13 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

To offer a different view...( i know ...lol )

Harking back ...many decades... i played in the fwd line... not the arc...as none then...lol...  but the essence of forward craft hasn't really changed... really..it hasnt...

For mine...its about delivery....always... 

Just dont bomb it in...  smart teams arrange for the ball to GET to the fwds... dumb teams bomb and createa lotto event.

We have sufficient players to kick goals... i wish theyd worry more about the style/method of delivery.

It wont then require this weekly cringe of... who. 

In previous decades there were usually only 6 opponents in the backline, maybe a ruck or a hard working rover.

These days teams almost always have a dedicated intercept defender dropping in to guard space from a half forward and then within about 15 seconds of the ball going from end to end they have 12-15 opponents inside the defensive 50.

There are methods to create better inside 50’s. Excellent kicks like Spargo often just have that momentary pause before they deliver and weight a pass which allows a forward to time a lead. Someone like Hawkins is the master of taking his one on one in to the pocket, doing a couple of dummy leads and still getting a one on one. 

But largely speed of ball movement is so vital. If you don’t get it in quickly you’re in much more trouble than if you are quick but not precise. 

We could also plonk Ben Brown at full forward, tell him not to defend up the ground and stay deep to lead and load up with our better kicks like Melk, Hunter, Salem across half forward. Suddenly we’d find Benny’s chest on the lead a lot more than we do now. But we’d also not be the defensive side we are if we had a stack of forwards purely focussed on playing one way footy.

13 minutes ago, old55 said:

If it hasn't changed then we must have had a batch of hopeless forwards for the last 10 years - the Coleman Medal winner hasn't scored more than 80 goals, with 8 of the last 10 years below 70.  Compared with the 1990s when the lowest was 81 goals and there were 6 years above 110 goals. 8 below 70 vs 6 above 110.

Tell me how it's really changed.in the last 30 years ? 

Good forwards always corralled the ball. Good forwards always tried to keep it forward.

The delivery of good teams has always been GOOD.

You really going to try to argue we have a good system ??   Fair enough. We differ

I think in the main we're [censored] at it.

We rely on fwd pressure..  thats not clever.

 

56 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Tell me how it's really changed.in the last 30 years ? 

Good forwards always corralled the ball. Good forwards always tried to keep it forward.

The delivery of good teams has always been GOOD.

You really going to try to argue we have a good system ??   Fair enough. We differ

I think in the main we're [censored] at it.

We rely on fwd pressure..  thats not clever.

 

Changes in the last 30 years:

• Zone defence instead of man-on man.
• All 18 opposition team members in the attacking half.
• More effective blocking of forwards.
• More pressure on the kicker.

These are some of the things that explain the difference in goals scored in the 1990s and today.

You really going to try to argue that nothing has changed ?? Fair enough. We differ

On 5/1/2023 at 3:24 PM, kev martin said:

Petty wasn't at training, which was a concern as well.

Given that Schache was still training, without using his hand, there is still a possibility. 

Schache looked like he only had 1 hand when he was playing