How can you have found blokes charging through the middle to be sexy...interesting choice of words if we don't want to play through the middle...ever in "the history of humans" to steal a phrase

Playing the wings frustrates the hell out of me too.

But I do have to ask... do our skills allow us to play the corridor? We all know the footskills aren't great. So we kick the ball along the wing, and we turn it over, and you then hope we are able to force our opposition out wide on the rebound. Turn it over in the corridor and most sides are good enough to hit you for a goal going the other way. So maybe it is a matter of fixing up the footskills first?

Someone's been reading Talking Carlton...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

I like our gameplan.

If we win, our game plan is good, if we lose, Ratts has no game plan.

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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

Perhaps when we play more direct we win?

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Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

Perhaps when the lads play with some real desire and intensity we give ourselves a chance to win....that's the difference. It's all between the ears more than whether we have a game plan or not. If we work hard over 4 quarters we go okay. If we leave it to two or three, we are very average.

60 tackles tells the tale.

It's hard to have a decent game plan if the players play soft, 1 way footy. If the lads put in they will get the rewards.

Simple really.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Yup! Just like I said ..... Play it through the centre and it's a SEXY sight! Enjoy it boys..... Enjoy it!

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

So what do you do when we go wide, as we still did a great deal last night just quietly, close your eyes lay back and think of England? ...but like you really enjoyed the game

If someone could come up with a motivational tactic that worked for everyone no matter what their psychological make up they would make a fortune

If we could bottle that intensity and defensive pressure and couple that with a number of our youngsters getting closer to their footballing peaks and we will have a real shot at bigger things in the years to come

A few don't seem to realise that a few of the little things have always indicated that the coaches aren't quite as bad as some have thought and probably still do.

Murph has really improved his set shots for goal, Irish has improved his marking technique, Bower has improved his handballing and spoiling technique. Now you can't credit this to just the coaching as the individuals involved have to be willing to do the work and be receptive to instruction, but it has always indicated that something was going right....to me anyway It has never been just the players or the coaches when giving praise or laying blame it is a combination of the two.

Last night was a very good point for the defense Sydney and a linkage that a few advocating total football don't seem able to make

Que?

Who on earth is advocating Total Football without defensive pressure? It's a fundamental tenant of the style.

IIRC correctly posters have been upset with players not running at the opposition ball carrier and not taking on the game with speed and creativity when we have the ball. Which is the antithesis of Total Football.

However, we did all these things on Friday night (so, so, so proud of the sheparding) and I feel tops so who really gives a flower anymore.

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STURDYISM!!

True enough Total football was a poor term to use as you rightly point out, especially considering what I actually meant

I'd blame lack of sleep due to watching the cricket or ...Ratts but on reflection I've actually used it incorrectly before

I have no problem with us going wide, nor do I have a problem with the occasional flood.

I DO have a problem when that's ALL we do. And in the past 6 or so weeks, that's all we've have been doing.
- the Essendon* game.
- the collingwood game
these are both games that we should have won, but instead we opted for that bullshit style of play that has proven to be a failure.

Rafts, to his credit, decided that whilst playing the wings could still be a very handy option against Geelong, taking them on at every opportunity and keeping the ball moving could well run them off their legs.
Midfield pressure was intense and impressive too.
Very similar to Adelaide last week, except we got a better start.
Plus, like I said, Geelong have played a lot of football these past few years, they are tired and they have a lot of worn out bodies....... Run em off their feat I say. And that's exactly what we did!
You don't have to Aggree with me if you don't want, I don't really care, but sury you noticed a different style of play on Friday night compared to the crap we have dished up lately?

Well done ratts.

Play that style of football, and on our day we could beat anybody.

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Football is a simple game and certain people in the media and even on here do like to complicate it a bit.

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Delulio is a member of TISM

Fair enough Ryan I think we will have to agree to disagree as to whether going wide is something we always do. Especially considering the team who do it the most are Collingwood and they only do it as a percentage somewhere in the high thirties.

I totally agree with you that we needed to take the game on a bit more. Such as playing on more and using the running bounce more often. Offensively going wide is much more effective if your players are running closer to the forward fifty, thus still being able to access the fatside with your entries. Having players with long accurate kicks doesn't hurt. Not sure we have many of those as yet.

As you did I loved the intensity of our defensive effort

A good win

Yes, and it's also strange how criticism of those half-arsed individual player efforts are frowned upon by the TC rose-coloured-glasses set.

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There's so much I could say...

Frowned upon ... or differing views as to who we need to lock up in the stocks and fling cow poo at

Yes, great point. Collingwood do do this well. And Syndey won a premiership playing the flanks. But they do have other options. They dont JUST play the flanks.

Look at Essendon*.......... in my opinion, they play the centre of the ground better than anybody else in the leauge. They have the pace to destroy teams by burning it through the centre and have done so many times this year.
BUT................. That's all they have. And you just can't have the one option in footy these days. Hence why The Bombers are fading out now. They are tired and they are spent!
Effective style of play, sure - but if that's all you've got then it's not going to be enough.

A few years ago, Terry Wallace was deamed a master-mind for creating a 'basketball' style game plan to beat the "un-beatable" Adelaide Crows........... but this was all Terry had. And sadly, the Tigers just did not have the skills to play such high possesion 'keepings-off' football. As such, Terry was found out and a few years later, finally, he was gone.
Jade Rawlings, in the short time he has had, has shown that there is indeed a lot more Wallace could have and should have done with the Tiger players he had at his dissposal.

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Maybe Ratts has also been guilty of the same