We still haven't got the knack of point kick-ins. Nearly every time Collingwood kicked in, they'd find a string of loose men and go into attack. When we kicked in, there were no options, so we went short and ended up in desperate defence.

When are we going to learn that point kick-ins MUST be taken quickly?????

If we'd kicked in half as well as they did, we'd have won by 3 goals.

This is an important part of coaching which I hope will be addressed by our new coach.

I am a strong believer in Wheatley taking all our kick-ins....

He can launch it the same distance as Dustin Felcher (that is not a typo) and we just need to learn to get a few open options around the 65 metre mark....

Having TJ kick in is great for accuracy, but leaves us lacking in run once the ball is back in play!!

Wheatley has a super boot on him and it annoys me that we don't use him more often!

The difference is fletcher is usually close to goal so less time to wait, secondly fletcher is good enough to hit targets, wheatley misses too often.

The difference is fletcher is usually close to goal so less time to wait, secondly fletcher is good enough to hit targets, wheatley misses too often.

Wheatly is one of the best kicks in the side and hits his targets all the time. He makes mistakes but so does everyone no one and i mean no one can have a perfect game not miss kick a kick. I think wheatly has proven himself this year to be in our best 22. He is tall fast and a thumping kick he can still be damaging late in his career.

I agree wheats is in our best 22 but i don't think he is the best option to kick out, but our problem is in many more ways not who is kicking out but how long we take to kick it out, and when we huddle we dont sprint, we run.

the problemis no so much wheater's kicking as it is a demon giving him a good target to hit. He cant do both!! he needs someone to kick to and if noone is presenting , making space, quick enough than the kick in gets shut down ( as is case all too often!! ). Given a running target Wheats can make it at 60-65 no probs !!...thats a helll of a start from the back line that goes begging all the time.

i thought some of the kickins were quite good wasnt a major concern.... davey is missed from the kickins.... he would prob be the target almost 50% of the time

Wheatley huge, accurate kicks, but it doesn't make a difference if his teammates don't make good enough runs. Too often our players were just standing around waiting for him to kick it to him, this is an area i've never had confidence in at Melbourne and i hope with a new coach will come a new plan for our kick-ins.

AAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

good call... it is seriously amazing how this particular aspect of our game plan has not changed in the slightest despite changing coaches. Did Neale leave his playbook behind and DB just picked it up or what?

not true it has changed significantly. last season, we kicked to the boundary line ( a short chip). then tried to kick lnog along the boundary to a man on thw wing, where it was turned over or pushed out of bounds.

yesterday we had a new tatic. kick to the 50 on the boundary line, then kick back to the goal square followed by a short chip to the far side. this way we ensure that all melbourne players who bothered to move in the first place are on the side of the ground firthest from the ball, and we are now confronted with the remnants of the hawthorn zone defence. ingenious way to ensure we lose possession.

ps every now and then we take a more obvious route, where we take a short chip to the pocket followed by centring the ball to a hawthorn player 30m out directly in front, to ensure that they can't miss the goals...

The difference was on sunday we did not even run, we pretty much stood there and about 2 or 3 would run to the pockets.

WE ARE RABBLE! at kick ins and well pretty much every thing else too.

not true it has changed significantly. last season, we kicked to the boundary line ( a short chip). then tried to kick lnog along the boundary to a man on thw wing, where it was turned over or pushed out of bounds.

yesterday we had a new tatic. kick to the 50 on the boundary line, then kick back to the goal square followed by a short chip to the far side. this way we ensure that all melbourne players who bothered to move in the first place are on the side of the ground firthest from the ball, and we are now confronted with the remnants of the hawthorn zone defence. ingenious way to ensure we lose possession.

ps every now and then we take a more obvious route, where we take a short chip to the pocket followed by centring the ball to a hawthorn player 30m out directly in front, to ensure that they can't miss the goals...

Oh yeah babe, that's much better !!!

Speaking of point kick-ins, has anyone noticed the fact that we are (what seems to be purposely) conceding the oppositions point kick-ins ?

We are basically giving the opposition a 50-60mtr head start.....

Speaking of point kick-ins, has anyone noticed the fact that we are (what seems to be purposely) conceding the oppositions point kick-ins ?

We are basically giving the opposition a 50-60mtr head start.....

It could just be incompetence......

There is no point having a booming kick at FB if it isn't used. Possession is the name of the game today and Wheatley is not good enough to provide the accuracy.

As others have noted the quick kick-in is required, yet Wheatley walks in to do the job with no urgency. Closest player to the ball should be kicking it in to get it moving, and delivered to the simplest, easiest option. It means the opposition have to react immediately, and collapse their zone defence, which creates holes for the next kick.

Hawthorn gave us the first kick and we fell for it every time, they left space 25-30m in one pocket and zoned back for the second kick. They had more numbers on one side of the ground and they protected the corridor at that was the side that we kicked to all the time. Even when we swiched it all our players had committed to the side of the ground that the Hawks wanted us to and with out the hard lead up CHF we couldn't us the space on the other side thats why Miller has to play CHF he works hard and presents.

I think the general instruction should be whatever you do, do not kick it to Carroll or give it to Carroll to kick in.

Maybe Wheatley should receive the first kick, then bomb it 50 metres towards our forward line so that we either pass over the zone defence or, the more likely option, when we lose possession of it its not in our defensive 50 its up on the wing

Maybe Wheatley should receive the first kick, then bomb it 50 metres towards our forward line so that we either pass over the zone defence or, the more likely option, when we lose possession of it its not in our defensive 50 its up on the wing

I don't mind that. Whelan should take the kick ins, kick it to Wheatley and work from there.

Matthew Whelan's a hard at it back pocket player. 180 cm. 84 kgs.

We need to get the kick ins right.

not true it has changed significantly. last season, we kicked to the boundary line ( a short chip). then tried to kick lnog along the boundary to a man on thw wing, where it was turned over or pushed out of bounds.

yesterday we had a new tatic. kick to the 50 on the boundary line, then kick back to the goal square followed by a short chip to the far side. this way we ensure that all melbourne players who bothered to move in the first place are on the side of the ground firthest from the ball, and we are now confronted with the remnants of the hawthorn zone defence. ingenious way to ensure we lose possession.

ps every now and then we take a more obvious route, where we take a short chip to the pocket followed by centring the ball to a hawthorn player 30m out directly in front, to ensure that they can't miss the goals...

yep..this was it... laughable to watch.

it was an abject lesson in HOW NOT TO PLAY FOOTBALL !!!

Most of the problem seemed to stem from the inability of Demons to run.. they were al flatfooted... no presenting.. no options.

And If I can figure out the balll is going to Carroll 75% of time only to stagnate.. dont you think the other teams might work this one out too !! <_<

Again, AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

May I suggest we forget whatever tactics we're trying to persist with in our kick-ins, and defence of the opposition's kick-ins.

Let's take a tape of what the opposition do.....ANY opposition, and try to imitate that.

one kickout against the Dogs, I think it was Bell taking it... they started at a huddle while the dogs were zoning around 50, after a long period of time they split and miller ran out to Bell's left, his man in hot pursuit.... there was 2 dogs just waiting to the spot miller was running to... it would have to have been a miracle kick from Bell and it was far from it, lofted up in the air 55 m out, of course they just spoiled Miller while one sat down for the crumbs, pumped back in for an immediate goal

incredibly inept and stupid play from a team who obviously don't know what the plan is

The zone-pack can work very well..but you need a group of players...well drilled ..and with absolute faith to carry it out. We didnt quite have that on teh day !!

The zone-pack can work very well..but you need a group of players...well drilled ..and with absolute faith to carry it out. We didnt quite have that on teh day !!

As you said earlier, they won't run. Token efforts to present. The sad reality is that most of these blokes don't want the responsibility of putting their hand up & saying "give it to me, I want the football"! Unfortunately, as the confidence gets further bashed out of them, this aspect is likely to get worse rather than better. Often you have to feel for the poor bugger kicking in. Hard to hit targets when there are none on offer.