Can teams actually get fitter late season?

[shanegrambeau]

..or is it too late for that?

It’s obvious that we must lack fitness in some shape or form.

[Saintmatt]

..or is it too late for that?

It’s obvious that we must lack fitness in some shape or form.

I think you can get match hardened (i.e. football fit) but I don't think you could get aerobically fit - the players spend a heap of time doing touch sessions and recovery (depending on the number of days break between each game). All of the base fitness work is done pre-season.

I think our problem is that we're not mentally fit. We just switch of for large chunks of the game. Yesterday was like they mentally walked off the ground at 3/4 time to sing the song.

[Impatient Sainter]

..or is it too late for that?

It’s obvious that we must lack fitness in some shape or form.

Given the playing loads I expect teams are reticent to attempt to get too much more extra work into them during the season. I think our drop off in games is four fold - lack of fitness, our pressure based taxing game style, mentally fragile and a lack on onfield leadership. The trend is a major concern and opposition teams know we aren't capable of running out for 4 quarters and they exploit it.

Some of the things we are seeing in Rattens coaching this year is a major concern!

He still hasnt come up with a method that stops oppositions when they get on a roll, his team become too introverted and basically 's*** the bed' when pressure is applied. He is still using Howard to kick in and he has two obvious methods and thats bomb it long to a contest or take the short 15 metre pass to the pocket. Surely the club can start using others players and using the kick in as an atracking weapon rather than a kick in hope.

The other significant and most telling weakness is our F50 entries they are amateurish at best. Good intercept teams just sit in the hole and wait for the long bomb. Its simply dumb football and even poorer coaching IMO. Yesterday 50% of the bombs weren't even deep into the F50 it was painful to watch!

[shanegrambeau]

…mmm, the ‘manic pressure’ thing obviously is a good foil for our lack of class and speed, but I guess fatigue, mental and physical, is going to be a factor opponents will exploit.
We need to be smarter too.

Easy for me to say, but one of those Collingwood marks in F50 - one of those you see Howard sulking about and blaming Sinclair- looks like a straight case of two Collingwood talks leaping to mark, but one of them is a dummy, has no intention to mark but to make shoulder contact with Howard or Wilkie and bump him off the opponent. I suppose it is a standard tactic nowadays, but it want pretty to watch. I wonder if they would do that kinda thing in the first quarter?

[Lennylegs]

Though fitness could be an issue, I blame our fadeouts on a complete lack of courage with the footy. When teams come at us, we tighten up and use the safe option. We go into our shells and want to save the game rather than win it.

That said, our connection going inside 50 was atrocious all day. Gave our forwards very little chance.

[Banger9798]

Last night after Pies 2nd goal in the last quarter, I said to my kids, they will kick 2 more , then you will see a sudden flurry of desperation and energy as the adrenaline kicks in.

Sure enough....but by then the opposition are right on top, and playing with confidence.

We need to be able to hit that button earlier, way before it is an imminent threat