On 03/03/2025 at 01:27, Lucifers Hero said:

I understand what we are trying to do.

That Hawks succeeded with that tactic does not mean we will and rise up the ladder on the back of it which was the implication of your original, unedited post. 

We will rise up the ladder but it will be easier if we make the d50 switching and changing angles more effective.

Agreed. I think McVee will help. I also think it needs mids to work hard to create separation. This stuff becomes instinctive the more you do it, well that’s the hope. 

If Billing’s can get someone to sort his kicking he has as much improvement to give  as anyone on the list. 

Johnson is undersized but has heart.

Lindsay cameo on boundary all class. 

Langford will make progress this year.

Turner is going to be a handful with Fritta, Van Rooyen and Kossie firing.

Lot to like, few negatives but I’m staying positive.

 

Billings is 29 years old.

I thought we were caught ball watching quite a bit when the ball was in dispute.  Freo set up really well with outlets via handball through the middle and our guys were a bit flat footed.  That led to a couple of easy goals for them. Hopefully they can tidy that up a bit.

I reckon Goody would have rated AJ's game and he'll be a real chance of a Rd 1 debut.  Hopefully his effort and attack on the ball make up for what I perceived as a slight lack of height and speed for a key fwd.  Gees he had a crack though.

  On 02/03/2025 at 10:35, WERRIDEE said:

We are disgusting the spoon for us I don't care if it was a practice match. We are done for the season I hate this club they do it to me all the time.

Agree!

Is there a Division 2????

The vicious circle rears its ugly head. Confidence is eroded with every set shot missed. And without confidence, set shot misses are bound to happen more and more.

 I don’t know a solution for this but I dearly hope someone at the club is working on it. 

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:16, Ghostwriter said:

The vicious circle rears its ugly head. Confidence is eroded with every set shot missed. And without confidence, set shot misses are bound to happen more and more.

 I don’t know a solution for this but I dearly hope someone at the club is working on it. 

You said in another post somewhere - I can't remember where it was  - that they practise in an unstructured manner and a lot of it is practising difficult shots. 
 

They really need structured practice of shots from "easy" positions. Yesterday I estimate (without counting) that missed shots from within 40m and on only a slight angle cost us about 6 goals - I'm thinking of misses by Fritta, Billings and AJ. We don't need to get the hard ones; we need to get the easy ones.

PS and in this context, it would have been great to keep BBB as a goalkicking coach. 

Edited March 3Mar 3 by Ollie fan

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:16, Ghostwriter said:

The vicious circle rears its ugly head. Confidence is eroded with every set shot missed. And without confidence, set shot misses are bound to happen more and more.

 I don’t know a solution for this but I dearly hope someone at the club is working on it. 

Yep

One goal in a half of football won't win many games

Billings has missed set shots for 10 years - nothing's changed

  On 03/03/2025 at 00:23, Go Ds said:

I've just seen the stats of Melbourne's scoring shots accuracy in recent years. Anyone like to guess what percentage accuracy Melbourne was at last year? How many teams were more than 'zero point something' more accurate than the Dees last year? How about in 2023, 2022 and our premiership year? Have things really dropped off?

Is this some sort of new quiz without any clues ...

Maybe just give us the stats ...

 

Preempting the stats:  average stats over a year(or years) aren't helpful when we are loosing Finals or key games due to poor goal kicking.  To analyse the impact it is a game by game thing.   

If we kick more goals than points we win most games.

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:22, Diamond_Jim said:

Yep

One goal in a half of football won't win many games

No, but generally 35 scoring shots will.

We butchered set shots and kicking only an AFL average would have seen us win convincingly.

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:21, Ollie fan said:

You said in another post somewhere - I can't remember where it was  - that they practise in an unstructured manner and a lot of it is practising difficult shots. 
 

They really need structured practice of shots from "easy" positions. Yesterday I estimate (without counting) that missed shots from within 40m and on only a slight angle cost us about 6 goals - I'm thinking of misses by Fritta, Billings and AJ. We don't need to get the hard ones; we need to get the easy ones.

They may do it differently at Casey fields but at Gosch’s it seems a low priority. Sometimes none of the coaches are even watching let alone schooling. Or if one of them is watching, he’s watching all set shots at the same time. Also, it appears the players are choosing for themselves from where to take shots. It’s also not a lengthy part of the session, always at the end, and conducted while players have left, or are leaving for the rooms. 

I’m much happier being back to having the problem of conversion being why we lose a game rather than last years issues. Conversion is easier to work with. At afl grounds we won’t kick as badly as that. Even for us that was an outlier. Fremantle are a side we have had no idea what to do with for years, so to see us stack up in a much better way is very promising. Lots to work with. A bit of confidence in ball movement, game plan, positioning and kicking will see things start to look pretty good.

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:22, Ollie fan said:

PS and in this context, it would have been great to keep BBB as a goalkicking coach. 

BBB should most definitely be offered this role. I don’t know if he’s gonna continue to work with our girls this season but since that’s unpaid work, I’m guessing it can’t be sustained and we might lose him to another club. 

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:38, Ghostwriter said:

BBB should most definitely be offered this role. I don’t know if he’s gonna continue to work with our girls this season but since that’s unpaid work, I’m guessing it can’t be sustained and we might lose him to another club. 

Too late:

 

 

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:44, george_on_the_outer said:

Too late:

 

 

Yeah I just saw this. It’s a huge loss. BBB is such an asset for any club, for too many reasons to mention. This is so sad, but it’s clearly a good choice for him. He has a young family and needs to prioritise them. Sure gonna miss him. 

With some players it's not techique etc that makes them miss goals.  It's the pressure of the situation, either the state of the game  or of their own performance.  So how do you reproduce that pressure in training in a way which is acceptable to players?

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:56, sue said:

So how do you reproduce that pressure in training in a way which is acceptable to players?

You'd need somebody with a loud voice yelling out "Chewy on yer boot!".

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:56, sue said:

With some players it's not techique etc that makes them miss goals.  It's the pressure of the situation, either the state of the game  or of their own performance.  So how do you reproduce that pressure in training in a way which is acceptable to players?

You can’t really. Just have to focus on technique and trust it will come through under pressure.

One thing you can train for is skills under fatigue I guess, so there’s that option.

 

Thank god we had that practice run against a very good team to blow out the cob webs

The first half was mostly poor

But we looked significantly better in the second

Clarry with 11 Clearances, 9 inside 50 and 3 goals was simply amazing and almost brought a tear to my eye

  On 03/03/2025 at 00:23, Go Ds said:

I've just seen the stats of Melbourne's scoring shots accuracy in recent years. Anyone like to guess what percentage accuracy Melbourne was at last year? How many teams were more than 'zero point something' more accurate than the Dees last year? How about in 2023, 2022 and our premiership year? Have things really dropped off?

Ironically 2021 was our most inaccurate home and way season in the recent 2021-2024 years.

2023 was our best.

Not sure how you make an list AFL if you cannot kick at goal

Edited March 3Mar 3 by Ugottobekidding
Sometimes a little edit is better than sex

We were out all afternoon and had visitors last night so I was just sneaking a look at the player stats during the game, I thought that Chandler and Disco must have been injured as their stats weren’t moving like everyone else’s. I watched the game when everyone left. Surprised that no one is mentioning Steven May, he was brilliant as was Salem, Tracc, Clayton, Mr Ed, Max and Spaz. Bowey’s turnovers really stood out as they cost us dearly, as did Billings lack of finishing skills, what was Fritta thinking. His job is finishing. Windsor, Lindsay, Langford, Sharpe and AJ will all be better for the run. We sorely missed Rooey, Petty, TMac and Judd McVee. Let’s hope that Jack Henderson can step up to the plate. The big takeaway for me is our fitness, we ran the game out in 32+ degree heat on the other side of the country and had 14 shots for goal in the last quarter but only managed 5.9. We won all the contested KPI’s and had 63 inside 50’s, we are on the way back. 😁👍

  On 03/03/2025 at 02:30, Ghostwriter said:

They may do it differently at Casey fields but at Gosch’s it seems a low priority. Sometimes none of the coaches are even watching let alone schooling. Or if one of them is watching, he’s watching all set shots at the same time. Also, it appears the players are choosing for themselves from where to take shots. It’s also not a lengthy part of the session, always at the end, and conducted while players have left, or are leaving for the rooms. 

Scoring is such an important part of the game but is substantially under represented in training time and focus.  Why? Who knows??