CC: The centre clearances thread.

[mdc]

In a couple of other threads I've flagged my intention to develop some new-fangled measures that will be useful for looking at centre clearances. Every now and then I'll update this thread with whatever I happen to find.

But for now, I thought I'd just share the videos of all our centre bounces, for anyone that wants to play along at home. Rd 1 below.

[YOUTUBE]1Ou7JfktlB0[/YOUTUBE]

 

[esc0bar]

we didnt go that bad in the first half clearences as one of the commentators said " the clearence count is 14 - 6 in favour of collingwood. Now we saw the likes of Swan and pendelbury busting through the pack, along with obree.
Put us up against a team like Geelong and we get smashed. Adelaide isnt the best team to demonstrate our lack of in and under mids.

Makes me pissed that Eddie couldnt secure Juddy or Cousins who would have almost been enough to make us half respectable in the middle in the league.

 

[Optimax]

So i watched the video

geeze obree has a hard body
pendlebury can stop time, only explanation
Thomas is explosive
Swan has a nice tattoo
Bryan has better presence then fraser
Fraser jumps to early or falls over too often
Swan has a nice tattoo
Healy is asinine
Obree is severaly under rated
Leon had a poor day
Healy is a douche
Swan has a nice tattoo
Pendlebury will go to astounding heights this season
Thomas was in our best
Swans tattoo is awesome


So i didnt really learn anything new, MDC what are you getting at here?

 

[YouBeauty]

really good work mate, we'll have to see how we go against melbourne in centre clearences to compare properly.

 

[YouBeauty]

You can actually see a pattern. When we started to get closer to adelaide on the scoreboard, we lost less clearences or won quite a few. It is the key, we are far more damaging off a clearence, and a really good side when we do win them.

Although, this also outlines how poor we are coming out of defence, but I think heath shaw can fix this. We were really bad coming out of HB.

 

[Optimax]

You can actually see a pattern. When we started to get closer to adelaide on the scoreboard, we lost less clearences or won quite a few. It is the key, we are far more damaging off a clearence, and a really good side when we do win them.

Although, this also outlines how poor we are coming out of defence, but I think heath shaw can fix this. We were really bad coming out of HB.

We were 14 to 6 and down by 4 goals atone stage

Strangely enough we were owning the clearances and still losing

 

[mdc]

So i didnt really learn anything new, MDC what are you getting at here?

Not "getting at" anything yet, need a lot more data for that. Just thought I'd share it, since I'm making these vids for my own personal reference anyways.

Fwiw, based on that vid I think Maxwell shows some real promise as an occasional mid - his presence really opened up the space for the others.

 

[Optimax]

Not "getting at" anything yet, need a lot more data for that. Just thought I'd share it, since I'm making these vids for my own personal reference anyways.

Fwiw, based on that vid I think Maxwell shows some real promise as an occasional mid - his presence really opened up the space for the others.

Ah cool

Yeah should of added maxwell to my list after Swan has a nice tattoo

 

[Heater39]

Ah cool

Yeah should of added maxwell to my list after Swan has a nice tattoo

Tattoos like that are hideous! Why anyone would cover their arm with that rubbish I'll never know.

 

[Alexander323bc]

While we won a lot of the centre clearances, not many were kicks to advantage and most were around the back with a pointless kick to the HF area and our forwards were outpositioned and were not working hard enough. We need to use it better if we are going to win the premiership. Maxwell is a tough nut and needs more time around the clearances.
Even though we won the clearances, Adelaide still had more clearances then us where they ran straight through teh corridor and had the oportunity to deliver a no pressure kick to their forwards.

 

[Quicky]

I think this is a really interesting experiment. It will be very interesting what it shows up.

I was very impressed with Thomas's intuition and positioning at the centre bounces. He really had a knack of getting himself in the right positions and then the skill to create something when he won the ball. I've been critical of the idea of playing Thomas in the middle because I felt he didn't have the fitness for it. Based on that footage I think he should be given as much time in the middle as he can physically handle because he looked like a natural.

I was also surprised at how good Maxwell was at the centre bounce. I think he really provides that hard body that we really lack in the middle especially since Burns retirement. I just wish Malthouse would give Stanley the opportunity to play this role as not only could he do as good a job as Maxwell (probably minus a bit of Maxwells pace) but he could win more clearances than Maxwell.

Davis was also very disappointing. I heard he had an illness and wasn't 100% fit so I won't judge him too harshly but he really failed to win any clearances or apply any real pressure. Begs the question why he was played as he clearly wasn't fit, and also why if he had to play he was played in the most demanding position on the ground when he could have provided the spark and finishing touch we needed up forward.

 

[pipeline]

We
Strangely enough we were owning the clearances and still losing

Interesting viewing them in isolation like this. I'll be fascinated to see how this pans out in future weeks. It'd be nice if we could see a few more seconds in some of them to see what the outcome was in terms of "hurt".

Just from that though, it seemed their clearances were cleaner and a bit more damaging. Too many of ours were "grab and kick" affairs. See the Dids affort for example. Really look dorward to seeing more of this - and any other similar illustrations MDC, like tackles or 1%ers. Good stuff.

 

[handy point]

Thanks mdc, I appreciate you taking the time to put this together... viewing these helps counter some of the prevailing myths about our team, and get a better understanding of what's going wrong/right.

Agree with pipeline, quite a few of the clearances seem to be grab and boot types... although Pendles shows his elite decision making a number of times.

 

[Old Spice]

Always good to check our abstract speculations against actual footage. I loved Thomas' clearance at the 3:55 minute mark of that footage.

Was also impressed with Maxwell's effort to pur pressure on.

 

[Kirby]

When Pendles gets the ball things happen don't they?

 

[Old Spice]

If we were clever enough, I know I'm not, we could at end of season pick out the clearances of certain midfiled players to see how they performed.

 

[Quicky]

When Pendles gets the ball things happen don't they?

Yes.

 

[well left]

Great work mdc. Thanks for that.

I was looking at that with fresh eyes as I only heard the game on radio and had not seen any footage. My thoughts based on that:

Pendlebury was very good
O'Bree is still required as the junkyard dog doing the grunt work
One of the two above needs to be at every bounce
I liked the intensity of Maxwell and Thomas and they need more exposure
Don't think Didak does his best work in the middle. Half forward or wing for mine.
There was one play where Medhurst's elusiveness set Thomas free on the wing. Wouldn't mind him coming off a wing at bounces then pushing forward to a flank.
Davis has enough credits to excuse one poor performance, especially if ill.

 

[DWil6]

If you could do this every week, that would be awesome MDC. Could really start to see standouts and see if we get any system happening which could benefit us going forward. It is disturbing that we won the centre clearances but were getting well beaten early on. Can't wait to see Beams and Stanley in there to see how they perform. An interesting stat could be how often a player started in the middle compared to how many clearances they actually won. It would show who has the best clearance rate per opportunity.

 

[DoubleO7]

An interesting stat could be how often a player started in the middle compared to how many clearances they actually won. It would show who has the best clearance rate per opportunity.

Leon Davis says hi.

 

[The Dawes]

One thing that stood out for me, particularly early on, was that we were winning the ruck taps and they generally seemed to be going to a Collingwood player - admittedly Adelaide don't have the most dominant ruck combo in the league, but it was encouraging to see Fraser and even Bryan getting the ball down to our blokes - long may it continue.

 

[DWil6]

Leon Davis says hi.

Not so much last w/e but in general quite possibly!

 

[DoubleO7]

Not so much last w/e but in general quite possibly!

He still managed to come equal fourth in clearances despite the fact he spent the first half of the match in the forward line.

That is why I would like Davis to start in the center square.

 

[mdc]

If we were clever enough, I know I'm not, we could at end of season pick out the clearances of certain midfiled players to see how they performed.

An interesting stat could be how often a player started in the middle compared to how many clearances they actually won. It would show who has the best clearance rate per opportunity.

Certainly one of the things I'll be looking at.

 

[Old Spice]

In the words of Principal Seymour Skinner 'kaloo-kalayy, oh MDC, you've made me the happiest poster on BF'