Opinion 2023 Fwd Line chat

[FreoRicci]

Could we put Walker in for Willo? That with Clark would offer plenty of pace out of the backline.

Wilson did well. Just him and Ryan have the knack of just booting the ball rather then going through the play.

Continue to advocate Clark on the wing. He’s defensively sound and is a great mark. He can do Hughes’ job and offer more weapons. Lose nothing and that way Walker comes into the side.

 

[Square Peg]

I was at the game yesterday.

There was no space whatsoever in our forward half, so you can't blame our forwards for the poor result.

Slow ball movement and sideways kicking is what killed us, Saints just kept flooding back.

It's a bit of chicken and egg stuff though, isn't it?
The guys upfield with the ball in hand are looking for the someone to be in space or moving into space. If they don't see anything, they stop and go sideways, under instructions (see Jlo's comments pre and post game).
Someone mentioned JK before, who in our forward line can run little decoy patterns and time his leads like JK played? No one playing yesterday is even close to having that forward craft. I get the game plan sucked but the forwards didn't have a clue in how to liberate ball movement by getting separation.
Bob Murphy politely said something like that this morning on the radio. It's why we must play as many of Walters, Amniss and Sturt as possible IMO. Forwards that can actually forward.

 

[theGav56]

All very well looking at the forward line players and criticising them but I think they can be more productive than our game plan allows them to be. They are not looking well coached and so far the entire transition game is turgid.

 

[Tonga Bob]

I reckon we should kick more goals.

 

[Hamann188]

Wilson did well. Just him and Ryan have the knack of just booting the ball rather then going through the play.

Continue to advocate Clark on the wing. He’s defensively sound and is a great mark. He can do Hughes’ job and offer more weapons. Lose nothing and that way Walker comes into the side.

 

[ignoramus]

It's a bit of chicken and egg stuff though, isn't it?
The guys upfield with the ball in hand are looking for the someone to be in space or moving into space. If they don't see anything, they stop and go sideways, under instructions (see Jlo's comments pre and post game).
Someone mentioned JK before, who in our forward line can run little decoy patterns and time his leads like JK played? No one playing yesterday is even close to having that forward craft. I get the game plan sucked but the forwards didn't have a clue in how to liberate ball movement by getting separation.
Bob Murphy politely said something like that this morning on the radio. It's why we must play as many of Walters, Amniss and Sturt as possible IMO. Forwards that can actually forward.

I don't doubt that the forwards could be doing something, and to that extent don't have something to work on. But it looked to me that play was more regularly being held up at the transition between half back and centre. Do you think lack of forward movement is as significant a factor at that moment / part of the ground?

After a couple of bold attempts to square to the corridor were punished, they gave up on that route. There was no Willo/Clark running past for the handball receive. All I saw was a general unwillingness to compromise defensive structure for the sake of breaking lines or catching the opposition off guard. Makes me laugh that people before and even now after the game have been complaining that Hughes's indecisiveness was going to slow down play. That's true only if hesitation is actually a virulent contagion and Hughes was ground zero of team-wide pandemic.

 

[PurpleWizard]

It's not just the gameplan or the forward line it's also our lack of midfield polish. We don't have one midfielder that is creative or skilled enough to consistently make things happen.

I'm not sure how we fix it, but lots need to be done. First step is banning Serong doing that no step 20 metre kick that never hits a target.

 

[FreoRicci]

It's not just the gameplan or the forward line it's also our lack of midfield polish. We don't have one midfielder that is creative or skilled enough to consistently make things happen.

I'm not sure how we fix it, but lots need to be done. First step is banning Serong doing that no step 20 metre kick that never hits a target.

Exactly. Mundy retiring is underrated for this group. He provided drive and elite kicking. Serong goes fast then gets caught and is forced to throw it on the boot. He needs decent acceleration then hit a kick to the leading forward.
Feel like the midfield over posses the ball with the handballs. Brayshaw wasn’t his usual self. He was rushing his disposal too

 

[theGav56]

Exactly. Mundy retiring is underrated for this group. He provided drive and elite kicking. Serong goes fast then gets caught and is forced to throw it on the boot. He needs decent acceleration then hit a kick to the leading forward.
Feel like the midfield over posses the ball with the handballs. Brayshaw wasn’t his usual self. He was rushing his disposal too

Didn't we have the same goal kicking problem last year with Mundy still playing?

Also, we've decided our best ever midfielder is surplus to requirements. Unless he is actually past playing midfield, he is definitely someone who can make things happen.

And Jaeger is a creative and skilled player. Just have a look at the game he played against us last year.

 

[Lach72]

All very well looking at the forward line players and criticising them but I think they can be more productive than our game plan allows them to be. They are not looking well coached and so far the entire transition game is turgid.

Jaymie Graham has coached a premiership winning forward line.

If he’s a poor coach we’re ****ed

 

[Lach72]

It’s not only the forwards.
It’s the midfielders continually running into the space that the forwards should be running into.

 

[purplearmy]

I’m concerned about Jackson. He has potential to be a bad deal. Not impressed by his first game at all.

 

[Scham]

I was at the game yesterday.

There was no space whatsoever in our forward half, so you can't blame our forwards for the poor result.

Slow ball movement and sideways kicking is what killed us, Saints just kept flooding back.

Nah that's a cop out. What the Saints did was nothing unique, there are points in all games where 18 players are defending the forward 50 and there's space. It's impossible for 18 players to guard all that space and good players demand the ball on the move and at least try to lock it in if they can't win the contest through a mark or god forbid, by a contested mark. Do you really think a Kennedy, Buddy or Hawkins would just sit back and think ah well there's not much space so I won't lead. Good players aren't afraid of a contest and in fact back themselves in to win it, and their teammates back them in to win it too, so kick it to them. The forwards will be getting blamed for the poor result and rightfully so.

 

[Purple Jesus]

I’m concerned about Jackson. He has potential to be a bad deal. Not impressed by his first game at all.

 

[tonygeeks]

It's a bit of chicken and egg stuff though, isn't it?
The guys upfield with the ball in hand are looking for the someone to be in space or moving into space. If they don't see anything, they stop and go sideways, under instructions (see Jlo's comments pre and post game).
Someone mentioned JK before, who in our forward line can run little decoy patterns and time his leads like JK played? No one playing yesterday is even close to having that forward craft. I get the game plan sucked but the forwards didn't have a clue in how to liberate ball movement by getting separation.
Bob Murphy politely said something like that this morning on the radio. It's why we must play as many of Walters, Amniss and Sturt as possible IMO. Forwards that can actually forward.

I’m not sure how people have talked themselves into Sturt being this great inside 50 fwd , the only time he looks AFL standard is when he’s up the field working in space on the flanks

Probably should have played him instead of Freddy or at least Banners as sub but I doubt he makes much difference to the result yesterday

 

[Square Peg]

I’m not sure how people have talked themselves into Sturt being this great inside 50 fwd , the only time he looks AFL standard is when he’s up the field working in space on the flanks

Probably should have played him instead of Freddy or at least Banners as sub but I doubt he makes much difference to the result yesterday

I didn't say he was a finished product as a great forward, I said he was a green natural forward.
There's plenty of natural forwards who have never become great forwards, but there's been exactly zero non-natural forwards that have become great forwards. I prefer the probability of some chance over zero chance

 

[tonygeeks]

Should have just posted what I said on its own rather than reply to you

 

[Freomaniac]

Last year the dockers averaged 79 points in attack or 11 goals and 13 behinds on average a game. Yet we finished 6th and a a percentage of 117%.

Yet... There was an interesting spread of goals.

Lobb kicked 36. Taberner kicked 23 from 13 games. Walters kicks 25 goals and 15 behinds. Schulz Kicked 30 goals, Frederick kicked 28.

 

[tonygeeks]

After watching that debacle yesterday I’m left with one hope only

Tom Emmett

Please be a lightning strike , pull one out of our ass gift from the gods

Please Tom

Please

 

[Freomaniac]

After watching that debacle yesterday I’m left with one hope only

Tom Emmett

Please be a lightning strike , pull one out of our ass gift from the gods

Please Tom

Please

have you seen him train at the dockers?

Is he traning hard and well?

 

[Freomaniac]

Also another random thing....

We got north melbourne in Perth.

this time last season we had Josh Traecy and Jye Amiss at those KPF spots. worked out well

 

[tonygeeks]

Bit of a mystery man a the moment

 

[kingswood71]

Last year the dockers averaged 79 points in attack or 11 goals and 13 behinds on average a game. Yet we finished 6th and a a percentage of 117%.

And between 2016-2019 we averaged 10 goals a game....so an improvement of one goal per game over 7 years......
What saved us last year was the fact that we had the lowest average goals against. Our whole season will derail if we end up with a couple of injuries to key defenders.
Essentially, we are as boring as bat shit.

 

[AFL Nut]

Righteo all you match selection experts, everyone calling for heads i pose this question if chnges are made and the players that are bought in dont perform whats your next plan????

 

[Hamann188]

Righteo all you match selection experts, everyone calling for heads i pose this question if chnges are made and the players that are bought in dont perform whats your next plan????

I'm not sure man, start another rebuild?

Nah, in all seriousness though, what's the alternative to wholesale changes? Do we stick with the team we put forward last week and just hope it was an anomoly? We've done that in the past and it didn't work out so well, but at the same time, maybe the performance was just 1st week jitters and we are all just losing our minds over nothing.

For me, it's not the fact that we lost, its the fact that we should have won. By a significant margin. That burns the most.