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Why are we continuously being beaten in clearances?

DeeZee
DeeZee
in Melbourne Demons

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Can someone please tell me or offer some sort of explanation as to why we are constantly being beaten at clearances week after week, when we have a Ruck combination of Gawn and Grundy and an on all brigade that consists of Viney ,Trac ,Clarry, and Kozzie etc?

There are better tactical , statistical and analytical guys than me on here, but my guess is that of course we would like to be winning them , but as Goody says in his pressers, our game is based on turnover, and we don’t sweat on who gets it first as we have the cover on the next possession.

Edited by Grapeviney

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    Max and Grundys hit outs are not to our players postions a lot of the time and when they get beaten in ruck contests this is even more acute. I think our positioning of mids also needs a reset at centre bounces and stoppages

    Edited by picket fence

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    Teams have gone to work on our clearance game, but our clearance players have prioritised joining in the transition game. It's an interesting dilemma - win the clearances and lose the transition, or win the transition and lose the clearances. We will be busy finding ways to win both. And that's what matters at the business end.

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    I posted this in the post game thread, but if you want some different insight watch the press conference….

    Watching Goodwin speak in the presser he was very confident that we could get them on turnover.

    I feel like we are trying to win differently. For years we’ve needed to smash the contested possessions, where as I think now we are often having a look at breaking even there, which means we use our match winners more sparingly. Goodwin spoke about this in the presser. I think it’s about winning games, but not taxing our best players every week, so they are fresher when needed.

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:28, The heart beats true said:

    I posted this in the post game thread, but if you want some different insight watch the press conference….

    Watching Goodwin speak in the presser he was very confident that we could get them on turnover.

    I feel like we are trying to win differently. For years we’ve needed to smash the contested possessions, where as I think now we are often having a look at breaking even there, which means we use our match winners more sparingly. Goodwin spoke about this in the presser. I think it’s about winning games, but not taxing our best players every week, so they are fresher when needed.

     

    The problem with this though is that it allows much quicker delivery into the oppositions forward 50 on a more regular basis.

    The majority of us currently have concerns with how shaky our backline looks and this is a contributing factor.

    Our backline traditionally functions on slow predictable entries allowing us to control and intercept.

    I guess we have to find a balance as the year moves forward.

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    When the backlines not performing as well as usual , the strategy can put us under the pump, like yesterday which was too close for comfort and then we had to work harder to save it.

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:10, DeeZee said:

    Can someone please tell me or offer some sort of explanation as to why we are constantly being beaten at clearances week after week, when we have a Ruck combination of Gawn and Grundy and an on all brigade that consists of Viney ,Trac ,Clarry, and Kozzie etc?

    There are better tactical , statistical and analytical guys than me on here, but my guess is that of course we would like to be winning them , but as Goody says in his pressers, our game is based on turnover, and we don’t sweat on who gets it first as we have the cover on the next possession.

    Well, ask Yze he's the midfield coach, don't know what happened to the idea that if you are getting beaten you stop the bleeding then transition back to your plan seems you wait till half time to say something, cannot figure that one out. 

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    Focus is post clearance possession. 

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:28, The heart beats true said:

    I feel like we are trying to win differently.

    Yes. There's no point sitting still like we did last year (in my opinion, to pay the faithful from the flag side); we need to come up with variations. Hopefully those variations aren't revealed too early in the year and we have something up our sleeve for the big games at the big end, because good teams will clog our transition, and we'll have to win with our one-wood.

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    It’s good to have different strings to our bow and try them now.

    In the last quarter we seemed to shift to a different more traditional mode backing ourselves in with our fitness as well.

    Edited by DeeZee

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:10, DeeZee said:

    Can someone please tell me or offer some sort of explanation as to why we are constantly being beaten at clearances week after week, when we have a Ruck combination of Gawn and Grundy and an on all brigade that consists of Viney ,Trac ,Clarry, and Kozzie etc?

    There are better tactical , statistical and analytical guys than me on here, but my guess is that of course we would like to be winning them , but as Goody says in his pressers, our game is based on turnover, and we don’t sweat on who gets it first as we have the cover on the next possession.

    Two things we are waiting for JVR to get big enough to do what Brownie used to do at centre bounces.

    The second is that our players are the most interfered players of all Clubs except one at Pies... Pendlebury

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    It’s definitely part of a broader strategy to win the ball back post clearance.

    Interesting shift in mindset as the β€˜bulls’ we rely on become less important through this stretch of the year.

    Im not convinced Viney would think it’s keeping them fresher, he had some huge body contact on multiple occasions last night

    I know people don’t like talking about the opposition but watching Rowell and Anderson work together was a treat, they are a very good pair. Anderson in particular was everywhere

    Edited by BW511

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    I suspect opposition clubs top priority is winning the clearances against us every week. It’s obvious they put a lot of work in stopping us at the source. Our guys need to realise they being the hunted and not the hunters and step up. 

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    We are also rotating heavily through the midfield to keep the guns fresh for our final quarter assault. The A team Trac Clarry Vines aren’t starting together in the centre anywhere near as much as last year, so the chemistry isn’t quite there yet with a host of new faces running through there.

    I think it’s the way to go as the team was completely burned out by finals last year

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:46, Clintosaurus said:

    Focus is post clearance possession. 

    We actually turn over possession a lot in the centre and at stoppages. We get first hands to the ball and fumble or handball poorly. Not sure why that is happening so much.

    Imagine how much better we would be with better ball handling and disposal.

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:38, Beetle said:

    The problem with this though is that it allows much quicker delivery into the oppositions forward 50 on a more regular basis.

    The majority of us currently have concerns with how shaky our backline looks and this is a contributing factor.

    Our backline traditionally functions on slow predictable entries allowing us to control and intercept.

    I guess we have to find a balance as the year moves forward.

    Yeah, I agree. I don’t think we got it right last night, but it was obvious from the presser they had a theory. There’s no way that theory was allowing Anderson to put on a clinic through the midfield though.

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    It really always has been about post clearance. High pressure and score on turnover. When we do win clearances and contested ball in the middle it's the ultimate having your cake and eating it too scenario. 

    But gee we came up against a decent midfield performance last night. Best game I've seen Anderson play 

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    I care more about the differential of clean, chest facing clearances. I think we do ok in that.

    Post-clearance possession is basically answering that question of how clean your clearances are when you do get them so how are we going in that stat?

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    Just shows that we are still very much a defensively minded team.

    There’s people who are a lot more qualified than me to decide on strategy but it’s bold to be happy to give up the ball in the hope you win it back.

    Works beautifully if teams kick it in the air to May/Lever/Petty. Not so great when they can find targets 20-30m in front of them

    Edited by BW511

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    We're managing the minutes of our A grade players to keep them fresh throughout the year

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:14, picket fence said:

    Max and Grundys hit outs are not to our players postions a lot of the time and when they get beaten in ruck contests this is even more acute. I think our positioning of mids also needs a reset at centre bounces and stoppages

    I think Grundy often finds our players with very accurate tapping. It's what sets him apart. 

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      On 07/05/2023 at 00:22, Tony Tea said:

    Teams have gone to work on our clearance game, but our clearance players have prioritised joining in the transition game. It's an interesting dilemma - win the clearances and lose the transition, or win the transition and lose the clearances. We will be busy finding ways to win both. And that's what matters at the business end.

    Agree re this, I think we now place more emphasis on transition and winning critical contests. Look at Collingwood last year and they would routinely lose clearance and contested ball but when it mattered they won the contest and were good in transition. There is no point winning a clearance only to turn the ball over or create a stoppage in a position you cannot score.

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    Doesn’t anyone rate the GV midfield? I’d comfortably have both Rowell and Anderson…

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