It seems pretty clear that we have a preferred structure at kick-ins.
Get the ball to the corner of the centre square, or 10-15m further along the wing-edge of the centre square on the chosen side of the ground.
Get tall forwards to that spot, and smalls around the drop of the ball + covering out the back.
Hope a tall clunks a mark, or hope our smalls win the ball if we bring it to ground.
When it works, it works well. Taking the 45 opens up that side of the ground and the corridor, allowing fast ball movement through an opposition defensive structure that is often either too shallow or too narrow to stand up against speed and overlap runners.
But it's so predictable.
In the first quarter yesterday, it failed a couple of times in quick succession, allowing Fremantle easy repeat I50s. Eventually, at the next kick-in, Jonas gave a short pass to DBJ (standing deep in the pocket), whose subsequent kick down the ground went much wider towards the boundary. It was a lower percentage kick for our attack, but a much needed circuit-breaker; denying Fremantle use of the corridor on the rebound, and allowing us to force a stoppage (throw-in) and reset. But it still went to the same side of the ground.
Do we have the talls to provide a second option at kick-ins?
Choose any four of Dixon, Marshall, Georgiades, Ladhams, and Lycett. Add in Aliir (who we used in that role against the Bulldogs after Clurey's injury). Surely we don't need all of them on the same side of the field. I could understand if it was 2-3 talls converging at that point, with at least one other tall down the line or at CHF, to provide a subsequent target, but often it's not. Instead, we allow the opposition to swell the pack, or get in each other's way. The pack's predictability and size make it easy to defend and difficult to get a clean mark or takeaway.
Could we shift at least one target to the other side of the ground (sit them halfway between the other corner of the centre square and the boundary), and actually put the ball in that direction every now and again? Make it a real target that the opposition has to defend. Take pressure and numbers away from the one super-pack we currently direct every kick-in towards. Give us a circuit-breaker or option besides hugging the boundary and hoping to force a throw-in outside d50.
Get the ball to the corner of the centre square, or 10-15m further along the wing-edge of the centre square on the chosen side of the ground.
Get tall forwards to that spot, and smalls around the drop of the ball + covering out the back.
Hope a tall clunks a mark, or hope our smalls win the ball if we bring it to ground.
When it works, it works well. Taking the 45 opens up that side of the ground and the corridor, allowing fast ball movement through an opposition defensive structure that is often either too shallow or too narrow to stand up against speed and overlap runners.
But it's so predictable.
In the first quarter yesterday, it failed a couple of times in quick succession, allowing Fremantle easy repeat I50s. Eventually, at the next kick-in, Jonas gave a short pass to DBJ (standing deep in the pocket), whose subsequent kick down the ground went much wider towards the boundary. It was a lower percentage kick for our attack, but a much needed circuit-breaker; denying Fremantle use of the corridor on the rebound, and allowing us to force a stoppage (throw-in) and reset. But it still went to the same side of the ground.
Do we have the talls to provide a second option at kick-ins?
Choose any four of Dixon, Marshall, Georgiades, Ladhams, and Lycett. Add in Aliir (who we used in that role against the Bulldogs after Clurey's injury). Surely we don't need all of them on the same side of the field. I could understand if it was 2-3 talls converging at that point, with at least one other tall down the line or at CHF, to provide a subsequent target, but often it's not. Instead, we allow the opposition to swell the pack, or get in each other's way. The pack's predictability and size make it easy to defend and difficult to get a clean mark or takeaway.
Could we shift at least one target to the other side of the ground (sit them halfway between the other corner of the centre square and the boundary), and actually put the ball in that direction every now and again? Make it a real target that the opposition has to defend. Take pressure and numbers away from the one super-pack we currently direct every kick-in towards. Give us a circuit-breaker or option besides hugging the boundary and hoping to force a throw-in outside d50.
