Earl Hood

Is it your backhand?

Did Mitch Brown play in the twos today? If fit he needs to play forward round 1. He at least is a natural tall forward and we are desperate. With our best mids back playing we will be able to play Petracca deep forward. That May paper over our weaknesses.

We were always on a hiding to nothing today with 10 first pick players out against a top 4 side. But was seriously unimpressed with Traccs game. If he is to go to the next elite level he should have shown more dominance, he at best, had a few good cameos. But really the story was there was no evidence today of an improvement in our game plan or skill levels, no evidence that we have worked on the so called transition by the mids to our forwards. In short our old problems are still there. With 2 of our big forwards out for weeks not sure what we do to be competitive in the first 5 or 6 weeks.

Yes I have only seen 2 training sessions this year but watching the game I noticed that we were not switching play or moving the ball in any way that resembled the what I have witnessed. I know we were missing perhaps 10 first pick players but I thought in a preseason match you would keep trying to play to the system you train?

Ben Brown as well.

The umpire had good vision of that! That is a perfect example of why that rule was created, push the guy forward when he is in the air so you can take the mark. Unbelievable miss. Yet umpires will pay in the back if you fall onto someone who is already on the ground!

I thought this for the last two seasons. The midfield can be so much better if it works more as a coordinated unit rather than a number of talented individuals. I am hoping Yze can recreate a cohesive unit similar to the Hawks midfield at their peak. Not asking for much I know.

Rode past Gosch’s this morning. Oliver, Viney, Hibberd and Melksham doing ball movement drills and Salem later on doing some laps. All were moving freely and looked sharp. That’s 5 pretty handy players that would be normally be amongst the first picked. Hopefully all will be available for round one.

Have you taken up cooking classes Biff?

Need to work on our tackling to prevent the opposition getting the ball out cleanly so often.

Umpires obsessed with the push in the back rule! Any tackle that ends up with the tackler on top of the tackled, no matter how they got there is adjudged in the back! Ridiculous but it has been working to our favour this match. Glad I am not a defender these days.

DemonOX yes Vettes are great to drive, do you drive the Camaro shown in your avatar?

I think someone said he was given leave to go home for family issues? I was looking for him at training but didn’t notice him as I was looking to see if they would use him as a designated line breaker in the match sim today as we had heard from earlier track watchers. Didn’t see that.

Yes thankfully we kept Tom. We are now looking at Tommy, Petty, Mitch Brown and Luke Jackson as key forwards, aligned with Fritsch, Tracc, Melchum as mid sized forwards with Spargo, Kossie, Nibbler as crumbers.... it’s not the end of the world if our midfield dominance continues into 2021 and you know we get that connection between mids and forwards functioning.

I think the real key from these drills is to get the players to present and give the ball carrier multiple options hopefully within 20 to 25m. Most of our players should be able to deliver a low trajectory pass to a target 20m away, surely. One of our deficiencies I believe in recent years has been players not presenting ahead of the ball carrier coming out of defence, hence the long bomb or hopeful 45m speared pass that gets intercepted. There are only 2 or 3 guys in any side that can deliver this miracle pass onto a team mate’s chest. So you need multiple options, short, long or wide. That was the great value Langdon brought to us last year, he always positioned himself on the wing to be a sideways option for the ball carrier. That made us a much better side and we needed the same on the other wing. It gives the ball carrier confidence to take on the opposition, knowing they will always have an outlet thru Langdon. If you can get others to always provide escape options, ball carriers will take the game on more and more. That’s my theory anyway.

Beautiful day for a drive so I decided to take the Corvette out for a test drive and headed down the Eastern to the Monash and on to Cranbourne. Got there late but watched for about 50 minutes or so from behind the bloody fence! I found it difficult to identify the newbies during the session and one group kept their yellow tops on for the whole session, so no numbers. Conditions were near perfect, the ground surface looks superb, it was sunny, warm and there was no wind! Very odd conditions for Casey. They were doing full ground ball movement when I arrived, then broke into 3 groups, 2 doing the handball keeping off routine that has been described in other training reports, the 3rd group included the big boys, Max, Bradtke, TMac and LJ contesting marks and kicking passes back to Farmer, Harmes, Jetta. They then moved to another full ground more contested, ball movement exercise, yellows vs blues. This went for two 10 minute halves. one group was doing exercises off to the side for most of the session, Viney and Gus in a harness pulling weights up and down the boundary. AVD, Weideman, Chandler, Mitch Brown, Petty, Smith all working hard on a weights circuit that looked punishing. Melchum was in and out of routines, then doing laps, then disappeared into the gym. The last full ground contest was interesting, they are certainly looking sharp and energetic, they all look to be in great shape. But as this routine progressed I found it was a mix of the good and the average. Players at times missed targets, turning the ball over at worst or picked a poor option passing to a player that was clear but because the delivery was not to his advantage, too high or to the wrong side, defenders were able to make ground to intercept or punch the ball away. The other disturbing thing for me anyway was that I don’t believe I saw a goal kicked from beyond 25m in this exercise. Shots on the run from 35m missed, the few set shots from 35 to 40 looked like they missed as well. However Goody was watching this intently and seemed pleased with the play, he only pulled play up once and reset everyone because maybe there were players out of position? As I say the ball movement looks good but there was a lack of polish given the contest meter was at about 70% compared to game day but of course the coaches may be urging them to push their ball movement skills to their limits. Individual observations: LJ took a screamer on top of Jonesy, who ended up face planted in the turf but got up OK. He is moving very well and has clean hands. May and Lever on opposing sides were each standouts for their defences, May took a great pack mark, one handed, played on and passed off to an opponent unfortunately. TMac generally playing forward of centre, he did some nice things, he does seem to be moving better this year, still managed to get tackled, holding the ball when he took on one defender too many. What’s new? You always have your heart in your mouth when Tommy decides to take on the opposition with ball in hand. I think it was Rivers for the yellows who took on all comers from half back to sprint past 2 or 3 blues and deliver a pass to the forward pocket. Very impressive piece of play. Bradtke took a couple of nice pack grabs and competed well against Max at the centre ball ups, umpired by Jordon Lewis. He just might develop into something. He has always had skills and agility just seemed he needed to put on some muscle and learn to throw his weight around. Salem stood out as the link man when the yellows were transitioning the ball from defence to attack, he had a lot of it and I don’t think he made a false move all session. Best on ground today. Rosman took a good contested grab up forward for the blues and had a set shot from 45, it was close and no problem with the distance. That’s about it, sorry with half the guys in yellow and often on the other side of the ground I could not identify many of thee new guys. As I left most were doing goal kicking practice and the rehab guys were still busting their guts on the weights circuit. It was time to head off to Tooradin and lunch at the Jetty Cafe! The Vette never missed a beat

I was once told by a local that every house in Daintree had a python living in the roof space!

Having watched training regularly in previous seasons at Gosch’s and then watching in dismay at some of our match day efforts I have regularly commented on Dland that these guys are not playing as they train. The mid/forward disconnect that is talked about ad nauseam, you know the running forward and attacking in straight, predictable lines, the long bombing to the square, when the forwards have led out of the square, etc, etc. You don’t see that at training in game simulations, it is all about unpredictable ball movement, looking for free and short options, constant movement. Come game day against a good opponent this all disappears at least in the past 2 seasons. Maybe this is the year it all starts to work.

I believe the new national Women’s Farnarkeling League matches will be televised by SBS this year!

Exactly. Poor Bennet was forced out to CHF and never was the same again. He wasn’t mobile enough nor a great overhead mark. Given he could kick goals from 60 m you would think it would have worked, if only he could get the ball.

One interesting observation from Stinga was about Kossie in a one off white top in the 3/4 field ball movement exercise. He seems to be used as a go to option with a directive to take on the defenders. That is get the ball to Kossie around the centre for him to run and break the lines at all costs. I will be interested to hear if future track watchers observe the same tactics as it may mean they are looking to play Kossie further up the field so he can use his speed to more advantage.

Here is another blues guitarist I have discovered in lockdown. Gary Clark Jr. He does know how to play a guitar I think. Cool dude! Here is Bright Lights.

Still haven’t seen a good explanation as to why the insurrection failed. Yes most were there to cause some trouble, do a bit of looting and take selfies but there were a number of well armed, military trained groups determined to take hostages and it appears they had inside intelligence, they had maps of tunnels and help from some of the defenders. The defenders were undermanned, unprepared and abandoned by whoever should have deployed the National Guard, and the FBI who were warned of what was brewing but appears to have done nothing. Is it a case that if only the mob threatening the Capitol had been Muslim, Latino, Black or Communist we would have been ready? For some reason the well armed mob was halted by a few brave officials barricaded behind a door armed with pistols. If ever a US disaster needs to be forensically investigated, it’s this one.

Here is a bit of Jimmy and Joe. Jimmy’s daughter does backing vocals for Joe as well. What a voice, what guitar work!

Here is another Joe classic performed at the Sydney Opera House