Our tackling today was nothing short of pathetic.
Can't tell you how many times I watched Richmond players able to give of a handball during a tackle or even worse - easily break the tackle.

The game reminded me of schoolyard footy, when the big kids run through the little kids. Not sure how this can happen at AFL level especially when one of the games best ever tacklers - Libba - is one of our coaches.

Our tackling is seriously embarassing !!!

What's this tackling thing? Is it a new game plan like flooding or something?

We used to be the best tackling side in the competition 10 years ago with guys like Browny, Ratts, Deany & Co. Now we are one of the worst. Admittedly we are better now than we were two years ago.

Yeah was actually going to post a similar thread. Its no more evident in our team than Stevo - dont know if i've seen him lay a decent tackle all year. So that got my wondering - what is it? Is it endeavour, is it technique or is it strength/fitness?

I'm sure everyone gets the impression that Stevo doesn't want to be playing from time to time, but I've seen things from him (especially recently), that show me that he is passionate about Carlton and about winning. So I think there is endeavour there, but that leaves technique or strength/fitness.

Not quite sure if he is carrying an injury but he really needs to get his body right and get some more strength - his ability to break tackles is also down. As for the other guys, some sessions in the weight room over summer should really help - but there must be a technique issue too. Blackers is about the size of a 15 year old, but he can really tackle.

The weird thing is both games against Melbourne they have proven that they can tackle really well and it was our pressure and our tackling that set us apart, why not against everyone else?

In terms of watching them from a supporters point of view, while skill errors are frustrating - nothing is more frustrating than seeing the team not being able to tackle and take opponents to the ground. Until we can consistently impose ourselves physically on the opposition, we will struggle.

At times it's been good - both Melb games, the Freo game in Perth

And I agree fowl it is better than it was. Still a long way to go though. Having watched the great North sides of the 90s I thought this was going to be a real area of improvement when we got Denis Pagan. Then when we got Libba my hope were raised even higher…but it's still a concern.

http://www.pro-stats.com.au/psw/web/tea ... G5&tid=103

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

How many of those have been one on one tackles? How many have been against a moving opponent?

Dont get me wrong - I'm not knocking Stevo, as I said, I dont think its his endeavour. But if they had a stat for missed tackles, I'm sure he'd be pretty high up on the list as well.

Even if he missed half his tackles, he's still have as many as Walker.

Perception + Bias Rarely = Reality.

(I just made that up, but I like it!)

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

If we had the professional pro-stats package it would quote his tackling efficiency as well BV.

Can't really question our blokes in the clinches, but when it's opened up, we miss a lot of tackles. If you look over at the shots of training in the appropriate forum, you can see the players have been doing a lot of agility-focused exercises.

You can't make a bloke much faster, but you can make him considerably more agile, and it's just as big an attribute in today's football. At the moment some of our blokes are shocking, other teams just step around them.

Hawthorn broke our tackles.....we couldnt catch the Richmond players to lay any....

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

I looked at our team stats half way through the second quarter Elwood.
We had 10.
Halfway through the second quarter, we were averaging half a tackle per player!

WE took Richmond on at their strengths and suffered accordingly.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

They both dodged a lot of tackles, once you've slid a metre or so sideways, it wouldn't take much strength to brush off the fingertips of a player.

Agile players are a huge asset. That's not to say we didn't mess up some fundamentals when it came to tackling either.

Did anyone catch Wiggins failing to force a Richmond player to commit to disposal in their back half? He just keep shuffling one way or the other until he had head spins.

Bret Thornton is also a poor tackler IMO. With Bret its not about desire, he just doesn't seem to have an awareness, it doesn't come naturally to him to grab the bloke with the ball.

Stevens could be similar.

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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

Perhaps you should have been watching the Carlton sides 1999-2001. We were the top tackling side in 2000 and 2nd in '99 and '01. In the years prior to '99 we were pretty ordinary.

In Pagan's first year we were 14th. This year we're currently running 9th.

That's what Waite needs to learn to do...

Yeah it would be an improvement for him I guess, but Wiggins had ample opportunity to get a hand on this guy, and at the very least force bad disposal.

Um... the problem is that we weren't even chasing them.
At one stage a Richmond player had the ball in the middle of the ground, with 2 or 3 Carlton players around him. The Richmond player went for a little run, then stood still to look for a player to kick the ball to... each and every Carlton player just stood there and watched him.
It was VERY embarassing!

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GO BLUE BOYS!!