Salem is one of the best we have for foot disposal, however his recent efforts have been very ordinary.  I despair at his turnovers and dinky little kicks.  Are we wasting him in the backline?  

I am glad you brought this up..he is trying to kick off one step too much and gets no penetration or accuracy...was pretty ordinary last night.

He needs to be dropped

His turnovers and brain fades are costing the team

10 minutes ago, Soidee said:

Salem is one of the best we have for foot disposal, however his recent efforts have been very ordinary.  I despair at his turnovers and dinky little kicks.  Are we wasting him in the backline?  

I'd think we were 'wasting' him on the backline. He can kick good distance and fine shorter kicks, he can run and run, he can apply effective tackles, he find space quickly. He is very light and has difficulty 'stopping' opponents who are big blokes.

This means, to me at least, the following:

• he's fine for shots at goal up to 50 metres
• he is agile, moderately fast and balanced
• he can be selective but effective in tags and spoils, including similar sized opponent tackles
• he can be very evasive, moves to spaces rapidly, slips opponents when moving in anticipation of receiving a pass
• he is not a great backman due to his slight frame - limited physical threat with the big boys
• highly suited to the penetration of the forward line with depth or in the transition from midfield to deep forward

I'd reckon he could be better placed against certain teams, not all. At least, shifted to attacking roles for shorter bursts when our players up forward are lumbering with their static tendencies. He'd be a great feeder for mobile forwards, such as the Melk, Hannan and Jackson. Just an opinion...

1 hour ago, Soidee said:

Salem is one of the best we have for foot disposal, however his recent efforts have been very ordinary.  I despair at his turnovers and dinky little kicks.  Are we wasting him in the backline?  

I think he needs to take the game on more with his kicking. Because he has the kicking ability, I'd much prefer him turning it over occasionally, if he was making us better with his kicking in an attacking way.

Using angles and looking for the corridor wherever possible should be the go. Gus' kick into the middle of the ground to Jones last night was a perfect example of an attacking kick and we so often score when we attack the corridor as a team.

He's not wasted in the backline, because I don't think he's a natural ballwinner and he's not a good enough tackler (at least at the moment) to play in the midfield, but we/he is wasting his kicking attributes by not seeking to be penetrative enough.

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by A F

26 disposals last night - 20 of which were kicks for 468m gained. Also went at 53% DE. Given I can remember him taking 1 kick in where he hit Tomlinson just beyond the 50m arc, I'll let you work out the maths on the rest of his kicks. 

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by Stevienic23

He reminds me of Trav Johnston a little where he tries some high risk kicks and when they fail they look awful. That one in particular in the back line near the pocket was particularly poor. Turning it over there is almost always going to result in a shot on goal. Needs to play the percentages more. 

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by Pates

How much longer will commentators  
((Taylor, Russell ) keep claiming he’s an elite kick?

He hasn’t been a consistently reliable kick for years

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by joeboy

3 minutes ago, joeboy said:

How much longer will commentators ((Taylor, Russell ) keep claiming he’s an elite kick?

He hasn’t been a consistently reliable kick for years

Great minds. 

I had the exact same thought last night. 

The other phrase that grates is 'they love the ball in his hands'

They don't include me.

Had to laugh last night when Eddie said near the start of the third how good gus had been kicking in the game. 

Funnily enough from that  point on his kicking was really good!

I would move him up the ground. Rivers to come in and play half back.

3 hours ago, Soidee said:

Salem is one of the best we have for foot disposal, however his recent efforts have been very ordinary.  I despair at his turnovers and dinky little kicks.  Are we wasting him in the backline?  

Definitely a waste in the backline. I'd like to c him play as onballer/centreline/forward

19 minutes ago, Pates said:

He reminds me of Trav Johnston a little where he tries some high risk kicks and when they fail they look awful. That one in particular in the back line near the pocket was particularly poor. Turning it over there is almost always going to result in a shot on goal. Needs to play the percentages more. 

That dinky kick went about 3m directly to an oppo player who ended up kicking a goal. It was like he picked him out. 

Move him up the ground so he's kicking to 50 where he can be more daring. Would relax knowing turnovers aren't as costly as in the back half.

He's a forward flank type player. Roos tried to mould him into a half back thinking he could be our Hodge styoe quarterback setting up play with his kicks but I think he's wasted back there. Get him up the ground, setting up our inside 50s and pressing forward for goals as he has good goal sense. His tackling is pretty good too and I reckon he would improve our inside 50 retention.

6 hours ago, Soidee said:

Salem is one of the best we have for foot disposal, however his recent efforts have been very ordinary.  I despair at his turnovers and dinky little kicks.  Are we wasting him in the backline?  

I thought Salem's role would be a line breaker with his kicking off half back. To that end he is disappointing.

He uses the ball well but we don't get enough bang for our buck. 15m chip passes are not what we generally need. We need scything 50m passes to open up the ground and launch attacks.

I think he could work as a mid as he is clean and thinks well under pressure generally. 

5 hours ago, Stevienic23 said:

26 disposals last night - 20 of which were kicks for 468m gained. Also went at 53% DE. Given I can remember him taking 1 kick in where he hit Tomlinson just beyond the 50m arc, I'll let you work out the maths on the rest of his kicks. 

Agree. He plays lazy. Needs an ELECTRIC SHOCK. Needs to use his kicking to our advantage. Not sideways 15 metre chips.  I’ve banged on about this for a long time. 

He did push up the ground a few weeks back, I forget who against (the Suns perhaps?) and was deliving to good effect inside 50 and kicked a goal off a turnover.

More of that please.

I agree about the dinky kicks out of defense to a fair extent.  If you kick long and turn if over, at least it's got further to come back.

Also in the camp for seeing Rivers given another go.   His line breaking and long accurate kicking out of defense has so much promise.

56 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

I thought Salem's role would be a line breaker with his kicking off half back. To that end he is disappointing.

He uses the ball well but we don't get enough bang for our buck. 15m chip passes are not what we generally need. We need scything 50m passes to open up the ground and launch attacks.

I think he could work as a mid as he is clean and thinks well under pressure generally. 

Agree with all of the above. The only problem with him as a mid is how many we currently have vying for minutes.

It is pretty obvious that is midfield or nothing for Gus and adding one more player to the mix makes it hard to see how he he gets enough minutes in there.

Don't mind him as half forward. 

Salem did start one of those chains of possessions up the ground that led to us beating the Eagles and making finals a few years ago.  It was an effective pin point pass to a good position from memory.

I feel like Salem's a bit out of form and not presently playing to his potential.  That doesn't necessarily bother me that much, because he's a quality player and I think he'll come good at some point and tear a game apart for us.

I actually think it's a good sign that the team is winning games without all of our stars firing on all four cylinders.  I recon watch out when the whole team switches on and screams into action.

Salem's overrated.
Dinky kicks off HB.
Too slow for the midfield.
Rarely takes a mark so pointless in the forward line.
Drop him and put Rivers in.

Thing is with Salem is doesn't seem to be able to kick those low spear type passes, instead he seems to have a 'chip' style kick. The chip kick is very effective around stoppages where he has great vision to accurately spot a teammate, however it doesn't work so well in the back half when the defence is set and able to cut it off because it gives the defence a lot of time to react to it. I'm a believer that Salem would be much better utilised on the wing where his chip kicks are more effective around stoppages and kicking inside 50. He could be our so called 'quarterback' at stoppages where as the inside winger he hangs at the back of the stoppage waiting for one of our inside mids to handball to him where he can be the kicker out of the stoppage, similar to how Josh Kelly. Salem's best features is his vision, decision making, and chip kick execution. I think Hibberd is a great example over the past few years of a half back flanker needing that spearing kick to break a line, Salem simply doesn't have it in his trick bag, but Rivers does. Salem onto a wing and rivers in the backline would do wonders I reckon.

The dinky kicks would be ok going inside 50, short passes to set up set shots at goal

On 8/6/2020 at 6:54 PM, Forest Demon said:

I would move him up the ground. Rivers to come in and play half back.

And play him where? At half forward or on a wing? I don't see it. He's not great above his head. 

49 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The dinky kicks would be ok going inside 50, short passes to set up set shots at goal

I agree that his dinky kicks might be okay going inside 50, but I think getting it in his hands is the harder part across half forward.

We have Melksham in that kick inside 50 HFF role.

 

Salem on the other flank might be great.

 

Goodness (and Goody) knows if we can get better going inside 50 we are a finals team.

 

He is useful wherever he is in a team with not many super precise kicks. But if he goes forward we get to see more of Rivers or Hunt in the backline.