If this headline said “Jaded is the best kick going inside forward 50 for Dees” I doubt anyone would be surprised either. 
 

Our ball use is horrendous. 

Gary Lyon isn't happy.

And that would be no surprise.  Gawn is a good kick for a ruckman, but most of his delivery into the forward 50 is from a stationary play - he has time and composure (and yes, the skill) to hit a target.  His pass to Melksham inside 50 at the City End last week was a great kick which wasn't rushed and was well executed. 

He's obviously not kicking to Weid. That would kill any players stats.

I wondered how long it would take until this got mentioned. Without getting past the pay wall to read the article I can say from memory he's had quite a few chip kicks inside 50 to a player about 45m out on the boundary line. Chalked up as an effective kick inside 50 but it's not particularly useful for generating scores

Edited July 8, 20205 yr by ArtificialWisdom

35 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

I wondered how long it would take until this got mentioned. Without getting past the pay wall to read the article I can say from memory he's had quite a few chip kicks inside 50 to a player about 45m out on the boundary line. Chalked up as an effective kick inside 50 but it's not particularly useful for generating scores

More useful than kicking it straight to the opposition!

Having read the article I'm a bit doubtful about the statistical underpinning of the data being used. It's based on 9 kicks by Oliver and 11 by Gawn (or maybe the other way round). Yes, the numbers show a worrying trend and, yes, we can all see that Oliver's kicking (and handpassing) is rushed and often either misses a target or finds a team-mate under pressure.

However, purely on the numbers, they are really just being used to confirm what we can see. Classic confirmation bias.  

I think think the bigger thing about Max and the possible reason for this is that he has a cool head. If he takes a mark say 60m out he doesn't rush and bomb, he'll turn and look for a pass. This is one of the things that Jimmy Bartel was talking about during the coverage of the match on the weekend (while BT was trying to pump our chances up), he talked about how there is a tempo to footy where you have to know when to go fast and when to hold for a breath to sum up the situation. 

When we receive the ball we are one pace, manic. It seems to be about catching the opposition out to create overlapping runs and goals out the back (I actually remember that was a trademark of ours in 2018), but the trade off to that is that we are very vulnerable on the turnover and the opposition have also worked this out so when we don't have the overlap because they have got back in numbers we run ourselves into trouble. 

Max is one of few (Salem and perhaps Petracca being the only other two I can think of) who does take that half second pause to see what the other team has done a looks to place the ball in a position for one of our forwards to mark it.

Kicking to position or advantage. There has been so much written about this skill or lack of skill. 

The game on Sunday and the previous loss kicks from the midfield or back line have been average to say the least.

The number one priority for kicking to advantage is that the player you want to kick too is playing in front, running to a position in front of the opponent. 

I would like to count up the times that our forwards were not in front, but waiting behind for either the ball that comes over the top or to try and take the big pack mark. In most of these instances the ball just dropped to front and we had no one around the pack.

Then look at Richmond's movement forward. I would count that at least 80% of their licks went to advantage. The player could run onto the ball. Our back once again played from behind. If you are in front you always have the advantage. To many times we had three and four players competing against one or two players and we had no one on the ground to mop up. This happened in the forward line as well.

Don't get me started on the half meter hand balls to someone standing still or going in the wrong direction. It is true the players are trying to play to fast. The simple matter is why on earth did the player who is half a meter away not provide a Shepard. I noticed how Richmond did this often in close to provide the ball carrier with more time. Such a simple skill but the Dee's not smart enough to understand. I believe it may be about possessions and not the team thing.

It was my footy experience that one of the best ways to get the respect of your teamates whether you were mates or not was to have good disposal by hand or foot. I never respected some highly rated teamates who could get the ball and either took little care or could not dispose of the footy well. It eats away at teamates, often unsaid but creates disharmony because it denies players downfield and opportunity to get a kick. Instead of getting a kick they have to chase the opposition player who  who gets the stray kick.