The strategy is very clear, Gibbs or Russell instructed to kicks it 20m into the pocket to a bloke who cant kick as well as they can (i.e. Armfield, Carrots, Scotland) or bomb it long to the other teams tallest player....or alternatively do both!

The other aspect which is just as bad is our complete inability to prevent other teams strolling it out of their defense after we kick a point.

Agree, i saw a stat a few weeks ago that said we were top 3-4 for points scored from kick ins. When we get it right we have the personnel to open teams up.

Its getting there, nowhere near as bad as last year.

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

We are a dumb team.... the tactic to kick long to Sandilands and whoever he is matched up on highlites some severe problems in planning.

Not very long ago a media commentator mentioned during a game that Carlton were ranked first or second in the AFL for kickout effeciency i.e. the best in the league rather than the worst.

This is one area that I have judged Ratts on for the past 12 months.


It's one thing to judge him after a poor game or a game where we beat both last years grand finalists.................. that's week-in week-out stuff!

But, our kick-out stratergy has been shocking for some 2 or 3 years now and I have hardley seen any kind of evidence to suggest we are even working on it.

I think most people on here would have said last year that "Kick-outs" are our priority to work on over the pre-season, but it looks as if we haven't )or we have and we're still crap at it). Regardless, we are still cringe worthy when it comes to kick-outs and it doesn't look like getting any better........... and that's what concerns me the most.

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

If we are the 3-4 best team in the comp from scoring a goal after a kick in then I would say that we are better than most people think.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

ARE YOU SERIOUS????

are we really????


Geez, I would have never have guessed that. Haha! If that's true then I would seriously hate to watch the other 12-13 teams kick out.

My biggest pet hate is when we bomb it outside 5o to the wing and somebody like Eddie Betts is there with 3 opposition players (all 2 foot taller than him) surrounding him waiting for the ball!

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

I agree. We have had the odd bad week but overall we have improved a lot. You only have to watch other team struggle (including geelong) to know its not as easy some think.
As we improve all over the ground our kick outs get better and better.

All year I have been so frustrated at Rusty kicking it in and wondering why Gibbs doesn't do it instead. After Friday night, I have no idea... haha.
I don't think it matters so much who kicks it in, it matters who is getting free and making room to give Rusty or Gibbs an option and doing it quickly so they don't have to stand around scratching their balls whilst they contemplate kicking it to the 50/50 pack. Rusty may not be the best kick from a standing set shot... but he is damn good on the run. I'd love to see us moving it on a lot quicker, but that wont happen until they are given more and faster options.
Hopefully that made sense.

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GO BLUE BOYS!!

[youtube]rGMZ07Xe8SI[/youtube]

We have a 'new' kickout strategy.

Not only evident in the passage above but against Richmond and all preseason.

Spread quite a large group of players to either flank and leave someone on their own down the guts.

In the passage above Murphy was free. Against Richmond Hampson was free on a few occassions but dropped the mark.

Other times if the opposition have the corridor covered we'll still kick it there and have a tall there to mark/contest and we'll also outnumber the opposition at ground level so we're a good chance of running away with it.

Will be interesting to see how our kick outs go this week.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Hard to see Ratts dropping a player with the ability to kick it like Watson has. We've been crying out for a player like that for years.

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"I had to eat"

how shit is harbrow?

how good is watson's kicking ??!!

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Paul Roos really let rip on Harbrow/Brennan/Krakouer OTC tonight...great to get the truth instead of the shite from the rest of the backslapping brigade.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

The problem is we have to play him on someone. I don't think he's quite ready to man up on Cloke, Dawes or L.Brown just yet.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

It's essentially a reverse of the traditional huddle, and Watto is such a magnificent exponent of the low, long 60 m kick.

Say what you want about Robert Walls as a commentator (and I do), but his invention of the huddle has survived many a tactical development over the years. The only thing that has come close is operating 3 players on each flank, with two screening opponents for one to mark and run off down the wing, ala Adelaide and a few other teams. That's a lot harder to implement, particularly if the opposition know it's coming and have spent 5 minutes analysing it.

The huddle and its derivatives stand the test of time.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

So what better time to learn? Better now than first up in a final.

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"I had to eat"

I could see them dropping White and Watson for Jamo and Bower, this will rob us off Wato's lovely kick-ins though. It will be interesting at the selection table.

At the end of the day, this is what we want as a club for players to fight for spots and getting the occassional player being unlucky to be dropped.

Competition for spots

I was thinking more like after having a full pre-season under his belt. If we throw him in against their monsters, it instantly shows a weak spot that they'll try to exploit.

But that said, his kicking adds to our team enormously. It's a conundrum, for sure.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

Watson adds a kicking weapon, a smart positional player, much needed height and weight and is a good decision maker. Yes he might not be physically developed in terms of fitness or strength, but I'd take his positives into the game against Collingwood before rushing back an injured player who would be underdone in Bower.

They made a meal out of it, though. Could have been easier if the pass inside 50 hadn't been dropped.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)