It’s about that time again for another season on The Shinboner.
Slightly earlier than normal thanks to Round Zero/Opening Round/Let’s Try And Have Games While The NRL Is In Vegas Although They’re Not Actually In Vegas That Weekend, the 2024 menu looks something like this:
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New Feature (1)
Replacing the Rolling Notes section is an ongoing look into every team’s structure, line-by-line, every fortnight, exclusively for those on the $10 tier.
Debuting at the end of Round 4 and updated every fortnight after that, the goal is to track positional and structural changes from a team and individual point of view.
Behind the scenes last season I spent time experimenting with the format and found it extremely useful in gauging what a team thought was and wasn’t working.
Here’s a working example of how it’ll look as we go through 2024. Although this one just shows the defenders, every team will have a page for defenders, midfielders, and forwards.
New/Ongoing Feature (2)
A recurring theme of standalone, non-North Melbourne posts this year will be a greater focus on how teams set up their midfield rotations and the domino effect it causes elsewhere on the field.
Everyone uses the cliché, ‘it all starts from the midfield’ – me included, way too often – but after taking some time to think about it, a realisation hit that I haven’t delved into what that actually means.
So, starting from centre bounces, I’ll be using this template for all teams. From there it’ll flow into first string rotations, second string rotations, how it influences movement in the forward and back lines, and a team’s overall structure.
It’s important to stress there is no originality in this graphic format. I’ve blatantly stolen it from Justin Russo on Twitter (@FlyByKnite) who lays out LA Clippers lineups in a similar fashion.
However it also suits AFL land for centre bounce rotations in particular which is why I’ve completely ripped it off. To reiterate, the above picture is using placeholder numbers and names to illustrate how it’ll look for each team.
Returning Favourites
From The Notebook
While it’s been on Monday (or Tuesday if there’s a Monday game) over previous years, in 2024 it’ll shift to Wednesday morning.
There are two reasons for this:
1) When North play on Sundays, the Notebook suffers by comparison because it’s a stretch to post both a game review + Notebook piece to the standard I want on Monday mornings
2) Often in 2023 I found myself wanting to do a little more research on a topic before posting but ran out of time instead
Those two issues should be solved by moving the Notebook to Wednesday mornings, along with allowing more time to add further video analysis.
Depth Charts
All updated for 2024, those on the $5 tier and above are able to create a depth chart by position for their own team. And every other team too.
List Management Tools
The usual player contracts/minutes played by age/list demographics will be back, exclusively for those on the $10 tier, with some fine tuning to make it easier on the eye. One example, the minutes played by age will now have the players in each age group illustrated like so:
Stat Suite
Much like previous years, the normal quarter by quarter and week by week numbers will continuously be updated at the end of each round, for those on the $5 tier and above.
Week-To-Week
A typical in-season week on The Shinboner should look something like this:
– Morning after a North game: Match analysis
– Sunday night/end of round: Stats and contracts update
– Tuesdays (from Round 4 onwards, every fortnight): Team structure updates
– Wednesdays: From The Notebook
– Tuesday or Thursday mornings (once a fortnight): Standalone in-depth pieces
Naturally things will pop up here and there to force changes in plans, but as a base, the above is more or less what to expect.
Pre-Season Posts
As promised at the end of last season, The Look Ahead will be the staple content piece throughout February, setting the tone for all 18 teams. The plan is to use them as a scene setter for team trends and individuals I’m excited to watch throughout the season, rather than a place for predictions.
Sneak peek at a couple of examples that will be fleshed out in their respective posts: Can Carlton continue their red-hot stoppage game from the back half of last year, and how does Sydney’s midfield rotations change with new faces?
In amongst that, regular pre-season features such as the Continuity Rankings and Team Tiers will make an appearance, plus usual in-depth analysis of match simulation and pre-season games.
All the above means this is what The Shinboner schedule will look like between now and the season starting.
Schedule between now and the season’s start on March 7
Feb 6: The 2024 Continuity Rankings
Feb 7: The Look Ahead*: West Coast & North Melbourne
Feb 8: The Look Ahead: Hawthorn & Gold Coast
Feb 9: The Look Ahead: Fremantle & Richmond
Feb 12: The Look Ahead: Geelong & Essendon
Feb 13: The Look Ahead: Adelaide & Western Bulldogs
Feb 14: The Look Ahead: Sydney & St Kilda
Feb 15: The Look Ahead: Melbourne & Port Adelaide
Feb 16: The Look Ahead: GWS & Carlton
Feb 19: The Look Ahead: Brisbane & Collingwood
Feb 20: Assessing the over and under win totals
Feb 22: North Melbourne match simulation assessment**
Feb 26: From The Notebook: Match Simulation
March 4: North Melbourne pre-season match review
Match 5: From The Notebook: Pre-Season Games
March 6: 2024 Team Tiers
*Each team will have their own Look Ahead piece with two posted per day
**Whether this happens is heavily reliant on the quality of streaming camera angles on the day