jezzarules wrote:
Crusader wrote:
BigBlueWave wrote:
I am a bit concerned Richmond will be too slick for us. Our ball movement against Sydney was very slow. This allows teams to set up their defence and the Richmond backs like to pick off those long bombs into the forward line. They will get plenty of those. I wish our mids would lower their eyes a bit more when going forward.
Hopefully the game style against Sydney was an aberration and a more attacking fast moving game plan will prevail.
Go BLUES.
If the mids did happen to lower their eyes, they’d see that there’s nothing but grass and defenders in that 40-80m zone.
Our half forward strategy is either failing or nonexistent.
Fev used to lead straight at the ball carrier full tilt
Judd, Stevens, Murphy, Carrazzo, Scotland, Simpson, Houlihan, Walker… outside mids.
I’m not sure how Fev would go in our current side. The midfield group is built to win the hard ball & will take that extra handball to secure possession.
The trade off for winning footy that way is it allows the defence to close the gap 20m in any direction. Ordinarily, your half forwards will then engage those defenders to open up a leading lane. The good ones will cycle through the options of being a live receiver, decoy, crumber, or setting up to defend the rebound.
Our blokes just seem to chase the ball up field, then motor back to crash the contest. Futile efforts in either direction.
Maybe they’re not watching enough film. Maybe what they are watching isn’t sinking in. Maybe they’re getting injured just as the penny is about to drop.
The only definite is, we won’t be a player in September until we can find an extra 20 or so possessions in our forward half.