Blocking Fletcher

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fishardansin

fishardansin

Brownlow Medallist
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Apr 6, 2008
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As posted on main board:

With the coming clash of Essendon and Carlton there is plenty of talk by Carlton fans about Robinson to tag Fletch. Despite the wonderful compliment of tagging a full back what are the rules of blocking the run of an opposition defender? As it happens so far off the ball it will never be picked up by an umpire but last year in the elimination final Fletch was playing as a genuine KPD and Robinson was playing with one arm across him. This gave an unfair advantage of his opponent to break free on the lead.

Will Fletch get protection for off the ball blocking? Something he never bothers with himself because unlike Robinson he is capable of reading the play himself.

If our coaches decided to do something about it and block Fletcher's opponent, which this week will either be Waite or resting ruck, will they get pinged for that?
 
Also as an aside for our board, what would you do if you were in the coaches box this weekend if Carlton try this again?

Personally I think there are three choices.

1. Play Carlisle on Waite and Fletch on the resting ruck. Fletch to play in front of Hampson/Kreuzer and read the play with Pears playing from behind, or Pears playing in front and Fletcher taking Robinson behind the contest allowing Fletch to play the goal keeper role and use Robinson as another person cloging up the space.

2. Using a small defender to play on Robinson and push the boundaries in "physicality" on him. This can be a risky ploy in their forward line. I have no doubt that it can be done fairly as they can just block him from Fletch.

3. Send Fletch forward.
 
fishardansin said:
3. Send Fletch forward.
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I quite like this one, It wont happen, but it would definitely mess with Ratten's head if Fletcher started forward. Would get blocking free's too that he probably wouldn't get down back.
 

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Slattery_20 said:
Option 4, still dominate.
Seriously, the moment you let a pleb dictate terms is the moment you shouldn't be there.
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I sat behind the goals in that final last year. There is no way you can dominate while you're trying to keep an eye on your opponent and someone else constantly has touch on you and is even trying to push you out of position. I was irritated that Knights did nothing to protect Fletch, and this is what lead to Knights losing him, and I was irritated that the coaching box didn't protect him in that final.

Personally I'd like to see someone like Hibberd get in their and start wrestling with Robinson. It wont take much to get such a pea brain's mind off the football.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to insult Ratten. His one great coaching move against Essendon was totally lifted from Clarkson putting Muston on him!
 
Fletcher needs to make sure the blocking isn't happening 30-40m off the ball.

As you say, the umps don't pick up much of the off-the-ball work, so Fletch needs to make sure it's happening closer to the ball - by going at the ball, full blooded, every time.
A guy the size of Robinson simply won't be able to legally block a guy the size of Fletcher in most situations.
 
Robinson is not even fit to be the skidmark on Fletch's undies.

Having said that, more by poor management by Essendon than anything else, he has (from memory) twice managed to limit his effectiveness quite well.

It won't happen (simply because he's needed too much down back) but I wouldn't mind seeing him go forward. Throw a spanner in the works and force Ratten to come up with something a bit different..
 
G'day guys

not trolling

Just on this Robinson to Fletcher business I found this snippet from one of the weekly emails Ratten sends out (this one after the EF). Thought it may help with your conversation.

The move of Mitch Robinson onto Dustin Fletcher also worked, as it had worked for us in Round 19 last year – and it hadn't been activated for a little while as sometimes it's better to keep the powder dry.
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FWIW, I don't think we will see this move (by the blues) this time around.
 
fishardansin said:
I sat behind the goals in that final last year. There is no way you can dominate while you're trying to keep an eye on your opponent and someone else constantly has touch on you and is even trying to push you out of position. I was irritated that Knights did nothing to protect Fletch, and this is what lead to Knights losing him, and I was irritated that the coaching box didn't protect him in that final.

Personally I'd like to see someone like Hibberd get in their and start wrestling with Robinson. It wont take much to get such a pea brain's mind off the football.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to insult Ratten. His one great coaching move against Essendon was totally lifted from Clarkson putting Muston on him!
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Not sure if you are implying that Knights was coaching us last year? :confused:
 
Think what he's suggesting is that the coaches last year (Hird, Thompson, McCartney etc) made a similar error to what Knights did in the 2010 game where he had the post-game confrontation with Fletch and 'lost' him.
 
LanceRomance said:
G'day guys

not trolling

Just on this Robinson to Fletcher business I found this snippet from one of the weekly emails Ratten sends out (this one after the EF). Thought it may help with your conversation.



FWIW, I don't think we will see this move (by the blues) this time around.
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I do remember that comment by him in a press conference. It was good trolling by Ratten against a bitter rival after a heavy loss!!

That said Fletch's battle is normally a win for us. I'm sure that we could come up with a strategy to make this a win for us in two battles. It is not a move solely by Carlton either, so is worth the coaches time to put some thought into this. Obviously the weakness of your marking forwards makes something like this more important for you and hence more likely to do it in the future.
 
Pity NLM has an injury cloud, otherwise I would tag Robinson with him, and everytime Robo even looks at Fletch, NLM can belt him

Either that or tag him with Melksham with the same instructions
 

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If Robinson goes to him Fletcher should play as deep as possible. Whoever our spare defender is can go to Waite or whoever is playing out of the goal square.

I don't think Robinson would be well versed at blocking for a leading full forward and would more or less get in the way. If that were the case the tactic would not last long.

Starting Fletcher forward does nothing more than providing Carlton a psychological win before the ball is bounced.
 
Swap Hurley and Fletcher, Hurley goes back, Fletch goes forward.

Don't mean to get into a already well covered topic, but Hurley is superstar backman, that is where he belongs, he would provide a whole lot more there than being a makeshift forward.
 
Mumbo Jumbo said:
Sydney games seem to be close affairs and I wouldn't pencil that as a cert, not even at home.

I think the key to beating Carlton will be mixing it up a little. Midfield rotations will have to be really high. Bellchambers will need to stamp his authority on the contests when he rotates forward and I really want to see a crumbing forward like Dellolio make an entrance on the big stage.

Wellman and Thompson should focus on getting our defensive 6 to always have a crumber at the backs of packs to cover those goals that Betts & Garlett types seem to run on to.

The other thing will be that Robinson will most likely go to Fletcher again in a tagging job. If this happens, I'd be keen to see them actively put Hibberd onto Robinson to protect Fletch's rebound. Last time nobody looked after Dustin and the tag was a success, and it's not the first time.

I think we can beat them but we'll need to get the coaching moves right.

Leading into the bye, I think 2 losses is a slim chance but more likely to be 8 and 3. 7 and 4 would not be a disaster, depending on how we lose.
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6quotes
 
Must say it is a compliment that a team needs to tag a 37 yr old tall defender.

Fletcher has been playing on the resting ruckman in 2012 - So probably will play on Hampson/Kreuzer.

Fletch and the team should be smart enough to play the game on its merits.
 
If I was in the coaches box, I'd do nothing.

This is because Fletcher has already had this happen to him twice. He's a good enough defender to work around it a third time, if it happens.

I believe he'll be able to go about reading the play whilst still accounting for Robinshit. He would make it work, because he's had enough experience with the dirtiest of players in the past, his repertoire is extensive.

Focus on beating the shit out of Carlton in other areas. Raise a few cards of our own.
 
Kruezer has been good for blues so far so why not get fletch to curb him and if they then do the 4 man tango trying to get Robinson to tag him, our loose man to ruff up Robinson as others have suggested.

Also......


Kong said:
We need to protect him.

Not be stupid and give away frees to the mongaloid, but make it difficult for him to get to Fletcher.
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Not cool from a moderator............just sayin.
 
qvleht1 said:
Dont have any family inflicted by that then??

For those that do........not cool
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You have a family member that is a..

Wikipedia said:
*********[1] is a term sometimes used by forensic anthropologists and physical anthropologists to refer to populations that share certain phenotypic traits such as epicanthic fold and shovel-shaped incisors and other physical traits common in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas and the Arctic.
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Are you implying being of asian descent is being 'afflicted'?

Not cool!
 

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