I think it would have worked if Grundy could have broken out of a trot but he moved so badly for the entire year and we couldn't rely on him defensively.
Fair point that too. Grundy is cooked as a contest to contest player and as much as we gripe about Gawn’s shortcomings, Grundy is actually hopeless anywhere but the ruck.
He moved surprisingly well within the contest but soon as it got to the outside he was just done. Thought it was more conditioning due to the amount of time he had off but he seemingly didn't get any better at covering ground.
Yeah that prelim from Max was the greatest thing ever, an the shittest thing ever post that season. Got him and the club believing he wasn't one of the worst set shots I've ever seen
Clayton Oliver gets heaps of clearances though mate everything he does is amazing and how dare you post something against him
There's a huge element of game plan to it. They never hit short kicks around 45-65m out and change angles. It's always just bombs forward to a contest. According to the coach though we wanted to lower the eyes and the players didn't
Yeah a dump kick to an open forwardline leaves way more margin for error. All you have to do is kick it to the players advantage.
Not gonna torture myself an watch it again but I'd bet money Oliver and Viney didn't kick more than one pass each to a teammates advantage
I reckon none are great ball users but the gameplan comes into it for mine. The instructions seem to be get it forward, hit a certain part of the ground at all costs etc. The way they are kicking you’d think they were all Godfrey, Bugg, Phil Read and Ingerson level kicks.
Oliver is a high disposal Jordie McKenzie
At the end of the day these guys are what they are. You can try as much as you can to improve skills but if they've played their whole career a certain way you can only do so much. You don't ask Viney and Oliver to lace guys out you put players into space that they can kick long to or run in waves and play a handball game.
Still reckon coaching comes into it. Blokes like James Hird and Junior McDonald weren’t great kicks but either learnt or were taught to kick to advantage. Our blokes are likely told to roof the ball because it’s harder for the oppo to intercept, just get it inside 50 to the boundary line so we don’t turn it over in the corridor. Basically it’s ok to be a shithouse kick as long as you kick it to these areas every single time.
and the frustrating thing is when we do look for more short passes we instantly look a better team. even if the passes aren't marked, it just happens to create more 1 on 1 contests, keeps the defenders honest and removes our predictability. i really applaud our players when they go for their short passes even if they stuff it up, because if we persists with it we look better overall
It's not even a hard tweak, instead of bombing long straight down the line, run a couple of steps and kick a flat one to the far side where the forward should be leading into. Kick it to space. Harmes to Fristch in the GF style. Not that hard a kick to execute because you don't need to be perfect because the forward can use their craft to get access to it
Rivers hit a suicide pass into the corridor in the first quarter which was like a 4-1 Carlton. Seemed like after that mistake the whole team decided **** that and stopped.
Yep. Vineys got great core strength and looks ok when he runs with the footy, Oliver's got beautiful creative handballing and a powerful first few steps. Those 2 should never be kicking it without taking a few steps towards the goal
