Player Watch AFL skill level

[Cannon82]

I know but it’s short term gain for long term pain.
They should have a 16 game season and no academies. The season is way too long. Your team can play for five ******* months, make finals, and then be out after one week.

You must hate the round ball game then; 8-9 month seasons.

 

[Djcjdees]

Good handballs are a dying art in this day and age when there is so much congestion. Players either scoop/throw it out, place the ball on the ground and tap it out or just maul it forward like a scrum in rugby union

Yeah at this point, you get commended for throwing it. Look at Daniel Rich (I think?) last night. Came steaming in and won the ball, great, but Jonathon Thurston was seen applauding the rugby pass he threw out. And everyone lauds it..

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[demondavey]

Im happy to debate this with anyone, but I think in this professional era of footy the skills are worse than they were 20 years ago, possibly at an all time low in the TV era

Everyones talking about the lack of scoring in modern footy and even ive been sucked into trying to come up with rules to fix it but none of them ultimately will work until they spend some money on Junior coaching.
Look at some of the number 1-5 picks in the draft the last few years, these are supposed to be the BEST talents in the country and they lack so many fundamentals.

Brayshaw is a tough tough kid who can extract the pill, but his kicking soooo bad. Petracca doesnt have a left foot at all
Sam Walsh is a running machine who doesnt kick it well, we picked up Sparrow at 26 or 27 who cant kick
Paddy Dow is ******* horrible at kicking.
Dom Tyson, Andrew Brayshaw, Setterfield, Pickett etc.

The majority of draftees now dont have the ability to kick on both feet, nor handball with both sides. These arent even rookies these are the best kids in the country.

Forwards technical craft are at an all time low, guys like Fevola and Lloyd, Richo, Riewoldt etc had the ability to hit packs hard and mark the ball with their arms infront of them. Not alot of them look comfortable in that aspect anymore. They would rather beat opponent with athleticism on the ground working up and back.
The best midfielders in the game in early 2000s were,
Hird, Ricciuto, Buckley, Voss, Black, Aker, Goodes, Crawford, Harvey, Kouta etc
Just beautiful kicks everywhere.
Nowadays its
Martin, Danger, Fyfe, Cripps, Oliver, Sloane, Bont, Crouch, Mitchell, Kelly, Treloar etc
Half of them atleast are poor kicks of the footy.

In fact the only thing thats improved is defending, the best markers of the ball all play in defence now. The intercept marking of the best is miles ahead of what I can remember.

The AFL needs to take all of the ******* money they are wasting and pump it into grass roots development. Who are the former AFL coaches and assistant coaches down at all of the teams in the Under 18s competitions developing the juniors. Where are the specialist goalkicking coaches working to help iron out goalkicking problems with young key forwards, run ups and ball drops etc.Kidd now are running into an open goal and run away from the goal and try for the nana, who the **** is teaching this s**t?


I think its time to go to 16 on the field at the elite level again aswell. There just too much defensive coverage on the ground now with the fitness of all the players, not only does it make it hard to defend the ground with 2 less options but it gets rid of 36 scrubs who shouldnt be good enough to be getting a game.

Yeah good post campaigner. Enjoyed that read.

If you listened to Dal Santo on SEN during the week (I think I mentioned this elsewhere) he said the state of that game was in a very bad place re skill level and the style coached on game day. He also hit on the grassroots stuff with kids at TAC level being taught to tackle, pressure, run as the main components of the sport. If anyone would know it’d be Dal Santo, a 300 game veteran and a very good player.

Look back at the the top 5 draft picks from 01-06; Hodge, Goddard, Cooney, Deledio, Murphy and Gibbs. Never were they overly fast players, but they were and are exceptional footballers. Just read the game well, have elite foot skills and are more of your pure footballing type.

I remember when Trent Croad was drafted, and so many people labelled him an athlete, not a footballer. That got me sort of set the precedent; players with power, speed, athleticism could be taught to play, and not the other way around.

The standard of goal kicking which you mentioned is awful. Never seen it a lower point. Remember last year when Rayner went the banana to win the game against North? From a set shot position? God that was bad. There were was only one guy that could nail that whenever he liked and it was Steve Johnson, but he was a freak. A serious freak.

A decade ago you’d have types like McGovern, Rance, Weitering, Sicily etc all playing forward in their prime. It’s all about defenders and stopping the forward entry and then ‘rebounding’ with speed.

We are in a very bad place.

 

[Topkent]

Watching the AA U18s vs Casey and neither side on the official stats were credited with a shephard at half time

3 or 4 times I watched a Casey bloke get mown down after his teammate let a bloke run straight past him with no effort at all to Shepard.

 

[demondavey]

Watching the AA U18s vs Casey and neither side on the official stats were credited with a shephard at half time

3 or 4 times I watched a Casey bloke get mown down after his teammate let a bloke run straight past him with no effort at all to Shepard.

Just got home and realised it was on. Was it any good?

 

[Topkent]

Just got home and realised it was on. Was it any good?

Nah was a pretty s**t game. None of the casey players were any good or worth a spot next week.

The U18s looked physically intimidated in the first half and then when we took off half our side they out ran us like crazy in the 2nd half. Unfortunately everyone of their players looked quicker or as quick as Baker.

 

[demondavey]

Nah was a pretty s**t game. None of the casey players were any good or worth a spot next week.

The U18s looked physically intimidated in the first half and then when we took off half our side they out ran us like crazy in the 2nd half. Unfortunately everyone of their players looked quicker or as quick as Baker.

Haven’t really kept tabs on Baker. Do you think he is far off a senior game?

 

[Topkent]

Haven’t really kept tabs on Baker. Do you think he is far off a senior game?

Only played a half in this, and I saw him play in the belting.

Looks like a stretch clone to me, cant see him making any difference to our AFL side

 

[saj_21]

Watching the AA U18s vs Casey and neither side on the official stats were credited with a shephard at half time

3 or 4 times I watched a Casey bloke get mown down after his teammate let a bloke run straight past him with no effort at all to Shepard.

You can thank coaches encouraging over lap instead of sheparding

 

[Topkent]

You can thank coaches encouraging over lap instead of sheparding

Modern footy makes me sick

 

[saj_21]

Modern footy makes me sick

I’d love to sit in on coaches on game day, for the insight and how they think/react in game day.

I also think coaches deep down would love to have the game like the good old days winning 25 goals to 20. But the external pressures on clubs and coaches to perform dictates the WIN before anything else

 

[Topkent]

I’d love to sit in on coaches on game day, for the insight and how they think/react in game day.

I also think coaches deep down would love to have the game like the good old days winning 25 goals to 20. But the external pressures on clubs and coaches to perform dictates the WIN before anything else

I dunno some of the things I hear coaches and former players say I'm not sure they understand the game any better than we do. I think they are just motivators, why else would you have like coaches and ball movement coaches etc

 

[demondavey]

I’d love to sit in on coaches on game day, for the insight and how they think/react in game day.

I also think coaches deep down would love to have the game like the good old days winning 25 goals to 20. But the external pressures on clubs and coaches to perform dictates the WIN before anything else

The mindset has just become defensive. It’s almost as though the only way to stop strong teams scoring was just to flood, like the WB v Essendon in 2000 when Wallace instructed the flood to inflict the only loss on them that year.

I mean I am looking at the GWS v Fremantle game now and this is what I see;

 

[demondavey]

So the ball is over the line but every single player is surrounding that contest or moving towards the Dockers goals, why is that space completely vacant at the centre? It’s literally just kick chase, kick chase.

 

[Topkent]

So the ball is over the line but every single player is surrounding that contest or moving towards the Dockers goals, why is that space completely vacant at the centre? It’s literally just kick chase, kick chase.

Even on that goal the giants kicked in, and pretty quickly broke forward with handballs to the HBF. They then kicked long to Cameron who was 3 on 1 at the HFF. Teams set up to not be scored against rather than trying to score.

 

[saj_21]

I dunno some of the things I hear coaches and former players say I'm not sure they understand the game any better than we do. I think they are just motivators, why else would you have like coaches and ball movement coaches etc

The average punter (us) and coaches see the game very differently.

As I said the WIN is the most important thing, it determines their careers and everyone else around them.

But agree the senior coach isn’t a tactically involved in the game as they were 10-15 years ago. Hence the extensive coaching panels all clubs have.

Look at the transformation Buckley has made over the last 18 months. He has game from over thinking the game to developing people. Leave the tactics up to the assistants and senior coach develops relationships. Adam Simpson is very similar. It’s a big reason Brisbane hired fagan.

 

[saj_21]

The mindset has just become defensive. It’s almost as though the only way to stop strong teams scoring was just to flood, like the WB v Essendon in 2000 when Wallace instructed the flood to inflict the only loss on them that year.

I mean I am looking at the GWS v Fremantle game now and this is what I see;

View attachment 658452

Clarko took it another level and brought the flood to midfield. Then Lyon bought in the press. The afl is very much a copycat nature in terms of coaching. The eagles are great at playing keepings off a trend in which a lot of clubs are trying to replicate

 

[Topkent]

Clarko took it another level and brought the flood to midfield. Then Lyon bought in the press. The afl is very much a copycat nature in terms of coaching. The eagles are great at playing keepings off a trend in which a lot of clubs are trying to replicate

You could go back to Geelong attacking from half back which Collingwood neutralized with the press, which Hawthorn broke through by getting a bunch of good kickers in the back half which the bulldogs exploited by flooding the contest in the midfield which the tigers moved into the forward which the eagles nullified by kicking it and the circle goes round.

What can't be ignored is how boring everything in between goals is becoming now

 

[Topkent]

Pick 2 and 3 from the 2017 draft Andrew Brayshaw and Patty Dow are the 2 worst rated kicks in the AFL currently. Seriously..

 

[schmuttt]

Pick 2 and 3 from the 2017 draft Andrew Brayshaw and Patty Dow are the 2 worst rated kicks in the AFL currently. Seriously..

Runs in the family for Andrew...

 

[Tulip]

Biggest issue is goalkicking. Get that where it used to be, and you have an extra 10 goals a game minimum.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Runs in the family for Andrew...

Andrew is a special kind of bad. Literally can't remember ever seeing a kick from him hit a target. At least Gus' occasionally nails beautiful passes on both feet even if he is largely a turnover merchant.

 

[saj_21]

Pick 2 and 3 from the 2017 draft Andrew Brayshaw and Patty Dow are the 2 worst rated kicks in the AFL currently. Seriously..

Also saw on OTC last week, the guys discussing skill level. Kick retention inside 50 is down from 52.9% in 2009 to 46.9% in 2019.

 

[Topkent]

Biggest issue is goalkicking. Get that where it used to be, and you have an extra 10 goals a game minimum.

It's almost as if teams should draft specialist goal kickers, and funnel a majority of the ball through them. Those guys should then spend all week practising that skill and perfecting it.

 

[Cannon82]

It's almost as if teams should draft specialist goal kickers, and funnel a majority of the ball through them. Those guys should then spend all week practising that skill and perfecting it.

No. Football should draft athlete and teach athlete to football. Much success.