Ok, so we all bemoan the poor skill level and disposal of our players. What exactly is it? Is it they can't kick a drop punt? Is it that they can't spot a target?

From what I've seen this year, it's a case of they kick it AT the player rather than in front of the player which means the player has to stop and prop and allow the defender an easy spoil and for opposition players to run in numbers towards the footy. Why haven't the coaches picked this up? Time and time again players just kick to a contest or even when short passing, they don't chip to the advantage of our leading player.

That's when we make leads.

And that's rare. I've lost count of how many times I've screamed PRESENT! or MAKE A LEAD! to the bloody midfield. No wonder we don't look like scoring even when we've won the ball, we turn it over at HF because no-one on the HF line makes a lead and when they do, the midfielders kick it AT the forwards so that we can't get clean possession into the forward line.

WHY CAN'T THE BLOODY COACHING STAFF PICK UP ON THIS AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT???? WE TOLERATE THE SAME CRAP EVERY WEEK!!!

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Becuase we're a young team with small bodies. They find it hard to run with tough dudes who can run for 120 minutes. Our disposal is as good as anyones for periods, but we can't sustain it for length.

Once the stamina is better they will have more time and be able to settle. A classic example is AW. He gets it, runs like a wild man then is so stuffed he spray his kick. or poor decision making means they put it directly down the throat of a player undre the pump. result - turnover and we're chasing arse again.

Freo's stats showed almost all the high possession players were 27+, ours were basically 20-21-22. We're so far behind in body formation, due to age not recruiting, we get pumped.

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end of message

How many players have the confidence to demand the ball?

I know one player who demands the ball but he was left in the 2s last week

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"I said I'd tell you the truth. Didn't say you'd like it." - Finch

Picking up on it and doing something about it are two different things.

I made a post a couple of days ago about our skills and disposal of the ball.

The reports from training, which have been rare this season, always tell us the skills are good. So whats the difference between training and match day? Pressure!! Our skills fall down under pressure. Sounds pretty simple, but its difficult to recify as you can't replicate that kind of pressure at training.

What it essentially comes down too is we don't have the quality of players who are able to cope with the pressure, no matter how much the coaching staff work on it.

Until we draft some more quality disposers and the younger players come through and take the place of those with ordinary disposal this is really what we're left with.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

I aggree with everything but this bit....................



I think it's a confidence thing. Plain and simple, these kids confidence is shot to shit, and with good reason too!

If it's as much on their heads to take responsibility for our poor disposals, then the coaching staff MUST accept part of the blame too...............which they haven't!

Dissapointing.

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

We have so many players with questionable disposal Carrazzo, Bentick, Fisher, Waite, French, De Luca, Carlos (although excusable for the time being) and Walker (although has improved to be just about of this list) and there are probably more i have forgotten.

When the pressure is on obviously kicks go wide but we do it far to often. Poor decision making makes this worse and especially when we decide to switch when there is no one upfield makes it worse making us go back or sideways and causes turnovers.

Im sure individuals will improve but having this many questionables makes it a lot harder to hit a forward (if there is anyone there or if they can figure out how to move together).

When the players who have awesome skills start missing targets like Houla, Scotland and Stevens is when we get thrashed through the middle.

A lot of it is poor decision making leading to kicks under pressure......Scotlands a good kick with good technique he just makes some poor choices....he would probably say its players up field giving him poor options.

Been watching footy a while now and have seen players taught to kick straight ie Stewart Loewe but have not seen many poor kicking players become better kicks....

I think a good marking CHF can make a team kick longer and straighten up play and avoid all this criss cross play we see a lot of...if we can get Kennedy settled at CHF and kick it long quickly we might cut down on our clangars and encourage players to stop short passing and turning the ball over...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Poor decision making ie not taking smart option but also players calling for the ball in the wrong or a dangerous position- not having confidence in particular players either youngsters or others -paralyzed by fear that they are going to stuff up so get rid of the ball so they are not the ones with the responsibility
Sometimes just poor execution -for example McGraths pass over the head of Nick Stevens on Sunday - goal to Fremantle

I think a big part of it is a lot of them just haven't picked up the pace & tempo of AFL yet for one reason or another and just feel the pressure to much. Another part of it is proper technique. When kicking straight I see a lot of them swing their kicking leg across the body instead of following straight through.

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There's so much I could say...

Really?

I've been to about 20 sessions this year and the same players struggle to hit targets at training.
Have you seen something I havent?

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Absolutely not...they're not my training reports. I'm going purely on what I remember seeing of them. I couldn't tell you who or when but I specifically remember someone saying the skills are good at training.

If you tell me different then it completely blows my theory

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

OK ! kicking skills are not top notch i will agree.But bloody hell mate,the leading from our forwards is pitifull.They stop,prop,go left and right,double back,and completely confuse the bloke with the pill.The dont have faith in each other,and to me its that confidence issue that is behind everything.FIRST OPTION boys,even if its the wrong one.We are confusing ourselves.

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All my dangerous friends

We also kick the ball WAY TOO HIGH which allows the defenders plenty of time to get to the contest and effect a spoil.

I will say it again we kick the ball WAY TO HIGH.

WAY TOO HIGH!!!!!!


Boys passes should be long and low.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I can't agree enough with that. Time and time again they pop the ball up giving the defender every chance. They don't even pop it up ahead of the players so they can mark it on the leap, they put it exactly where they are right at that very minute forcing the forward to stop, lean back and try and take a contested mark.

Elwood Blues1 wrote:

I have to agree with you there EB1. Unfortunately it suggests to me that Bentick will never be a reliable kick under pressure. On the positive, Blackwell's field kicking is fantastic & he'll only get better as he gets older.

And Mickstar wrote:

Yes Mickstar, our leading from our forward 50 is appalling with the exception of Fev. One instance on the weekend, we had the ball on the boundary city-side 40m out, & Waite just stood there in the opposite pocket with his opponent goal-side, & all he did was stand still with his right hand out-stretched saying kick it to me. Did not even attempt to lead despite the clear space in front of him. I'd expect more from my 5yo son in Auskick FFS!!!!

Having only watched the one game live, I think we keep falling into the habit of hitting stationary people. Meaning the receiver then has to wait for the ball and thats when we gte picked off.

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Everything before the word "but" is horseshit - J Snow

Why then would we not play Kennedy? He demands the ball

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"I said I'd tell you the truth. Didn't say you'd like it." - Finch

Re: decision making - a SA colleague was telling me a couple months ago about the Crows having some match simulation software that they use. They have something like a theatre room and they put a player in there with scenarios playing over and over and over again and the player needs to elect the option they take - over and over and over again. The result being it drums into the players what options they need to take so it almost becomes instinctive.

I'm not sure if my description of the software is exact (apparently it was featured in an article in the SA papers and I was only half listening at the time) but I certainly hope we would be looking into something like this, and if available making it one of the top priorities in our facility upgrade. I can't help but think if the actual decision making was a little more instinctive, the players would panic less and their disposal may become better. It's almost like they have too much going on at once for them to deal with it all.

Having said that, i don't know how it can help disposal when a player is running along the wing with no one on their tail and they kick the ball inside 50 so it lands between our forwards

I was asking a similar thing on the weekend Clem.

It has to be a confidence issue to a large degree I reckon. Surely, they're not all such crap kicks?!

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Hope your footy team wins.

To me it looks like they are not moving it on quick enough once they get it. If they get on with it quicker they would find they are kicking to a moving target which is easier to hit coz the target would be able to adjust to get to where the ball is going to land. By holding on to it the other side are getting behind the ball making it harder to thread the eye of the needle to hit a static target.

Confidence to run on is the key. The players by now are probably shit scared to make the wrong decision or scared they are going to miss that they hold on to the ball longer trying to make sure of it. It doesnt work like that.

We need to get on our toes and run hard into space so when a teamate gets it the can turn and play on knowing a teammate is working for them further up the ground. Then the passes will start to look better.

If we play static the kicking mistakes are amplified.

Go Blues ! Lift.