Sidefx wrote:
I'd say it's a bit of both.
But even if the leading patterns were no good, the kicks are mostly bombed into the F50 from outside the arc anyway.
We don't even try to chip it around to find a leading forward in most cases.
Plus when we come out of the back line we tend to bomb it from arc to arc, mainly to a contest and then that gives away any opportunity to hit a long target from mid wing to just inside F50 negating any long lead from a forward from deep in the 50.
If we had reliable players in the midfield that when we run it out of defence they can hit those long targets, the leading patterns would open up a lot more IMO.
At the least it would make us more dynamic and unpredictable.
I think all clubs bomb it forward.
We are just not set up, nor do we work to set up forward entries to hit targets accept against the weak defences who allow us to work the ball up the ground because of their lack of pressure from having a weak team defence.
Forget what happened in the praccy game v Dees last week. Our team defence makes it hard for opposition to score as freely as some think they do against us. Look at the low scores against us when we are all in sync and applying pressure and contest on every line. We stangled all comers in the back half last year except in the last game of the year and that was only against one team, the Lions. Maybe we were beaten up, maybe we didnt adjust to their short game. I think they got us on the spread. They had more quicker players, who ran harder and longer in the 2nd quarter till midway the third.
I think its easier said than done. We want to move the ball quickly before the opposition set up, but in doing that blindly kicking it forward to what is obvious from our seats to a 2 v1 or 3 v2 situation.
Lets hope Vossy can find a way. Its all about speed and spread, and that requires a bit of express speed on hand, but in general, running harder and for longer than the opposition.