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Opinion Are we even a quick side? What is a quick side?

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Howard Moon

Howard Moon

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Dec 14, 2008
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People around town are saying that our pace worries STK

Are we even a quick side…. What is a quick side?

After hearing Luke Darcy on Saturday night say we are a lightening quick side then only be able to name Dempsey and Winderlich as our quick players I got to thinking…. Is a quick side a side full of quick players or is it just about the pace of ball movement? Or pace of thinking?

You could arguably say we looked as quick as we ever have on Saturday night but let’s have a look at the players who you would call quick;

Dempsey
Crameri
Jetta
Reimers.

Not many really.

The bulk of our players are actually on the slow side; Myers, Melksham, Watson, Hocking, Howlett, Lonergan, Stanton, Heppell…… they aren’t going to win you any gold medals in the 100m. Hooker could snap at any moment on the sprint, Hurley is explosive but not quick….

Proof is after 2 losses everybody is bemoaning our one paced midfield……

So it’s obvious that our ball movement makes us look quick. As soon as we mark across half back its an instant handball to a player running in board then slice a kick through the corridor taking the short way home… its gone from defence to a forward 50 entry in the blink of an eye without a pacy player to be seen.

Those teams that chip chip around the boundry look snail like, even if they have speedsters all voer the ground.

So I guess pace isn’t all about leg speed.

Which gets me thinking of how we have had the wood on STK, ball movement is the natural enemy of the lock down press; our quick ball movement is the natural enemy of Ross Lyons style of play. Being that we don’t have a lot of quick running players... instead of a normal press wouldn’t a man on man approach work better on us? Or maybe just block up the corridor? If I remember correctly Gold Coast played us man on man and we looked horrible for large parts of that game up there.

are we actually a quick side? will the correct form of defence show us to be slow?
 
We move the ball like lightning. Very few sides move it as fast as us. It's not all leg speed, in fact very little of it is leg speed, but we are lightning quick on the counter.
 

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Melksham and Howlett aren't that slow... Actually against the Dogs, Jake looked quicker than usual. Maybe because he had his socks down idk.
 
I agree a quick side is one that moves the ball quick rather than foot-speed quick. This is what Geelong was - apart from a few exceptions, they were no world-record sprinters, however their ball movement made them look quick. I feel we are almost exactly the same, with our exceptions being definitely Dempsey, as well as Jetta, Reimers and Crams. We also have players who are quick for their positions, in Ryder and Hurley.

Just a quick sidenote, in the OP where you listed guys on the slow side, 1 guy certainly shouldn't be in there and that's Howlett. The lad has some serious toe. I can't wait to see him get more of the credit that he's just beginning to get, he's as hard at it as they come, lays a tackle, is a real nice kick, is quick, is finding the ball more and hits the scoreboard frequently which is what I like. Has a lot going for him this guy.
 
I was thinking this on the weekend, possibly just after Heppell got run down.....
I think our players bulking up a little may have slowed us down, also a couple of our more speedier players have probably lost a meter or so. Alwyn comes back soon (although he has also probably lost a bit of leg speed) he may make us look faster?
 
I don't think Howlett is that quick, but it's his acceleration that surprises most. Seems to be able to get up to top pace in just a couple of steps.
 

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AFAIK we kick more than any other side, as a percentage of disposals. So the ball's going further.

Guys like Melksham/Myers (even though they're fairly slow) help us move the ball a lot quicker than quicker players like Prismall or Winderlich (who go short dinky passes more often than not)
 
Ball movement is king.

To be a pedantic about it:

Ryder is almost lightning
Melksham is deffinately quick (he is currently limited to 5 efforts a game though).
Myers is no longer slow and would be on the quick side of average
Howlett is on the fast side of average and is explosive
Hardingham is on the fast side of average and is explosive
Heppell never seems to break out of a jog so I've got no idea how fast he is but the draft reports never said he was slow
Stanton is definitely not slow either

As for the rest of the squad:
Davey is lightning (and will more than likely play this week)
Colyer is lightning
 
Howard Moon said:
Have we improved upon Geelongs bombastic ball movement style from a few years ago? What was it that Collingwood did to them that made that style under bomber unworkable and needed to be tweaked?
Click to expand...


The Cats didn't kick the ball enough. We kick the ball more.

There were some other minor issues that needed addressing that I don't remember.
 
BrunoV said:
The Cats didn't kick the ball enough. We kick the ball more.

There were some other minor issues that needed addressing that I don't remember.
Click to expand...

i think i now recall that Geelongs movement was all handball and the thing Collingwood did to stuff them was not tackle....

They hung off them so they couldnt get the arms free in the tackle and pass onto the next link. Ingenius really.

But as we kick more we have another string to our bow..... we could almost be more the Geelong that won the flag under Scott... still fast movment by hand but also long kicking.
 

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Yep, the extra 2 or 3 possessions for no real gain left them vulnerable to the insane amount of pressure Collingwood put on through it's forward press.

It was a resounding success really. They killed Collingwood twice* before rolling them fairly comfortably in a GF.




*Seriously don't be fooled by the round 8 narrow victory. In terms of the success of their playing style it was a significant and convincing victory. The game should have been buried at quarter time there was a point at which they had about 10 more scoring shots early in the second quarter. They cantered until the final quarter when JPod's kicking kept the Pies in the game. Funny how all we ever heard about was the decision against Pendlebury.
 
BrunoV said:
Yep, the extra 2 or 3 possessions for no real gain left them vulnerable to the insane amount of pressure Collingwood put on through it's forward press.

It was a resounding success really. They killed Collingwood twice* before rolling them fairly comfortably in a GF.




*Seriously don't be fooled by the round 8 narrow victory. In terms of the success of their playing style it was a significant and convincing victory. The game should have been buried at quarter time there was a point at which they had about 10 more scoring shots early in the second quarter. They cantered until the final quarter when JPod's kicking kept the Pies in the game. Funny how all we ever heard about was the decision against Pendlebury.
Click to expand...

Agree with this completely. It wasn't just the fact that Geelong beat them, but the way they did it. They showed the press could be beaten.

Round 8 showed Collingwood could be beaten, Round 24 for me showed that Geelong had them well and truly figured out and that Round 8 had not been a fluke.. I was not at all surprised at the result in the Grand Final.

2009-11 was a fascinating oscillation of one side figuring the other out, really. In 2009 Geelong well and truly had it over Collingwood, 2010 started the same but by the end of it the press had dismantled Geelong's game. And then, against general expectation, Scott tinkered with the game plan just enough to nullify the press.
 
if we don't get first use from a clearance I don't think we are quick enough to combat opposition spread (see Richmond second half, Anzac Day, most of the Sydney game) ... Having said that, we do move the ball quickly and spread well ourselves..
 
According to Luke Darcy we are a super quick side,... and also Stanton has turned it around after getting booed.

Did he mention we are a quick side... rinse, repeat... 9 weeks straight, Can't wait till we get off this Saturday night wankfest with Darcy, BT and Richo.
 

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Opinion Are we even a quick side? What is a quick side?

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