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Featured Replies

 
21 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Well since 1998 anyway

Pretty damning statistic and it's no surprise to anyone here that this is our main problem. How do we fix it?

We play a contested brand of football all over the ground including our forwardline. But Trac is the only contested player we have in the forward 50. Melksham is the other but with him out I think Smith can play that role. Weid is still light on but it's competing well. TMac runs on train tracks. If it's not lace out he has no hope. And out small forwards are all soft/light

Drop Garlett, Spargo and Hannan and bring in the likes of TSmith, ANB and move one of Viney or Jones forward to try to just muscle our way to the scoreboard. Obviously AVB and Melksham in the forwardline adds even more strength down there.

I don't think it's a very sustainable solution but at the very least it might get us a few wins in the second half of the year

Edited by ArtificialWisdom
English

I'm calling Weed and McDonald 'velcro' from now on.

 

For goodness sakes.  In 2nd game tackers, if you saw 2 big forwards lead to the same spot together, you'd expect that they would understand and lead to different spots by game 3.

 

Really is an indictment on the forward coaching, individual common-sense and supposed 'forward craft'.

 

This year has been a disaster. Our movement of the ball is completely broken both tactically and skill wise, and I won’t be surprised if a few records tumble along the way.


2 hours ago, Demonland said:

Well since 1998 anyway

Pretty damning statistic and it's no surprise to anyone here that this is our main problem. How do we fix it?

It certainly explains to a large extent our miserable 3 -9 win ratio this year.  818 inside 50's for a total of just 118 goals. The Geelong game was the worst with 72 entries for just 6 goals.Geelong from 48 entries scored 20 goals! We have created opportunities to score but to no avail.  Inside 50's are Melbourne 818 Opposition 621.We have won the inside 50 count in 9 games out of 12 this season. We even pipped Collingwood with this stat yesterday,  118 goals 130 behinds is another factor while opposition have scored166-106 against us.Losing Hogan and a very out of form Tom McDonald are also contributing factors. Melksham would certainly help but our kicking for goal is sub standard. So many missed set shots from 35 metres out on very little angle. Wasn't it opening up old wounds when Weideman slotted the ball right through the middle from a very similar shot he had against Adelaide last week. Poor guy, I really felt for him last week and it was great to see so many teammates rush up to console him. He was absolutely shattered.  As the poster concluded , How do we fix it? Over to you Simon and forward coaches.

In another record figure, our opposition are tracking at a combined 61% accuracy which is two percent above the highest recorded amount of 59% (Brisbane in 2017) since 2000.

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

Well since 1998 anyway

Pretty damning statistic and it's no surprise to anyone here that this is our main problem. How do we fix it?

Tracc into the middle as per y'day (should have happened a month or more ago).  No more HF play other than drifting through there on occasions to lose tag/create some mayhem and give the opp a diff look.  Chunk goes to a mostly HF role to replace Tracc.

Trade T-mac, ANB, Stretch.  Delist Jeffy, Spargo, Smith & JKH.

Give Hannan & Hunt a one year performance based extension.

Recruit a genuine KPF and small to medium crumbing goal kicking forward with pace off the mark for 2020.  Preferably Cameron as the KPF (yep I'm dreaming). 

For the remainder of the season Pruess in for T-mac.  Lockhart & Dunkley in for for Jeffy & Spargo.

Edited by Rusty Nails

 
4 hours ago, Demonland said:

Well since 1998 anyway

Pretty damning statistic and it's no surprise to anyone here that this is our main problem. How do we fix it?

We stop recruiting mid-sized players, and get talls who can run and carry.

4 hours ago, Demonland said:

Pretty damning statistic and it's no surprise to anyone here that this is our main problem. How do we fix it?

Easy!  Just kick more goals!!


Let's try another hail mary but this time with Oscar McDonald at full forward instead of Tom ?

Edited by John Demonic

I thought hunt showed a bit and took the game on, as did trac in parts. We desperately miss Melk, Spargo killed a lot of our rolling entries that could easily have converted into goals - interestingly, the commentators talked about Collingwoods “spaceman” who still couldn’t kick, but at least he ran into space time and time again! The only time we looked dangerous up forward was when our forwards moved laterally into space for a largely uncontested mark. We can fix this, but it’s all too late for this season.

5 hours ago, Demonland said:

Well since 1998 anyway

Pretty damning statistic and it's no surprise to anyone here that this is our main problem. How do we fix it?

There's good news in this. It would seem to suggest the defence (after a very rocky start to the year) and the midfield are at least getting the ball forward. Quality of that forward movement seems to be a problem which is surely easier to fix than teaching players how to actually get the ball in the first place. 

It just feels like they're not prepared to take any risks by changing things up a bit. It's been relatively the same set-up the entire season and it just ain't working.

How has Tom McDonald kept his spot in the forward line? Giving us nothing.

Why hasn't Preuss been given more of an opportunity?

Trac just floating around at half forward - its all been a bit 'meh'

Why not give Oliver some time playing out of the square? 

Why isn't Fritsch having a crack up forward?

Why has Spargo been given such a healthy opportunity?

 

I mean I'm just spit balling ideas here... but as i said, it just feels like nothing new is ever being tried out properly. Every game feels a bit same-old same-old and it's so predictable. 

9 minutes ago, Juicebox said:

It just feels like they're not prepared to take any risks by changing things up a bit. It's been relatively the same set-up the entire season and it just ain't working.

How has Tom McDonald kept his spot in the forward line? Giving us nothing.

Why hasn't Preuss been given more of an opportunity?

Trac just floating around at half forward - its all been a bit 'meh'

Why not give Oliver some time playing out of the square? 

Why isn't Fritsch having a crack up forward?

Why has Spargo been given such a healthy opportunity?

 

I mean I'm just spit balling ideas here... but as i said, it just feels like nothing new is ever being tried out properly. Every game feels a bit same-old same-old and it's so predictable

Anything but. We've played all of the following this year who have played their first games for the club - Lockhart, Keilty, Preuss, Baker, Hore, C Wagner, Sparrow,  Koladjashnij. Most (I think all but Hore?) have played wing or forward. In addition, inexperienced players such as T Smith, Kennedy-Harris, Spargo and Petty have had games and players such as May and Lever have played, but not often. With so much change it's hardly surprising that there is a lack of cohesion (to use Goddwin's favourite word this year). the only thing predictable is the result...and the poor kicking for goal.


The Bulldogs have almost the exact same issue: tons of contested ball winners, handball heavy gameplan and horrific inside forward 50 retention and ability to score....I believe we copied their style to some extent especially with the recruitment of Brendan McCartney...obviously this worked well in the last few years but seems to be fundamentally ineffective in 2019 footy - time to change up some of our coaching staff maybe?

Can't just blame the forwards.

Kick inside 50 retention rate is a useful stat for us I think. Basically sums up the quality of our kicks inside 50. We are the third worst team in the league, but what is really telling is with the AFL average for players being 46%, we currently have Brayshaw (33%), Oliver (30%) and Viney (a league-worst 24%) as our main ball winners kicking it to our forwards.

If Goodwin wants to find some solutions to our "connection" I would think he needs to start with our co-captain. Either he is not following instructions or is a horrible decision maker. Given how much Goodwin has talked about this problem, we can rule out that he's doing as told.

15 minutes ago, sisso said:

The Bulldogs have almost the exact same issue: tons of contested ball winners, handball heavy gameplan and horrific inside forward 50 retention and ability to score....I believe we copied their style to some extent especially with the recruitment of Brendan McCartney...obviously this worked well in the last few years but seems to be fundamentally ineffective in 2019 footy - time to change up some of our coaching staff maybe?

 

Last year we just bombed it into the F50 and had success. There isn't really a change to the game plan but we're sitting at 3-9.

How has it become so inefficient so quickly? 

 

1 hour ago, John Demonic said:

Let's try another hail mary but this time with Oscar McDonald at full forward instead of Tom ?

He's worth a look,  'JD'.

 


It’s not just the delivery. It’s the quality of the forwards and the lack of a quality gorilla FF to provide structure and opportunity for others. 

Good forwards gobble up their share of half chances and are able to water into wine. Exhibit A - DeGoey and Stephenson yesterday. 

We desperately need to recruit another KPF, a big bodied KPF proven at the level, to straighten up the side. TMac was a one season wonder and Weid will remain a project for a while yet. 

22 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Can't just blame the forwards.

Kick inside 50 retention rate is a useful stat for us I think. Basically sums up the quality of our kicks inside 50. We are the third worst team in the league, but what is really telling is with the AFL average for players being 46%, we currently have Brayshaw (33%), Oliver (30%) and Viney (a league-worst 24%) as our main ball winners kicking it to our forwards.

If Goodwin wants to find some solutions to our "connection" I would think he needs to start with our co-captain. Either he is not following instructions or is a horrible decision maker. Given how much Goodwin has talked about this problem, we can rule out that he's doing as told.

This is the area of our breakdown in a nutshell.... but also calls into question those who should be on the receiving end of transitions...  and what they do to mark,  or to make position,  and drawing their defenders apart.

Petracca IMO,  should not start inside F50.   Its been far too easy to get the ball out of our 50.

We need more mobility and speed,  inside our 50.

 

14 minutes ago, roy11 said:

 

Last year we just bombed it into the F50 and had success. There isn't really a change to the game plan but we're sitting at 3-9.

How has it become so inefficient so quickly? 

 

Spread I think. iirc.   Spread the defenders.?  even if it follows them kicking the ball out of our F50,  then we regain & run the ball back thru Mids,  and spot up a target inside.  Is how I recall it last year.?

10 minutes ago, DV8 said:

This is the area of our breakdown in a nutshell.... but also calls into question those who should be on the receiving end of transitions...  and what they do to mark,  or to make position,  and drawing their defenders apart.

Petracca IMO,  should not start inside F50.   Its been far too easy to get the ball out of our 50.

We need more mobility and speed,  inside our 50.

Yeah absolutely. Stats are always limited, and the forwards (and those responsible for their structure) definitely have their share of the blame. Since there's already rumblings about our onfield leadership this week, I'm wondering who we have that could (or is meant to) take responsibility for directing our forwards?

 

 

It’s no surprise since our forward coach didn’t even play as a Forward. Which genius appointed an assistant coach who didn’t even play the role his meant to coach?

And how about the 70's and most of the 80's?

In the 70's we had Alves,  Wells,  Flower and Hardeman (from CHB) continually pumping it forward to a dysfuntional forward line (or lack of talent - take your pick)

In the 80's it was the same story although our midfield was just a bigger issue apart from Willo,  Sugar and 1 or 2 others.

Year after year after year we'd get it forward only for the ball to often come straight back out. 

So we've been there and done that. 

We need to recruit some natural forwards but in the meantime our current midfielders need to start hitting the scoreboard.


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