Adrian Anderson its not because of you

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...-goals-20110713-1he3a.html?rand=1310567881390

Earth to Ando, it's because of Mick that the game's improved, not you.

The only counter to the press is long kicking which leads to contested marks. The key to the press is winning contested ball and clearances.

But as for the injuries, well congratulations. Because of you General Soreness afflicts every team, with Geelong now not playing their champions because they can't get them through a season.

Thanks to you players now might play 80% of game time, but now play 10% less games.

Don't know about you but I'd prefer to see my champs play every round but have appropriate break time on the bench, rather than seeing these games where the general soreness reason is wheeled out.

So Ando, it's your fault for creating the needless injuries, and it's thanks to Mick (and Ross/Clarko in genesis) that we have now a much stronger contested game.


end rant

 

Wantfrees is the perfect nickname

I think the key is if you cry wolf too many times people won't listen to you.

Maybe one of the classics I tend to recall was Nick Davis was always that sort of player to fake a free. Then in the critical closure to the GF in 2006, I think Banfield had a 50-50 decision go his way, and the Eagles won by a point.

Not sure if this is apocryphal or true, but someone watching the 2006 GF can confirm.

As if one would need to have any excuse to watch that game - a classic of Australian Rules footy.

 

Just waiting for Brownlow night. Go Sam Mitchell go!

 

Yeah/nah

Swert if you did that you'd have players on the field probably 3 of every 4 games.

So Franklin would maybe be on the park 15 times a year.

It's a different game and it's moved past the 90s game, in quite a few ways for the better.

You want to watch ugly games of football, then the 1990 grand final is one of them.

The whole reason why Geelong brought their game in, and the Magpies perfected the zones was because of the Sydney game plan of the mid to late 1990s under Eade which was the flood.

Basically you can't wind back the clock and think well if we just go back to the 1990s we get our champion goal kickers and amazing midfielders, because the strategy of the game went past that.

To stop Dunstall, Ablett and Lockett these days would be as simple as stopping Riewoldt and Brown. Two on one. You can do that even without interchange, you just have defence-minded coaches imploring a 7 v 5 defence.

Rolling zones like Collingwoods allow the Pies to play a forward line where defensive zones don't impose on them the way to play.

If Franklin played at Collingwood I have little doubt given the Pies rolling zone he'd kick 110 goals a year.

To stop great mids in the mid to late 90s and onwards, it was simple to put a tagger in place, and reduce the game to stoppages. This meant that great players had to change their game styles (e.g Judd early 2000s to now) to become more contested ball beasts rather than pure skill alone.

These days with rotations, it's very difficult for a tagger to get a fixed sight on a great player, with the obvious impact of seeing champs dominating games (e.g. Judd)

I wish we can go back to a more man-on-man contest, but less interchange is not the way.

 

Possibly Swert I'll give you that.

Bombers tactic in 2000 was only beaten by what was then a hyper flood but would now be called a downpour.

TBH Bombers in 2000 were that strong only because the opposition (bar Carlton) was at a low ebb. Only a theory mind you, haven't the data to prove it.

I guess the main issue I see is tactics come and go, but having a situation where best players miss games is not advantageous for the league.

I'd prefer to see my team's players not miss a game (ala Stynes, Swan even) as distinct to the incessant resting required because of sub rule.

 

Canada, stay here and you will find some of them out, just through our discussions.

Not sure how easily you will find these out because the game changes on a yearly basis, mainly in line with rule changes.

If the AFL stopped changing the rules, I think we could see some dominant styles and counter-styles formulating a lot more readily.