Blue Vain wrote:
Mickstar wrote:
As a kid you are always told to play in front . And i notice at the ball ups and stoppages that what our mids do . I think there opponents allow that and in fact seem to shove 'em in closer to the contest and as a result keep the outside territory to themselves where they have the pace advantage . Pretty obvious opposition coaches have worked us out .
There was a bit of that Mick but unfortunately our flogging at the stoppages was mostly due to Richmond being tougher, smarter and better structured. Prestia killed our mids with 13 clearances (our best was Kennedy with 5) and TDK was given a lesson in ruck work. The stats will tell you the hitouts were reasonably close but have a look at the impact when TDK hit the ball compared to Nankervis. The majority of Nankervis' centre bounce taps were hit to 90 degrees where Prestia protected the space beautifully and won the ball or the Tigers vacated the space and ran onto the loose ball.
It was always going to happen at some stage. Opposition coaches were going to analyse the weaknesses of our mids and realise we are OK in close but when the opposition ruck hits the ball long or wide like Thursday night, we're exposed by pace. We also had 2 or 3 attacking the inside ball around the ground while Richmond had one player get in and knock it out whilst they had others waiting on the outside.
Our mids have been given a lesson 2 weeks in a row and they cant just keep playing on their own terms when the opposition have the ascendancy.
Credit to Richmond though, they were smarter and better prepared. They played wet weather footy while we stupidly tried to play as we have previously in dry conditions.
They often pushed their near side winger into the stoppages to man up Cripps or Walsh which released one of their mids and it hurt us significantly. Our mids talked early in the season about "connection". Well that connection is not there at the moment. TDK is often hitting the ball straight ahead when he gets his hand to it but our mids are rarely there to receive.
We're desperate for Pittonet to return as he provides inside grunt and he helps keep the ball in contest.
While I'd rather our mids were still dominating, I like to see our players challenged as well. It's better it happen now than September. (If we're lucky enough to get there).
Let's see what they can come up with. I'd like to see a tag when required. I posted in another thread a few weeks ago that Prestia loves playing us so we should have been prepared. I would have assigned Hewitt to him with a hard tag and shut him down. Over to the mids and Tim Clarke to see what they come up with.
Great analysis BV: Food for thought.
Our boys did look great from the outset imo, winning the ball, and committing to connecting with each other by hand. Prestia had a bit of a purple patch after a while, and kept the ball going their way. Not sure if coached adjusted to Prestia or Prestia fell away. Problem was it took them too long to get their heads around the fact the ball was like a bar of soap whilst the rain was relentless in the early part of the game.
Something must have gone right for us, even against the tide of unfavourable umpiring, after the 16 minute mark in the 2nd after we (along with the umpires) gave the Tigers a 35 point lead, when it was 6.3 vs 0.4, we outscored the Tigers 5.11 vs 9.8.
The point is, everyone adjusted and improved after the 16 minute mark of the 2nd. Not sure if Voss was outcoached or he was not listened to by his charges.
I think we did an incredible to stay in the game, and could have pinched it with all those key players out injured. I was more disappointed in our forwardline, other than that purple patch Harry had in the last.
Lets hope we learn about our weaknesses for the Frep game. Its all fixable.
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