What is happening to Paul Wheatley. He is probably the longest kick in the AFL. His long kicking is a terrific attacking weapon & breaks the flooding & the defensive lines & catches out the opposition defence.

In the last month he has stopped kicking it long, he has become hesitant. He kicks backwards & sideways to Carroll, Brown, Godfrey etc who then invariably put in a poor kick or handpass & the pill is turned over.

Great for getting his stats up but not much use to the team.

Someone please tell him to kick it long & kick it quickly.

I saw something in the Herald Bun last week which pointed out that in five games, Melbourne had more than (from memory approximately) 65 long kicks (what exactly defines a long kick, I don't know) and four of those games they won.

There may have been other factors too, but they were not mentioned.

I just thought that was interesting.

What is happening to Paul Wheatley. He is probably the longest kick in the AFL. His long kicking is a terrific attacking weapon & breaks the flooding & the defensive lines & catches out the opposition defence.

In the last month he has stopped kicking it long, he has become hesitant. He kicks backwards & sideways to Carroll, Brown, Godfrey etc who then invariably put in a poor kick or handpass & the pill is turned over.

Great for getting his stats up but not much use to the team.

Someone please tell him to kick it long & kick it quickly.

You can't just bang it long all the time and the reason Wheatly (and other players) have had to kick backwards is because of lack of options. The midfield and forward line are the main targets for flooding and this leaves alot less options. Hopefully melbourne can find a much more effective way to control the flood and run the midfield like we did in 2006.

You can't just bang it long all the time and the reason Wheatly (and other players) have had to kick backwards is because of lack of options.

That sounds familiar.

You can't just bang it long all the time and the reason Wheatly (and other players) have had to kick backwards is because of lack of options. The midfield and forward line are the main targets for flooding and this leaves alot less options. Hopefully melbourne can find a much more effective way to control the flood and run the midfield like we did in 2006.

The reason there is a lack of forward options is exactly because by the time Wheatley & Carrol have spent 5 minutes chipping it backwards and forwards to each other all the opposition players have flooded backwards

The reason there is a lack of forward options is exactly because by the time Wheatley & Carrol have spent 5 minutes chipping it backwards and forwards to each other all the opposition players have flooded backwards

Cause is defecetive game plan and lack of sound strategy from kick outs. MFC seems unable to address this effectively! other side like Pies on Friday night and Roos hit targets regularly and hev effective short and long ways out of defence.

MFC tactics have been problematical for number of seasons.

Firday night poor decisions to kick across the ground into CHB cost about 4 goals directly! dumb footy and poor coaching! Cooney did same against us & cost Bullis a couple of goals.

Solution is better defensive drills and knowing how to carry out.

Given MFCs dodgy short run and carry ( major dissater in 2007 from first NAB cup game) would be much much better if Wheats di bang the ball outside 50 every time as would be disputed ball on the wing and at least 2 kicks back in which is better than ball spilling 30 m out where 1 kick means shot on goal!

'Cranky Franky'

One reason for the lack of forward options is because we keep on playing Miller back(on star forwards), then drop him to the seconds, where he does well forward , then promote him and play him back.

He leads and provides a target very well, similarly to Hansen and Richo. We miss him when he's down back. This talented player has been mis-handled by Danners and his disciple, Bomber. (very much like Thompson, Jolly and Snake were mishandled).

'Cranky Franky'

One reason for the lack of forward options is because we keep on playing Miller back(on star forwards), then drop him to the seconds, where he does well forward , then promote him and play him back.

He leads and provides a target very well, similarly to Hansen and Richo. We miss him when he's down back. This talented player has been mis-handled by Danners and his disciple, Bomber. (very much like Thompson, Jolly and Snake were mishandled).

True