One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: tigersalive on September 17, 2009, 01:33:02 PM
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Recently-retired Port Adelaide ruckman Brendon Lade has been appointed an assistant coach at Richmond.
Lade, a former team-mate of new Richmond senior coach Damien Hardwick at Port Adelaide, enjoyed a stellar 234-game career with the Power after making his debut in 1997. He was a member of Port’s inaugural AFL premiership side in 2004, won the club’s Best and Fairest in 2006, and was a dual All-Australian representative.
The 33-year-old played all 22 games for Port this season before announcing his retirement.
He will take up a role with the Tigers as a ruck/midfield coach.
“I’m really excited by the opportunity to join the Richmond Football Club,” Lade said.
“Hopefully, in the next few years, I can assist the Tigers in getting back to being a really good team in the AFL.
“One of the attractions of coming to Richmond is that there’s going to be a whole new game plan for the team.
“It’s going to take a while for the players to develop that new game plan, but in a couple of years’ time they should be reaping the rewards.”
Lade was a team-mate of Hardwick’s at Port Adelaide from 2002-04, with both playing in the Power’s 2004 premiership team.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Damien . . . I think we’ll work well together.
We were good mates on the field, and we’ve kept in touch over the years,” Lade said.
“Hopefully, everyone in the coaching group can be on the same page and heading in the right direction.”
Hardwick described Lade’s appointment as an important acquisition for the Club.
“We’re very pleased to have someone of Brendon’s experience and standing in the game join Richmond as an assistant coach,” he said.
“He brings with him many of the important attributes we’re looking for. He has a strong character and excellent leadership skills.”
Brendon Lade profile
Age: 33
Height: 199cm
Weight: 102kg
Recruited from: South Adelaide (SANFL)
AFL debut: 1997
Total games: 234
Goals: 182
Playing honors:
Member of Port’s 2004 premiership side; member of Port’s 2007 Grand Final team; dual All-Australian representative (2006-07); club Best and Fairest winner in 2006.
Other facts about him:
A foundation playing member of Port Adelaide in the AFL; has played the third most games in Port’s AFL history; finished equal sixth in the 2006 Brownlow Medal, polling 15 votes; scored a career-best 31 goals in Port’s ’04 premiership year; averaged 11.4 disposals per game throughout his career; averaged 15.1 hit-outs per game throughout his career; was ranked 9th in total hit-outs for the ’09 season.
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/default.aspx?newsid=84882
Welcome. :clapping :thumbsup
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at least we did not get Brogan :santa
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More good news! Always rated him at port!
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At least he knows the craft, just hope he has passion and the ability to teach it. When was the last time we had a great ruckmen, - and not a big ruck rover like Simmo.
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Fantastic!
:)
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According to Herald-Sun today, Clarkson tried to convinced Lade to come out of retirement and play with Hawthorn. Lade turned him down.
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This will be a high quality addition to our club. Great appointment.
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This will be a high quality addition to our club. Great appointment.
Yep, it's our best addition to the assistant coaching roles this season.
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Here's the article for those who didn't see it....
Brendon Lade rejects Hawks, but rejects in running
* Craig Hutchison
* From: Sunday Herald Sun
* November 01, 2009 12:00AM
HAWTHORN has failed in a bid to lure Brendon Lade out of retirement and is set to instead launch a last- man-standing style competition for a place on its list.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson spoke to Lade, whom he coached at Port Adelaide, about coming out of retirement to join the Hawks, whose ruck stocks have been clobbered with the retirement of Robbie Campbell and the long-term injury to Max Bailey.
Lade's manager, Justin Reid, said the approach was declined.
"It won't happen," Reid said.
"You can quote me confidently that he will be coaching at Richmond and won't be coming out of retirement."
Reid said Lade was firmly focused on his new job with the Tigers.
"He's signed his contract and he's headed over there in about two weeks to live full-time in Melbourne with his family," the manager said.
"The last month he's been getting prepared, even while he is in Adelaide."
The 2008 premier is concerned about its ruck division after average seasons from Simon Taylor and Brent Renouf. As it stands that pair will have to carry the mantle for a side convinced it can reload for another shot at a premiership.
Delisted trio Chris Bryan (Collingwood), Wayde Skipper (Bulldogs), Adam Pattison (Richmond) and even some VFL and suburban ruckmen will be invited to train with the Hawks.
Insiders say it will be an old-school training battle for the last list position but the Hawks know they need some ruck insurance.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/brendon-lade-rejects-hawks-but-rejects-in-running/story-e6frf9jf-1225793189833
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Delisted trio Chris Bryan (Collingwood), Wayde Skipper (Bulldogs), Adam Pattison (Richmond) and even some VFL and suburban ruckmen will be invited to train with the Hawks.
Insiders say it will be an old-school training battle for the last list position but the Hawks know they need some ruck insurance.
Geez the Hawks are desperate for a ruckman :yep.
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Geez the Hawks are desperate for a ruckman :yep.
We chould have traded Gus Graham to the Dawks for a pick :yep :yep :yep
:jump :invasion :jump
:outtahere :outtahere :outtahere
:eyebrow :eyebrow :eyebrow
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Maybe they will also have a crack at getting our new CEO out of retirement...lol....... :whistle
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Brendon Lade back on the ball
* Jesper Fjeldstad
* From: Sunday Herald Sun
* May 09, 2010
IT TAKES a bit to rattle Brendon Lade, the laid-back cabinet maker from Kangaroo Island who became a key in Port Adelaide's landmark 2004 premiership and was named All-Australian twice in a glittering career that spanned more than a decade and 234 games.
Spend some time with him at Richmond, where he works as an assistant coach under former teammate Damien Hardwick, and you will see Lade as comfortable as a man in his slippers in front of the fireplace.
He will have a quiet piece of advice for Troy Simmonds, the Tigers' No.1 ruckman, shuffle some magnets on the board ahead of the club's game against Adelaide today and give fellow assistant Justin Leppitsch a bit of grief, because that's what you do around football clubs.
He rocks up to the club, essentially a building site with a new facility being built, in a ute.
But Lade, who shifted to Melbourne after finishing at Port Adelaide last year, is first to admit the move - in career and location - has been an eye-opener. He wouldn't have it any other way, but as he sits down for his first interview since lobbing at Tigerland, he speaks of a challenge only Richmond can serve up.
"It's a bit busier than I thought Melbourne was," Lade said. "Trying to get to work before the traffic and leave before the traffic really starts."
There has also been the issue with shifting his family: wife Sarah and children Oscar, 7, and Jack, 4.
The days of tinkering around in his shed in a sleepy Adelaide suburb before football with his sons have been replaced by a testing job and adjusting to a new city.
"It's all right for me: I get 50 to 60 new mates straight away through the footy club, which you always do, but my wife's found it a bit harder," he said.
"At first, it was every four or five days she wanted to go back home but now it's once every 12 days or two weeks. So we're starting to adjust.
"I get Wednesdays off, but it's good that Damien's a big family man and emphasises having time with the family. Ours are close and we obviously spend a bit of time together.
"The kids, one's in school, one's in kindy. It took them a little while but they're getting better. It's still a bit different to Adelaide schools, the way they go about it."
For that, the rewards have outweighed the sacrifices.
Lade knew by the time his career was coming to a close that he wanted to stay in the game. Power coach Mark Williams helped him along, handed him more responsibility, but the pair agreed it would be better if he sought experience elsewhere.
"I always thought it would nice to stay in it while I was going through my career," Lade said. "It's a good lifestyle. But it probably wasn't until my last couple of years I sat down with the Port coaches, went to meetings and found it interesting.
"I enjoyed that side of it and trying to get the young guys to improve as much as they can is always a challenge - and we've got a lot of young guys here."
To boot, Lade still has a kick. When he has the odd Saturday off, he has played with Justin Peckett's team, Karingal, and he still loves kicking a goal.
More than one Richmond supporter would have thought about having him strip for the Tigers, but Lade laughs it off.
"We've talked a bit about that, playing me and 'Leppa' in the forward line," he said with a laugh.
How does Richmond compare with the Power, the only club he had known?
It does, and it doesn't.
"It's a little bit different," Lade said. "We're a long way behind where Port Adelaide were.
"In saying that, Damien has brought in a lot of new technology, trying to get Richmond up to the new age and fast track as many players as we can. But in saying fast tracking, we're not going to skip any steps along the way. They'll be taught properly and the right way.
"It's funny, we're nought and six and we've got 40,000 members. Port Adelaide never had 40,000 members. And we're in a lot more competitive market, as well. We're all just really looking forward to the day that we're winning a lot of games."
For all of Richmond's woes - and the Tigers have been woeful - Lade has not sensed any of the fan frustration for which the club is known. And with the members the Tigers have, it is put to him that if and when they become successful, they will again become a giant club.
He loves that debate.
"Not if, mate, it's when," Lade said. "It's scary. I think we're the missing link in the AFL's big picture. There are that many supporters and members it's scary and it's going to happen sooner or later. But it's going to be a long road to get to where we want to get to.
"The day Damien came in here, he said: 'It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be a one or two-week thing; it's going to be a one or two-year thing.'
"Like Damien said, it could take you 12 weeks, it could take you two years to do what we want to do, but eventually we'll get it right and when we do it will work.
"He gets a bit uptight and I suppose that's where I come in. I go around to his place or he comes around to mine and we have a couple of beers and talk about it.
"He's been good, has managed to keep the players pretty upbeat, which is hard to do when you're 0-6.
"We've got 14 new kids in the system but everyone's upbeat. They can see where we want to go. We've got a plan in place and now we're waiting for the talent to catch up to it."
Lade has enjoyed his time in Melbourne, even though it hasn't been what he expected.
The traffic aside, he had expected to go under the radar. But because of his height it is still hard to hide. Not that it worries him.
"I thought I'd be completely anonymous over here, but a couple of people come over for a chat," Lade said. "While it's nice, it would also be nice not to be noticed at all.
"But it's more of a normal life. The odd Richmond supporter comes up and asks why you're not putting the boots on, what you're doing with the rucks or the midfield. It's a long process but we get there eventually."
What does Lade make of former West Coast champion Ben Cousins? Brushing aside the headlines, he compares him with Gavin Wanganeen at Port Adelaide, who brought experience and knowledge to a young side.
"Not many people get to play with a Brownlow medallist," Lade said. "We had the opportunity to play with Gavin and it was a huge honour.
"It made you walk a bit taller and it's the same for the guys here at Richmond.
"To have 'Cuz' around the club, doing what he does for the guys ... he talks as much as anyone and can pass a lot of stuff on to guys like Dusty Martin and Ben Nason, and the other young guys going through the midfield."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/brendon-lade-back-on-the-ball/story-e6frf9jf-1225864001167
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Lade to the party at Karingal
ADAM MCNICOL
May 9, 2010
JUDGING by the number of car horns tooting whenever Brendon Lade hauled in a big grab last weekend, the Karingal Football Club has a new cult hero.
"Laaadeeey!" the Bulls' supporters roared, when the former Port Adelaide ruckman took one particularly spectacular mark early in the third quarter of the home game against Chelsea. Although Lade missed that shot at goal, he made up for it by finishing with six and helping his new team to its second win of the Peninsula League season.
The two-time All-Australian found his way to Karingal - down Frankston way - thanks to his friendship with the Bulls' favourite son, former St Kilda defender Justin Peckett. They first met in 2008, when Peckett was spending time at Port Adelaide as part of his new career with leadership consulting group Leading Teams. This year, both are working under Damien Hardwick at Richmond.
A former teammate of Hardwick, Lade is the full-time ruck/midfield coach, while Peckett has been contracted by the Tigers to help change the club's culture. It's an enormous challenge, but as with the rest of his life, Peckett is approaching the task with plenty of optimism.
''We can potentially set up the club's culture for the next 20, 30, 40 years,'' he said. ''The only way is up, really. It's a new group. The players are young, the coaches are young and fresh and eager. It's a great opportunity.''
At the age of 37, Peckett would be excused by the Karingal faithful if he wanted to focus only on his work and family. A father of seven, he has little spare time, but as he happily admits, he just loves playing footy.
''I love going to training, having a kick,'' Peckett explained with a grin. ''I've played footy all my life. I'm known as a footy player. It's my identity. And I love the local football club atmosphere, so it's hard to give it up.
''Probably for the last four years of my AFL career I kept saying 'I'll just play this year and see what happens'. Now it's one week at a time here, because my body's falling apart.
''I played the first three practice games and I was flying through that stage. Then in round one, five minutes in, I had to put my hand up as I was tight in the hammies. Then I couldn't play in round two. For me, right now, it is absolutely week by week. If I get another injury I'm just going to leave my boots in the middle of the ground and that'll be it.''
After retiring from elite football, Peckett coached Karingal for three seasons, during which time he focused on developing the club's youth. It meant the Bulls missed the finals in 2008 and '09, but now have one of the best groups of young guns on the Mornington Peninsula.
Having handed over the senior coaching position to 23-year-old midfielder Brendan Dunne, Peckett knew a couple of experienced, big-bodied recruits were needed if Karingal was to climb into the top five this season. So when he began at Richmond, he sounded out Lade straight away.
''I asked him and he had a bit of a laugh, bit of a giggle,'' Peckett recalled. ''He didn't think I was serious until I insisted I was fair dinkum. A couple of weeks later, he goes 'yeah, I'll come down for a kick'. It's good for me to have someone who's over 30 in the team. It used to be me and all the 20-year-olds.''
Peckett even had a quiet word in the ear of Justin Leppitsch, another ex-AFL star who is working at Richmond.
''I've asked him a couple of times, only mucking around, in the hope that he might do it. It doesn't look like I'll get him over the line.''
Given his commitments with the Tigers, Lade will only play 10 or 12 games for Karingal this year, however he's already had a big impact. In the opening round, he booted four goals as the Bulls beat Langwarrin, although a trip to Perth with Richmond led to him missing the round-two loss to Frankston YCW.
Eight days ago, Lade was wearing Karingal's red-and-white strip once more as the Bulls hosted Chelsea. With stubble on his chin, no product in his hair and black boots on his sizeable feet, he resembled a bush footballer of days gone by, as he towered over his young opponent in the goal square.
''I don't get outside the 50 any more mate,'' the 33-year-old had joked before the game.
Yet Lade was all class whenever the ball came his way. When Karingal was kicking into a howling gale in the second quarter, he twice had shots at goal from deep in the pockets.
On both occasions, his kicks went straight through. ''He's got unbelievable skills,'' Peckett marvelled later.
Having grown up playing bush footy on Kangaroo Island, Lade is enjoying every moment of his return to the grassroots game. ''I can eat what I want, drink what I want, when I want. It's a good change. It's just good to be involved with footy clubs. There's no other workplace like it.''
The lifestyle change means Lade has added a few kilograms to his midriff in recent months, something opposition supporters have let him know about. Last weekend a young lad from Chelsea yelled out: ''Eat some salad, Lade!''
The sledge brought only a smile to Lade's face, and he continued to dominate the game as the Bulls coasted to a 38-point win. After the final siren, the players were cheered off the field by the many Karingal barrackers standing on the grassy hill in front of the social room.
''We get massive crowds here, especially for the Seaford and Langwarrin games,'' Peckett said. ''When we go to away games, our supporters often outnumber the home side.''
Richmond's trip to Adelaide meant Karingal yesterday took on Edithvale-Aspendale without its star recruit.
Yet given the Tigers won't be up to much in September, if the Bulls can make the finals, Lade's likely to play a big role in the club's campaign to win its first senior flag since 1999.
''There's an expectation from everyone here that we can finish in the five,'' Peckett said.
''But that's OK. If there was no expectation we'd be in trouble.''
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/lade-to-the-party-at-karingal-20100508-ukyz.html
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Once Port Adelaide's master and apprentice but now Brendon Lade and Dean Brogan lock horns
Zac Milbank
Herald Sun May 28, 2010
8:16PM
BRENDON Lade should know exactly how to get under Dean Brogan's skin.
After locking horns with Brogan for a decade while training at Port Adelaide's Alberton home, Lade has waited patiently to get one up on his old sparring partner.
But the wait is over.
Finally, Lade - now sharing his knowledge with the next generation of ruckmen as an assistant coach with Richmond - has his chance to upset his great mate Brogan when the Tigers confront Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.
"Well, Broges, I think he's the oldest one there now (at Port)," Lade said with his trademark grin.
"So I'll be telling our guys that he's the oldest and I might tell them to tell him that out on the ground, actually; get him a bit angry."
After sharing ruck duties with Lade at Port Adelaide, Brogan knows the Tigers' young pairing of Tyrone Vickery and Angus Graham will be well-informed.
So much so, he has already spent time this week pondering what the All-Australian's scouting report on him would entail.
"It would be interesting, I was actually thinking about that," Brogan said with a laugh. Be as competitive as you can - he (Lade) obviously knows I'm a competitor - and go hard, I suppose, because I will be.
"I'm sure Ladey will be telling them that.
"Ladey would have very good insight into me, our midfield group and the whole team really.
"It will be interesting, Ladey from the coaches box. He's a great person and I'm sure he's doing a great job."
But Lade isn't naive enough to think Brogan will be expecting a nice welcoming party from his Tiger cubs at 2.40pm.
"Dean's been around for a long time and he probably knows what's coming, so it should be a good battle with Graham and Vickery going up against him," Lade said.
"Hopefully we can come out on top in that battle because Dean is quite important to Port Adelaide."
Plotting the downfall of the club for which he played 234 games in 12 years has come easily for Lade, widely regarded as an intelligent football brain.
But the 33-year-old from Kangaroo Island admits it will be a very different feel when he takes residence in the opposition coaches box with Tigers coach - and Power premiership teammate - Damien Hardwick.
"It's a different changeroom and everything, so that will be a bit strange," Lade admitted.
"But I'm a Richmond person now, so I'll be doing everything I can this week to beat my old team and get our first win on the board. That would be nice."
As a result, all correspondence between him, Brogan and rival ruck coach Matthew Primus, has come to a grinding halt throughout the week.
"He (Lade) congratulated me last week for my 150th (game)," Brogan revealed. "We throw each other a text message every now and then, but I haven't been texting him this week."
Primus - Lade's other great ruck partner at Alberton - is looking forward to duelling with Lade in an off-field sense.
"Whatever we do in the box doesn't have a real great bearing on the outcome of the game," Primus said. "Their (Richmond's) ruckmen and midfielders will have a great knowledge of how to go about playing our guys, so it's about whether they can apply that and whether we can do what we want to them."
Lade, who has noted his former club's lift in tackling pressure this year, agrees.
"There's only so much we can do from the coaches box as it's up to the individuals on the day," Lade said.
"Obviously he'll (Primus) pass on some knowledge about our guys and vice versa, so it will be a good battle between the ruckmen on the day and hopefully it can show that one of us (coaches) is doing really well."
Should the rookie assistant upstage his experienced counterpart, while also ruffling Brogan's feathers - Lade's reception at Port's 140th birthday party could be frosty.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/once-port-adelaides-master-and-apprentice-but-now-brendon-lade-and-dean-brogan-lock-horns/story-e6frf9jf-1225872717208
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Just wondering how folks feel about the success of Lade as our ruck/stoppages coach over the last two years?
At a pre-game event in Cairns this year where he was speaking, he made a joke that the most improved ruckman at Richmond was TV, who had been training exclusively as a forward, who BL had not been coaching.
Has he been successful?
Are we better at stoppages?
Does he have the cattle to work with?
Could we do better?
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Just wondering how folks feel about the success of Lade as our ruck/stoppages coach over the last two years?
At a pre-game event in Cairns this year where he was speaking, he made a joke that the most improved ruckman at Richmond was TV, who had been training exclusively as a forward, who BL had not been coaching.
Has he been successful?
Are we better at stoppages?
Does he have the cattle to work with?
Could we do better?
Clearly needs better ruckman. Not sure im a fan of him being stoppage coach as well. Hopefully with more money being poured in this will change. Having said that, we do still have duds running through the middle. When we threw Lids, Martin, Cotch, TV in the guts against Norf we dominated for a few clearances. Then its back to 2nd stringers.
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Just wondering how folks feel about the success of Lade as our ruck/stoppages coach over the last two years?
At a pre-game event in Cairns this year where he was speaking, he made a joke that the most improved ruckman at Richmond was TV, who had been training exclusively as a forward, who BL had not been coaching.
Has he been successful?
Are we better at stoppages?
Does he have the cattle to work with?
Could we do better?
Clearly needs better ruckman. Not sure im a fan of him being stoppage coach as well. Hopefully with more money being poured in this will change. Having said that, we do still have duds running through the middle. When we threw Lids, Martin, Cotch, TV in the guts against Norf we dominated for a few clearances. Then its back to 2nd stringers.
hoprfully next year its Conca, Foley Tuck as 2nd string
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Just wondering how folks feel about the success of Lade as our ruck/stoppages coach over the last two years?
At a pre-game event in Cairns this year where he was speaking, he made a joke that the most improved ruckman at Richmond was TV, who had been training exclusively as a forward, who BL had not been coaching.
Has he been successful?
Are we better at stoppages?
Does he have the cattle to work with?
Could we do better?
I think Cambo had the midfield coaching gig in 2010 and we were winning contested footy (got smashed on the outside and spread though). This year it flipped around. We improved on the outside as far as uncontested footy but we had the worst clearance stats in the comp. with the opposition winning the clearance from 44% of stoppages and we averaged 5 fewer clearances per game than the opposition which was also the worst in the AFL. So not great stats for Lade. Having said we don't yet have the midfield depth to maintain consistency in the midfield. While the likes of Cotch, Dusty and Lids (when he plays midfield) are top quality or at least building towards A-grade mids, our 2nd/3rd tiers are one of the worst in the comp. We need to add more quality into our midfield group so we can rotate say 12 A/B-grade players through the midfield rather than relying on Jacko, Tuck, Edwards and co. to fill in when Cotch and Dusty are taking a breather.
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i wonder if the turn around from winning lots of contested footy to uncontested footy is due to a change in focus from the coaching staff. Year one put high focus on contested, year two on uncontested? Perhaps year three get the balance right?
Despite both the coach and players at times talking about how winning contested footy wins games, i reckon that it is uncontested footy possessions that wins games, as long as it is not cheap pointless uncontested possies, a la bowden and co.
If you win the uncontested footy count this means that you are spreading and opening up the opposition, which is when you can hurt the enemy on the score board
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i wonder if the turn around from winning lots of contested footy to uncontested footy is due to a change in focus from the coaching staff. Year one put high focus on contested, year two on uncontested? Perhaps year three get the balance right?
Despite both the coach and players at times talking about how winning contested footy wins games, i reckon that it is uncontested footy possessions that wins games, as long as it is not cheap pointless uncontested possies, a la bowden and co.
If you win the uncontested footy count this means that you are spreading and opening up the opposition, which is when you can hurt the enemy on the score board
I think you may be right al about us finding the right balance in year three. At least hopefully that is the case.
As for which is more important it does have a bit of the chicken and egg argument but IMO contested footy is still the most important part of the game especially in finals where there's less time and space. If you can't get your hands on the footy in the first place you aren't going to win too many big games. It's then for those without the footy to spread hard with gut-running so you get clean clearances and disposals away from contested situations such as stoppages. I agree from that you can then hurt sides the most on the scoreboard via the hard running and winning uncontested footy. That's why we must improve over the offseason our fitness and ability to gut-run harder and for longer. If we do that then we can begin to approach and match the efforts of the top sides.
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its never that easy to measure the outputs of assistant coaches, do they have the material to work with ::) or are they expected to perform miracles...leppa would have appeared to with the improvement seen in defenders...would seem though that popular opinion is gus and browney are beyond salvation. ...ive been told not to wipe broney just yet, carried a hip for the latter part of year
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i wonder if the turn around from winning lots of contested footy to uncontested footy is due to a change in focus from the coaching staff. Year one put high focus on contested, year two on uncontested? Perhaps year three get the balance right?
Despite both the coach and players at times talking about how winning contested footy wins games, i reckon that it is uncontested footy possessions that wins games, as long as it is not cheap pointless uncontested possies, a la bowden and co.
If you win the uncontested footy count this means that you are spreading and opening up the opposition, which is when you can hurt the enemy on the score board
I think you may be right al about us finding the right balance in year three. At least hopefully that is the case.
As for which is more important it does have a bit of the chicken and egg argument but IMO contested footy is still the most important part of the game especially in finals where there's less time and space. If you can't get your hands on the footy in the first place you aren't going to win too many big games. It's then for those without the footy to spread hard with gut-running so you get clean clearances and disposals away from contested situations such as stoppages. I agree from that you can then hurt sides the most on the scoreboard via the hard running and winning uncontested footy. That's why we must improve over the offseason our fitness and ability to gut-run harder and for longer. If we do that then we can begin to approach and match the efforts of the top sides.
They are/were pretty much my thoughts regarding contested posseions, MT, but I've noticed that last year, even when we'd lose, we would often be there abouts in terms of contested possessions, but smashed in uncontested. These year, we have won games where we have been beaten in contested possessions, but easily won the uncontested count. If we'd lose in both we would get spanked.
You still have to be at least competitive in that area, But I'm starting to think that it's not the be and end all. The other area I have a suspicion that is important is the number of turnovers you can force, particularly if you can spread and get worthwhile uncontested possessions from them.
In terms of building up a fitness base to be able to match the top sides, it took collingwood 4 or 5 years to do this. There was 2 or 3 years where they started the season well but dropped off as the season went on. As their core group of players approached the 23-25 age bracket they developed the fitness base required to play out the whole season