Not sure if anyone will agree with this.

I think that the new kick in rule has been a not insignificant part of the team's improved performance this year. 

Until this year, the team's kick in strategy from behinds (if you could call it a strategy) was appalling. Other teams seemed to easily move the ball out of FB to the centreline with little trouble, whereas the Demons always strugged.

The additional distance allowed to the full back to run before kicking the ball has allowed the boys (usually May or Salem) to transition the ball to the centreline without too much trouble. This has pretty much fixed the problem of past years. 

I agree it has helped us mix it up a little bit more through our improved foot skills and elevate the ball getting locked in our defensive half.

In my 51 years, Travis Johnstone occasionally nailed the kick in, but the rest of the time, my fingernails have suffered 80's90's00's10's20's etc, totally happy for first time ever with kick ins. 

Edited May 18, 20214 yr by DaisyDeeciple
and my hands look great

I'd still like to see the huddle brought back. Especially if it gets langdon or hunt out on their own

44 minutes ago, Stevienic23 said:

I'd still like to see the huddle brought back. Especially if it gets langdon or hunt out on their own

Way too easy to counter. Just have sweepers on either flank and the centre square. Depending how many of your players go into the huddle, you also leave yourself very vulnerable to the defensive 50 space with a turnover or intercept.

Being one of the teams that adapted to the kick in change and the general 'stand' on the mark rule it helped us early in the season. 

It certainly helped us transition the ball end to end.  How many times did we see Langdon and Hunt speed and overlap down the wing.  It was a joy to watch.  We are still going end to end but (without checking stats) it doesn't seem so  frequent .

There were a few teams that also made the most of the extra distance at kick-ins and the ''stand' rule in general: Bulldogs, Port and Sydney. 

However, most clubs have now developed tactics to defend both the kick in and the territory around the man standing the mark in general.  And learnt how to use the new rules to their advantage.  These are key reasons why Cats and Lions have improved so much in the last 4-6 games.

It is no coincidence that those teams that adapted to the new rules in the season so far, are the top 7 on the ladder  Not sure Richmond have adapted but they are the 'Bradbury' team at the moment in 8th spot.  They will adapt.

We had a head start but we need to keep refining our tactics and adapt to counter tactics. 

The tests will come vs Lions, Port, Bulldogs (x2), Eagles, Cats (again).  They will be fascinating games to watch as they have the best and smartest coaches.  They will put a lot of work into us and our game plan. 

From now on I don't see the rule changes giving us an advantage.

Edited May 18, 20214 yr by Lucifer's Hero

24 minutes ago, A F said:

Way too easy to counter. Just have sweepers on either flank and the centre square. Depending how many of your players go into the huddle, you also leave yourself very vulnerable to the defensive 50 space with a turnover or intercept.

What about having a number of players start on the flank(s) and converge towards the centre when the full back indicates he is going to kick it up the middle in an atempt to create an outnumber in the centre?  (I wouldn't put me in change of strategy)

Somethings in the game don't change greatly no matter the rule changes.  One of those things is that most teams will look for their ruckman when kicking in - as they are normally the team's biggest player and therefore as a good a chance as anyone to take a contested mark.  There's exceptions of course as for some ruckmen, contested marking isn't a big feature of their game (Grundy, Nik Nat etc).

But we have the best in the game and so we kick Max's side EVERY TIME.  We can be predictable because he is that good.  Now that we have TMac, Weid and Brown in the team, we have some serious aerial options - and there's been a number of times in recent weeks where the focus has been on Max only to allow one of the others to chop in and take them mark.

The other added benefit is that if teams traditionally kick to their ruckman, then they're likely to be kicking it in max's vicinity which is dangerous!  So they either try that or have to come up with a new strategy when they play us.

8 hours ago, DaisyDeeciple said:

In my 51 years, Travis Johnstone occasionally nailed the kick in, but the rest of the time, my fingernails have suffered 80's90's00's10's20's etc, totally happy for first time ever with kick ins. 

Agree with this. Travis is about the only player on my lifetime who I’ve trusted with kick ins.

Thankfully we’ve been better this year. We still just bomb to the flank where Gawn is too often for my liking, especially when he’s not marking it. The last few weeks Gawn has been hopeless around the ground and his one dominant contested marking has deserted him. We need to find other avenues for when he’s not playing well. We miss Jackson creating a contest IMO.

I've noticed a couple of teams (St Kilda when we played them, for example) seem to persist with the short kick out from the goal square to the pocket. That strategy seems much more fraught these days as it doesn't make the best use of the 15 metre goal square plus 15 metre run that is available to whoever has the kick-in duties. We occasionally, but now very rarely, go to the pocket. I don't mind us doing that, though, as long as it remains infrequent, as the unpredictability makes us harder to defend against.  

 

I think we are also taking the risk with the kickout of not going so close to the boundary. This makes it harder for the defender to knock the ball out of bounds and brings Oliver etc into play if the tall doesn't take the mark

Makes sense because the pack position is now almost 80 metres from goal thus making it that bit harder to be punished on the rebound

Just go the torp ala Zach Tuohy

Accchhhh!!! Discussions about kick ins inevitably lead me to the horror memories of Stephen Febey's kick outs in the 2000 Grand Final. He could not kick out so that Melbourne got a possession. Every single kick out ended up in Essendon's hands and just went straight back in either for him to kick out again or a goal. Gives me the heebies just thinking about it again. Glad to say things have moved on now. Very confident we won't be seeing that this year in the big dance.