play to defend the ball from the stoppages and it would be useful not to have a superfluous ruckman.

I'm worried about the mismatches that we experienced with Hawthorn with Geelong having 3 tall forwards plus Mackie playing through the midfield, clearly ready to pull a Roughy on us, go forward and get a matchup on Hanners or Lloyd. That's why I thought we would be better served with having Aliir in the side instead of Sinkers.

[Blood Fever]

I confess that some of those results surprise me. I'd have expected Clarkson to be higher, and I'm baffled by why Scott and Hinkley are deemed to be the hardest to coach against. Both seem - to me at least - to be something of "one trick ponies" in their approach to game style. I can understand why Lyon, Clarkson and Beveridge would be deemed to be hard to coach against. They might not always have the best cattle available, but they tend to throw things around, and give opposition teams something different to look at.

I think Longmire is probably a one-trick pony in that he has developed a style of football that suits the squad he has available to him and stands up most of the time. The team is rarely uncompetitive unless decimated by injury (putting aside the 2014 GF). He backs his side to be deliver "their style" of footy more often than not, and also backs it to gets results more often than not.

Clubs have many constraints that affect performance / results and one (often overlooked) is the time available to drill the squad. Coaching teams therefore have to make a choice between drilling their squad to play a certain way and to play it as well as they can, versus building in some flexibility into the way a team can play. It's a trade off, and if you think you have the cattle to play a style that will be effective most of the time, I don't think it's an inherently bad choice to focus most of the available training time on honing that style to the highest degree.

A lot of coaches didn't rate a mention. Also coaches could be playing games with their votes. Wouldn't take too much notice. Every team has match up problems against other teams. Doesn't mean the style they play is necessarily flawed. We recruit players to play a role in our high pressure system. Hawthorn obviously recruit and train up players who are excellent kicks and their style matches up well on us. If we play to our potential, we easily beat most teams. Longmire has been very good at getting consistent highly intense effort and pressure over a long period of time. We peaked in this area in the Prelim last year and niggling injuries cost us in GF. Can't win them all but our system has got us to 3 GFs in 5 years. Highly effective with the squads we assemble.

[Ludwig]

I confess that some of those results surprise me. I'd have expected Clarkson to be higher, and I'm baffled by why Scott and Hinkley are deemed to be the hardest to coach against. Both seem - to me at least - to be something of "one trick ponies" in their approach to game style. I can understand why Lyon, Clarkson and Beveridge would be deemed to be hard to coach against. They might not always have the best cattle available, but they tend to throw things around, and give opposition teams something different to look at.

I think Longmire is probably a one-trick pony in that he has developed a style of football that suits the squad he has available to him and stands up most of the time. The team is rarely uncompetitive unless decimated by injury (putting aside the 2014 GF). He backs his side to be deliver "their style" of footy more often than not, and also backs it to gets results more often than not.

Clubs have many constraints that affect performance / results and one (often overlooked) is the time available to drill the squad. Coaching teams therefore have to make a choice between drilling their squad to play a certain way and to play it as well as they can, versus building in some flexibility into the way a team can play. It's a trade off, and if you think you have the cattle to play a style that will be effective most of the time, I don't think it's an inherently bad choice to focus most of the available training time on honing that style to the highest degree.

One of the things I like about Longmire is exactly what you've stated. He love consistent predictable football, so practices the basics to get the structure and playing style he wants. My only real complaint is that he can stubbornly stick to a system even when changing times and game styles from opposition clubs demand some change. It's good that we are predictable to ourselves, but it also makes us predictable to others, which is why the best coaches find weaknesses in our game and exploit them.

We don't have enough unpredictable players. We have Buddy, Jones and to some extent Rohan. I've been pushing for Aliir to play because he's one of those kind of players that can get other sides worried. We need a bit more of that.

[Hotpotato]

Can our boys play in 8 degrees , if windy add an extra chill factor?
Bloody cold as .

[liz]

We don't have enough unpredictable players. We have Buddy, Jones and to some extent Rohan. I've been pushing for Aliir to play because he's one of those kind of players that can get other sides worried. We need a bit more of that.

Players who are unpredictable to the opposition can also be unpredictable to team mates. Sometimes - especially in today's highly drilled football - it only takes one player on a team not to play to the team structure for the whole thing to collapse. People (rightly) laud Clarkson for what he's achieved, but his sides have played the most structured football of any side in recent seasons. Yes, he changes it up sometimes to confuse the opposition, but his players always play highly structured footy.

I also dispute how unpredictable Buddy is. He can do things no other player can do (most noticeably, launch plausible shots on goal from 60m out and off one step) but I don't think that makes him unpredictable, per se. It just makes him hard to defend when he is "on".

Leo Barry - now that was unpredictability. Even he didn't know what he was going to do next most of the time...

[Flying South]

I've been pushing for Aliir to play

Really???? You wouldn't know.

[Ludwig]

Leo Barry - now that was unpredictability. Even he didn't know what he was going to do next most of the time...

How true! And that's what we loved about Leo, and Kennelly too. When they got near the ball you felt something special was going to happen.

Buddy's got that anticipation of something special is about to occur, and Rohan and Jones have it as less, albeit to a lesser extent. With Aliir, I think we've seen enough from last year to know that he's in this category as well. These are the players that really make footy enjoyable.

[RogueSwan]

Players who are unpredictable to the opposition can also be unpredictable to team mates. ...
Leo Barry - now that was unpredictability. Even he didn't know what he was going to do next most of the time...

How true! And that's what we loved about Leo, and Kennelly too. When they got near the ball you felt something special was going to happen.

Buddy's got that anticipation of something special is about to occur, and Rohan and Jones have it as less, albeit to a lesser extent. With Aliir, I think we've seen enough from last year to know that he's in this category as well. These are the players that really make footy enjoyable.

"Unpredictable" is probably not the right word but they are players that can take on anyone and turn a game with just a few touches. I would add Parker to that group too (think big marks in F50) but we just haven't seen it with Luke this year.

[barry]

Hawthorn beat us with a one ruckman team.

[Markwebbos]

Hawthorn beat us with a one ruckman team.

+1 and their ruckman was BOG

[crackedactor]

+1 and their ruckman was BOG

Who said Tippett is our best ruckman??? he is a dinosaur and AFL football has gone past him and I for one are most annoyed he was selected, obviously based on his form 2 to 3 years ago. Expect another feeble effort tonight. Also completed P#### Off, they still cannot find a place for Dawson??? What is Horse Thinking?

[Go Swannies]

Who said Tippett is our best ruckman??? he is a dinosaur and AFL football has gone past him and I for one are most annoyed he was selected, obviously based on his form 2 to 3 years ago. Expect another feeble effort tonight. Also completed P#### Off, they still cannot find a place for Dawson??? What is Horse Thinking?

Maybe this - fromThe Roar preview:
"That hints at how the Swans think this one will be played. For much of the game Sydney will have three tall players rolling through the forward half of the ground and, depending on where Lance Franklin plays, they could all be high marking targets.This smells like a direct response to Geelong�s defensive structures, which are oh-so potent on their home ground. In their four outings at Kardinia Park this season the Cats have a contested mark differential of +4.3, with a lone 16-16 break even against Port Adelaide in Round 10."