How About the "Go Easy" Convention?

Question

For those of you here last year, you may recall my observations. I got a few right and a few wrong, but I still think it applies.

The "Go Easy" principle means a club will go out and get the 4 points against obviously inferior opposition. It means, go out and win the game, but don't run up the score so much that it gets out of hand. They will hold out players and keep rotating players off the ground**. However if percentage is an issue, the coach ignores everything and goes for the big kill.

**they tried to rest Judd last year and it worked in reverse when he lacked sharpness after 2 games out.

Bombers v Giants at Etihad. Dons with the best percentage in footy. Hird and Sheedy old friends, still with a mutual respect, most likely will sociaialise with each other over the weekend. A good solid 10-12 goal win is on the cards, but not a 20  goal thrashing.

Pies v Suns. Things may change, but Guy McKenna is very well liked at Collingwood. Whenever they play, there will be damage limitation and a lot of words about how the Suns are improving, as there was last year.

Cats v Dogs. Similar. Scott will not embarass his old mate McCarthy.

Yes or no?

Quandary · Accepted Answer

No. The Cats were a bit off and the Dogs were fully fledged on song.  Perhaps the Cats approached it with the attitude that they'd beaten four big gun top 6 teams from last year and now they had a break. Even subconsciously. Perhaps they were just a bit tired but the Dogs deserve full credit for pushing them

Cats would love some percentage - there has never been a 5-0 team with such a low percent.

As for the Dons, they've been ruthless. Don't think they'll intend to hold back. The only thing that might get them is complacency.

Don't know much about Guy McKenna's relationship but I'd reckon the Pies want some credibility of their own right now. They'd be stung by last week.

I'm backing thrashings or upsets. There won't be half measures

EDIT: Absolutely - I reckon if the Cats played the Dogs again this week it would be a very different story. But I could see in the first quarter that we weren't traveling well last week and the Dogs were hassling us off the ball to easily - which they're good at.  I agree though about the GWS v Swans game, but nobody should be under any illusions as to how far off the pace they are at the moment.

There seems to be a trend too of these teams holding their own for three quarters and then falling away dramatically at the end. Not sure if that is a gentlemen's agreement or just lack of composure when tired (something the best teams are great at)

whay i lost my ?s · Answer

The cats indefinitely took it easy on the dogs, they were better than they played on the weekend.

Looking ahead to this weekend west coast NEEDS to crush the dogs, it's as simple as that really. We need a spark and we need it now. Top 4 will need i would suggest 15 wins, so that's 7 losses meaning we would have 3 up our sleeves and some exceedingly tough fixtures coming up, hell even top 8 will probably need 13 wins (leaving us 5 up our sleeves) with how poorly we tend to travel and everything we are going to need a near miracle to be top 4, an act of god to be top 2 and get a move on for top 8.

We had a lot of chances to take the last 2 games and we failed to capitalize that's our issue at the moment, if we continue to let sides back with poor goal kicking the season will become increasingly frustrating for us. Such a good list let down by poor goal kicking, the only part of the game that has pretty much stayed constant over the years.

shifty · Answer

Hawthorn came to the Gold Coast last season without about 6 of their front line players & still managed to win the game. is this the kind of "go easy" rule you are talking about?

Cheers.

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How About the "Go Easy" Convention?

3 Answers