Adelaide just gave Port Adelaide an absolute shalacking in their darby today. Camera showed Denis in the crowd watching on and i'm sure he picked up some info just as i did.

Adelaide did what we must do. They ran.
3 key forwards stayed in the 50, 3 key backs stayed in defensive 50 the rest flooded the midfield. You heard me, flooded the midfield. Everywhere the ball went it was followed and swooped on by a nest of crows. They would be stuffed now....but flower happy with their win.

Ruck:
Barnaby French has been in stellar form for the last month, the only problem is no-one can read him. 80 hit-outs in 3 games and nowhere near as many clearences or goals for that matter. I've always been a supporter of Port's ruck department but they were killed today, i believe Barnaby can do the same. Communication is the key. The rovers must know where he is going to hit it....or at least where he will try and hit it.

Midfield:
Port struggled very much in the midfield. Adelaide just had too many numbers and sooooo much pace. Bannister, Chambers and Walker should/need to play next weekend because they will be superior to the slow moving Port. By having numbers around the ball and tackling fiercly, we will win the all important midfield battle. It got too intence for Port and they kept on making stupid skill errors. Mind you Adelaide did some stupid things too but their second efforts were top-shelf. Running with team-mates will also help us. Port has a very attacking style of defence....they belive they can and will beat their opponent and keep running around pointlessly.

which brings me to....
Defence:
WOW. Adelaide shut down Port's attack so well. Our Wizard Cup defence would work so very well on Port. Have an actual opponent on Tredrea, but have Skinny or Teague to double team and cut off the passes to him. Port always look for Tredrea because their other avenue of goal is one of their 3 rotating ruckmen who could be shutdown easily. But the absence of both Livingston and T-Bird have been sorely missed and we really don't have any other quality defenders. Hopefully Livo is back this week and Thornton soon because we can't afford to have them out much longer. Although it has been critisised in the last few weeks, flooding the backline would work very well. There full forward (1 of 3 ruckmen) are not fast paced and therefore could be stopped on the lead. A double team on Warren would hopefully shut him down as it did today. The only worry is goals from midfielders. It was basically midfielders who scored for them today, but if the pressure is intense enough....as i said, we could slow them up.

Forwards:
Our forwards are our team. If the Fev and Lance show is on song, we usually win easily. Adelaides forwards goaled from marking on the lead. The difference however, was not how much space they had, but the space they used. They lead in all directions and broke away from their players. Wakelin (i think thats his name) was good for the best part, and would give Fev a hard time but if Fev leads properly, follows up on his attempts and uses all his skills in marking that we saw in the Wizzer, he can play well. Quite honestly Eddie Betts should have been thriving on the last few games. There were soooo many crums for the taking....dont get me rong, what he has done has been great. But if Fev and Lance are dropping them then Eddie needs to fire if we are going to win. A smaller but more athletic CHF would play very well as Chad Cornes seems to like one-on-one contests and would be beaten by a faster more skilled player (Lappin?). But what it all comes down to is delivery. Kicks must be on the better side of the scale. Fev and Lance can grab them if the delivery is precise enough. Goals from our midfielders would be appreciated as Port tend to have a kind of flooding....or rather an extra man in defence at times in some games.

Given what i saw today, and similarities between Adelaide and us, a similar game plan to that of Adelaide would work well. Maybe not instantly, but Adeliade had sooooo much run and endurance to literally run away with the win. Port are slow and rely on marking.
We need this win and today showed it's not impossible to do.
Can we do it? I'm sure Denis got some good ideas from what he saw today....

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R A D I C A L B R O T H E R S

Inspired by the One-Minute Sculptures of Erwin Wurm

"All in all is all we are..."

Denis can have all the ideas he wants in the world.

Our players need to want to win but they just don't seem to want it at the moment.

I think game-day denis needs to lift also - don't get me wrong - very good coach but seems to let the game just drift by and is reactive but generally too late - denis needs to be more proactive on game day.

we need to make sweeping changes this week too - to shake everyone up so they realise this means business.

lots of pace needs to come into the side at the expense of several lazy egos

80% of the post was based on team tactics yet u focus on the few sentences i wrote bout Denis?

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R A D I C A L B R O T H E R S

Inspired by the One-Minute Sculptures of Erwin Wurm

"All in all is all we are..."

Great post Shag.

Good work Shagger.

Sorry about having to sit through a Port v. Adelaide match. That deserves a badge.

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This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

excellent post Shag.

Must we also consider Longmuir this week

He's only played 1 1/2 games all year and only joined in full training for 3-4 weeks. Given he'll play forward, and a forward line of Fev, Red, Deluca, Waite, Lappin (perhaps), Davies and Betts - are we that desperate? You'd have thought they'd give him a while to show himself off.

There is one more problem with the ruck, he's got no back up, he needs it, we need it, desperately.

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Today, when I take a close look at my Baggy Green, as I often do, I see mateship, camaraderie and teamwork, and a sense of belonging. I hope that its legacy lives on and the spirit it provides stays strong. Stephen 'Tugga' Waugh - Never Say Die.

What needs to happen?

An effort worthy of recognition.

The rest will take care of itself.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

Can we get Clive Waterhouse on the list before Saturday night?

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Is that you Cammo?????

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Today, when I take a close look at my Baggy Green, as I often do, I see mateship, camaraderie and teamwork, and a sense of belonging. I hope that its legacy lives on and the spirit it provides stays strong. Stephen 'Tugga' Waugh - Never Say Die.

No its not and I couldn't remember who it was on the Clive Waterhouse fan club either...but there you go, in honor of Cammo, lets get Clive on the list before Saturday.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Ahhh Cammo and his love for Clive, memories!!

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Today, when I take a close look at my Baggy Green, as I often do, I see mateship, camaraderie and teamwork, and a sense of belonging. I hope that its legacy lives on and the spirit it provides stays strong. Stephen 'Tugga' Waugh - Never Say Die.

Good observations there Shag.

Agree that the players need to be in the right frame of mind for any of these suggestions to work, for whatever reason we've lacked concentration and never really reached the highs of the Wizzer Cup yet.

The midfield flooding sounds interesting though.

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Sorry ! Wasn't trying to undervalue your post or ideas i just think that our guys need to give a little effort before any tactic or idea in the world will work for us.

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.