Roast Our Goalkicking

[Macca19]

Anyone thats listened to the podcast over the last 18 months knows that this is a bug bear of mine. We've lost all confidence in front of the sticks. When trying to get back in the game, we have a number of players who cannot kick the crucial goal and we end up with ridiculous scorelines like 8.17 etc.

In our winning run last year we were kicking at 56%. Since the SYdney loss last year we've kicked at 48%. In losses, we kick at 43%.

Why is this the case? This has cost us a spot in a grand final, cost us a chance at top 4 last year and has cost us at least one game this year. Yesterday we kept Richmond scoreless in the third quarter, dominated play and managed 1.4. Its not good enough.

How do we turn this aspect of our game around?

 

[tribey]

Jay missing that goal was unforgivable. Credits in the bank irrelevant.

If the contract impasse rumours are true he's kidding himself.

 

[Porked04]

It feels like such a throw back to the early years when a 8.22 score was the norm

 

[FallingLiefs]

Heavy legs. I'm telling you guys.

 

[Rising Power]

For a start, I50 entries to straighten up rather than kicking deep into the pockets. Easier said than done though.

 

[Ray Nolan]

Jay missing that goal was unforgivable. Credits in the bank irrelevant.

If the contract impasse rumours are true he's kidding himself.

He rushed it because the Umpire instead of giving a 50m penalty that would've put him in the goalsquare directly in front gave him a 45m penalty that had him on the angle. Jay was heading to set up directly in front, then was asked to go back around. Instead of going through his routine he just went and dobbed at it. He seemed flustered that he wasn't setting up directly in front. He should never have missed it from that angle but he didn't set himself up right partially because the umpire couldn't measure 50 metres.

 

[Trewth]

We're too scared to even take a shot most of the time. Way too many extra kicks/hand passes in our forward 50 looking for the perfect set up that should have been shot attempts. It's very frustrating.

 

[chiwigi]

Heavy legs. I'm telling you guys.

To miss from 15 out is not heavy legs.

 

[Zakk Wylde]

****en

 

[DaTBird187]

Kick 3.2 in the third and we win. Simple as that.

 

[Chrizzt]

I think the fact that our accuracy in front of goal drops in our losses is pretty telling. It's a mental issue. Not over training, heavy legs, or bad angles.
I've been saying for the past 2 years that Schulz always seems to miss the shots he absolutely needs to make (in terms of the game being on the line), with the shot against Melbourne at AO last year being one of the few that he's actually nailed.
We know the Hoff is notoriously bad under pressure. Wingard's shown that he can usually keep it together under pressure, but his shot from 20 metres out on a favorable angle yesterday was appalling.

I think part of that pressure is our lack of faith in our supply to the forward line. Once the team knows that the game is on our terms and we can lock it in our forward half, it's easy for them to kick them, but if they feel this might be their one chance to even the scoreboard up before an oppo goal, they just get the jelly legs. I have no idea how you fix it. Collingwood have the best resources in the AFL yet can't fix Cloke's set shots.

 

[JohnHinckleyJr]

The extra kicks kill us then when we finally have a ping we are on a more tight angle snapping the ball from 40 instead of a more easier shot from 20 on a easier angle the forward coach is a pee brain bring in tredders or someone else who was a permanent forward

 

[Seanybruz]

I think the 2 rucks have stuffed up our structure in most lines, resting Lobbe forward doesn't work because he's slow & can't mark to save his life & playing Westhoff as a chop off defender hurts us as much as saves us when we look most dangerous when he's up forward.

At times we have all 3 of our talls in the midfield & yet still have Ebo/Wines going up third man for the ruck contests I mean wtf? We're just playing stupid football that plays into the oppositions hands, instead of persevering with our corridor game we go wide along the boundary & lead to the pockets instead of getting it long & deep.

The footy we were good at isn't that complicated but like 2011-12 we're making it so hard for ourselves, it's pretty simple get & keep the ball inside 50 then take shots at goal instead of trying to handball through a million players to take a perfect shot.

 

[philreich]

Since the Showdown, we've kicked 23:38 - a 37.7% conversion rate. You won't win too many games with inaccuracy like that!!!

 

[bomberclifford]

****en

Double *en.

 

[pafc88]

Jay missing that goal was unforgivable. Credits in the bank irrelevant.

If the contract impasse rumours are true he's kidding himself.

Thats what happen when u run your guts out up and down the ground .. youll miss a goal occasionally

 

[Chokito]

Gus has stood up, I feel. Chad and Jay missing sitters didn't help. If they had both goal'd we would have been right in it :-/

 

[tribey]

Thats what happen when u run your guts out up and down the ground .. youll miss a goal occasionally

Not from 10 metres out after trotting in from winning a 50. The one he missed later from 30-odd metres out on a 45 degree angle I can live with.

 

[Janus]

Thats what happen when u run your guts out up and down the ground .. youll miss a goal occasionally

Lol. You make it sound as though Schulz is always pushing into the midfield and running himself into the ground. Sorry if we're asking him to play the same role Tredrea did on one knee for the majority of his career.

 

[Peck]

I’d guess its largely confidence, maybe some bad luck, and not training enough. When Schulz was reliable he had been really focused on his set shot routine, for some reason he has lost that focus.

Perhaps its just complacency. Sometimes in life you need to consistently do a lot of small things to get yourself out of a rut of sorts. Then once you are out you lose sight of those things, thinking they are insignificant. When you kick a bunch of goals without missing, you start to relax on your routine, then BAM you are suddenly missing everything and have no idea how to fix it.

I’m very confident this is what happened to Port Adelaide. We got past 5 very hard games through hard work and stopped doing the little things. It is going to take a little while to get back in form, and it will take a lot of effort to stop ourselves from letting this happen again.

We’ve fallen to the back of the pack, but its a long season. Hopefully its long enough to see us fight our way to the top again.

 

[mic59]

He rushed it because the Umpire instead of giving a 50m penalty that would've put him in the goalsquare directly in front gave him a 45m penalty that had him on the angle. Jay was heading to set up directly in front, then was asked to go back around. Instead of going through his routine he just went and dobbed at it. He seemed flustered that he wasn't setting up directly in front. He should never have missed it from that angle but he didn't set himself up right partially because the umpire couldn't measure 50 metres.

The measure WAS incorrect. Vlastuin gave away the free at 55-60 metres so at the very worst Schulz should have been at the top of the square. It's often those mental things that throw you off, you're thinking "it should have been a gimme, I'd better get it now" which just makes it more difficult. But he still had a bit more time, the 30 seconds doesn't start till he's arrived at the correct mark. And Schulz usually only takes 20 seconds over set shots anyway.

I wouldn't like to buy carpet off that guy.

 

[ozph1870]

Mentally weak footballers. It's always been our biggest problem.

 

[Seanybruz]

The measure WAS incorrect. Vlastuin gave away the free at 55-60 metres so at the very worst Schulz should have been at the top of the square. It's often those mental things that throw you off, you're thinking "it should have been a gimme, I'd better get it now" which just makes it more difficult. But he still had a bit more time, the 30 seconds doesn't start till he's arrived at the correct mark. And Schulz usually only takes 20 seconds over set shots anyway.

I wouldn't like to buy carpet off that guy.

That umpire clearly had a problem gauging metres because I counted 4-5 marks paid to the Tiggers that were 10m tops & that's being generous, 2 of which they kicked goals from.

On the other side of the coin they were pretty keen to wave play on not far enough for us on 2-3 opportunities, I hate Razor Ray & I don't feel bad for calling them cheating assholes as they went down the race post game.

 

[philreich]

The thing is, it's not just our goal kicking: our deplorable field kicking lately has rivalled Carlton. If we don't fix our disposal, we'll be fighting the Suns and Blues for the wooden spoon.

 

[Gray Day]

Common factors:

- Slow ball movement on rebound from defence (opposition floods back).
- Poor skills on rebound from defence (turnover, lost opportunity).
- No forward option to kick to rebound from defence as they are pushed up too far (almost always a turnover, if we're lucky we find the boundary).

- Forwards lead too wide, sometimes unnecessarily, these leads should not be rewarded so often (very hard to kick these goals).
- Poor delivery to forwards inside 50 (turnover or missed opportunity).
- Tall forwards are not winning marking contests. Ryder is especially guilty of this. I realise contested grabs aren't easy, but that's why quality KPPs get paid big bucks.
- Most of our forwards are too busy looking for free kicks rather than beating their opponent in the contest. Can't rely on the umpires to help you kick a winning score, especially with a clown like Chamberlain umpiring.


Possible solutions:

- Quick, skilful ball movement from defence to attack. Easier said than done, skills and confidence don't change at the flick of a switch.
- Try more delivery on the football to the top of our square. Back our talls to make a contest and our smalls to either mop up or lock the footy in for a ball-up. Simplistic tactic, but with what most people would regard as a highly-talented forward line, shouldn't we be backing our players to profit from this sort of play often enough?
- When defending in our 50, leave at least one forward in the centre of the ground (Schulz) or between half-forward and centre. Schulz is useless on the half-back line. We're not going to break their wall by bombing the ball out to him.
- Just kick the bloody goal when you're 20m out on a slight angle!