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Poor kicks are hurting us

Prof
in Melbourne Demons

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Our players try to be "too cute", and it's very frustrating.

Twice within the first 90 seconds of Saturday's game, Trengove had the ball in the backline, and elected to with his non-preferred left foot. Both times, the ball didn't hit its target. I said to my wife that we will get flogged today if that's the mentality the Captain brings. I understand that sometimes you have to kick on your non-preferred, I have no issue with that, and it's good to see players that can do it. What I have an issue with is that both times, Trengove was trotting out of the backline, with an opponenet on his inside blocking his ability to kick with his right foot (potential smother). sure, the easy answer is kick with your left, but that's what I'm about, it's the easy alternative. Trengove had ample opportunity to have a 3or 4 metre burst to get past that opponent (working his angles), so that he had time to steady and kick with his preferred foot. It takes 2 seconds of hard work - on one hand increases the chance of being caught with it (although on this occasion the opposition were far enough away to get around), but on the other hand, it gets him on his preferred right foot and actually hit a target.

There seems to be a little group of players that think that their wrong foot is as strong as their right foot - Grimes, Trengove, Morton and Watts are all guilty.

Before some of you carry on, I just ask you to watch this week's game, or even the first 90 seconds of last week's game. You will see what I'm talking about and how accurate I am. It's not an opinion, it's fact!!!

I know the two incidents that you refer to, and agree that both looked ugly, but realistically his options were: were smother/turnover on half back trying to kick with his right, or potential turnover 40m up the ground kicking with his left. He took the lesser of two evils.

The real answer is that he should never had had to kick if there were only poor options on. Where was the runner for the handpass? This is the difference between a side low on confidence learning a new gameplan and the top 4 sides to which the OP refers.

Watts' left boot is barely discerable from his right.

I would be interested in seeing the stats behind the OP. Champion Data produce a Kick Hit Rate stat that takes into account 'degree of difficulty' into the kick, not just straight up efficiency. A version showing all players with more than 100 kicks for the season was published in the Hun last week. We only had 3 players on it!

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    I know the two incidents that you refer to, and agree that both looked ugly, but realistically his options were: were smother/turnover on half back trying to kick with his right, or potential turnover 40m up the ground kicking with his left. He took the lesser of two evils.

    The real answer is that he should never had had to kick if there were only poor options on. Where was the runner for the handpass? This is the difference between a side low on confidence learning a new gameplan and the top 4 sides to which the OP refers.

    Watts' left boot is barely discerable from his right.

    I would be interested in seeing the stats behind the OP. Champion Data produce a Kick Hit Rate stat that takes into account 'degree of difficulty' into the kick, not just straight up efficiency. A version showing all players with more than 100 kicks for the season was published in the Hun last week. We only had 3 players on it!

    Both of Trengoves kicks were to Melbourne players on a lead, but the kick fell short. Both occasions. There is absolutely no excuse for either. The best option was to back himself by giving a 3-4 metre burst then have time to straighten up. He did have time to do this, but chose the high risk option of kicking non-preferred.

    Watts is generally a good left foot kick. The game in which Morton made "that" turnover (which was a left foot kick too from memory, just can't remember who it was agaisnt!), Watts cost us a goal with a left foot kick turnover.

    What is going on in the heads of some of our players if they decide to kick on their wrong foot, when they have just as much time/space to kick on their right? I think Neeld asked Cale the same question after that turnover.

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    Poor threads are hurting us...

    Sorry, I'll try harder next time. Perhaps you could provide a list of excellent potential threads.

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    Poor threads are hurting us...

    Tell me something i don't know!!!

    So a thread which discusses the club's performance on a primary aspect of the game is 'poor' - this thread deserves much more respect than this, and I'm guessing a few other clubs are reading this and laughing all the way to their wins!

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    So a thread which discusses the club's performance on a primary aspect of the game is 'poor' - this thread deserves much more respect than this, and I'm guessing a few other clubs are reading this and laughing all the way to their wins!

    It's not the concept but the content.

    To simply say, "our kicking is poor" and then go through the list saying "poor" "average" etc doesn't shed any light on why, how, what can be done etc.

    We KNOW the kicking is poor, most things we are doing a poor, what is the point of the thread? Just thought the OP needed a bit more info, direction, stats, or all of the above.

    No offence was meant to Prof.

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    I'm guessing a few other clubs are reading this and laughing all the way to their wins!

    Nope, they are working on their kicking skills and planning for the finals.

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