Our foot skills

[Bodicifer]

We are young and most have a dip at the contested ball. Let's face it though, the biggest failure in our list is our foot skills, or lack there of. If there was one thing I'd have the boys doing over summer it'd be kicking the leather off the football in all sorts of drills. Look at the Hawks and how they can cut you up with their surgeon like precision. Then you look at the way we murder the ball by foot resulting in turnovers and goals against.

This starts from the top down too. Boydy is a ball magnet but he murders it by foot. Murph is probably our best kick but didnt have the best year by foot at his high standards. Brian is a great kick but is sometimes too cute for himself. Griff is a good kick but burns it a little bit. A lot of our young blokes are ordinary kicks such as Clay Smith, Liam Jones, Mitch Wallis and so on. We need to work on our footskills MASSIVELY in my opinion. I hope now that Macca has the boys into the habit of contested intent that they shift the focus to their feet, where a football game is won and lost.

 

[stefoid]

footskills yes, as a part of a general focus on offensive play. This year we have done nothing except worry about how to win the ball in close, and get it back when we dont. defence, defence, defence. The obvious problem with that strategy is that towards the 2nd half of the year, we were not able to stop the opposition from scoring, mostly in the 2nd halves of games.

Next year we need to retain our defensive ability (for the entire game), but add to it a strong attacking focus when we do have the ball - spreading from the contest, running to the rights spots, transitions on turnovers, forward setup, etc...etc...

Fingers crossed, this will mean rejuvination for inherently attacking players like Sherman and our taller forwards who have been crucified this year

 

[TBOW]

Players & teams as a whole seem to lose touch & skill fairly quickly - you only need to look at any NAB cup game to see this. I think Macca has been focussing on teaching the kids skills that will not drop away, such as tenacity & understanding of the way the game should be played. Hopefully when we are starting to climb the ladder again we will have a team of intelligent and determined footballers that only need to polish up the skills a little bit to be a force. Well that is what helps me sleep at night anyway.

 

[Leezorr]

Are Terrible

 

[Mutt]

Pretty hard to argue with Bodicifer on this.

 

[dogwatch]

When did we last see a bullet like pass onto the chest of a forward, never more than 3m above the ground? I'm not too fussy ... I don't care which way the laces are facing.

 

[acker]

I'd be happy if midfielders 40 metres out from goal took the shot rather than trying to offload it with the often over optimistic hope of finding someone under less pressure - who 9/10 times are facing the wrong way from goal

If your in the clear inside 50 mt take the bloody shot

 

[maddog37]

footskills yes, as a part of a general focus on offensive play. This year we have done nothing except worry about how to win the ball in close, and get it back when we dont. defence, defence, defence. The obvious problem with that strategy is that towards the 2nd half of the year, we were not able to stop the opposition from scoring, mostly in the 2nd halves of games.

Next year we need to retain our defensive ability (for the entire game), but add to it a strong attacking focus when we do have the ball - spreading from the contest, running to the rights spots, transitions on turnovers, forward setup, etc...etc...

Fingers crossed, this will mean rejuvination for inherently attacking players like Sherman and our taller forwards who have been crucified this year

I think quite alot of our play has been extremely offensive this year!!!

 

[Mutt]

The other thing I would add to what the OP stated is that we really need to spread from the contest much, much, much better. We also need to increase our endurance across the board. Often times ... nearly all of the time in fact, when we win the contest the ball winner is left with few if any options to give the ball off by hand or foot. The gut running to present and the gut running forward of the ball were largely absent, which exposed our generally poor kicking skills further.

Lots for the Coach and his team to work on, but I'm sure he knows that better than I. Big period coming up also for our recruiting and list management in general. Again... just stating what everyone on here already knows.

 

[TBOW]

I'd be happy if midfielders 40 metres out from goal took the shot rather than trying to offload it with the often over optimistic hope of finding someone under less pressure - who 9/10 times are facing the wrong way from goal

If your in the clear inside 50 mt take the bloody shot

I think this must have been a coaching directive to give more confidence or experience to our forwards. The amount of times this season where Griffen was streaming towards goal, only to put his head up & spot up one of our talls on a bad lead into the pocket was infuriating, but hopefully achieved whatever Macca was aiming to achieve. I think our terrible conversion from inside 50 ratio was a result of this as well.

 

[skooshtamart]

Simple pre season coming up, Kicking drills only. When you miss a target sprint 400m metres. The way we kick the ball we will be the fittest team in the competition. Who knows they may just start to place some value on an accurate kick.

 

[maddog37]

Old school.

 

[Martyn_30_]

Hawthorn's kicking skills didn't happen through training they had a high empahisis on players who could kick well when drafting, great kickers arrive at clubs you can improve to a point like Morris has but that's due more to decision making than technique. Any player drafted this year as a prerequisite needs to be a good kick, not one or two of them but all of them

 

[murphy2bedabest]

Get Doug Hawkins at the club, kicking 101

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

The other thing I would add to what the OP stated is that we really need to spread from the contest much, much, much better. We also need to increase our endurance across the board. Often times ... nearly all of the time in fact, when we win the contest the ball winner is left with few if any options to give the ball off by hand or foot. The gut running to present and the gut running forward of the ball were largely absent, which exposed our generally poor kicking skills further.

Lots for the Coach and his team to work on, but I'm sure he knows that better than I. Big period coming up also for our recruiting and list management in general. Again... just stating what everyone on here already knows.

Well said. All well and good for everyone to yell at our mids for being inefficient with their disposals, but when nobody's spreading from the contest you don't have much choice other than a piss-weak sideways kick/handball or a long bomb forward.

 

[Mutt]

Well said. All well and good for everyone to yell at our mids for being inefficient with their disposals, but when nobody's spreading from the contest you don't have much choice other than a piss-weak sideways kick/handball or a long bomb forward.

Exactly Dannnnn.

 

[Unnamed1]

Hawthorn's kicking skills didn't happen through training they had a high empahisis on players who could kick well when drafting, great kickers arrive at clubs you can improve to a point like Morris has but that's due more to decision making than technique. Any player drafted this year as a prerequisite needs to be a good kick, not one or two of them but all of them

Agree with you 400% on elite kicking being a condition precedent for every 2013 recruit

 

[staphy]

Bodicifer , I just spewed all over my key board when I looked at your avatar, please remove it.

 

[TempleKelvington]

Hawthorn's kicking skills didn't happen through training they had a high empahisis on players who could kick well when drafting, great kickers arrive at clubs you can improve to a point like Morris has but that's due more to decision making than technique. Any player drafted this year as a prerequisite needs to be a good kick, not one or two of them but all of them

Yeah I agree here. We have a few blokes now on the list who just can't kick, or at the very least not that good. The criticism of Murph is fair to a degree especially the last 6 games or so, but in general guys like Murph and Griff are elite by foot. I do think that some of the problem is confidence and indecision.

I have noticed hesitation in the players....they have time and space, and look up and see a target, hesitate, either make another choice usually a worse one or simply not kick the ball well. A lot of the turnovers by foot are not under pressure.

So yes....we need to draft guys who can kick, we also need to work harder on skills, but also we need to be clear about what we do we get the ball to elevate indecision. I expect next year we'll have greater emphasis on game plane that will help us score more.

It’s amazing what confidence in life does for you and footy is no different.

 

[acker]

If a team is fast enough to create plenty of time and space for it's players - the players usually under little pressure kick well

Problem is currently our side is not fast enough to create that time and space - our players often under pressure

 

[G-Mo77]

Griff is a good kick but burns it a little bit.

I find Grif to be a terrible kick at times. His set shots at goal are deplorable. Boyd gets put over the coals for his disposal but Grif seems to get a free pass.

 

[Dogs Rule]

Geez, we can't win. We're either full of soft, highly-skilled, outside runners (Wallace's and Eade's teams) or we're full of poorly skilled, hard nuts (McCartney's team).

If only we could magically put players from all three eras in the one team, we might actually have a genuine shot at a flag.

 

[acker]

Geez, we can't win. We're either full of soft, highly-skilled, outside runners (Wallace's and Eade's teams) or we're full of poorly skilled, hard nuts (McCartney's team).

Missing link was getting Barry Hall 3 years earlier

If only we could magically put players from all three eras in the one team, we might actually have a genuine shot at a flag.

Interesting I'll give it a go

Backs ------Morris ---- Lake ---- Gilbee

H-Back ---- Smith ---- Grant --- Cameron

Center ----- Griffen --- West --- Boyd

H-Forward - Brown ---- Hall ----- Johnson

Forward --- Darcy ---- MintonConnell -- Akermanis

Followers -- Wynd -- Cooney -- Liberatore

Inter ------ Murphy - Eagleton - Kretiuk - Cook

 

[TedDougChris]

I find Grif to be a terrible kick at times. His set shots at goal are deplorable. Boyd gets put over the coals for his disposal but Grif seems to get a free pass.

Griff just needs to work on goal kicking over summer. Get then keep his fitness base high and get him to spend every other minute on goal kicking. Cordy, Roughead and Jones to join him.....

 

[TedDougChris]

Missing link was getting Barry Hall 3 years earlier



Interesting I'll give it a go

Backs ------Morris ---- Lake ---- Gilbee

H-Back ---- Smith ---- Grant --- Cameron

Center ----- Griffen --- West --- Boyd

H-Forward - Brown ---- Hall ----- Johnson

Forward --- Darcy ---- MintonConnell -- Akermanis

Followers -- Wynd -- Cooney -- Liberatore

Inter ------ Murphy - Eagleton - Kretiuk - Cook

Gee, that spine looks great until you get to FF..... How about Darcy at FF and Hudson in FP....