Interesting Article.

[eagereagle]

some food for thought.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20128966-2722,00.html

[sydney eagle]

Interesting. It seems that the Eagles are using handball to set up their running game.

[Svenny]

herse another stat

in west coast 4 losses this season the opposition had more possessions.....while that may not sound like an Earth shattering stat what it shows is west coast has learnt from those losses..using handball creates more run because the player receiving the handball must continue to run to recieve

there is a simple standing rule with coaching in footy NEVER handball to someone standing still" if you handball to somone moving it always creates forward movement

[Frizzo]

So any idiots who go to the games just to scream at our Eagles to "JUST KICK IT!!", kindly shut the hell up.

[mikben]

So any idiots who go to the games just to scream at our Eagles to "JUST KICK IT!!", kindly shut the hell up.

Love IT!!!!!

[lyall]

Ive been noticing it a lot and it only really seemed to began to be used when we played Adelaide. It certainly seems to have changed our form

[UpForGrabs]

http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/teamshi.html

According to this (and since the stats have been recorded officially), in the last three weeks, our total number of handpasses account for three of the four highest ever...

I enjoy watching the Eagles play normally, but the last three weeks have been awesome.

[jorel6669]

It's a tactic that works for us because we can utilise our strength - midfield run and endurance. Instead of kicking to contests where the opposition puts numbers back against us, we're using our run to move the ball forward quickly through handball, draw those defenders out to the ball and then kick to leading options of Lynch and Staker.

In other words, it looks like a tactic to beat the flood instead of just bombing long and hoping for the best.

[Emerald]

In that game against Adelaide, a lot of people in the crowd were getting frustrated with the amount of hand-balling going on, but I knew it had to be something to do with breaking apart the zone. That taken into account, it was simply awesome to watch.
The best part about this running game is that they are fit enough to not only do it for four quarters, but step it up a notch to fly away from persistent teams like the Roos on the weekend.
It was a great story."West Coast is forcing the whole competition to think again". I like it.

[halfbackflanker]

It would seem a definite trend over last year, which probably preceded the game against Adelaide, even though it was most noticeable in that game.

In 2005 there were 5 players who averaged over 8 handballs a game, with the top being Fletcher at 9.8. That figure drops to 6.9 and keeps going down. The top 5 were Fletcher, Braun, Kerr, Cousins and Judd (no suprises there!)

In 2006 there are now 8 players averaging over 8, and the figures have gone up accross the board, with the top 5 now averaging around 10 or more handballs a game (Rojo is top with 12.4).

There's a lift from individual players down the list in terms of the number of handballs from 2005 to now. Selwood goes from 5.4 to 8.9, Glass from 5 to 6.8, with other players lifting their figures slightly over last year.

On the one hand I think it's used as a tactic to break down floods and zones as described, on the other it can be used to set up superior kicking, which I think is one of the most crucial aspects of the game. The hand off to a player who is a capable long kick, when they're in space to settle and deliver well, is a key to winning games. It's no suprise to me, for instance, that Wirrapanda is ranked 23rd for average handballs per game in the Eagles, while kicking he is ranked 4th. He's a fantastic and effective kick, so even if teammates have the opportunity to kick it themselves they'll defer and hand it off to him, knowing that he deliver it to the team's advantage in almost every case. The same with Nicoski. Even if a player has marked and is settled to take a kick, they'll feed it off to him. Because he's usually coming through with pace, he'll gain a couple of metres and kick long. Not only is he very accurate, but his kicking is long and quick through the air, clearing defensive zones set down field. So this approach, of using key designated kickers, inflates the number of handballs the side uses. The reverse side of the same coin is the players who lack footskills are relying more and more on handpassing. Rojo's kicking is well known for being deplorable, but he makes up for this by handpassing well, which is why he's ranked 1st for handballs while being 19th for kicks. In a game relying on this approach, he's actually found his niche. Even guys like Kerr, who's not the best kick technically, make up for it by being exceptionally good by hand, and he averages almost a handball per kick he takes. I only wish Fletcher would take this similar line.

Handballs aren't ever really going to win you games of footy on their own. "Nobody ever handballed a goal" is the old quote. In the end handballs are designed to set up kicking - and someone in space is always going to have a better chance of kicking well. I noticed it early on in the season - even when the Eagles weren't exactly setting the world alight in other areas, their handballing skills in close were pretty eye-popping. In those cases it's a way of keeping possession until someone is in best position, as the saying goes, to "kick the bloody thing"! Once the game opens up it's being used as a more offensive weapon to create run and for moving the ball forward without giving it up, in an almost rugby like fashion. The fundamental is the same though: retain possession and wait for an opportunity to effectively kick to a target. Bloody simple really.

[Black Thunder]

the handball can be extremely dangerous when used properly.

The only thing we have to worry about is over using the handball... i.e. handballing to people standing still (as someone mentioned above), handballing to a player in trouble, or just handballing for the sake of handballing...

But the way were playing now is spectacular, and it's awesome to watch players just running and running all day.