catempire
Premium Platinum
I watched the Carlton v Richmond match last night to see what we are in for.
Here are my observations:
Carlton are Fevola mad. When under pressure, their standard play is to kick to a set position either at the top of the goalsquare or around the 50m arc directly in front. Richmond seemed to do OK at countering this. They always had extra players lurking in those spots to prevent a Fevola and Joel Bowden one-on-one. We must do the same. Milburn plays this role quite well. Whoever else is back there – usually Corey or Enright – needs to run to these positions as well. We also need to be aware of the long range on Fevola’s kicking. He leads right up outside the 50m arc because he can make the distance from 60m. Whoever plays on him – Scarlett most likely – needs to push him wide. Fev’s kicking was poor so don’t give him any easy shots.
Waite started in defence, lined up on Polak, which surprised me. He wasn’t doing well at all and it wasn’t until later in the match when he went forward that he had a positive influence on the game. I would expect him to start forward against us, unless we go with three talls again, in which case he’ll be forced into defence and he’ll then get Nathan Ablett. If he plays forward, he’s a dangerous type – very good above his head but also at ground level. A difficult match up, but I would go with Milburn.
Carlton have Ackland and Cloke in the ruck. They are C-grade ruckman who did only fairly against Pattison and Polak. We have two options. One is to play Ottens predominantly in the ruck who will dominate against those two. This would leave Mooney and Nathan as the key targets but would release Waite to play forward for Carlton. The second option is to play Blake predominantly in the ruck which would leave Ottens to play mostly forward. Blake would hold his own in ruck contests but could only hope to break even around the ground. Learning from last week though, three tall forward targets are perhaps too many. So it might be wise to start with Ottens in the ruck to see how a smaller structure goes. This will have the added benefit of creating a headache for Carlton when resting Ottens for 5-10 minutes each quarter at full forward.
Whitnall is woefully out of form. Whoever plays on him needs to run off him regularly. Make him a liability. Perhaps Egan can play this role.
Overall, Carlton probably only played 30 minutes of quality football during the match. They seem to be a burst team with a lot of burst players. When they were going well, they had a lot of runners both off half back and through the middle of the ground. They weren’t afraid to leave the contest to create loose players on the attacking side of the pack. They like to run the ball because their foot skills aren’t terribly good. Stevens is the barometer of their team. When Carlton are struggling he is nowhere to be seen but once the flow of play is with them he seems to be everywhere. I would be tempted to leave him alone to start with and back ourselves to starve him of supply. If he gets too much of it, Ling will go to him.
If Carlton get a run-on, slow the game down. They have the ability to kick 4 or 5 goals quickly. We are good in the contests so make it tight. Force some ball-ups. Get a couple of midfielders behind the ball. Put pressure on and they will cough it up.
Carlton will turn the ball over far more often than the Bulldogs and we need to capitalise on this. We need Wojcinski to do as he did last week, rebounding off half back. We need Chapman in the midfield for his pace and good ball use. Most of all, we need to move the ball quickly after a turnover. We need to run it because we seem to stop-start when we try to spot up targets. Make it a team rule – on a turnover, use the space in front of you, run into it, run in numbers and handball. If you take a mark, play on with a handball to someone RUNNING past (NOT standing still) or wheel around and kick long.
This will be an interesting test for Geelong. Carlton, to my mind, are not a finals side so if Geelong can’t stamp authority on this game, we are going to struggle throughout the season.
Here are my observations:
Carlton are Fevola mad. When under pressure, their standard play is to kick to a set position either at the top of the goalsquare or around the 50m arc directly in front. Richmond seemed to do OK at countering this. They always had extra players lurking in those spots to prevent a Fevola and Joel Bowden one-on-one. We must do the same. Milburn plays this role quite well. Whoever else is back there – usually Corey or Enright – needs to run to these positions as well. We also need to be aware of the long range on Fevola’s kicking. He leads right up outside the 50m arc because he can make the distance from 60m. Whoever plays on him – Scarlett most likely – needs to push him wide. Fev’s kicking was poor so don’t give him any easy shots.
Waite started in defence, lined up on Polak, which surprised me. He wasn’t doing well at all and it wasn’t until later in the match when he went forward that he had a positive influence on the game. I would expect him to start forward against us, unless we go with three talls again, in which case he’ll be forced into defence and he’ll then get Nathan Ablett. If he plays forward, he’s a dangerous type – very good above his head but also at ground level. A difficult match up, but I would go with Milburn.
Carlton have Ackland and Cloke in the ruck. They are C-grade ruckman who did only fairly against Pattison and Polak. We have two options. One is to play Ottens predominantly in the ruck who will dominate against those two. This would leave Mooney and Nathan as the key targets but would release Waite to play forward for Carlton. The second option is to play Blake predominantly in the ruck which would leave Ottens to play mostly forward. Blake would hold his own in ruck contests but could only hope to break even around the ground. Learning from last week though, three tall forward targets are perhaps too many. So it might be wise to start with Ottens in the ruck to see how a smaller structure goes. This will have the added benefit of creating a headache for Carlton when resting Ottens for 5-10 minutes each quarter at full forward.
Whitnall is woefully out of form. Whoever plays on him needs to run off him regularly. Make him a liability. Perhaps Egan can play this role.
Overall, Carlton probably only played 30 minutes of quality football during the match. They seem to be a burst team with a lot of burst players. When they were going well, they had a lot of runners both off half back and through the middle of the ground. They weren’t afraid to leave the contest to create loose players on the attacking side of the pack. They like to run the ball because their foot skills aren’t terribly good. Stevens is the barometer of their team. When Carlton are struggling he is nowhere to be seen but once the flow of play is with them he seems to be everywhere. I would be tempted to leave him alone to start with and back ourselves to starve him of supply. If he gets too much of it, Ling will go to him.
If Carlton get a run-on, slow the game down. They have the ability to kick 4 or 5 goals quickly. We are good in the contests so make it tight. Force some ball-ups. Get a couple of midfielders behind the ball. Put pressure on and they will cough it up.
Carlton will turn the ball over far more often than the Bulldogs and we need to capitalise on this. We need Wojcinski to do as he did last week, rebounding off half back. We need Chapman in the midfield for his pace and good ball use. Most of all, we need to move the ball quickly after a turnover. We need to run it because we seem to stop-start when we try to spot up targets. Make it a team rule – on a turnover, use the space in front of you, run into it, run in numbers and handball. If you take a mark, play on with a handball to someone RUNNING past (NOT standing still) or wheel around and kick long.
This will be an interesting test for Geelong. Carlton, to my mind, are not a finals side so if Geelong can’t stamp authority on this game, we are going to struggle throughout the season.
![C4[2]Yo`DooR](https://www.bigfootycontent.com/avatars/m/21/21849.jpg?1742370429){kind=avatar}
