You could be in for a tough year mate, the emphasis across the league on defensive pressure is unlikely to improve disposal efficiency Although it would be nice to be as good as Geelong are one on one to make those 50/50's look good. Perhaps in time.

When you say lazy are you implying that it isn't skill, but an attitude problem?.

More mental, hence the inconsistency.

Reasonable point

True about the maggies. They got key players back but their game plan changed (possibly due to players back). With players out they were trying to flood the ball. Turning it into a scrap to give them a glimmer of hope( first time we played them)their skills looked shocking. Once the players were back they threw more players behind the ball and started a zone similar to the bulldogs one and not far removed from the saints one. They lifted their tackling and all of a sudden players skills looked a lot better.(see second time we played them.)

I'll take your word for it mate, but darned if I can see any difference in their average tackle count from the first 8 games compared to the next 14 when they got on a role I thought they only lost the tackle count a few times all season and twice was against us including the game they flogged us in? You aren't getting that info from the same people who were trying to say the Pies improved, because they stopped going so wide, when in fact it was shown that if anything they were going wide more often. Didak having a real purple patch after round 10 helped them a tad just quietly.

No info. I dont have any stats. Just something i noticed about them. They changed their game style to something similar to the saints after they played us the first time. True didak and davis were firing in the second half of the year.
Anyway maybe that example is hard for to put into words but you get my drift. In games when we came out tackling hard and setting up to put pressure on the opposition we usually won or made a game of it and in them games our skills looked good.

Fair enough mate. I just found it curious that Malthouse who gets criticised for being too defensive actually got more defensive Could be me trying to do two things at once and not understanding you totally It's been a long day Considering we were the second best team at scoring from turnovers I couldn't agree more that tackling and pressure made us look better

Disposal

There is static ball movement (mark. free kick. kick in) and dynamic - where no direct pressure is applied to the ball holder.

First lets consider static ball movement where there is no direct opposition pressure. Here it either works or does not work due to the skills of the person who releases the ball and puts it into play. Players on the CFC list have a range of skills, some excellent, same average and some inconsistent. The issue is how to improve these skills of those who have skills that are less than excellent.

Carrazzo is a good example. He has always been consistently high count ball winner but in the early years in his career he was an inconsistent disposal player (and let roam free by the opposition as he would likely as not deliver the ball via a turnover so he did not need a direct opponent). He has worked very hard meaning he has put in lots of work to get the kicking and hand ball at a level that is become effective. Now he has the capacity to actually kick a goal when he has the ball inside the forward 50. There were times in the past few years when as supporters of CFC we could not look when he took a shot on goal - it could literally go any where other than through the goals. As a professional footballer this was simply not good enough. To his credit he has taken the effort to change his execution in kicking the ball (his hand ball skills are a work in progress).

There are several CFC players who also need to take the time and put in the effort to change and improve their ball transfer skills. Coaching is one thing (being told what to do) but execution comes down to the player. Most CFC players do not need to have an employment role outside football to meet their living expenses- their employer pays then enough to live.

Given that they train part of most days, there is enough time between set training and gym sessions to spend kicking and or hand balling the ball to get their skills at a level where they can eliminate many if not most of their inconsistent ball movement. CFC have dedicated skill coaches and access to well skilled past players like Craig Bradley, Greg Williams, etc. who have the time to spend with younger players to improve their ball handling, kicking and hand ball skill sets.

The question is in March 2010 why there has been such a slow development in the critical skills of younger CFC players to demonstrate the critical skill sets a professional football player needs for his job. It would be hard to justify in most professional roles that you do not have the basic skills to do the job - that you will learn as you go. This is what an apprenticeship or trainee role is for.

Some players have been selected as a potential CFC player (either drafted or rookied) and there seems to be an acceptance that you do not initially have the capacity to execute the skills that are necessary to be a consistent and reliable performer in this role? If it takes time to develop the critical skills and abilities that are need, the question that hovers around is this -- should they have been selected in the first place.

Dynamic ball movement requires the basic skills and also the capacity to make good decisions under direct pressure. This is where football players actually show what they can bring to the game. Examples include the side step to avoid a tackle and good execution of a hand ball to release a player into space or n appropriate kick that advantages the team (rather than a sideways pass that keeps control of the ball). It takes a lot of time to train a good athlete into being a skilled football player and evidence suggests that most athletes never get to this point. So the selection process needs to focus on those players who have the skills -- maybe this is where this idea comes from "get me players who can kick."

Supporters want their team to be competitive and get upset when the reason the ball is turned over is through an error in ball movement. Poor kick ins (behind scored) is a good example. In a year when our scoring capacity inside the forward 50 may well be less than it was in previous years, eliminating turnovers from poorly executed kick ins will be sign that the players have started to improve with their ball movement skills. The 2010 pre season games are yet to demonstrate the improvement that is required.

handballing/short kicks to a stationary target appear to have been an issue in the preseason as far as I have seen.

From my perspective I dont mind that too much (as opposed to kicking over someone's head or off to the side/needing to change direction). The reason for that is that I think passing in front of players is what we should be aiming for rather than where the player currently is - It would then be up to the receiver to be in constant motion so that they receive the ball properly (and hence better looking skills).

Currently we have a lot of players caught flatfooted - that might be due to taking it easier during the preseason (in which case it will pick up once the season starts) or that they still need to get used to the need to constantly be moving/jogging (in which case perhaps another 1-2 seasons to ingrain). If you think about it, how often do you see flat footed geelong players receiving short passes/standing around the play? - Compare that to what we have done during the preseason.

Wayne gretsky said something along the lines of skating to where the puck will be rather than where it is - perhaps ratten is trying to instill something similar in our players - pass to where the player should be ie 2-3 steps (or even more) ahead of where they are when you dish it to them rather than where they are standing (which requires the receiver to do their bit as well). If so it will take a while to pick up, but when we do achieve that, then what we will end up with is quick, precise ball movements that will create space upfield due to the opposition chasing our players about.

That's what the term 'kicking to advantage' means. And that training should be a large part of the junior development levels, not left until AFL level.

This is something new?

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Haha. Yeah it's basics, but we haven't done it very well the last few years.

hard to kick to advantage if the receiving player is stationary when they should be moving. So in that case where the ball lands a few paces in front of a player, is that a disposal skill error or the fault of the teammate? We seem to be getting a few good short passes/link play around 1/2back this preseason before finding a stationary player and invariably putting ourselves under pressure/turning it over. Perhaps its not so much a skill issue but a mindset issue that teammates need to be constantly in movement regardless of whether or not they think they are in the immediate play. Much easier to make a few meters to get the ball from a jog than from a standing start.

Yeah I think over the last few years we've suffered from both lack of skills and lack of movement.

It no doubt takes a couple of years (preseasons) to get conditioned enough so those who've been at Carlton for more than a couple of years should really be performing.

Round 1 will tell us a lot.

*the first TWO times.

Don't act like you don't want to name names, that description gives it away

Steven Gaertner? Didn't he get rookied by the Saints from memory?

Nah, my guess didn't get rookied and didn't play for the Stingrays.

Guerty worked pretty hard on his kicking.

Looks like the Bulldogs recruited all the players that can kick and handball.

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Cooney, Gilbee, Griffin, Boyd, Aker, Harbrow, Eagleton, Johnno, Gia, Murphy, Higgins, Cross. Wouldn't mind either of these guys kicking the ball to one of our forwards on a lead. If we had someone like Gilbee for kick-ins that in itself would make a big impact.

In fact, the Dogs seem to have just as many players who are exquisite users of the ball as we do players that spray it. Sad really.

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