Living Life on the Edge - Discussion

[mjp]

I have been reading the MRO thread re- the Crozier situation with a lot of interest.

Here's my take.

Good teams live life 'on the edge'. If there aren't a couple of incidents each week that are *on the edge* of being reportable, well, a team isn't playing well.

I have read all of the back and forth about the Crozier incident - I don't have a feeling either way and wasn't surprised to see he had been charged. Equally, had it been let go, I wouldn't have been surprised.

Playing 'on the edge' of the rules is an important part of being a good side. You need to be prepared to TRY and make that spoil even if you *might not quite get there*...and you should be desperate to finish tackles with your opponent ON THE GROUND.

Good teams have players getting reported semi-regularly and it is - to me - the cost of taking care of business.

[Mantis]

Agree with this.

If our intent isn't quite where it needs to be we seem to be quite a meek team with no hard edge, but when we 'are on' we play close to the line.

Having Libba in the team does an amazing thing to our psyche, whilst he has an amazing set of hands and high footy IQ he's also chief protagonist who's care for his team-mates can't be under-valued.

[comrade]

Agree with this.

If our intent isn't quite where it needs to be we seem to be quite a meek team with no hard edge, but when we 'are on' we play close to the line.

Having Libba in the team does an amazing thing to our psyche, whilst he has an amazing set of hands and high footy IQ he's also chief protagonist who's care for his team-mates can't be under-valued.

It's almost as if Libba gives the rest of them permission to push the envelope a bit more. His value to the team is immense.

[Grantysghost]

Agree with this. If our intent isn't quite where it needs to be we seem to be quite a meek team with no hard edge, but when we 'are on' we play close to the line.Having Libba in the team does an amazing thing to our psyche, whilst he has an amazing set of hands and high footy IQ he's also chief protagonist who's care for his team-mates can't be under-valued.His kicking isn’t mentioned often it’s a great weapon, he rarely misses a target and can swing onto his left from outside the arc and really penetrate inside 50 quickly. Seems to have that Steph Curry ability to sum up and execute with speed others can’t .

[bornadog]

I still think GWS sort of forced us to become more aggressive. The midset from the start was we are going to protect our captain, no matter what and we are going to go in hard and show them we won't be taking a backward step.

Once we did this we gained the confidence as well as knew what to play this way to win. We have continued to bring that effort and aggression in the following two matches. We now need to keep this up, week after week. Not an easy thing to do.

[1eyedog]

I still think GWS sort of forced us to become more aggressive. The midset from the start was we are going to protect our captain, no matter what and we are going to go in hard and show them we won't be taking a backward step.

Once we did this we gained the confidence as well as knew what to play this way to win. We have continued to bring that effort and aggression in the following two matches. We now need to keep this up, week after week. Not an easy thing to do.

I think it was the North Melbourne game against Firrito tbh. That was our first taste that we needed to show our mental toughness. At least I think this was the first time we were really roughed up and responded well. The GWS confrontations has certainly helped gel that I think. We really needed to become more aggressive no doubt.

We are a young group and were probably seen as an easy target but I think other teams will know that the rough stuff doesn't work on Bont and we have a few enforcers (Cordy = passive aggressive, Libba aggressive / aggressive and Bruce who doesn't mind getting a full head of steam up in straight lines). Then we have the constant nigglers in Smith / Naughton who enjoy telling the opposition how shit they're playing. I've been wanting us to play with a harder edge for a while.

Really glad we challenged the Crozier tackle, for one there is a reasonable chance he'll get off but on the other side, as others have alluded to, it sends a message to other teams that we tackle like that because that's how we play, hard and it appears that line of play is the new normal for us.

Love it.

[jeemak]

It's more fun playing on the edge or being "on". I think sometimes players forget that and it takes a while to switch back on.

[Happy Days]

It's more fun playing on the edge or being "on". I think sometimes players forget that and it takes a while to switch back on.

Totally agree, and think this is lost sight of the more we try to rationalise performance with statistics (not that they aren't useful).

Lebron had a game last season where he hit like 8 or 9 threes, way above his season average and efficiency. When someone put that to him he said that he guaranteed no one who pays that much attention to stats has ever been in the zone in their life.

[Mofra]

Handball club was "on the edge" of allowable disposal and it won is a flag.

Hawks did it with the sheparding on the mark. It's not just about hurting the opposition physically.

[bornadog]

Handball club was "on the edge" of allowable disposal and it won is a flag.

Hawks did it with the sheparding on the mark. It's not just about hurting the opposition physically.

I think GWS just don't get it

[mjp]

Handball club was "on the edge" of allowable disposal and it won is a flag.

Hawks did it with the sheparding on the mark. It's not just about hurting the opposition physically.

Yeah - I don't mind this as an idea - living on the edge is also daring to be different with a tactic opposition teams find difficult to counter. I still think our handball based ball-movement (as has been shown in 2018 and 2019) is a great counter to the Richmond defensive set-up which is all 'force it forward, set up behind, intercept the down the line kick, switch and go'...our ball movement is atypical and harder for them to counter.

Unfortunately we never have gotten to play them in a game that actually matters so I don't know if our style IS a counter to their set-up or just 'might be'.

[Go_Dogs]

It's a good point raised here - plenty of good players and sides that have been considered to play unsociable football. We're starting to mature and have that underlying belief and expectation, which means we may see a few more borderline incidents.

Losing Crozier hurts because he's become an important part of our side, but one out, one in and hopefully no messagingminternally around changing his game.