Easy on the insults there Mil. Just stating my opinion.

We have serious defensive issues which will continue to deprive us of a win (except for the wins by default when we are super hot and get an oppostion that have a super off night) which by he way is what i will say if we win a game in the near future.

More importantly long term success will only come with a solid defensive six. There is no other way around it. Hopefully we can unearth one or two options during this year. Togther with Jamo who may make it as a back flanker or back pocket. That leaves 5 positions to fill down back. We have much to do. CHB and FB are the priorities. We may be able to develop back flankers from the current list...i.e. anderson,browne,armfield etc...

_________________
"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Exactly right. We are not (yet) having key forwards kick 5 or 6 regularly so to say we need a FB / CHF, while true, isn't the main reason for our poor defense IMO. I think the main reason is unaccountability, largely due to our very poor fitness levels. We zone off and run forward when we have the pill, then struggle to get back to a man when there is a turnover (and isn't there a flowering few of those.) We also struggle to create enough pressure around the midfield... why? because we don't get numbers to the ball... why? again... fitness!

With a bit of match fitness i think things will come together defensively.... eventually.... hopefully.... possibly??

I don't rate Jamo as a potential premiership CHB. Serviceable in these times of great need, but that's it really.

_________________
They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

I think so far this season we've played pretty well against tall/big forwards, it's those small forwards and the goals from opposition midfielders that really got us.

I think youre thinking of the football in the eighties...

Nowadays its not just about a defenssive six... were ok in that area...

Its about a team defensive effort... where everybody applies defensive pressure... and the midfield moves back when it has to in great numbers...

Then the whole team moves forward in attacks in great numbers...

The words "defensive six" is todays football is a myth...and outdated.

The challenge we have as a footy club is to drill the whole team to both defend and attack.. and link through defence .. midfield and attack as one cohesive unit...

_________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Synbad's right.

In my eyes - Jamison, Thornton and Waite all played pretty fair games last night. It was the inability of the midfield to apply defensive pressure which was the problem.

This is partially a coaching issue. However, it is also an issue that three of our onballers are at best 80% fit. Ask yourselves how many teams in the comp could get away with playing that many midfielders lacking key match fitness. Geelong could do it. Maybe Hawthorn could too. St Kilda - I doubt it. And everyone else isn't even close. So we take a side which has finished close to bottom for the past six years - in a midfield that was regularly smashed, we add three midfielders (good ones) needing to pick up match fitness, and we expect to get away with it?

There's your answer as to why we don't run out games, and there's a part of your answer as to why we have cricket scores kicked against us. I expect it will all tighten up as the season progresses... certainly Judd looked as fit as we've seen last night, and both Hadley and Stevens were contributors.

WE DIDNT FINISH LAST IN '07.

We just used the system to our advantage!!!

_________________
Walk on, Walk on,
With hope, in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!!!

08/02/1981 - GATE 7...Our brothers will never be forgotten!!!

except that the defensive problem has existed years before the arrival of those 3 onballers.

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

This is SPOT ON. We conceded most of our goals last night from our forward line. Our backman didn't stand a chance against a fast paced opposition attack who were under no midfield pressure.

And you bring up an important point Bearzo, which is the structure of our forward line. I have mentioned it previously, it was a bit concern last year, and still is.

If we play Fevola, Fisher and a third tall (Edwards / Cloke / Kreuzer etc) up forward, then we MUST get some QUICK smalls in there alongside them, to be able to apply some defensive pressure. What seems to be happening at the moment is that those smalls are being sucked upfield, and the ball kicked to Fev and Fisher, and no smalls around to apply pressure to the opposition as they run it out.

It was worse last year, when at times we played Fevola, Fisher, Whitnall and Kennedy inside 50 at the same time...craziness.

_________________
Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

Back six ? are you back in the 90's.

In my opinion are think the keys are doing fine. What we need is players
that have dash flanking them. Players like Shaw from the magpies that can spoil but can also run off and create. We have noone that can create out running out of our backline.

The run and carry and moving the ball quickly by hand game that is serving all the top teams well is non existant at CFC. When we get that covered we will be a very good side.

The consistent thing for mine last night was a lack of concentration and awareness in the midfield in regards to defensive play.

One thing that bugs me in particular is how we approach a contested ball on the ground: five of our blokes get involved in the immediate contest to say (at most) Essendon*'s three. Unfortunately it's not simple maths in such a situation, in fact more bodies makes it even more difficult to scramble the ball out because no one's in space. So if the dons get the ball, they have two blokes in space without an opponent (see Lovett's goals), and if we win the ball, we handball it to another guy who's hot and he gets gobbled up immediately or releases a disposal under pressure, which usually ends in a turnover. This is how you play footy when you're tired, not five minutes into a match, and it staggers me how a team which lacks that elite level of pace doesn't position more players to receive in space.

Further to that, we over-commit numbers to marking contests, forward runs, and more. Other sides send maybe 2 into a marking contest to our 4, and their smalls crumb and kick a goal/clear the ball, or we run off our opponents to crowd our own half-forward line and if there's a slight skill error trying thread the needle to a target, they usually have up to 3 free on the rebound.

Other teams recognise this crap and game plan around it. So we stream forward, the midfield opponents zone off and shut down all our lead targets, well the ones we don't crowd out or push wide on our own.

What needs to be stressed on the training track and in the team/player talks is that some blokes just need to sit back in midfield unless a huge opportunity opens up, and let the forwards and select midfielders push forward in numbers, so that way we can actually react defensively in the midfield when there's a turnover. That way we have blokes who could actually drop back in time or pressure the blokes streaming down the corridor, instead of leaving all the work up to defenders one-on-one because the modern game isn't heavily weighted in their favour.

That's just my observation anyway, right or wrong.

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

And Lovett's first goal is a prime example of why we are so pathetic defensively. The ball is still in contest and a group of mids are already running ahead of the play like a pack of downhill skiers! The ball falls to the scum and Lovett runs 50m under no pressure, with no-one within 20m to slot 1 from 60 out.

I am starting to think about topics this early in the season that most would chase me out of town for! We still have a long way to go...

_________________
C'mon Blueboys!

Great post...spot on again

Spot On Bearzo little varient can go along way - No they just have to move the fast and accuratley most times and we will starting to see serious danage to the opposition & their dunb supportersjavascript:emoticon(':idea:')
Idea

We're certainly not seeing the promised defensive improvement yet. I hope there's a long-term strategy to develop it. Because it's certainly not that evident what the defensive strategy is meant to be at the moment. (We seem helpless to stop teams rebounding out of our attack and taking it the length of the field and then scoring.) In fact other than shifting to a higher possession style, there doesn't seem to be much change from the Pagan regime, when it comes to defence.

Maybe we need to learn to play with a permanent extra defender, like just about every other team does.

Something is certainly missing in this area at the moment. Since we've won the midfield battles 2 out of 3 weeks, and lost.

Jim's right (had to happen sooner or later!) our hardballs gets often end up dished out to further congestion. Watch Judd and also Hadley handball well clear of the immediate play - actually Hadley is a gun at it. It frees up the ball carrier with time and space.

_________________
This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

I don't believe it's the back six that's our major issue. It seems to me it's the defensive setups at contests and the way we clear the footy from our defence.

You watch other well drilled teams and the way they set up with a player or two goalside, and another breaking off toward the BP. We need to run the ball out ala Adelaide, Collingwood etc but we have to kick and hope.

How many goals have we bled because our players drop off after their opponent has disposed of the footy, only to find he then puts in a second and third effort and find himself 10 metres in the clear (see Lovett on Saturday night) - that's defensive pressure.

The coaching staff have some real challenges ahead. It proves it's not all about the old coach and how much they hate him.

_________________
end of message

Hey Duke, were you around for the 'diamond wedge' or similar that a poster called paganite 03 used to crap on about? Not a go, but talking about the contested set ups, reminded me of him.

_________________
This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

I know nothing of this 'diamond wedge' you speak of . I was neither pro nor anti Pagan as I wanted to see what would happen once the cattle were assembled. But let's not get into that again.

As for the defensive setups, it's clear that we either don't teach it, or the players can't grasp it.

Ratten played in one of the most efficient defensive sides ever assembled in the ninties so I'd be amazed if he didn't know the importance of defending arounds contests.

You're only as strong as your weakest link and right now we are spotlighting certain players which is good, at least they stand out now, previous years they were all the same.

_________________
end of message