Mega Thread 2025 Media & Miscellaneous Thread

[Tonga Bob]

Back by popular demand. However...

There has been some aggro from publishers of articles in recent months about sites that copypasta their content onto other sites, particularly the paywalled ones, which could lead to fines and whanot for those that do it. Apparently there are copywrite laws for these things. As a result we can no longer have full articles reposted here, so if you come across something then please refrain from nabbing the whole thing and just post the link. Quoting a paragraph or two and linking the source is fine however, just don't get greedy.

Here's the updated site-wide rule: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/please-read-re-copyright-posting-newspaper-articles.1389553/

Here's an example of what you can do:

"If West Coast was the gold standard for how to operate, then Fremantle's arrival into the AFL in 1995 could be viewed as a series of cautionary tales.

Despite eight wins in that debut season, a series of poor recruiting choices meant they didn't play their first final until 2003."

If they believe that us not making finals until 2003 was solely due to "a series of poor recruiting choices" then I have a bridge to sell them.

Can 'perennial underachievers' Fremantle become WA's biggest footy club?

For 38 years the West Coast Eagles have been WA footy's alpha male, but in the midst of their worst ever on-field run, is the balance of power shifting towards their bitter rivals Fremantle?

www.abc.net.au

Thanks for your understanding.

 

[Purple Jesus]

Imagine being Pat Voss and playing a handful of games and being called out on The Couch by Lethal for being dumb but resilient . He said something about Treacy only ‘getting it by taking marks’ or something which was interesting.

 

[Big Flappy]

Getting panned by Kingy again tonight for being by far the slowest ball movement side in the AFL showing vision of our refusal to pull the trigger to move the ball quick from half back. The question is......is this a coaching strategy or are our players in the backline not good enough kicks to take the game on and move the ball quick?

If king was such a footy genius he would be a coach. This bloke has far too much influence on the national football agenda. He is a simpleton and a troll

Go have a listen to Simpson on 360 last night if you want to hear a considered, intelligent and coherent discussion on football strategy.

 

[go_the_dockers]

Worth a listen (Duffield talking to Joe Brierty)

Didn't give a lot away, but worth a listen (only 12 minutes)

Wagner and JOM should be available.
Fyfe available for AFL.

Happy with how Simpson played on the weekend.

No guarantee if Young and Darcy plays in AFL or WAFL.

Switta should be available next week against Richmond.

 

[Taylor]

Getting panned by Kingy again tonight for being by far the slowest ball movement side in the AFL showing vision of our refusal to pull the trigger to move the ball quick from half back. The question is......is this a coaching strategy or are our players in the backline not good enough kicks to take the game on and move the ball quick?

The stat is correct that we are the slowest mover of the ball but we are the team with the most direct to goal kicking in the league too. So we don't play on fast, but our ball movement is towards the goals the most.

Geelong move it the fastest, Dogs are third fastest. If we have a problem bottling up sides that move it quick, we will have a problem Sunday.

 

[dont bowl there]

If king was such a footy genius he would be a coach. This bloke has far too much influence on the national football agenda. He is a simpleton and a troll

Go have a listen to Simpson on 360 last night if you want to hear a considered, intelligent and coherent discussion on football strategy.

Harsh on King IMO.

 

[Docker82]

I'll quote Docker82 in this because it joins two of my questions together, did you see Luke Ryan's kick into the middle of the ground? Another good ball user would be good but there are weapons there being poorly coached.

Ryan, Chapman, Clark, even Cox and Draper (for bigs) can make harder kicks but they are clearly told not too.

Is this team as elite a bunch of kicks as Hawks and Brisbane? No, but they could be backed in to help transition A LOT more.

Tbh i thought Luke Ryan was playing noticeably different on Sunday. That kick was one example but even the third goal Amiss kicked I was expecting a bomb to top of the goal square but Ryan hit him lace out.

What's frustrating about Ryan is he does those kicks occasionally but it's not like he's turning it over the other times he tries aggressive kicks - he just isn't trying them but when he does he nails them.

Chapman's 2022 highlights popped up on my YouTube suggestions the other day. Boy could he kick in 2022! You don't just lose that ability.

 

[Big Flappy]

 

[gaskin]

The stat is correct that we are the slowest mover of the ball but we are the team with the most direct to goal kicking in the league too. So we don't play on fast, but our ball movement is towards the goals the most.

We go towards goal the most but it is mainly long down the line to a contest. It would be a different story if we were hitting up leads moving the ball down the ground but we are not.

 

[Taylor]

We go towards goal the most but it is mainly long down the line to a contest. It would be a different story if we were hitting up leads moving the ball down the ground but we are not.

I'm not convinced there is a correlation between speed of ball movement and success yet, but it certainly works best playing to our strengths which should be stoppages - so forcing a stoppage down the line should play into our hands.

 

[s_wd6]

We go towards goal the most but it is mainly long down the line to a contest. It would be a different story if we were hitting up leads moving the ball down the ground but we are not.

Idk it just doesn't make sense to me. If we're going to take so long to dispose of the ball after a mark then we're much better off playing a controlled chip mark style no? In that case kicking backwards/laterally would be better. Why do you want to go long down the line after you've given the oppo the whole clock to get their defence back and set up?

 

[mattis117]

I'm not convinced there is a correlation between speed of ball movement and success yet, but it certainly works best playing to our strengths which should be stoppages - so forcing a stoppage down the line should play into our hands.

They're trying their best to correlate fast movement with winning despite Hoyne categorically saying there is no correlation between speed of ball movement and success. It's just a watchability thing, faster movement results in more chaos which is typically more exciting to watch.

Also, it's round three, teams are still figuring out how they're going to play. Things will change. The most interesting thing that I took from the whole conversation is how Freo have completely moved away from the chip mark style of play, we havent seen it once yet.

 

[EastcoastDocker]

Sydney moved it slow but they have enough good kicks to pick the eyes out of a zone defence.

Tbh i thought Luke Ryan was playing noticeably different on Sunday. That kick was one example but even the third goal Amiss kicked I was expecting a bomb to top of the goal square but Ryan hit him lace out.

What's frustrating about Ryan is he does those kicks occasionally but it's not like he's turning it over the other times he tries aggressive kicks - he just isn't trying them but when he does he nails them.

Chapman's 2022 highlights popped up on my YouTube suggestions the other day. Boy could he kick in 2022! You don't just lose that ability.

The curious case of Luke Ryan's kicking. He has it in him, it's baffling why he doesn't go for it. Surely it must be coaching because nothing about Luke Ryan screams conservative or overly disciplined.

 

[DragoDelph]

They're trying their best to correlate fast movement with winning despite Hoyne categorically saying there is no correlation between speed of ball movement and success. It's just a watchability thing, faster movement results in more chaos which is typically more exciting to watch.

Also, it's round three, teams are still figuring out how they're going to play. Things will change. The most interesting thing that I took from the whole conversation is how Freo have completely moved away from the chip mark style of play, we havent seen it once yet.

And yet, the essendon/port game was abysmal.

And if carlton hadn't have tried to match richmonds speed and slowed things down....

 

[dont bowl there]

There is no hard rule for every team regarding movement of the ball, however we have played slow for years now and have had zero success...so it might be good to try and change.

 

[Mags98]

i guess the thinking is we dont have the necessary skills (somehow) to play those short accurate kicks or risky incisive kicks into the centre of the ground at pace so instead we hold the ball up and kick long down the line and hope we out mark the opponent (hasnt happened) or create a stoppage and then win the clearance with structures able to be set up (also hasnt happened)

not sure where that leaves us tbh

 

[dont bowl there]

i guess the thinking is we dont have the necessary skills (somehow) to play those short accurate kicks or risky incisive kicks into the centre of the ground at pace so instead we hold the ball up and kick long down the line and hope we out mark the opponent (hasnt happened) or create a stoppage and then win the clearance with structures able to be set up (also hasnt happened)

not sure where that leaves us tbh

Leaves us missing the 8 more often than not IMO.

 

[malpaso]

Just LOL on everyone thinking we should move the ball faster. Just look at how many opportunities we butchered going forward against the Eagles, if that had been any other team we would have paid the price going the other way and as it was we gave the Eagles plenty of goals.
With our current list, we cannot move the ball faster, the kicking skill isn't there in enough players and our cohesion forward of the ball is patchy at best.

 

[stax on the mull]

Towards the end of this interview there's a little bit about ball movement in the questions Lee Spurr asks Josh Treacy post Derby - as an indication that they're discussing it. I didn't hear the pre-game interview with Joel Corey that's referred to.

 

[Bringbacktheeighties]

King's take on the new speed of ball movement stats lack nuance. Hoyne gives a more well-rounded take on it. Fast ≠ good, slow ≠ bad. Brisbane were the fastest team by foot last season. Collingwood were the slowest by foot in 2023 (though fastest by hand). Geelong went faster and won a flag. Sydney are and have been a slow ball movement team. The worst thing you can do as a team is copy a blueprint that doesn't fit your list profile. Melbourne and Port Adelaide prime examples right now.

There's also 3 aspects to the speed of ball movement stats: quickness of disposal from possession, distance of disposal, and distance of disposal gained towards goal. Freo hold onto the ball the longest, but gain the most metres towards goal per disposal (which is a change from the usual hold onto the ball, backwards, sideways, uncontested marking game).



Now it may well be that there's a more optimal style to fit our list profile. But King boils it down to "fast good, slow bad", which is way too simplistic.

Yes I agree that it’s not black and white but we do seem to wait and not pull the trigger on first option sometimes.
We see someone run past with a player 1 metre behind and don’t give it. Other sides do. We see a lead towards the kicker but don’t kick it because it was too soon to be confident it will work.

You could argue for JL that his method gains more metres but the stats say we don’t win when it matters.

Also don’t agree with King pushing for Hayden Young to go back. Find someone else. We need a Fyfe replacement and the closest we have is Young. Johnson does not have the same class.

 

[Dockeroo]

Just LOL on everyone thinking we should move the ball faster. Just look at how many opportunities we butchered going forward against the Eagles, if that had been any other team we would have paid the price going the other way and as it was we gave the Eagles plenty of goals.
With our current list, we cannot move the ball faster, the kicking skill isn't there in enough players and our cohesion forward of the ball is patchy at best.

This is an interesting theory. If it’s true, then I guess it means our players and list are simply not good enough to compete?
If so - where to next for this club?
Not saying I agree or disagree but posing the obvious question in response to your theory..

 

[Purple Jesus]

Harsh on King IMO.

No it's not harsh enough. King is a grade A flog.

 

[Docker82]

This is an interesting theory. If it’s true, then I guess it means our players and list are simply not good enough to compete?
If so - where to next for this club?
Not saying I agree or disagree but posing the obvious question in response to your theory..

Thought West Coast pressured okay until late in the game tbh.

The lack talent of their team meant they couldn’t hurt us the other way.

 

[Minz]

No it's not harsh enough. King is a grade A flog.

Met the bloke when I was playing footy back in the day, and he was still playing. Was very decent

 

[Vimal Anand]

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Dale147]