Past #39: Leigh Harding - selected with #13 in 2000 RD - retired at end of 2010 season - coaches at BL

[RoyalBlue]

Being a Manuka-specialist, he would've been handy in the clinches come the final term.

You're right, yesterday after Grant hit the behind post on the full, I thought that we had been lacking Harding's ability to hit the behind post on the full all day.

 

[Woodson]

I know I didn't. Happy with Thurley's pressure chasing & tackling contributions.

Expect Tas to roll up any minute now with his HARDING HARP....

 

[Twinkletoes]

In a word, "NO!"

T'toes

 

[Ausgard]

Did Harding do much in the VFL?

I assume Whyman did all the small crumbing stuff since he got all the goals

 

[Devil Fish]

You're right, yesterday after Grant hit the behind post on the full, I thought that we had been lacking Harding's ability to hit the behind post on the full all day.

Fantastic RoyalBlue. LOL.

 

[CR7]

I think we missed Joel Perry and his exciting skills more

 

[sross]

In a word, "NO!"

T'toes

In another word "NO!"

 

[Devil Fish]

Come to think of it, it was tough to know whether Leigh Harding was playing yesterday or not. I didn't see him out there but that's the norm in his case. The only time I realised he wasn't out there was when we didn't score a consellation set-shot goal with 3 seconds to go.

 

[Woodson]

In another word "NO!"

don't overlook.... my fav.... >>> Pffft!!

 

[Tas]

I know I didn't. Happy with Thurley's pressure chasing & tackling contributions.

Expect Tas to roll up any minute now with his HARDING HARP....

I am happy for anyone in the forward line to play that can kick goals. We will see if you sing the same tune if he continues not to kick any goals.

Perhaps we should get all your favourite players up in the forward like to look good and kick no goals, will you be happy then?

Thurley is in the team and he has my 100% support while in the side, like all players. I wish him the best, but he is replacing someone that kicks goals so I expect him to kick goals.

I just do not like to talk crap about guys in the side in general, you know, it is called being a supporter.

I give Petrie and Brown a bit of crap because they seem to be immune to any quality control standards applied to other players and I do not understand the inconsistancy.

 

[mav-1]

a couple of goals in junk time would have been handy, very hand in deed.

Can't help but think, maybe that Manuka wind would have straightened up some of his sprayed shots!

 

[Carnthe]

I am happy for anyone in the forward line to play that can kick goals. We will see if you sing the same tune if he continues not to kick any goals.

Perhaps we should get all your favourite players up in the forward like to look good and kick no goals, will you be happy then?

Thurley is in the team and he has my 100% support while in the side, like all players. I wish him the best, but he is replacing someone that kicks goals so I expect him to kick goals.

I just do not like to talk crap about guys in the side in general, you know, it is called being a supporter.

I give Petrie and Brown a bit of crap because they seem to be immune to any quality control standards applied to other players and I do not understand the inconsistancy.

I agree with all of what you say, guess we'll just have to just have to give thurley the opportunity to kick some goals in the afl that has been extended to harding over the past few years.

 

[Tas]

I agree with all of what you say, guess we'll just have to just have to give thurley the opportunity to kick some goals in the afl that has been extended to harding over the past few years.

I'm happy for him to get game time, but we have two pocket positions, do not understand why both can not be played.

Boomer does nothing when he goes forward into the pocket, Grant has done squat there and is of more value to us in the middle.

 

[Carnthe]

yeah definitely well as a team i think they need to have a hard look at how the forward line functions with different combinations in it. i hope they give enough opportunities to lecras as well. also most teams dont really have two specialist forward pockets often one of the positions is filled by a midfielder/tall and players are rotated through the positon while the other is filled by a specialist goal kicker. for examples the functioning of the fremantle forward line with medhurst and farmer in the pockets, the st kilda forward line with guerra and milne in the pockets was perhaps not optimal.

 

[Tas]

yeah definitely well as a team i think they need to have a hard look at how the forward line functions with different combinations in it. i hope they give enough opportunities to lecras as well. also most teams dont really have two specialist forward pockets often one of the positions is filled by a midfielder/tall and players are rotated through the positon while the other is filled by a specialist goal kicker. for examples the functioning of the fremantle forward line with medhurst and farmer in the pockets, the st kilda forward line with guerra and milne in the pockets was perhaps not optimal.

Laidley doesn't rest midfielders in the pockets like traditional coaches do. He gives them their 5 minutes of football and takes them off the ground. When Boomber goes into the pocket, he goes there off the bench when he could be playing in the middle.

Bruno plays in a style that is similar to Corey Jones. They would be better suited if we had guys in the spine that were not leading forwards like Thompson or Rocca.

Our forward line functioned well when Hale was at CHF and we got the ball forward fast. Hale is huge and he does not run around a lot, it is a great asset not only because he can take some grabs he is not leading into the flanks or the hole in the corridor where the FF or flankers go to for space.

We just need to find a mix that suits the players we have.

When Harding has been given space in the forward line to lead into he has been able to get shots on goal. Yeah, he has massive downsides to his game but we are talking about a player that can get some shots on goal, it can be the difference between winning and losing.

We just didn't get enough support by the secondary forwards against the Swans. Nothing from Jones or Thurley, just one goal from each and we would have won.

These are the types of games we won last year because we were able to manufacture goals, be it Grant or other players. We need more out of the forwards on a consistant basis, Sav not being around has cost us big time.

 

[Carnthe]

yeah whole heartedly agree a couple of goals from harding would have been the difference. on too many occassions though harding has missed relatively simple shots ie. out on the full against saints last week, last year running into an open goal hit the post in the goal square against west coast. while he is capapble of the odd goal has needed to take this next step and drill those aforementioned opportunities. there comes a time when, sadly you have to stop persisiting with a player and give opportunities to other guys to see if they can make a postition their own. there is a big difference between being a handy player at afl level and being a premiership winning player.

we need to find a mix of players that will perform with enough consistency and kick goals when the pressure is on so that we can win 16 odd games a year and be a chance at top 4/premiership.

agree harding/others have been able to kick goals whether or not they will be part of a group which can win enough games only time will tell.

 

[mav-1]

it must be very hard to play the crumbing forward in our team. Tommo is never busting the pack, he only ever takes a grab (or drops them) when on a lead and as a FF is spends a lot of time pushing leads outside the 50. We don't seem to have anyone that can put in a well timed short lead, but that's also has to do with the ability of players to run the ball forward of the center!

 

[Tas]

yeah whole heartedly agree a couple of goals from harding would have been the difference. on too many occassions though harding has missed relatively simple shots ie. out on the full against saints last week, last year running into an open goal hit the post in the goal square against west coast. while he is capapble of the odd goal has needed to take this next step and drill those aforementioned opportunities. there comes a time when, sadly you have to stop persisiting with a player and give opportunities to other guys to see if they can make a postition their own. there is a big difference between being a handy player at afl level and being a premiership winning player.

we need to find a mix of players that will perform with enough consistency and kick goals when the pressure is on so that we can win 16 odd games a year and be a chance at top 4/premiership.

agree harding/others have been able to kick goals whether or not they will be part of a group which can win enough games only time will tell.

Yep, spot on, he was shocking last week.

But you have to give credit to him for at least working on his deficiencies. His accuracy from set shots has improved out of sight. He is at least working on his deficiencies.

Petrie has also worked on his kicking but he was woeful with his kicking a few weeks ago, he wasn't dropped because of it.

We have a lot of players with skill deficiencies, I have no complaints if they are actually making an effort to improve on them. I haven't seen any noticable improvement in Simpson's kicking skills over the last 5 odd years yet I am not ready to see him axed from the team because despite his problems he gets the pill.

If we had players that can replaces these guys and do a better job then awesome.

 

[PokerRoo]

Our Small forwards are a huge problem for us. I would love for harding to make it, he has pace, can get into scoring positions, but he just CANT kick goals whne we need them. There have been to many occasions when the team has neded a goal he has had a shot and has missed. and when he does get a bag it is usually in a big win or he kicks jsut as many points as goals.

Hopefully djarman from our rookie list can improve to an afl player because he looks like he has the pace and SKILL to fill that role.

We need a good old fashion soft forward pocket who everyone hates that hangs of the packs, lossses his man finds space and kicks straight

 

[Carnthe]

i dunno i think small forwards are probably a dime a dozen kind of players. the ones who look good are the ones who play in sides with good key forwards to make contests and attract the ball down into the forward line in the first place. i think our stocks of good key forwards are not quite up to it. yeah we have some big men capable of kicking a few goals and a couple of promising youngsters but at this stage no one of the quality of the elite players brown, hall etc. is it possible that the reason we havent had a good crumbing forward for a while is that there havent been enough crumbs there in the first place.

 

[Tas]

it must be very hard to play the crumbing forward in our team. Tommo is never busting the pack, he only ever takes a grab (or drops them) when on a lead and as a FF is spends a lot of time pushing leads outside the 50. We don't seem to have anyone that can put in a well timed short lead, but that's also has to do with the ability of players to run the ball forward of the center!

I think what highlights that this is not a 'Harding' roving issue is the fact that Boomer was the best crumming rover/forward in the league in the late 90s and he got stacks of goals from roving, I could probably count on one hand the number of roving goals he has kicked in the forward line in the last 5 years and that is because we have no forward that creates opportunities for the crumbing forward like our old forwards did.

Carey made everyone look good around him but it was more the way we played, moved the ball faster forward and used a forward that doesn't run 70m for a lead. How are you meant to rove to that? You are smack in the midfielder/half forward territory and even if you get the ball you are so far from effective scoring range that it wouldn't matter even if you did get it.

We had opportunities in the game against the Swans because we kicked it long and direct to Hale who made LRT look stupid, there were opportunities for rovers because Hale pretty much didn't need to move more than 10m from where he was standing.

Our small forwards really failed to make the most of the opportunity created because they had the opportunity to run onto what was more or less a stationary target and when the ball hit the ground we should have pounced.

We let the ball be cleared from our forward line too easily at times. When you have guys like Hall roving twice and kicking two goals when Brown goes up in a pack of 20 players and ignores his man then it just kills you when we needed someone to rove on our end to make those kinds of opportunities.

In the end, that 'was' the difference.

 

[Tas]

Our Small forwards are a huge problem for us. I would love for harding to make it, he has pace, can get into scoring positions, but he just CANT kick goals whne we need them. There have been to many occasions when the team has neded a goal he has had a shot and has missed. and when he does get a bag it is usually in a big win or he kicks jsut as many points as goals.

Hopefully djarman from our rookie list can improve to an afl player because he looks like he has the pace and SKILL to fill that role.

We need a good old fashion soft forward pocket who everyone hates that hangs of the packs, lossses his man finds space and kicks straight

J Clayton is master of losing his man, we got rid of him. S Harvey was also a master of unaccountable football but could get goals if he was fed the ball, gone. Moltop gone. Sansbury, forgot how to rove probably being forced to be a defender too much. We had an abundance of players, now we are stuck with Thurley, Harding and possibly Boomer as options.

 

[Carnthe]

I think what highlights that this is not a 'Harding' roving issue is the fact that Boomer was the best crumming rover/forward in the league in the late 90s and he got stacks of goals from roving, I could probably count on one hand the number of roving goals he has kicked in the forward line in the last 5 years and that is because we have no forward that creates opportunities for the crumbing forward like our old forwards did.

Carey made everyone look good around him but it was more the way we played, moved the ball faster forward and used a forward that doesn't run 70m for a lead. How are you meant to rove to that? You are smack in the midfielder/half forward territory and even if you get the ball you are so far from effective scoring range that it wouldn't matter even if you did get it.

We had opportunities in the game against the Swans because we kicked it long and direct to Hale who made LRT look stupid, there were opportunities for rovers because Hale pretty much didn't need to move more than 10m from where he was standing.

Our small forwards really failed to make the most of the opportunity created because they had the opportunity to run onto what was more or less a stationary target and when the ball hit the ground we should have pounced.

We let the ball be cleared from our forward line too easily at times. When you have guys like Hall roving twice and kicking two goals when Brown goes up in a pack of 20 players and ignores his man then it just kills you when we needed someone to rove on our end to make those kinds of opportunities.

In the end, that 'was' the difference.

yeah thats pretty accurate i think. i cringed watching hall rove his own contests to kick goals particularly in a game we could have won. that was a low point for me this year.

 

[mav-1]

I think what highlights that this is not a 'Harding' roving issue is the fact that Boomer was the best crumming rover/forward in the league in the late 90s and he got stacks of goals from roving, I could probably count on one hand the number of roving goals he has kicked in the forward line in the last 5 years and that is because we have no forward that creates opportunities for the crumbing forward like our old forwards did.

Carey made everyone look good around him but it was more the way we played, moved the ball faster forward and used a forward that doesn't run 70m for a lead. How are you meant to rove to that? You are smack in the midfielder/half forward territory and even if you get the ball you are so far from effective scoring range that it wouldn't matter even if you did get it.

We had opportunities in the game against the Swans because we kicked it long and direct to Hale who made LRT look stupid, there were opportunities for rovers because Hale pretty much didn't need to move more than 10m from where he was standing.

Our small forwards really failed to make the most of the opportunity created because they had the opportunity to run onto what was more or less a stationary target and when the ball hit the ground we should have pounced.

We let the ball be cleared from our forward line too easily at times. When you have guys like Hall roving twice and kicking two goals when Brown goes up in a pack of 20 players and ignores his man then it just kills you when we needed someone to rove on our end to make those kinds of opportunities.

In the end, that 'was' the difference.

yep, I'm actually starting to think that maybe just maybe, Tommo at CHF and Sav at FF would help this. But the problem with this is that it is a short term solution.

 

[Tas]

yep, I'm actually starting to think that maybe just maybe, Tommo at CHF and Sav at FF would help this. But the problem with this is that it is a short term solution.

I think the longer-term solultion is to use McIntosh at FF and Thompson at CHF. If Monster contests 20-30m out of goal then it is the prime zone for roving goals. Monster played all his junior days as a forward and he is struggling running around in the ruck.

With a relatively immobile FF that allows you to use a leading forward aswell he plays deep but will lead deeper into the corridor, use someone like J Rawlings (or Chad Jones if he ever pulls his finger out) as a marking option across the half foward line that is more a link man than a goal kicking half forward. You need someone that can read the play well and has good hands, even Bruno could play that role as he has good hands.

Stick Boomer in one pocket and feed the ball to Monster, his instruction should be obviously to try and take some grabs in front of goal but his secondary objective is to make sure if the ball is pinged up in the air 20m from goal that he is not outmarked and he brings the ball to ground, then you can really take advantage of Boomers pace and roving ability.

He is wasted in the pocket when everyone is leading outside 50.