For all if you worried about the changing nature of the AFL, comfort yourselves with the constancy of Melbourne's dreadful kick outs.

dean kent is a STONKING kick apparently.

Two parts to the equation

1/ Players up the field not working hard enough to give an option

2/ Lack of trust from the kicker to the option being offered ******

*** this applies all over the field and something I noticed on Sunday that sets us apart from decent teams. Hawthorn players present options and their kickers (granted - their kickers are highly skilled) honour most leads first time - this moves the ball on quickly. We have trust issues either in the player leadings' ability to mark the ball in front of his opponent or the players own ability to deliver the ball to him. So we look slow and stop start.

i have no problems with the big sausage roll down the gutz about once a quarter

as long as it's a set-piece and signalled correctly

  On 23/04/2014 at 05:24, daisycutter said:

i have no problems with the big sausage roll down the gutz about once a quarter

me either - but after 4 quarters I end up with the worst indigestion of all time.

We're doing pretty much what every other club in the league does at kick ins...and like most things, when we do them badly, we do them very badly.

There's not many variables they can tinker with – not like our plan is bad – but we definitely should ensure that Dean Terlich NEVER kicks in. Kick ins too often turn into goals off Terlich's Kick ins, and they're usually his fault...see q3, GWS.

Once this occurs over the course of a couple of weeks, you'd think they'd find an alternative.

We take far too long to take kicks period. In the backline on the wing and forward line as well as kick ins. Our players are not prepared to kick quickly to players in the open, I am sure Roos has stressed the need to retain possession of the ball to our players but this may actually hold them back from taking first options. The top teams get the ball and move it FORWARD QUICKLY even if its only 10-15 meters at a time. We hold it and eventually end up kicking backwards or along the line.

Spencer has proven he is not very good at taking marks around the ground so we should not be kicking to contests with him unless we are sure we can force the ball out over the boundary. Our kick ins are pretty one dimensional kick it to yourself and run around the boundary to get a few extra meters and then kick hurriedly to the opposition. The team needs to develop additional set plays i.e. barrel down the centre being one that we all would love to see happen occasionally. kick to self and start to run around the boundary, have someone shepherd and then cut back towards the middle and go down the middle again. hurried kick ins, etc... We have a lot of players out there all seeming to play for themselves only, i.e. if Watts is the designated receiver than someone should be trying to block or hinder Watts opponent to stop him from contesting, we need players to work as a unit to get the best outcome for the side. JKH did this beautifully against carlton to allow dawes an uncontested mark. we see opposition players do it, why do our players not shepherd.

  On 21/04/2014 at 00:01, hogans_heroes said:

This.

It is absolutely cringe worthy and costs us 3-4 goals per game.

No idea what Roos is thinking letting him take kick ins

If someone asked me to encapsulate my frustrations of the last ten years I would point them to our kick ins. In fact, I'd go further and show them footage of us trying to get the ball out of the 50. I don't claim to know the answer beyond seeing that the sides that do it well are nowhere near as static as we are in defense. And the designated kicker for most teams is able to kick over a jam tin.

I think the real problem is that most of the players aren't very good.

  On 23/04/2014 at 07:57, Deecisive said:

We take far too long to take kicks period. In the backline on the wing and forward line as well as kick ins. Our players are not prepared to kick quickly to players in the open, I am sure Roos has stressed the need to retain possession of the ball to our players but this may actually hold them back from taking first options. The top teams get the ball and move it FORWARD QUICKLY even if its only 10-15 meters at a time. We hold it and eventually end up kicking backwards or along the line.

Spencer has proven he is not very good at taking marks around the ground so we should not be kicking to contests with him unless we are sure we can force the ball out over the boundary. Our kick ins are pretty one dimensional kick it to yourself and run around the boundary to get a few extra meters and then kick hurriedly to the opposition. The team needs to develop additional set plays i.e. barrel down the centre being one that we all would love to see happen occasionally. kick to self and start to run around the boundary, have someone shepherd and then cut back towards the middle and go down the middle again. hurried kick ins, etc... We have a lot of players out there all seeming to play for themselves only, i.e. if Watts is the designated receiver than someone should be trying to block or hinder Watts opponent to stop him from contesting, we need players to work as a unit to get the best outcome for the side. JKH did this beautifully against carlton to allow dawes an uncontested mark. we see opposition players do it, why do our players not shepherd.

I think Spencer being unable to mark is a real issue around the ground and at kick ins. Doubt he's taken 1 contested mark this year - certainly not in the past 2 weeks. Unbelievable for some one of his size.