Hardwick looked super chuffed in the presser. I saw it, loved it, but it got me thinking. He was trying to contain something, and answered a question on tactics a little cryptically, and the cat was out of the bag.
Hardwick is a great coach. A master motivator and story-teller, a coach with the priceless gift of empathy and a history of staring down the scepter of failure. He has developed a system that finds genesis in the hot weeks of January, eons before the hustle and bustle of Round 1.
One thing that he, and the club by extension, is not known for is medium term tactical dexterity. That is, tactical flow from game to game. That appeared to change last night. On the back of the Brisbane loss, which must have been deeply disappointing to a proud group, we were forced to confront a destiny that went through St Kilda and then the snarling, strutting Port Adelaide on their own dung heap.
The Adelaide Oval. A long ground where territory can be intimidatingly owned by the home team. Where centre clearances are constantly churned over by the ultimate blue collar midfield unit.
What if, the coaches might've asked after last week's loss. What if we added a new path to goal, freshening our often spluttering and untidy offense and finally making good on the opportunity the 6-6-6 affords?
What if we cut our tackle-and-go turnover kingz some slack and rode on the back of our champion ball winners in Cotch, Dion and Dusty?
First use. What does it look like for us when the oppo are least expecting it, deep in a finals campaign?
The nature of last night's victory is deceptive in its venom. Now you have Ken Hinkley and his team second guessing. He can set up for a head to head midfield battle, but is that what he's going to get? Probably. Early doors.
But here's the thing. Pound for pound, magic for magic, we far exceed Port Adelaide when it comes to execution. Polish. Class. Creativity. If we can also bring the pressure we mustered in last night's Q4,, Port will cough it up. That's what they do when challenged front-on.
As Dimma himself said last night, we are a different team heading into Adelaide for a preliminary final. We got our pressure-easing "loss" out of the way last week and now face an opposition eminently beatable.
We are in a preliminary final. The sheer weight of this truth fueled Dimma's radiance last night. But the dark, sly seed of that smile, the bit he was trying to hide, was the fact that the most system-oriented of teams unveiled an ability to run new software on the doorstep of the most critical of games.
2020 might yet be as tactical for us as it is emotional for our competitors. I'm backing us in.
Hardwick is a great coach. A master motivator and story-teller, a coach with the priceless gift of empathy and a history of staring down the scepter of failure. He has developed a system that finds genesis in the hot weeks of January, eons before the hustle and bustle of Round 1.
One thing that he, and the club by extension, is not known for is medium term tactical dexterity. That is, tactical flow from game to game. That appeared to change last night. On the back of the Brisbane loss, which must have been deeply disappointing to a proud group, we were forced to confront a destiny that went through St Kilda and then the snarling, strutting Port Adelaide on their own dung heap.
The Adelaide Oval. A long ground where territory can be intimidatingly owned by the home team. Where centre clearances are constantly churned over by the ultimate blue collar midfield unit.
What if, the coaches might've asked after last week's loss. What if we added a new path to goal, freshening our often spluttering and untidy offense and finally making good on the opportunity the 6-6-6 affords?
What if we cut our tackle-and-go turnover kingz some slack and rode on the back of our champion ball winners in Cotch, Dion and Dusty?
First use. What does it look like for us when the oppo are least expecting it, deep in a finals campaign?
The nature of last night's victory is deceptive in its venom. Now you have Ken Hinkley and his team second guessing. He can set up for a head to head midfield battle, but is that what he's going to get? Probably. Early doors.
But here's the thing. Pound for pound, magic for magic, we far exceed Port Adelaide when it comes to execution. Polish. Class. Creativity. If we can also bring the pressure we mustered in last night's Q4,, Port will cough it up. That's what they do when challenged front-on.
As Dimma himself said last night, we are a different team heading into Adelaide for a preliminary final. We got our pressure-easing "loss" out of the way last week and now face an opposition eminently beatable.
We are in a preliminary final. The sheer weight of this truth fueled Dimma's radiance last night. But the dark, sly seed of that smile, the bit he was trying to hide, was the fact that the most system-oriented of teams unveiled an ability to run new software on the doorstep of the most critical of games.
2020 might yet be as tactical for us as it is emotional for our competitors. I'm backing us in.
