Clearances

[WCE_Phill]

Dispite our hitout advantage through out the year, we have struggled at clearances.

On Saturday, we smash one of the best clearance teams in the AFL despite them watching our ruckman.

I was at the game and have watched the reply, and couldn't see if we were doing anything different.

Does anyone know why? Is it just as simple as our mids having a good game?

 

[ziad]

A very good question.

Pies were flat but we did something. NN is a weapon and I suspect he played a part. In the past we lose the ball to spreading mids not in the contest direct from a tap itself itself - we stopped that happening. But how?

 

[SpaceClef]

Dispite our hitout advantage through out the year, we have struggled at clearances.

On Saturday, we smash one of the best clearance teams in the AFL despite them watching our ruckman.

I was at the game and have watched the reply, and couldn't see if we were doing anything different.

Does anyone know why? Is it just as simple as our mids having a good game?

Wood got destroyed. A lot of lesser rucks have at least nullified the advantage that NN gives us, but Wood didn't even manage to nullify them.

 

[Tiff]

Yeah NN was literally only playing himself. They were straight into our hands and then zooom.

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Didn't Pendlebury line up in the ruck at one stage? Didn't even bother to contest the centre bounce, just stood in front of Coxy as a spare midfielder.

 

[sTeeL]

Nope. He kindly stepped out of the way as well.

 

[Marlin01]

I'll stand corrected on this, but it appeared to me that our 2-3metre handballs were sharp and creative, allowing players to run away from the contest.

 

[Dylan82]

I think the biggest difference from previous weeks is that Collingwood under Buckley simply refuse to tag players which allowed Kerr and Priddis to rack up clearances at will from the ruck dominance.

It is quite odd really, no other team in the league allows Kerr any space but the Magpies give him a paddock and he destroys them.

 

[mentalgrind]

I think the biggest difference from previous weeks is that Collingwood under Buckley simply refuse to tag players which allowed Kerr and Priddis to rack up clearances at will from the ruck dominance.

It is quite odd really, no other team in the league allows Kerr any space but the Magpies give him a paddock and he destroys them.

I wish players like Kerr were allowed to just play thier game more often. Is brilliant to watch these players in full flight

 

[The Dodger]

I think the main thing is Shuey and NN being out in the middle at the same time for a few games in a row getting back into sync.
Like Cox & Kerr, NN & Shuey seem to have a system worked out.

 

[bodazoka]

Daniel Kerr played an inside midfield clinic

 

[kaiserchief13]

Like I said a week ago Kerr is being saved for these big games. He doesn't try/he plays half forward/bench vs teams like Port and Brisbane however he is required to beat the likes of Collingwood and Hawthorn. He will need to be in top form the next 2 weeks if the Eagles want 2 more wins for a week off and a home prelim.

 

[ROYAL EAGLE]

For me its simply Scott Selwood is back to his early season form.
He was the one who dropped of the most in clearances during our bad patch, his confidence is up again and he is winning clearances again.
When he is up, it gives us more options and the whole mid group tend to be better.
Scotty is the barometor of our mids these days.

 

[Dark Sharks]

Was just one of those nights if you ask me. Nicnat and cox played with themselves..... *pause for effect* and our mids seemed to actually click like i haven't seen in a long time, and against a quality mid too. Kingy actually said something on AFL 360 the other day how collingwood mids are to offensive and stat hungry that they probably didn't give any of our mids enough respect? Seems to make sense. Considering Swan, Beams and Pendles all had good games, yet got completely pantsed at the same time.

Captain hindsight tells me it won't be like that against hawthorn on friday.... I'm scared. Possible moisture in pants scared

 

[Fatty rules]

Seemed like a lot of Swan's possessions in particular were around half back and not really damaging. Hawks mids will be a totally different proposition if form is any guide. And Hale a different proposition in the ruck too.

 

[TruBluEagle]

Throughout our poor clearance period we were still leading the comp in hit outs to advantage so our ruck dominance on the weekend wasn't the only reason for the change. The issue we were having is we would get the ball down to one of our players (i.e priddis) who would then try and feed the quick handball to the player running past who would then kick it forward (looks great when it works and you can see it is what we practice a lot, just watch the ruck warm ups before the game) the problem is we were getting stripped of the ball or missing the pass which would lead to a turn over and the loss of the clearance. On the weekend we went far more direct. The player who first received the ball would quickly look to see if the handball was on and if it wasn't then they would throw it on the boot and just get it forward which allows us to to get the press set up. Also we made the most of the ruck advantage by doing a similar thing where nic nat would tap it over the inside mids to someone like Shuey who was already on his bike running forward and this then gave him time to pin point a kick or go for goal. This was made easier by Collingwoods lack of respect by their mids as this tactic can be fairly easy to pin down once it's been done once as you just need to keep an eye on Shuey and see if he is running off. Both of these tactics reduced our turnovers and combined with a much higher intensity at the contest helped us to win more clearances.

Anyway, that is how I saw it

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Hale and Roughead will get monstered this week

 

[Agent93]

Throughout our poor clearance period we were still leading the comp in hit outs to advantage so our ruck dominance on the weekend wasn't the only reason for the change.

The issue we were having is we would get the ball down to one of our players (i.e priddis) who would then try and feed the quick handball to the player running past who would then kick it forward (looks great when it works and you can see it is what we practice a lot, just watch the ruck warm ups before the game) the problem is we were getting stripped of the ball or missing the pass which would lead to a turn over and the loss of the clearance. On the weekend we went far more direct.

The player who first received the ball would quickly look to see if the handball was on and if it wasn't then they would throw it on the boot and just get it forward which allows us to to get the press set up.

Also we made the most of the ruck advantage by doing a similar thing where nic nat would tap it over the inside mids to someone like Shuey who was already on his bike running forward and this then gave him time to pin point a kick or go for goal. This was made easier by Collingwoods lack of respect by their mids as this tactic can be fairly easy to pin down once it's been done once as you just need to keep an eye on Shuey and see if he is running off.

Both of these tactics reduced our turnovers and combined with a much higher intensity at the contest helped us to win more clearances.

Anyway, that is how I saw it

Paragraphs are awesome.

 

[TruBluEagle]

Paragraphs are awesome.

Haha, sorry! I wrote that on my phone so I lost track of much I had written.

 

[Rids]

Dispite our hitout advantage through out the year, we have struggled at clearances.

On Saturday, we smash one of the best clearance teams in the AFL despite them watching our ruckman.

I was at the game and have watched the reply, and couldn't see if we were doing anything different.

Does anyone know why? Is it just as simple as our mids having a good game?

I think your original premise is incorrect. We've had an awful month or so (before this week obviously) but for much of the season we have been quite good. We have 4 players in the top 25 in clearances for the season (Priddis 7th, Kerr 13th, Scooter 16th, Shuey 23rd) indicating a good spread and no reliance on any one player and ironically Collingwood is next best with 3 (Beams, Swan and Pendles). Whilst our dominance hasn't been as clear cut as it was on the weekend (and as someone earlier mentioned Collingwood's lack of defensive mids may have had something to do with that) we have still won clearances for much of the season and just went through a really bad patch for a month.

 

[Prem87]

I think your original premise is incorrect. We've had an awful month or so (before this week obviously) but for much of the season we have been quite good. We have 4 players in the top 25 in clearances for the season (Priddis 7th, Kerr 13th, Scooter 16th, Shuey 23rd) indicating a good spread and no reliance on any one player and ironically Collingwood is next best with 3 (Beams, Swan and Pendles). Whilst our dominance hasn't been as clear cut as it was on the weekend (and as someone earlier mentioned Collingwood's lack of defensive mids may have had something to do with that) we have still won clearances for much of the season and just went through a really bad patch for a month.

I disagree with your disagreement. We have won a lot of clearances this year - clearances so clean and more regular than when Judd, Cousins Kerr were at their peak (all due to Nic Nat). However our problem has been stifling the opposition - their clearances are relatively clean as well with little defensive pressure applied by us. We are being more attacking at stoppages which is great, but are getting done easily the other way as well.

 

[Agent93]

We've also had numerous occasions where the ball is moved clear of the circle and we're beaten to it off the wings or half-lines. Those are the ones which get us into trouble.

 

[The Falcon Strike]

Didn't Pendlebury line up in the ruck at one stage? Didn't even bother to contest the centre bounce, just stood in front of Coxy as a spare midfielder.

Which in my opinion was precisely the right thing to do.

No point getting cox's knee across your chin for one stoppage

 

[the harry]

Daniel Kerr played an inside midfield clinic

It's good when he decides to try isn't it? At his best he's in the top few in the comp, just sometimes he isn't interested it seems.

 

[BradWCE]

Which in my opinion was precisely the right thing to do.

No point getting cox's knee across your chin for one stoppage

Yeah it would be pretty dumb for a medium sized player to contest a ruck contest against Dean Cox, not likely to win it and likely to get a knee to the face or chest.

But then again, you never know.