Just a thing we need to learn to do as a whole group, and that is to learn how to use our bodies. I remember back in the day, Wayne Carey worked with Fevola and taught him to use his body in the marking contests. Fevola became a much better player after this and took a lot of marks where he initiated contact.
Marking
We have a lot of talls who don't know how to use their bodies. Just little things like a bump at the right time to knock the defender off the line or off balance just enough to get in a good position to mark. Fevola uses his body quite well and I have seen Chris Johnson use his body to take marks.
Jamison and Thornton need to learn how to use their bodies instead of their hands. I have seen Austin try and use his body but he's too light, but the idea is there.
Kreuzer needs to learn how to use his body if he is to take that next step and become a forward because that's what's holding him back ATM. He's good at getting a run and a jump at the contest but he needs to learn to time his bump and how to do it in marking contests. Setanta really needs to learn how to use his body too, he's good at holding his ground and protecting the drop of the ball but he needs to learn to knock his opponent at the right time legally to give himself a better opportunity to mark it.
Initiating the contact is the key term with what I am talking about. The player who initiates contact appears to have a better chance of holding a mark than a player taking the contact. This is a problem I have noticed with a lot of our players particularly Hampson and Cloke.
Waite is a player who needs to learn how to use his body better and initiate contact more often. He needs to be more aggressive at ground level and use his size as I'd love to see him play on the ball as a big bodied on baller like Goodes and Kouta. The re-co might stop that happening though due to a lack of pre-season. He's perfect for an onballer and his size and athleticism would be a headache match-up for opposition teams.
Perhaps we could invite Wayne Carey back to Carlton to work with some of our younger tall players like Kreuzer, Hampson, O'hAilpin, Fisher, Warnock, Hartlett, Jamison, Thornton, Austin, Bower, O'Keefe, Tiller etc.
Carey was excellent at using his body and taught Fevola a lot of the tricks he uses today IIRC and could be useful in teaching our young talls those tricks. Silvagni when played forward was pretty good at using his body as well but he's with the Saints.
We have all these short people on the coaching staff that I can't see them being able to teach the talls much. Probably shows from our poor technique when players go for marks and the lack of body use we have.
Is there anyone else who could offer assistance with helping our talls to use their bodies?
Ground Level
Things we do poorly are heavy shepherds, general blocking and aggressive bumping. We don't lay enough shepherds as a side and it's affecting our run and running players in a negative way and hence our disposal. Our lack or shepherds puts pressure on our ball carriers and restricts their run.
We have a lot of players who give a handball and then run to receive the handball again (kick chasing) instead of giving it then running to lay a shepherd to release the ball carrier. This is responsible for our over use of handball, high handball use and high handball turn over from pressure. We handball and run to receive instead of handballing then running to block. If we handballed then shepherded more, we would have less handballs, more kicks and more kicks without pressure, hence better kicking accuracy. Gibbs is a player who avoids body contact far too often and needs to work on this area of his game. It's not just 1 or 2 players who need to learn to block and shepherd at all costs, it's all of them.
We aren't aggressive enough around stoppages and contests. There is nothing wrong with a player bumping a player purely to hurt and take the player out of the contest as long as it is within the rules. This gives a mental and physical advantage over a team/player.
One thing we need to do is stop opposition running the lines and running straight lines. Simply by our players getting in the path or opposition runners, make them take a hit or run around.
I think most of our midfielders need to work harder to block opposition taggers and any player chasing a blue jumper. It's a simple thing that needs to be "programed" into the players. The give and shepherd game must be adopted by us or we will always be a side over using the ball, disposing under pressure and getting very little run and carry.
Marking
We have a lot of talls who don't know how to use their bodies. Just little things like a bump at the right time to knock the defender off the line or off balance just enough to get in a good position to mark. Fevola uses his body quite well and I have seen Chris Johnson use his body to take marks.
Jamison and Thornton need to learn how to use their bodies instead of their hands. I have seen Austin try and use his body but he's too light, but the idea is there.
Kreuzer needs to learn how to use his body if he is to take that next step and become a forward because that's what's holding him back ATM. He's good at getting a run and a jump at the contest but he needs to learn to time his bump and how to do it in marking contests. Setanta really needs to learn how to use his body too, he's good at holding his ground and protecting the drop of the ball but he needs to learn to knock his opponent at the right time legally to give himself a better opportunity to mark it.
Initiating the contact is the key term with what I am talking about. The player who initiates contact appears to have a better chance of holding a mark than a player taking the contact. This is a problem I have noticed with a lot of our players particularly Hampson and Cloke.
Waite is a player who needs to learn how to use his body better and initiate contact more often. He needs to be more aggressive at ground level and use his size as I'd love to see him play on the ball as a big bodied on baller like Goodes and Kouta. The re-co might stop that happening though due to a lack of pre-season. He's perfect for an onballer and his size and athleticism would be a headache match-up for opposition teams.
Perhaps we could invite Wayne Carey back to Carlton to work with some of our younger tall players like Kreuzer, Hampson, O'hAilpin, Fisher, Warnock, Hartlett, Jamison, Thornton, Austin, Bower, O'Keefe, Tiller etc.
Carey was excellent at using his body and taught Fevola a lot of the tricks he uses today IIRC and could be useful in teaching our young talls those tricks. Silvagni when played forward was pretty good at using his body as well but he's with the Saints.
We have all these short people on the coaching staff that I can't see them being able to teach the talls much. Probably shows from our poor technique when players go for marks and the lack of body use we have.
Is there anyone else who could offer assistance with helping our talls to use their bodies?
Ground Level
Things we do poorly are heavy shepherds, general blocking and aggressive bumping. We don't lay enough shepherds as a side and it's affecting our run and running players in a negative way and hence our disposal. Our lack or shepherds puts pressure on our ball carriers and restricts their run.
We have a lot of players who give a handball and then run to receive the handball again (kick chasing) instead of giving it then running to lay a shepherd to release the ball carrier. This is responsible for our over use of handball, high handball use and high handball turn over from pressure. We handball and run to receive instead of handballing then running to block. If we handballed then shepherded more, we would have less handballs, more kicks and more kicks without pressure, hence better kicking accuracy. Gibbs is a player who avoids body contact far too often and needs to work on this area of his game. It's not just 1 or 2 players who need to learn to block and shepherd at all costs, it's all of them.
We aren't aggressive enough around stoppages and contests. There is nothing wrong with a player bumping a player purely to hurt and take the player out of the contest as long as it is within the rules. This gives a mental and physical advantage over a team/player.
One thing we need to do is stop opposition running the lines and running straight lines. Simply by our players getting in the path or opposition runners, make them take a hit or run around.
I think most of our midfielders need to work harder to block opposition taggers and any player chasing a blue jumper. It's a simple thing that needs to be "programed" into the players. The give and shepherd game must be adopted by us or we will always be a side over using the ball, disposing under pressure and getting very little run and carry.
