Why isn't Kozzie going through the middle anymore?

[Altona-demon 321]

Start of the season one of the more innovative things we did was start Kozzie at centre bounces, and watching the inability of midfielders to evade and hit up short targets in half-forward / inside 50 got me thinking why can't we play Kozzie a bit more through the middle (and why did we stop?).  He gives a different look, is fast and threatening has great closing speed and a good disposal off both feet.  In the video of the week you can see the way he reads the ball and is decisive in his decision making. 

Compare this to the lack of decisiveness in players like Harmes and Viney who are limited footballers, its surprising we don't want this star closer to the ball. 

[Click_Bate 182]

Can’t remember the second half, but he definitely started the first two quarters in the middle like he normally does.

He only ever does it on the very first bounce of each quarter  though

Edited July 4, 2021 by Click_Bate

[chook fowler 19,430]

He’s not doing much, anywhere.

[Hellaintabadplacetobe 4,294]

4 minutes ago, Click_Bate said:

Can’t remember the second half, but he definitely started the first two quarters in the middle like he normally does.

He only ever does it on the very first bounce of each quarter  though

Yeah it's a little odd I'm not sure what is the purpose but it's almost every opening bounce of a quarter.

Can't remember him having any impact in there once. 

[Little Goffy 14,398]

The need for a bit more variety at our stoppages, especially some added class and speed, has long been a concern.

Pickett is not afraid of contact and sure knows how to dance in a crowd, so I also like seeing him mixed in occasionally to confuse the opposition.  I would assume the main concern is that he is still only a kid with (while crediting his personal initiative bordering on heroic this pre-season) finite endurance so there's a limit to how much we can expect him to be running all over the ground attending stoppages, hence the use just a centre bounces.

He's clearly fatigued. He works his horse off every week without a lot of exciting reward and that's hard to maintain.

I wouldn't put it beyond being emotional fatigue as well. His individual season has a distinct resemblance to the Demon's collective 2005 after mourning Troy Broadbridge and for a kid to lose his mother and be away from home is a much greater grief.  There's only so long you can courageously push through before you go through a period where all you are feeling is the hole in your life.

That's all speculation only of course. My main thought from it all is that I'm not really worried about Kozzie longer term and I hope when we bring a tall target back in for him to work with then he'll get to really enjoy football again and the rewards will flow for himself and the team.

[DeeZee 7,361]

He was tried there a couple of times yesterday but he is just not getting his hands on the ball anywhere at the minute.

[Demonsone 2,029]

Needs a tall Fwd who can create a contest and feed of the ball coming to ground, thats were he's at his best, oops we have 2 talls sitting in the VFL!!!

Edited July 4, 2021 by Demonsone

[spirit of norm smith 16,168]

Agree needs a tall forward.  

I think he also needs to stay in forward 50 and use his pace 1-1. Too often he gets up to the wing and is stuck in traffic. 
 

I watched him yesterday and think he’s getting to the side of the pack and not front-and-centre. 

[whatwhat say what 22,552]

he wasn't good yesterday but he wasn't on his pat malone

he was also completely freezing; after the 3/4 time huddle he was noticeably shivering and rubbing his biceps to try and keep warm

his drop-off has been pronounced

[Lord Travis 10,675]

Attended three centre bounces yesterday and did not impact any of them. He’s struggling for form anywhere regardless of where he’s played. He looks fatigued and needs a rest IMO. His form the last month has dropped right off back to his 2020 levels, which means he’s having zero impact again. 3 effective touches for an entire match when you’re a playmaker is unacceptable.

He’d be dropped immediately if he didn’t have love from the media. Think the club will probably keep playing him and drop others less deserving of it though unfortunately.

We need to get Kozzie firing again for finals, as he was a key reason we were a great side the first 8 weeks and has attributes lacking elsewhere on our list.

[dazzledavey36 54,087]

5 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

Attended three centre bounces yesterday and did not impact any of them. He’s struggling for form anywhere regardless of where he’s played. He looks fatigued and needs a rest IMO. His form the last month has dropped right off back to his 2020 levels, which means he’s having zero impact again. 3 effective touches for an entire match when you’re a playmaker is unacceptable.

He’d be dropped immediately if he didn’t have love from the media. Think the club will probably keep playing him and drop others less deserving of it though unfortunately.

We need to get Kozzie firing again for finals, as he was a key reason we were a great side the first 8 weeks and has attributes lacking elsewhere on our list.

I'd rest him and start him as a medical sub next week then VFL the week after to get form.

[Nasher 33,607]

30 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

He’d be dropped immediately if he didn’t have love from the media. Think the club will probably keep playing him and drop others less deserving of it though unfortunately.

How does that conversation go in match committee?

”I think Kozzie is looking tired, he’s not getting involved as much. Maybe he needs a spell this week.”

”Yeah but unfortunately our hands are tied. Robbo wrote a nice article about him in the HS so we are now honour-bound to keep selecting him.”

[Fanatique Demon 2,641]

Maybe he’s our barometer?

[Kent 2,905]

18 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I'd rest him and start him as a medical sub next week then VFL the week after to get form.

should have been rested 2 weeks ago Blind Freddy could see he was struggling

Another victim of Goodwins'  stubbornness

[Engorged Onion 10,199]

22 minutes ago, Kent said:

should have been rested 2 weeks ago Blind Freddy could see he was struggling

Another victim of Goodwins'  stubbornness

Seriously man?

I assume you're being deliberately provocative, or you think football selection committees are

a) made up of one person

or

b) made up of many people, with the almighty dark overlord Goodwin vetoing all opinions aside from his own. 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Engorged Onion

[Kent 2,905]

1 minute ago, Engorged Onion said:

Seriously man?

I assume you're being deliberately provocative, or you think football selection committees are

a) made up of one person

or

b) made up of many people, with the almighty dark overlord Goodwin vetoing all opinions aside from his own. 

So your view is that Pickett was playing well and contributing and yes I think Goodwins view dominates the so called selection committee  You dont so what!

[Demon Dynasty 17,109]

20 hours ago, Demonsone said:

Needs a tall Fwd who can create a contest and feed of the ball coming to ground, thats were he's at his best, oops we have 2 talls sitting in the VFL!!!

Why would anyone want to fix the spine and get the basics of footy right D.

Stop being silly.

Fritta can do all this and more leading to  the pocket and flank  boundaries!.  That's premiership forward craft big boy!

[Smokey 4,387]

Probably because when we run a short forward line (without Wied, BB or both) we actually need our small forwards inside 50 after the clearance for the ground ball 

[Lord Nev 13,512]

Played his best footy when we were moving the ball quickly, being more adventurous and attacking.

No coincidence that since we started going slow around the Brayshaw boundary that Kozzy and Langdon have both suffered somewhat.

Defensive mindset is great, but I think as the year has gone on we've got sucked into it a bit too much.

Edited July 5, 2021 by Lord Nev

[Engorged Onion 10,199]

4 hours ago, Kent said:

So your view is that Pickett was playing well and contributing and yes I think Goodwins view dominates the so called selection committee  You dont so what!

This wasn't a conversation about Pickett, it was a conversation about the mechanics of how selection committees work.

We will agree to disagree - I just cannot see Mark Williams ever been compliant to anyone, when he has an opinion about something ? (and that infers that Mark Williams would be having conversations about dropping Pickett).

Edited July 5, 2021 by Engorged Onion