Scoop Junior

Losing Jefferson created a big structural issue. While he may not have had a possession in the first quarter and may not have had a huge influence had he played out the game, he was occupying one of the 3 North tall defenders. When he went off, it meant Pink and Corr took care of Turner and JVR and Comben was left to play against a small. Comben was then able to free himself up (not concerned with his opponent taking a mark) to be third man up in aerial contests and intercept mark at will. If you slow down the AFL360 vision, it shows this exactly. In the first contest, the ball is kicked long and high to a 3v3. Fritsch on McDonald, Trac on Corr and JVR on Pink. Comben comes over the top as the extra man and marks it. Before the ball gets there, his opponent Henderson can be seen on the screen trailing 15m away from the contest. So Comben has left Henderson, who failed to occupy dangerous space, and has intercept marked unopposed. Pause dazzle's video at 52 seconds and it shows this. In the second contest, the ball is again kicked long to a 2v2. JVR on Corr and Trac on Pink. Again Comben comes in as the extra man and marks unopposed. However, on this occasion (pause dazzle's video at 57 seconds), we had two players unmarked at around the 50m line who did get to dangerous space but were not used (one of whom is Henderson, presumably Comben's opponent again). So what does this show us? Well first it shows the structural hole left by a tall going off and allowing Comben the peace of mind to play on a small and free himself up. But that doesn't excuse what comes next, as coaches and players had the chance at 1/4 time and 1/2 time to react to the situation. So in the first contest, the long kick to a 3v3 isn't necessarily a bad decision, but Henderson has made the mistake of failing to get to dangerous space which allows Comben to zone off him. In the second contest, Henderson (and one other, maybe Chandler?) actually get separation inside 50 but the kicker fails to lower the eyes and goes long to a 2v2, which again Comben mops up as the loose man. This time it's a decision error from the kicker, as Henderson at least got to dangerous space and should've been used. I think it shows it's not just one thing, but a combination of getting the structure right, the forwards getting to the right spots and the kickers making good decisions. If one thing breaks down, the whole connection doesn't work. Compare and contrast this to the week prior where JVR smartly dragged Sam Taylor to the goal square and we nullified his ability to intercept mark in D50.

I also went down to training this morning. Didn't see Kentfield or AMW. McVee and Fullarton ran a lot of laps and didn't look overly hindered. Spargo was in a singlet (not the training jumper the players wear) doing his own thing - would seem to be a while away. When I got there they were doing two groups of a short kicking game. Looked like the aim was to practice hitting up precise kicks through a zone (picking the right option and executing) while for the defending team it was to get in the right position and then try chop off the kicks. There was no tackling and ball movement was pretty much by foot only. Trac, Sparrow and Chin participated in this wearing the yellow hats. Jake Melksham landed a few lovely weighted passes that somehow bypassed the zoning players. They then moved into a handball game, working on moving the ball by hand in tight, defending the ball movement by hand and constantly running up and back. This was with tackling and the yellow-hatters stepped out of this drill. Max and Lever participated and looked to be back in full training. They then moved into match sim. It wasn't an intra-club or anything like that, it seemed more about full ground ball movement. There was tackling and contact but it didn't appear to me to be at practice match / intra-club type ferocity. Also, there weren't any stoppages around the ground. I thought the ball movement was pretty slick and fast for the most part, but hey, it's far from the pressures of a game against genuine opposition. Positionally, Petty was in defence. Fritsch played further up the ground (half forward). One would question why you wouldn't want a player with Fritsch's nous and goal kicking ability as close to goal as possible, but seeing him roll onto the left and lace out some lovely passes into leading forwards probably answers that question. I thought Adams made a few good desperate spoils. JVR leapt well at the ball and took a nice hanger on TMac from a long Rivers kick that sat up perfectly for him. Speaking of Rivers, he did seem to use that long leg on most occasions, driving the ball deep inside 50. They then went back into the handball game before then going back to more of the ball movement match sim. The yellow-hatters didn't do the match sim, Trac ran some laps and just looks in ripping shape. At one stage Oliver really put on the after-burners to chase down a player and I thought to myself, why go so hard, you could nick a hammy (MFCSS). After the chase he went to ground and started stretching his leg and then walked off the ground and I thought, that's why! But he came back on a few minutes later and resumed playing in the match sim and seemed to play it out. That would suggest it was likely cramp although I do remember him playing out the game after his hammy against Port (more MFCSS). Just finally, it's hard to stand out in the way you run/move when out there with 35 other professional athletes, but gee two players for me just looked on a different level with how they cover the ground. The first was Kozzie with his lateral movement. It's nothing we don't know, but his ability to twist and turn and sidestep is quite remarkable - they just couldn't tackle him. The second was Windsor. He is one of those runners that looks like they are skiing down a mountain. He just eats up the ground and is so effortless in his running style.

I'm not a doctor but I think it depends on the severity of the fracture. I had a cracked rib in junior footy, probably just a small crack. It was painful for about a week but then healed quickly and I think only missed one game. I think the 6-week timeframe you are referring to is when there is a full break of the bone, probably like what May had last year and then Trac. That would obviously be a longer healing process, despite the fact some players continue to play with it. If Trac just has a small crack, rather than a full break of the bone, I would have thought it would heal pretty quickly.

I went down today in what were pretty ordinary conditions - hot and windy. When I got there, they were doing repeat simulations of a stoppage on the wing and then moving the ball inside 50. There seemed to be an emphasis on handballing out of the stoppage, usually there were 3 or 4 handballs to chain out until a player received it in space and could then carry the ball forward. I thought the handballing was sharp and accurate but it is training against your mates in December. I thought Clarry got some great reads off hands in the stoppages and did step through the stoppage to come out the front rather than just give it off as soon as he got it. Langford also had two lovely reads, getting the first possession on the move from the stoppage. On the second occasion, he won it and stepped his way through the traffic to clear out the front. After that, they did some tackling on the far side of the ground. This was followed by more simulations, this time moving the ball from half back on a slow play. The emphasis here appeared to be on kicking a way through when the oppositon's defensive structure was set. There was barely any handballing in this drill, with almost all of the movement short kicks. There seemed to be a desire to kick on 45s and particularly a 45 into the corridor if an option opened up. Eyes seemed to look for the corridor, but if no option presented, it was then moved out wide. There were no long bombs or kicks over the mark. Not suggesting this is a game plan thing - more likely it was just a drill to practice short kicking in tight areas. Then finally, before I left, they split into 3 groups. The small backs did more 45 degree kicking, with Brown and Windsor in this group. The mids did ground ball work and the forwards had goal kicking practice. From what I saw, Spargo ran along the boundary at a good speed. Lindsay and Fullarton also did boundary runs. Not sure what happened with Disco but he also did boundary runs and didn't appear inhibited. Lever looked further behind in his rehab. Petty was with the backs during the sims, along with TMac and May. Also not sure what happened with Melk but Chandler dinked a kick into space and Melksham was running on to it (with the flight of the ball). He made a long sustained sprint to get there and then pulled up and grimaced a bit after it. I didn't see him grab anything but it was the sort of action where you can twinge a leg muscle. As others have said, thought Kozzie looked great running through the middle. On one play him and Trac fought for the ball on the ground. It was closer to Kozzie and he grabbed it, bounced up to his feet and sidestepped another player almost in one fluid movement and then cleared it. Tough session in that kind of heat - these guys really are impressive athletes.

Went down a bit later and most of it has been covered. -Two main drills that I saw were 1) stoppage at various parts of the ground where someone would collect the ground ball and then the focus seemed to be on spreading and moving the ball out of the area and eventually to the forwards. 2) kick from half back on the Punt Rd side of the ground where the kicker would try find a teammate to hit up. It was very difficult as the defensive side was playing a hard one-on-one style meaning it was difficult to find a free player. Also, the play seemed confined to the Punt Rd side, so the option of switching the play to the fat side was not there. It was essentially trying to pick a way through on the skinny side of the ground. Lots of turnovers but I don't think any team finds this an easy thing to do. -Rivers was with the mids in the stoppage drills, as was Bowey. While Bowey does tend to go to the back of stoppages as a half back maybe this was an indication of spending some time further up the ground? -Great to see Trac and Clarry in the stoppage drills. Trac just looks in sensational physical condition and his burst and lateral movement looked like it hadn't missed a beat. Clarry to me seems in better shape than last year but he does look a bit thicker through the upper legs than the others. Not sure if that's just his shape but he does look bigger through there than what he did 3-4 seasons ago. The key for him is whether he can get that burst out of congestion back that he was missing this year. That's what elevates his game to the next level. -Lindsay is not built like Langford but he is definitely not a bag of bones as some draftees are. He has some upper body size and at about 6"0 has decent height for a mid. Certainly a stronger build than say Windsor had at the start of his first pre-season last year. As for Windsor, he is such a beautiful mover. In the stoppage drill, when he got the ball he just burst away and they struggled to keep up with him. -Langford has that prototype big-body midfielder frame. He still has some filling out to do but the frame is there to really develop into a powerful unit. -The amount of running they do under the sun in 30 degrees is really quite incredible.

I don’t really rate that pressure stat. I’ve seen teams with high pressure stats hardly lay a glove on the opposition. I think the eye is the best test of pressure and GC waved the white flag in the second half - particularly in the last quarter. There’s a reason Dimma labelled it their worst performance of the year (and they’ve had some shockers). It wasn’t just their pressure, other parts of their game including their centre clearance work were woeful. Again not taking anything away from a really good performance by us with an under-strength side, but my comment was in response to the notion of ‘that’s what happens when you take the game on’. We aren’t going to face that level of inept opposition every week.

It’s always a bit easier to play with more freedom when there is little on the line. But while we did play well, I don’t think there was any radical change in game plan or methodology - we simply played a side that offered virtually no resistance after half time. I couldn’t believe how pathetic the Suns were in letting us do as we pleased after half time. It was bordering on a training drill. It wasn’t a true reflection of the usual pressure you face week in week out in senior footy.

Jordan Boyd just got away with a fine on the basis of his incident being high contact, careless contact and low impact. It was initially assessed as medium impact and downgraded to low at the Tribunal. On any view of the footage, Melksham's impact with McGovern is significantly less than Boyd's impact with Mansell. It would be somewhat astounding if Melksham could be classified as medium when Boyd was classified as low. That is even if the incident can be deemed a reportable offence, as there is an argument he is initiating body contact with his opponent in a bid to manoeuvre him out of the contest and then contest a mark, which he does do straight after the incident. However, Boyd plays for Carlton. So I look forward to the MRO / Tribunal bringing back the nebulous "potential to cause injury" concept to try upgrade the impact from low.

Agree. I was fortunate enough to attend both the Port Adelaide and Adelaide games this year but it's unrealistic to expect people (and especially families) to be able to head over and pay exorbitant prices for flights and accomodation every year. It's just another example of the AFL monetising the passion of fans and using them. The game is nothing without the fans but the AFL do no more than pay lip service to the interests of fans. They've now already started the Opening Round concept, which is just a mini-Gather Round in NSW/QLD and yet another round of footy taken away from fans. There has already been talk of another Gather Round in Perth. It's infuriating to hear those going for free (AFL, media, etc.) laud the concept. Who wouldn't want a free weekend away watching lots of footy? Maybe ask the fan who has spent $5,000 on flights and accomodation for the "privilege" of taking their family to the footy if they are in love with the concept. Yes, I get the AFL needs to make money for the benefit of the game. But it's a question of balance and how far do you go to make money at the expense of fans. There's always the ability to make more money but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Having a whole round of footy in another state is totally unnecessary for me.

The problem here is you are applying the wrong rule. The above rule is for deliberate rushed behinds, not out of bounds.

What difference does it make. We would've missed the target even if we kicked it to him.

When I first heard he had a knee issue it cast my mind back to Luke Molan who did an ACL, collarbone and got concussed in a single contest.

There is very little if any difference between Pickett’s incident versus Adelaide and Newman’s incident last night. Both were low impact but both stuck out the arm and made contact to the head. One is graded as medium under the nebulous “potential to cause injury” clause and the other is graded low. I really don’t see any difference in force between the incidents. You don’t want to think different players are judged differently (depending on prior conduct or the team they represent) but for those that think that is the case, this is about as compelling a piece of evidence as there is to support their position.

Exactly. It’s a nebulous concept that not only vests too much discretion in the MRO (sometimes it’s applied, sometimes it’s not) but requires the MRO to make an assessment it’s not qualified to give. What qualifications does the MRO have to assess whether an incident has more or less potential to cause injury? I’m pretty sure the MRO doesn’t have biomechanics expertise to make a proper assessment. It’s simply a way for the AFL medical/legal team to ensure they get the result they want to protect themselves in potential future litigation. FWIW, I don’t have a problem with Picket getting a week. I just don’t like this “potential to cause injury” and its indiscriminate application. That impact was simply not medium, it was clearly low. I’d rather they just say we are punishing the action instead of this contrived grading of medium impact based on potential.

I was at both games and must say I didn’t have any issues with Port or Crows fans. Maybe it was because I sat near the cheer squad so we had strength in numbers, but apart from the booing from Crows fans about the umpires (bizarrely when they were getting everything their way) it was all fine. Certainly nothing like Blues and Pies fans in the finals last year which was about as bad as I’ve seen it.

Well said. Not only did they target Gawn off the ball a few weeks ago, but I remember their game against Collingwood at the MCG last year where Clarke and Papley himself tried to rough up Nick Daicos off the ball, sparking a melee in the first quarter. Very hypocritical from Sydney.

I think it's disappointing there is no single family day this year. Yes it's chaotic and there are huge lines but the fact is the kids look forward to it. The splitting up of the family day in three events doesn't really work IMO. Firstly, the Melbourne-Richmond game is 7 quarters of footy. I will go and watch it all but I don't think I can take my kids - it's not really reasonable to expect young kids to stand at Casey (presumably in the heat) watching 7 quarters of a practice match, with possibly the last 3 of those quarters not consisting of too many Melbourne players. The training sessions in school holidays are not accessible to everyone, as lots of families will be away over the school holidays, in contrast to the usual family day in March when kids are at school. As an adult it doesn't really bother me, but I think we've missed a trick here for the kids.

I also headed down to training this morning. Pretty much all of it has been very well covered by previous posts. I wouldn't call the full ground drills match sim. It was under pressure and with tackling but there were less players on the ground and no stoppages. The focus appeared to be more on ball movement and transition running forward and back. When reading comments on this part of the training it should be taken into account that while it looked a bit like match sim it was more full ground ball movement under pressure. The drills have been well set out here so just some observations on certain players: JVR - yes it's only January ball movement training but I thought he had more presence and strength in aerial contests than at this stage last season. Last January you'd see him jump at the ball and be brave and aggressive but it didn't really seem like he'd actually clunk the ball in the pack or be in best position to mark it. This time I thought when the ball was in his area he actually looked like being the dominant force in the pack and the most likely to impact. That said, with Lever not training and May not involved in JVR's contests, he wasn't exactly playing on the cream of the crop defenders which he will face during the season. Fritsch - seemed to be on a tackling rampage. I thought he was very physical with his tackling, bringing blokes to ground on a number of occasions. Not sure if just a one-off or he has targeted this as an area to focus on but it was noticeable. Billings - as others have said, he excelled in the ball movement in finding space and then arcing onto the left and kicking long and accurately to teammates on the lead. He showed real class. But again 14v14 in 30 degrees in January is a far cry from the cauldron of the MCG on a cold day in July. I think he has the potential to really add to our side as our midfield mix could really do with a long-kicking left footer. It can help change the direction of play and with switching. We have Hunter and Viney but both are not long kicks and the former almost invariably looks for the 20-30m chip option. -Salem - just did running on the side but I agree with others, he did seem noticeably leaner than last year. -Tholstrup - he just has a great presence about him. Presence is such an intangible thing that is hard to explain, but he has it. He's a good size (both in height and thickness) and looks like he could develop into a really powerful player when he puts on more muscle. Had a few wobbly kicks during the day but he's a player that you seem drawn to watching and I'm looking forward to seeing him play matches (most likely starting with Casey). -Kozzie - does some things no one else on the list can. A pick up, sidestep and acceleration away from the constant almost in one move. -May - speaking of presence. Whenever there was an aerial contest in his area, you just knew he would mark it or impact the contest. A tremendous footballer.

My thoughts do need to be heavily qualified - it is very difficult to comment on things like attitude while watching a December training session from the sidelines. And no doubt my thoughts are influenced by things that have been said about him - eg. "best character in the draft". I think what I was trying to get at is he has presence. Intangible and hard to define. Usually the young first-year players just blend in and you don't really notice them but your eyes seem to be drawn to him. I haven't seem him play so have no idea what he's like on the field. But if he can play, he will definitely be one of those types you notice.

I was able to get down to training this morning. Those who I didn't see there - May, Salem, Viney, Spargo, Gus, Hunter, Langdon, Tomlinson, Smith, ANB, Fritsch, Sparrow, Kozzie, Chandler Oliver was doing numerous run throughs on the boundary and then some ground ball work. Not running at full speed but was doing a decent chunk of slow running. Melksham and Petty did some kicking and then went in early. No moon boot on Petty. Neither did any running. I got there just before 10am and they were initially doing some transition work without tackling. Fairly easy ball movement stuff without any pressure / tackling. They then split into groups - talls and smalls. The smalls did one-on-one ground balls, one player would win possession and the other would tackle. The talls did one-on-one marking. They then swapped so the talls did ground balls and the smalls did marking. No real surprises in the split up here, the only one of interest was that McAdam was with the talls. After this, they then did a drill where the ball was kicked to about 40m out in the D50, a ground ball would ensue, and the defensive team would win the ground ball and then try transition the ball forward to an inside 50. This was under pressure as there was an opposition. The focus seemed to be on running hard off half back. Again no positional surprises, other than perhaps McAdam as a tall deep forward. It appears he may be earmarked to play a bit out of the goal square. I think of Kozzie in the Carlton final where he created problems with his speed as a deep forward. McAdam has speed but is better in the air. They then repeated this drill but on the other half back flank / side of the ground. The next drill was a kick out from the pocket in the attacking team's 50 and the attacking team would win the ground ball and then look for a re-entry inside 50m. Whereas the previous drill was a deep turnover (at half back), this was a high turnover (between half-forward and wing). They looked to switch it a fair bit so that the inside 50 entry was to the fat side where there were less numbers and less congestion. It was a bit messy but there did appear to be a focus to get it to the fat side rather than a down-the-line re-entry to congestion. This was also done under pressure with a defending team. Finally there was some full ground ball movement drills. By this stage some of the new boys went and did running so it was probably something like 11 v 11. As a result there was a lot of space so it obviously didn't replicate the kind of pressure and lack of space you'd see in a game. TMac played key back for this. Maybe just to stand in for May, but who knows. I left soon after this as they were doing some handballs in tight and shots for goal/snaps. I find it hard to read too much into player performance at training so I've focused more on what they did as a group. One thing I will mention is there is something about the Tholstrup boy. The big mop of curly hair that makes his head stand out in a crowd and what appears to be a level of confidence / self-belief. I didn't get the impression that he was a new guy there. He really pushed hard on the run throughs, leading the way when running with Windsor, Brown and McAdam. He then encouraged Windsor and McAdam to beat the required times when they were doing some extra running after he finished. He went and helped up the skipper off the ground after they did push ups. I don't know exactly what it is but there does look to be something a bit different and unique about him. If he can play, he seems the type of player who will be really fun to watch.

First, we need to at least win one more. While I agree an MCG final v Collingwood is probably preferable to an interstate final, the consequences of a loss to Collingwood (1v4) will likely be far more significant than a loss against Port/Brisbane (2v3). Lose to Collingwood and the path could well be a white hot Carlton in a semi final, with the winner then travelling to Adelaide Oval or the Gabba for an interstate prelim. That's a difficult road. On the other hand, lose to Port/Brisbane in the QF, then the path may involve avoiding both Carlton in a semi final and an interstate prelim (with Collingwood at the MCG awaiting the semi final winner should the Pies win their home QF). Of course, lots of water still to flow under the bridge, but most importantly we must get that one more win to secure top 4.

Agree with you. We have been very poor in wet conditions and have not adjusted well, especially over-handballing against Geelong. We have also fumbled more than the opposition and haven't seemed to have handled the ball as well. My comment was simply in relation to the claim it has been wet in 4 of our last 5 games. It hasn't. We lost to Freo in the dry and were just as inefficient inside 50 and wayward with our goal kicking in dry games against Carlton and Collingwood.

That is incorrect. Our last 5 games were against Freo, Carlton, Collingwood, Geelong and GWS. Only the last two were wet.

From AFL website: The Tribunal panel, led by chairman Jeff Gleeson, found it wasn't a dangerous tackle. "Cerra only has a light grip on Hickey's arms. They are not truly pinned," Gleeson said. "Hickey could use one or both of his arms." Tom Sparrow’s tackle did not pin Day’s arms. Day could have used one or both of his arms. But it was deemed a dangerous action being a sling. Sparrow is not the only one. A large group of players have been suspended for similar actions when arms were not pinned. But suddenly it’s now a relevant, if not determining, factor. And what happened to the infamous duty of care this time around? It’s really hard to have any faith in this system. I’d go one step further and say it’s a blight on the game that there is no consistency and certain players/clubs seem to get treated differently.

That’s just incorrect and not correct technique for approaching a ground ball head-on with an opponent. If players are approaching head-on at speed it’s not just going to be a clash of arms but a clash of heads. You don’t go in at speed and clash arms and bounce off - arms reaching down for the ball are hardly strong enough to cause a bounce off between two physically strong athletes at speed. That is why players are taught to turn their bodies when approaching a ground ball head-on. The correct technique would see side-to-side contact with both going for the ball rather than head-to-head contact if leading with the head. Your suggested technique would lead to many more head injuries from head-on ground ball contests.