Earl Hood

Hunts gone downstairs!

How do we stop Walters?

Gunston kicks ball siren goes but ball then bounces through goals, paid a goal? I thought the ball is dead once the siren goes.

Running laps at training on Monday. Injured but not sure of the problem.

SK the drills run by Macca on Monday looked OK to me, yes a few players slipped over but it was damp, a few missed their targets and players dropped some marks but overall I thought the standard was good albeit in near perfect conditions. My wife is a Hawthorn supporter and this is the first time she has seen us train, her thoughts after Macca’s comments were that there was a lack of intensity in the drills as compared to what she has seen at Waverley occasionally. But does intensity vary between a Monday session, then ramp up mid week and down again for last run before a game? I don’t know. Does the lack of competition for places due to injury play a part in how players train? I will have to walk up the road and look at the Pies one day to see if there is a difference there.

All this is very interesting to me. As I reported on the Monday training thread I had a chat to McCartney, the background is he put his jacket on the fence near me and my wife and quipped he was going to get these guys fired up as he walked out to run a series of drills where he ran them pretty hard and it looked like a good session to me. He then came over to pick up his jacket and his first words were these guys just don’t understand it yet, their young but they have to train harder and stop taking shortcuts, you play how you train, great sides set high standards they have to understand that. My take on his comments at the time were that the playing group (and by inference the leading players) is not setting the bar high enough at training, thinking after last year, that it is all just going to happen. Given that Macca looks like he has been sidelined, I am thinking his opinion is at odds with the other coaches and it seems the players as he was clearly a bit pizzed off, now I know why.

Didn’t see him now that you mention him.

Chook what McCartney said to me about goal kicking, I took not to be his decision, it was a coaching panel decision. Brendan is not in charge of the forwards , so not his call, let’s try to keep to the facts we know.

Well it makes sense, the season has gone so let’s review our coaches for the last 11 matches. I never liked that Rawlings went to Casey but thought it must be at his request for development but now we have him back. What changes in the so called lack of midfield connection to the forward line, next week will be interesting to see. Let’s hope it gets better.

The Age is talking about a coaching revamp, Rawlings takes over the forward line, McCartney and Rooke back to player development. Recognition that things aren’t working!

I am wondering if goal kicking issues became a major focus in their post match analyses and attempts to rectify the problem have proved counterproductive to the point where last week we had players passing off (e.g. Jeffy, Oliver) when they were within their normal range? It seemed to me the problem had spread through out the team last week. So now the strategy is to stop talking about it and take the pressure off.

On the contrary I can understand where he is coming from. If you keep concentrating on trying to fix a problem with your technique it may just get worse as you over analyse the mechanics of kicking a ball straight. A lot of advice to cure the putting yips in golf does not involve the mechanics of the swing but rather what’s going on in your mind when you line up.

Dropped by training for 30 minutes this morning in beautiful sunny and calm conditions. Neville was running laps endlessly with Crossy, OMac running laps as well and AVB walking around a little. Viney showed up late and did some close in ball work with Hannan but not much else. Didn’t sight Lever while I was there. The others were going hard at it with numerous drills moving the ball by foot, kicking low 30m passes to a player on the lead. It wasn’t perfect but I thought most players were hitting their targets. These 30 meter passes are the ones we seem to be over cooking on the few occasions that our mids lower their eyes when delivering to a target in our forward line. There were also numerous drills where a player had to move through heavy traffic to get the ball with other players armed with the big pads,so there were some heavy hits as players tried to crash through. Harmes, JKH, KK, Stretch and Jeffy were involved in all the quick ball movement drills, moving well and delivering to targets. There was a lot going on around the ground so it was hard to take it all in. Training finished with the usual freestyle goal kicking practice at the northern end where players practiced whatever they needed to I suppose, set shots from 40 m for some, running snap shots for others. i have mentioned previously that given our abysmal set shot accuracy this year why aren’t our forwards working on technique and routine with a specialist coach to iron out their issues. So it was interesting when at the end of training Brendan McCartney came over for a chat and said he was not happy with the standard of training, that there is still a lot of work needed if we are to improve and the playing group, although young had to understand this. I asked him about our goal kicking yips and shouldn’t we be working on our technique more and developing routines. His response was interesting, yes they are spooked on setshots but no we have done all that technique stuff, it will only turn around when they stop thinking about it. By which I think he means to stop thinking about the mechanics of it all because that is self defeating. This makes sense when I think about it because no matter what level of sport you played you will at some stage executed something well above your normal level and I bet when you did you were not thinking much about technique, more likely you were thinking of outcomes and the rest was just happening subconsciously.

If you did that at suburban level football you would end up on the ground with your nose all over your face.

Yes I have been somewhat perplexed with our selections. When we go forward option A if under pressure is to bomb the ball into the hotspot 20m out from the goal so you might look to having the Pruess/Max ruck combo always sitting in the hot seat up forward but no we have gone with TMac and Smith and now Weideman and none of them are great contested marks. Added to that we haven’t got a competent goal kicking crumber when the ball hits the deck. Does our game plan suit the cattle we select game day? I am a bit tired of this lack of forward connection terminology. It seems to be a weasel word to cover up widespread incompetence, including poor delivery by foot to forwards who can’t take a contested mark and the inevitable spoil goes to small forwards who can’t crumb or hold the ball inside forward 50 and allow the opposition to waltz out of defence and blah, blah, we have seen the results this year.

They were clear to me, when there was a ball up at a stoppage and Grundy and Max were holding each other to maintain position, Max would get pinged for holding! Simple really.

Greg Stafford is the only assistant who can hold his head up?. The rest have their jobs on the line and we need changes. Is it time to lure an Adem Yze back with his Hawks IP or Cameron Bruce?

The goal kicking yips have spread through the team like influenza this season.

Can we just win this last quarter.

Yes I did, back then we never had possession to display a skill error?

In one quarter of footy we managed to display every type of skill error it is possible to execute on a footy field.

Fingers crossed for the Queens Birthday honours, I am expecting some good news at last, belated recognition for my tireless work for the recently beleaguered financial sector. But you didn’t hear it here Okay!

Oz Open tennis promo I reckon!

Not without a few frights for heaven’s sake! But she got there!

Yes Uncle I know what your saying. I stopped playing golf about 10 years ago after a year of intensive faulty practice that ingrained a slice off my tee shot and the next approach shot, basically my game was shot. Thus the use by many golfers of a swing doctor to detect any changes in their swing that may lead to errors under the pressure of competitive play. Is set shot goal kicking similar in that kicking techniques can change slightly without the player realising and suddenly, a la TMac, they can’t kick straight? I think so, thus my query about the lack of review of goal kicking technique by our key forwards. Yes they may kick freely at practice but freeze up, tighten up in a game and hook the ball off line. golfers have to deal with this to make a living, how to make the clutch putt on payday. They have to stay loose and go through their routine and not think of the consequences of failure.