Coach Justin Longmuir Pt 2

[dominguez]

Agree - to a point. When we're not the youngest and least experienced team going around, then expectations become concrete.

You could be the youngest team every week if you wanted to be though. That excuse doesn't count after 1 finals appearance in a decade, the rebuilt can't last for infinity.

If we add Fyfe, Walters, Aish and Darcy to the side over the next month are we still the youngest? If Brodie got a game when we have midfielders injured, and if we had done more to keep Meek and Acres are we the youngest team in the comp?

 

[Purple Jesus]

You could be the youngest team every week if you wanted to be though. That excuse doesn't count after 1 finals appearance in a decade, the rebuilt can't last for infinity.

If we add Fyfe, Walters, Aish and Darcy to the side over the next month are we still the youngest? If Brodie got a game when we have midfielders injured, and if we had done more to keep Meek and Acres are we the youngest team in the comp?

Brodie’s not getting a game because he has one club and we don’t need it.

I’m talking about we have had available thus far. If we replace add 40 years to the total age and 1000 games, what do you reckon it’ll do to the average?

 

[Kapow!!!]

Brodie’s not getting a game because he has one club and we don’t need it.

I’m talking about we have had available thus far. If we replace add 40 years to the total age and 1000 games, what do you reckon it’ll do to the average?

In fairness to Brodie: We have and to an extent still need that club

In fairness to JL and the selection committee: We don't need one club players, the lack of other clubs in the bag makes his selection a net loss on others like Erasmus et. al.

 

[estibador]

Dimma got the 7th year and delivered, JLo on his 6th.

But Dimma also had Richmond playing finals in his 4th, 5th and 6th years before having the down year in his 7th.

JLo so far has one finals appearance in his 3rd year out of 5.

 

[DocT]

But Dimma also had Richmond playing finals in his 4th, 5th and 6th years before having the down year in his 7th.

JLo so far has one finals appearance in his 3rd year out of 5.

I'm not on the JLo train but Dimma's finals record after 7 years at the Tiges was 3 games for 3 losses, 0/3. JLo's is 1/2 after 5 years.

 

[estibador]

I'm not on the JLo train but Dimma's finals record after 7 years at the Tiges was 3 games for 3 losses, 0/3. JLo's is 1/2 after 5 years.

One of my biggest worries with JLo is these last two years of going backwards and missing finals when we should have made it is eerily reminiscent of CC missing the finals with a good squad in 04 and 05 after going backwards from 03. It left us criminally short of finals experience when we made our run in 06 and arguably cost us a premiership.

We're a younger squad now and it hopefully won't be such a short window, but even going 0-2 from losing EF's in the last two years would have been invaluable experience in battle hardening up the team for when our real push comes.

As they say, history might not repeat but it often rhymes.

 

[Wigarus]

One of my biggest worries with JLo is these last two years of going backwards and missing finals when we should have made it is eerily reminiscent of CC missing the finals with a good squad in 04 and 05 after going backwards from 03. It left us criminally short of finals experience when we made our run in 06 and arguably cost us a premiership.

We're a younger squad now and it hopefully won't be such a short window, but even going 0-2 from losing EF's in the last two years would have been invaluable experience in battle hardening up the team for when our real push comes.

As they say, history might not repeat but it often rhymes.

Wow, so his coaching career is playing out like his playing career?

That's some crazy kind of coincidence.

 

[King Huskii]

Wow, so his coaching career is playing out like his playing career?

That's some crazy kind of coincidence.

His playing career has nothing to do with his coaching career

Your understanding of the game is limited by your lack of football playing and coaching experience which is nil.

 

[Dockeroo]

One of my biggest worries with JLo is these last two years of going backwards and missing finals when we should have made it is eerily reminiscent of CC missing the finals with a good squad in 04 and 05 after going backwards from 03. It left us criminally short of finals experience when we made our run in 06 and arguably cost us a premiership.

We're a younger squad now and it hopefully won't be such a short window, but even going 0-2 from losing EF's in the last two years would have been invaluable experience in battle hardening up the team for when our real push comes.

As they say, history might not repeat but it often rhymes.

This is exactly why it was so infuriating to miss out on finals last year in that Port Adelaide game.
That was a disgraceful effort given what was on the line that day.

The club were very clever though, getting Ryan Daniels to drop the Pickett trade news the next morning to cleverly deflect.
By the Tuesday morning most of the hardcore fans had forgotten about missing finals and got swept up in the speculation about how Pickett would fit into our forward line.
Media management 101.

 

[eastfreo75]

Nice stuff, snuff.


This is key I think. Some people will call it being “risk averse”; I’d call it risk management. Every so-called game plan, even the most aggressilvey “attacking” ones, is a trade-off between minimising certain risks and maximising certain rewards, creating opportunities that advantage a playing groups strengths rather than play to their weaknesses.

I for one am very happy to be no longer watching hacked kicks out of the contest (formerly a Serong speciality) come straight back over the midfield to the advantage of the oppo forwards.


The argument is that “all” it takes is elite pressure to undo the strategy of handballing out of the contest, as though elite pressure is the easiest thing in the world to do. It’s obvious that the strategy comes undone under enough pressure, though seeing as we’re yet to see an infallible strategy (afaik, happy to be corrected on this point and educated on why this perfect strategy isn’t being used by every team, to the result of drawn games every week), I’m not sure the very fact that it can come undone is reason enough to declare it unfit for purpose. The back 6 have been using it to great effect for years now, though possibly because the arc of exposure to pressure decreases significantly closer to goal.

What I think the Bulldogs game showed, however, is that if the oppo give us an inch, we’ll take a mile. In other words, anything less than elite pressure* just won’t cut it in terms of bringing the strategy undone.

*I’m speaking here only of “without the footy” countermeasures.

Well thought out and I agree with some of your points.

You need different tools to make down different styles and different periods in games.

It’s good to have a primary style of play but you need to have combination of breaking the lines, long kicks to a contest, short kicks and switches.

My issue last week was that we were down players and we just kick down the line because our players didn’t have the rest to run and carry. Little to no switches, or short kicks. Just kicking down the line which is easily defended. Sure, the Dogs went man to man but we seriously we didn’t try to make space for short kicks or switches.

When you stop aiming to score, the other team can take chances which may or may not work. Playing to save a game too early in the first quarter opens the gate. Many times we have lost very winnable games.

We made the game skinny vs making the opposition defend the whole ground.

As for risk aversion, I am probably the leading voice on it. Sure, they are high risk low reward plays which should be avoided. 5-10 minutes to go it’s fine to be safe but not a whole quarter. Back to my point if you stop playing to score goals it’s too risk avert.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

A lot were lamenting our slow starts last year.

This year we’ve won 3 of 4 first quarters played, if there’s any credit to be given, does that go to the coach or the players?

I'll bite, because that has been on of my (many) gripes with the coach.

The coach gets that credit.

BUT just like no one was really complaining about JL and poor starts when we lost 3 out of 4 first quarters to begin with, they were complaining when we had lost 22 out of 23 first quarters, or something absurd like that by partway through 2024.

If a clear trend begins to emerge this year with us regularly winning first quarters over a longer period of time, then I'll give JL credit for helping adjust the preparation/mindset/routine/whatever intangibles it might be that helps the players go out there and fire from the first siren.

 

[Ghost Pig]

The ship has started turning, let's see if J Lo can hold course and play his part in doing what must be done, if this year is not to be wasted.

 

[DocT]

After 3 wins in a row the 'time for a new coach' chat has gone predictably quiet. We've beaten two teams favoured to finish 17/18 and had a good home win against a significantly undermanned Dogs. A wins a win but this performance does nothing to significantly shift the needle from our appalling opening game and subsequent home loss to a severely undermanned Sydney.

Meanwhile, we're hearing this:

Coaching bombshell: Surprise name linked to Demons coaching role

Amid increasing pressure on Simon Goodwin, speculation over his future is mounting.

www.sen.com.au

I don't want Bevo. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can relax from the urgency of finding a coach we believe could deliver us a premiership. They will be taken by other clubs if we are slow.

 

[s_wd6]

After 3 wins in a row the 'time for a new coach' chat has gone predictably quiet. We've beaten two teams favoured to finish 17/18 and had a good home win against a significantly undermanned Dogs. A wins a win but this performance does nothing to significantly shift the needle from our appalling opening game and subsequent home loss to a severely undermanned Sydney.

Meanwhile, we're hearing this:

Coaching bombshell: Surprise name linked to Demons coaching role

Amid increasing pressure on Simon Goodwin, speculation over his future is mounting.

www.sen.com.au

I don't want Bevo. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can relax from the urgency of finding a coach we believe could deliver us a premiership. They will be taken by other clubs if we are slow.

You forgetting how many times we’ve been linked to Bevo?

 

[DocT]

You forgetting how many times we’ve been linked to Bevo?

No.

 

[Kapow!!!]

After 3 wins in a row the 'time for a new coach' chat has gone predictably quiet. We've beaten two teams favoured to finish 17/18 and had a good home win against a significantly undermanned Dogs. A wins a win but this performance does nothing to significantly shift the needle from our appalling opening game and subsequent home loss to a severely undermanned Sydney.

Meanwhile, we're hearing this:

Coaching bombshell: Surprise name linked to Demons coaching role

Amid increasing pressure on Simon Goodwin, speculation over his future is mounting.

www.sen.com.au

I don't want Bevo. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can relax from the urgency of finding a coach we believe could deliver us a premiership. They will be taken by other clubs if we are slow.

Due to the fixture we're really in a position where we probably won't learn anything positive about the side until the Len Hall game against Adelaide and then the following Friday night away to St. Kilda. Every other game, while they've been decent, haven't really done anything to remove the stench of 2023, 2024 and rounds 1 & 2 of this season. I honestly am no clearer on how good we are: We've just gotten the expected job done.

Until then we really won't know if our best, the game plan and all associated pieces, are capable of standing up against teams that we need to be beating to make Top 4 (or even finals for that matter). So all we can do is enjoy the moments and hope like buggery we don't have any more ammunition to add to the arsenal against JL before then.

 

[malpaso]

After 3 wins in a row the 'time for a new coach' chat has gone predictably quiet. We've beaten two teams favoured to finish 17/18 and had a good home win against a significantly undermanned Dogs. A wins a win but this performance does nothing to significantly shift the needle from our appalling opening game and subsequent home loss to a severely undermanned Sydney.

Meanwhile, we're hearing this:

Coaching bombshell: Surprise name linked to Demons coaching role

Amid increasing pressure on Simon Goodwin, speculation over his future is mounting.

www.sen.com.au

I don't want Bevo. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can relax from the urgency of finding a coach we believe could deliver us a premiership. They will be taken by other clubs if we are slow.

We were 'severely undermanned' against the Dogs as well. Null point.

 

[malpaso]

The ship has started turning, let's see if J Lo can hold course and play his part in doing what must be done, if this year is not to be wasted.

We are still at the mercy of the players being consistent, which is historically up and down with a young side. Our depth is also not ideal imo.

 

[malpaso]

Brodie’s not getting a game because he has one club and we don’t need it.

I’m talking about we have had available thus far. If we replace add 40 years to the total age and 1000 games, what do you reckon it’ll do to the average?

Brodie deserves to be in the side ahead of Erasmus, any coincidence that we last made finals with Brodie running around? That's because he's a better player forward of centre and better at getting the pill and handballing.

 

[Fat Nyfe]

After 3 wins in a row the 'time for a new coach' chat has gone predictably quiet. We've beaten two teams favoured to finish 17/18 and had a good home win against a significantly undermanned Dogs. A wins a win but this performance does nothing to significantly shift the needle from our appalling opening game and subsequent home loss to a severely undermanned Sydney.

Meanwhile, we're hearing this:

Coaching bombshell: Surprise name linked to Demons coaching role

Amid increasing pressure on Simon Goodwin, speculation over his future is mounting.

www.sen.com.au

I don't want Bevo. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can relax from the urgency of finding a coach we believe could deliver us a premiership. They will be taken by other clubs if we are slow.

It’s time for a new coach.

 

[Fred Ziffel]

You forgetting how many times we’ve been linked to Bevo?

I try to……..ugh!

 

[Stinky Lomax]

After 3 wins in a row the 'time for a new coach' chat has gone predictably quiet. We've beaten two teams favoured to finish 17/18 and had a good home win against a significantly undermanned Dogs. A wins a win but this performance does nothing to significantly shift the needle from our appalling opening game and subsequent home loss to a severely undermanned Sydney.

Meanwhile, we're hearing this:

Coaching bombshell: Surprise name linked to Demons coaching role

Amid increasing pressure on Simon Goodwin, speculation over his future is mounting.

www.sen.com.au

I don't want Bevo. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can relax from the urgency of finding a coach we believe could deliver us a premiership. They will be taken by other clubs if we are slow.

How do you know we’re not having conversations as a precaution?

If Bevo was the man we thought would win us a flag, which job do you think he’s taking on next year? Melbourne in their current situation or Fremantle?

 

[s_wd6]

Definitely inflated by playing WC and Richmond. Interesting to see how it continues

A statistical analysis of the 2025 Dockers has revealed that Fremantle is currently ranked first in the AFL for their half-back to score conversation rate.

The Dockers are back in business after a slow start to season 2025. Picture: Getty Images
Five games into the season, 23 per cent of Fremantle’s half-back launches are ending in scores, the best in the competition.

 

[DocT]

We were 'severely undermanned' against the Dogs as well. Null point.

I think the Dogs had more off the park than we did but I agree it's arguable.

 

[swanny1234]

After 3 wins in a row the 'time for a new coach' chat has gone predictably quiet. We've beaten two teams favoured to finish 17/18 and had a good home win against a significantly undermanned Dogs. A wins a win but this performance does nothing to significantly shift the needle from our appalling opening game and subsequent home loss to a severely undermanned Sydney.

Meanwhile, we're hearing this:

Coaching bombshell: Surprise name linked to Demons coaching role

Amid increasing pressure on Simon Goodwin, speculation over his future is mounting.

www.sen.com.au

I don't want Bevo. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can relax from the urgency of finding a coach we believe could deliver us a premiership. They will be taken by other clubs if we are slow.

I don't think anything changes until the Adelaide game... we likely win this weekend (if we don't then JLO sack talk really ramps up), but until I see us turn up against a genuinely good side (which is Adelaide) then I'm not on the JLo stays bandwagon just yet.