Blue Vain wrote:
I heard an interview with Josh Fraser pre-season and from memory he mentioned role compliance. What is role compliance? We had Sydney held to one goal halfway through the second quarter. We get a stoppage 15m from our goal and the ruckman (Reidy) was told by Cripps to get away and Cripps nominates as the ruck. He blocks the opposition ruck, gives away the free kick and the ball goes up the other end for a goal.
Is that "role compliance"? A midfielder telling the ruckman not to contest the ruck? And as a consequence of him giving away the free, the ruckman is supposed to do what? Pick up a midfielder and chase him when Cripps infringes?
Third quarter Sydney kick a couple but we're still leading. We kick a point and Gulden takes the kick in and plays on. McKay (on the mark), who could have easily cut the angle, jogs across, watches Gulden chip the ball to a team mate and run on for the handball receive. Harry jogs and points to players upfield to apply the pressure. The loose man is created and Sydney hit the lead. Is that role compliance? Refusing to chase your opponent and expecting others to cover your arse?
I saw a clip by Jeff White on Youtube where he highlights the Swans unrewarded running and how they created space. That's not the @#$%&! problem. If Harry chased, applied pressure and did his job, the players upfield could have been accountable to their opponent instead of pushing up to pressure Harry's opponent. Players spend a heap of time training to create an outnumber and capitalising on it. We handed them the scenario.
Fraser has his hands full. We have talent down there but no lynch pin. Harry had 3 touches inside 50 and only one mark forward of centre from memory. One of his touches inside 50 was a gift handball from a Sydney player and another was him gifting a kick back to them.
I'm not sure what's happened to him but he's a shadow of his previous self. He had one good match sim and the remainder of his pre-season has been rubbish.
The key for the coaches is how to get the most out of him. He's on a long term contract on big dollars. IMHO, his value is pushing up the ground and marking the D50 exit kicks. He's good when he can run into space and use his athleticism. Play him as a high forward where he can play that role for us and keep him out of the forward 50. He has great pace, good hands and he reads the play up the ground well. He also seems to get into the game more when he's relieving ruck so I'd put him back into that role. Reidy out.
The issue is who competes the high ball in the front half. We have 2 options IMHO. Derksen who has been a reasonably successful forward in the VFL or Young. Young is a battler but he's shown in the past that he is given a role in the front half, he at least competes.
And we need a crumber. I wanted Byrne in and posters were saying he can't see the game out. Look at what other teams are doing with their 5th bench player. Sydney bought Papley on when the heat was off the game and he bought energy and chaos to their front half. 5 score involvements would have had him equal second for us. He played 57% game time.
Byrne did the same for us in the match sims. At least he chases, creates chances and he's a deadly finisher. 3 things we lacked badly.
5th bench spot for Scott Pendlebury. McRae said he wouldn't come on until the 20m mark of the first quarter. He played limited minutes, ran circles around the other players who were fatigued and was probably best on ground. He played 55% game time. 2nd least amount by a large margin. 10score involvements. Easily second most on ground. Impact matters more than quantity.
Out- Reidy, Chesser, Saad (injured), Moir, Fogarty (injured)
In. Carroll, Boyd, Byrne, Flynn Young. Derksen. (Carroll to the wing, Williams forward. He can't defend)
I think the Jeff White thing and the Harry chasing thing are two different aspects of the overall problem.
- our forwards need to chase and pressure opposition backs
- our backs need to do lots of unrewarded running and create space (see Syds report of John Barker and Mil Hanna highlighting our lack of run and spread)
- our mids need a burst of speed to match the opposition once the game gets more outside than inside
Points one and two are pretty much what Docherty was saying in his rant to Gorringe. We all know and have discussed it here. What’s scary is that the players also seem to know about it, and train for it (I assume), but don’t do it when the pressure is on.
Point three is a lack of the right players issue, we can bandage over with players like Byrne and Williams in the short term, but longer term only players like a mature Jagga, Walker, plus someone like Butters can solve.
Login
Register
FAQ
