Our ball movement from the middle to the forward 50

[Eastdog]

Interested to get your thoughts on this, as this is an area we have struggled with lately. We have a more appealing forward line now especially with the acquisition of Tom Boyd and some exciting young mids but the very important thing is to get it into the forward 50 to our forwards because if that doesn't happen then its a struggle to score. How do you see it going for us in 2015 and will it get better.

[boydogs]

I like the sound of the drills they are doing to work the ball out of traffic. The best way to improve delivery inside 50 is to get the player with the ball into space before disposing of it

[Twodogs]

Foot skills is the short answer. The drills at training have focused intensely on skills

It looks like we have moved into the next stage of our development. It's not so much contested ball work but more game scenarios and decision making.

[Eastdog]

Foot skills is the short answer. The drills at training have focused intensely on skills

It looks like we have moved into the next stage of our development. It's not so much contested ball work but more game scenarios and decision making.

Would this be an accurate assessment: We certainly do good in getting the contested footy but what we do with it is the let down.

[Twodogs]

Would this be an accurate assessment: We certainly do good in getting the contested footy but what we do with it is the let down.


That is our problem in a nutshell. It's not just kicking either, it's where to run to create better options, when to defend and when to attack-that sot of thing.

[Eastdog]

That is our problem in a nutshell. It's not just kicking either, it's where to run to create better options, when to defend and when to attack-that sot of thing.

If we could improve this part of our game we would be a quality team. A player like Matthew Boyd who consistently gets a lot of the footy isn't a player with the best ball use in the world. I believe it was important to cut deep into our list at the end of 2014 but balancing that with keeping some experience around for the young guys to follow.

[LostDoggy]

Forwards running into sace,not fighting each other for F50 Real Estate.
Mids kicking it to space where the forwards can run into SPACE!

[Go_Dogs]

When we looked at our best last year, particularly in games such as our win against GC, a lot of it was due to our smarter ball movement moving into the F50. I think we have some players who are very capable of spotting up the right options, including Hrovat, Hunter and even blokes like JJ.

Ensuring we have space for balls to be put into and players to lead up into is important, and I'm confident a mix of Crameri, Stringer and Boyd will be great for our midfielders to kick too, they all have forward nous and good overhead ability on the lead.

Fingers crossed we see some improvement in this area early in 2015.

[always right]

Stumbled across this in my lunchbreak. Exhilirating stuff......seems so long ago but clearly nothing wrong with our ball movement back then. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dv0Flx_WJQ

[jeemak]

Stumbled across this in my lunchbreak. Exhilirating stuff......seems so long ago but clearly nothing wrong with our ball movement back then. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dv0Flx_WJQ

I'm trying to figure out how many premierships we won compared to our opponents that day in the subsequent years to that video........

Sorry AR, I know you posted it to help us feel good but I view these games from that era as the start of us becoming about as hard as a poo sandwich in a lot of ways and completely incapable of matching it with the best when it counted.

I think we'll find that apart from his reported communication failings Brendan McCartney was on the right track with how he was managing our ball usage over time, and not a lot will change between our worst from last year and our worst from this year. Our best from each will be about the same as well.

The key is talent, and where it needs to be on the ground. We're not vastly more talented than we were last year and we won't be for a year or two. So with that in mind I think we need to prepare ourselves for some of the same tripe we served up in 2013-2014, and some of the good stuff we did as well (and there was some good stuff).

Out of the middle, expect us to be very lean in centre breaks through run and carry, but heavy on kicking blindly and defencive play. It's going to be a year where we cobble stuff together as best we can out of necessity. It is what it is, and until we get a better talent profile on our list and playing regularly it won't change.

[always right]

Sometimes you can just enjoy something without thinking too deeply about it. Our game style back then wasn't one that could win us premierships but gee it was bloody watchable wasn't it? A good name for it would be "popcorn football"....like sitting back and watching some disposable action movie. Some of the goals in this video are amazing.

[divvydan]

I had almost forgotten how bad the surface was at Etihad back then.

[always right]

I had almost forgotten Wade Skipper's one and only highlight performance.

[Greystache]

I'm trying to figure out how many premierships we won compared to our opponents that day in the subsequent years to that video........

Sorry AR, I know you posted it to help us feel good but I view these games from that era as the start of us becoming about as hard as a poo sandwich in a lot of ways and completely incapable of matching it with the best when it counted.

I think we'll find that apart from his reported communication failings Brendan McCartney was on the right track with how he was managing our ball usage over time, and not a lot will change between our worst from last year and our worst from this year. Our best from each will be about the same as well.

The key is talent, and where it needs to be on the ground. We're not vastly more talented than we were last year and we won't be for a year or two. So with that in mind I think we need to prepare ourselves for some of the same tripe we served up in 2013-2014, and some of the good stuff we did as well (and there was some good stuff).

Out of the middle, expect us to be very lean in centre breaks through run and carry, but heavy on kicking blindly and defencive play. It's going to be a year where we cobble stuff together as best we can out of necessity. It is what it is, and until we get a better talent profile on our list and playing regularly it won't change.

Agree. You only need to see Nathan Eagleton banging them through from 55m out at goal post height to know it was a nothing H&A match. Put him on the big stage and he doesn't make the distance from 35m, and he had plenty of mates in that group. Flashy footy looks flashy but it wins nothing.

[Eastdog]

Bump.

Will be very important part of our game this season.

[Bulldog Joe]

The evidence from the Collingwood NAB challenge is very encouraging for our ball movement.

[Eastdog]

We seem to get inside the 50 today but just struggle to get a clean mark there. Our use of the ball doesn't help matters.

[Dancin' Douggy]

It would help if we occasionally had a forward in the forward line.
I don't understand this under 9's brand of football.
I don't get it, and I hate watching it.

[Eastdog]

It would help if we occasionally had a forward in the forward line.
I don't understand this under 9's brand of football.
I don't get it, and I hate watching it.

Where there is no one in the forward line when there is no main play you mean.

[Dancin' Douggy]

Where there is no one in the forward line when there is no main play you mean.

In that congested cesspit of a game, even if we managed a clean posession, there was never anyone ahead of the maul to kick it to.

If Tom Boyd, or Stringer or Dickson were a permanent presence inside the forward 50, at least we'd have a remote chance of scoring or holding the ball inside our forward line.

[Eastdog]

In that congested cesspit of a game, even if we managed a clean posession, there was never anyone ahead of the maul to kick it to.

If Tom Boyd, or Stringer or Dickson were a permanent presence inside the forward 50, at least we'd have a remote chance of scoring or holding the ball inside our forward line.

I see. Yes we struggled with that today. They put the pressure on us and we didn't handle to well.

[Eastdog]

While at times yesterday we had some good ball movement at other times it was quite poor and finding targets inside 50 was a struggle. Redpath and Dickson stood up as targets inside our 50 yesterday. We need more from Stringer, Boyd, Crameri up there. Thought Stringer was ok but could be much better. Boyd still I don't want to knock him and I think his done lots of good things this year. I loved Crameri defensive effort to deny Johnson a goal. Are we playing more a defensive game now and maybe still are capable of playing an all out running attacking style but don't want to do it each week.

[Eastdog]

Our ball movement on Sunday was very good (so obvious we play our best when we execute that all out attacking game) and we picked up targets inside 50 quite well. Crameri was very good in that 1st quarter especially and I thought Redpath was good up there despite his critics hopefully he can kick straighter. Hopefully when Boyd returns we see a bit more from him and also from Stringer.