Smothered kicks

[Ryan Dee 140]

Christ all mighty, how many times did I see our kicks smothered today when they shouldn't have been. How stupid are these players? Frawley does it without fail almost every game and 3 times today. Nicholson, Grimes and Garland also do it all the time. They leave their kicks to the last minute and if its not smothered then their kicks are under pressure. SIMPLE LITTLE THINGS!!!!!!!

[Hellish Inferno 992]

1. Having to wait for a team mate to actually make some space and be in the position to kick to. Should be able to look up and see a target straight away

2. Port were manning the mark very well. The commentators noted that.

3. They're spuds

[Ryan Dee 140]

Once again, Burns straight into Zorko for a goal....stupid,.

[jnrmac 20,065]

Burns me up .

We do it all the time.

When we move it quickly we look OK.

No instinctive football because we refuse to run.

[jackaub 1,402]

These blokes are stupid waht part of dont kick into the man dont theuy understand Something they can fix dont have to be a superstar to fix it just think and do it Geeesssuuuss it drives me crazy

[Carlos Danger 380]

Once again, Burns straight into Zorko for a goal....stupid,.

Deserves a week or 2 in the seconds to reflect on it.

[Moonshadow 17,676]

I like some of what Burns has done of late, particularly last week, but his kicking action sometimes looks like slow motion. That smother and turnover goal made him look a fool.

[jnrmac 20,065]

I thought he was poor early but in the end Burns had 17 possessions and I think 11 marks which meant he did run to make an option. Can't say too many others did that.

[Carlos Danger 380]

I thought he was poor early but in the end Burns had 17 possessions and I think 11 marks which meant he did run to make an option. Can't say too many others did that.

How many of those were in junk-time?

[Dee Fan 3,247]

At one stage we had a kick out of the backline and the player looked up to see there was no one making a lead, no one offering to accept a handball, so he waited until play on was signalled and got his kick away to a pack. He nearly got smothered as well, but there was nothing ahead to kick too; we just don't know how to play football and are either too stupid or to frightened to lead.

We have some of the worst footballers ever to put on a boot and it can be sheeted home to years of poor recruiting and failure to pick players who have the strength to actually play the modern game.

[DeeSpencer 25,709]

Byrnes also switched the play and then ran and received it again from the guy he kicked it to. That work rate stands out like a sore thumb from the rest of the lazy blokes he plays with.

[Pates 9,660]

At one stage we had a kick out of the backline and the player looked up to see there was no one making a lead, no one offering to accept a handball, so he waited until play on was signalled and got his kick away to a pack.

This kills me every single week. The players seem to go to a spot and stand there flapping their arms. No one leads to make space or any kind of running at all. EVERY other team is able to hurt us when we miss and we see it as another opportunity to stuff up.

Brisbane had 20 behinds today, image if we became a team that hurt the opposition 30-40% of the time on kick ins. Bring back Wheatley!!

[Ryan Dee 140]

Once again for Christ sakes. I will keep saying it until it stops.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

Melbourne players don't turn around (to face their forward line) and run backwards quickly enough. They should up and back in one or two seconds maximum, I would say Melbourne players take about four or five seconds on average.

For a start it causes kicks to be smothered (as we have seen), but they also miss any teammate who may be free up the ground and they have missed the best opportunities to dispose of the ball.

I would love to know what our coaches are doing to rectify this.

[Gorgoroth 12,951]

They need to hustle backwards quickly and not try and kick off one step

[Toorak 108]

McKenzie must have the worst kick in the AFL. I concede he is a really good tager but can we afford to carry him. I don't think so!

[Tony Tea 2,809]

Footy fact! In the history of Australian Rules football since 1858, Melbourne has twice as many smothered kicks as the rest of the VFL and AFL teams put together.

[jnrmac 20,065]

Once again for Christ sakes. I will keep saying it until it stops.

I was nearly ejected for screaming so loudly about smothered kicks. Must have had 7 today. Nicholson and McKenzie major culprits. All were turnovers that killed us because our players were running free from their man. FMD!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rjay 24,928]

I was nearly ejected for screaming so loudly about smothered kicks. Must have had 7 today. Nicholson and McKenzie major culprits. All were turnovers that killed us because our players were running free from their man. FMD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nicholson is an awareness and decision making error, McKenzie, the one I saw was a lack of intensity or finess with the ball, he relaxed.

Other times like the Dawes one early in the game are lack of movement down the ground, we have some players who don't understand or read football very well. Some will say well they don't know Dawes game yet, I say rubbish, he's a right footer who always looks to give off so from where he takes the ball he will move in an arc around on to his right. Make position for him , he uses the ball pretty well.

[Return to Glory 8,441]

At least for the most part we kicked to players moving.

[Little Richard 6,262]

Footy fact! In the history of Australian Rules football since 1858, Melbourne has twice as many smothered kicks as the rest of the VFL and AFL teams put together.

Haha, didn't realise we had statisticians back in those days!

[Seraph 1,824]

They need to hustle backwards quickly and not try and kick off one step

Bloody hell, this.

I recall yelling at Jordie today to f*cking get up already and run back and kick forward. Nope, was far too slow and ended up kicking sideways (resulted in a turnover on the wing and a goal).

Not sure whether they're not hurrying because they know there'll be no spread, or whether it seems like there's no spread because players take too long.