Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but I thought it made for an interesting read:

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-05-24/who-are-the-leagues-best-tacklers

All preseason we were hyping up a new tackling technique and how this was going to be a potential area of strength - this year as we all know we have not been laying enough tackles nor have we been overly effective in the ones we have laid. What I didn't appreciate is just how bad we really are in this area, and now the stats are there to show it. My question is this, did the avid training watchers get it so wrong over the preseason or is it simply we are not employing on the field what we have practiced in training?

I'm sure most of you agree that there is nothing more frustrating than watching a tackler being effortlessly brushed away by opposition players time and time again!

Its not technique, its mindset. The players have even admitted it.

Don't you think that's a bit of an excuse? I do agree with you to a certain extent but once you engage your opponent in a tackle it happens so quickly that its more about technique and strength making that tackle stick.

Would prefer the 'hard ball' gets (getting in first for the ball) to be a priority over the tackle count.

Intensity....

to tackle

to win hard ball

to run

to support

to mark

etc, etc, etc.

I think this has to do with training, every training session they only seem to be doing tackling stuff at 60-70% effort, they need to go flat out and get the technique right, our attempted tackles stacks up but the ones that stick are ranked last

go flat out at training and get this right and we will improve considerably.

It's an area that gets right at the heart of where we are as a club. The best tackling game I've seen in years from us was the preseason game at Renwick, not surprisingly we fielded a team missing a lot of our senior players. I'm sick to death of the token efforts by our guys and of the excuses about younger bodies etc. what a let out.

Watching preseason training we were being taught to go low in the tackle, watching the games most of our guys still go high and more often than not with no conviction. This is how we are playing our football, not learning lessons and no conviction.

Now, I just noticed above the mention of technique and strength. The most important thing in laying a good tackle is desire, the want to do it. If you have that and develop the right technique then strength comes a distant 3rd. Even if you are a lightweight you can at least hang on to even the strongest player, you might not bring him to ground but you will slow him down. Players being brushed off are being brushed off because they have no conviction and they haven't taken their lessons on board.

As for hard ball gets over tackling, all things are important. The way the game is the opposition are going to have the ball for a fair period of time and tackling is an important component to getting it back and putting pressure on.

Our tackles were sticking better against Richmond, but against GC i think it was the worst ive ever seen

Its not technique, its mindset. The players have even admitted it.

This is correct, they were taught the technique by one of the best John Muggleton, but if you don't make the extra effort to stick the technique or don't hit it with the necessary grunt, you will fall off the tackle, against Richmond it improved, hopefully we will see the same or better against Freo.

Personal opinion, we have four in the team at the moment who put the necessary 'grunt' into tackles on a consistent basis, Jetta, Tapscott, McKenzie and Terlich and to a lesser extent Davey, N Jones and Magner hopefully they can lead the way for the rest of the team to follow

Our tackles were sticking better against Richmond, but against GC i think it was the worst ive ever seen

I think against Richmond the thing that helped us was that we hunted in packs. If one player tackled, another two would come over and help. When you are skinny kids, that's the kind of thing you need to do as a team.

Its all about mindset, commitment and effort not elite skills. We are deplorable in this area.

Watch the Freo game to see how a side strangles an opposition with tackling pressure,

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but I thought it made for an interesting read:

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-05-24/who-are-the-leagues-best-tacklers

All preseason we were hyping up a new tackling technique and how this was going to be a potential area of strength - this year as we all know we have not been laying enough tackles nor have we been overly effective in the ones we have laid. What I didn't appreciate is just how bad we really are in this area, and now the stats are there to show it. My question is this, did the avid training watchers get it so wrong over the preseason or is it simply we are not employing on the field what we have practiced in training?

I'm sure most of you agree that there is nothing more frustrating than watching a tackler being effortlessly brushed away by opposition players time and time again!

the chickens, are trying hard to break out of the Conservative cultural EGG.

its hard to be aggressive when your environment is pacifistic....

# PS: when are we going to build a Training/Office-Social Hub?

.

it all starts with the coach

What makes this worse is that we don't have the pill as much as our opposition. Our tackles should be very high as well as th being effective.