Does the fact we have so many left-footers compromise our game plan?

Thaihawk

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Thread starter #1
We have so many skilled left-footers in our team, that makes me think we may be too predictable. I thought this was helping Collingwood on Sunday, and they were anticipating our ball movement.

I don't know how many of these left-footers are efficient on the right, but feel that is something that needs addressing.

Hodge, Mitch, are excellent with both feet. Both have kicked some brilliant right foot goals. Guerra seems fair.After that, I don't know. Suckers doesn't have a right.

Is this something they practice at training?
 

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gianytee

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#2
Good Questian

At the game on Sunday you saw it perfectly we would always go out of our defense on the left side of the field and The Pies put all there press on that side, yet we still kicked it there.

It is 100% an issue particularly in defense as Birchall, Suckling and Guerra always kick it to that side but if wont be a major problem if we hit our targets which we didnt. I just wished we had someone like Hurn in our defense so that we wont be to predictable when kicking out.

Also if you watched the game u know all our run and carry comes from the Left side of the field through Young, Birchall, Smith yet on the other side where all the space is we only had Savage running with the ball.

Against a team like the Magpies with there press they left alot of space on the right side of the field for us, knowing we will kick to the left i think we do need to fix this as we are far to predictable.
 

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#4
I heard somewhere (it may have been a stat produced by The Pelican, rest his soul) that left-footers were 3% more efficient at kicking than right-footers.

Make of that what you will.
 

ACTion Hawks

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#5
I am not sure that it is a Left v right foot issue in the game, rather than a game plan issue (cannot see why we have to go left first as I would figure it would be fine going right to a left footer, expecially as the next kick is often in to the corridor).

Another query is whether right footers are better on their left (multidextrous or whatever the word is) than left footers are on their right? Not sure of the evidence. As OP said, both Mitch (RF) and Hodgey (LF) are excellent on both. In another sport the best kick of a football (arguably) would have been David Beckham, but couldn't kick with his left for quids. Same can be said for Buddy (although he is at least attempting it now).
 
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#6
Not at all.

What comprimises your gameplan is an opponent with discipline and structure.

Poor to average sides will be massaged out of their defensive positioning and gradually move toward the ball carrier creating space behind the last defensive line.

What also comprimises your chances come September is the fact that the game style requires precise kicking, which is often the first facet of any gameplan to stutter under September pressure.

Tha ability to win contests or at least create a contest, especially with a deep ball long becomes the deciding factor and as they say, the big men dont become smaller.

Clarkson has the starting point of a gameplan which could trouble most sides come the pointy end of the year however I believe he needs to tweak his structures and allow for more contested marking deep inside his forward 50.

Picking a target with a spot up kick, kicking over the mark with 16 men inside the forward fifty is hard enough to do in the regular season, it becomes all the more harder with sustained pressure and numbers inside the 50.

My 2c.
 
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#8
Interesting 2c there Gordon. The same could be said of Port Adelaide a few years back if we follow your logic.
Port didnt have to face an 18 man press.

I can see what Clarkson is trying to do, and it has merit, but against the two best drilled units in the AFL it has come unstuck.

Delivery into the attacking half is the area I feel needs addressing.
 
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#9
I've been saying the same thing for years. Young has developed a 30 metre right foot kick. It looks like buddy is developing one as well. Birch etc need to as well so that when they get caught on their right they can get it 30 meters up the field.
It wasn't just the woods game that this stood out. Geelong had a man standing in buddy's space on forward flank because they knew the left footers running down the wing would be kicking it to the flank.
Rioli has enough tricks in his book but imagine if he had a right foot!
 

Cyrillic

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#10
Non issue. Otherwise all these other teams with right footers are predictable going by that logic.

Sometimes we can look too hard for a reason when we lose.

If you can't execute your skills well enough for long enough, not matter whether you use a left boot or a left hand, your poor execution will give the opposition a chance to hurt you going the other way.

However, what I would like the umpires to do is actually give players the proper 15 seconds they are entitled to before kicking it. Umpires are either very poor time managers or have been instructed to rush the play.
 

MrFujiMoto

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#11
Non issue. Otherwise all these other teams with right footers are predictable going by that logic.

Sometimes we can look too hard for a reason when we lose.

If you can't execute your skills well enough for long enough, not matter whether you use a left boot or a left hand, your poor execution will give the opposition a chance to hurt you going the other way.

However, what I would like the umpires to do is actually give players the proper 15 seconds they are entitled to before kicking it. Umpires are either very poor time managers or have been instructed to rush the play.
That is right, I don't think it makes us predictable. As long as you can execute, then the predictability is not an issue.
 

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MrFujiMoto

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#12
Not at all.

What comprimises your gameplan is an opponent with discipline and structure.

Poor to average sides will be massaged out of their defensive positioning and gradually move toward the ball carrier creating space behind the last defensive line.

What also comprimises your chances come September is the fact that the game style requires precise kicking, which is often the first facet of any gameplan to stutter under September pressure.

Tha ability to win contests or at least create a contest, especially with a deep ball long becomes the deciding factor and as they say, the big men dont become smaller.

Clarkson has the starting point of a gameplan which could trouble most sides come the pointy end of the year however I believe he needs to tweak his structures and allow for more contested marking deep inside his forward 50.

Picking a target with a spot up kick, kicking over the mark with 16 men inside the forward fifty is hard enough to do in the regular season, it becomes all the more harder with sustained pressure and numbers inside the 50.

My 2c.
That is the most rounded 2c I have ever seen come from you Mr Gecko.... when it comes to the Hawks that is. before this I was sure someone at the Hawks had kidnapped a family member or something... ;)

besides that... I totally agree, the basis of the game plan can definitely work. it just needs some tweaking (Mainly forward of the center) and it will stand up to a high pressure 18 man press no problems. Also people need to remember that we have 8 - 10 players in the side that have played around 20 - 30 games and will only get better at it as their skills develop and can be better used under AFL conditions. The Collingwood game would have been invaluable for these guys, as long as they take it as a learning experience.
 

Abasi

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Moderator #14
Port didnt have to face an 18 man press.

I can see what Clarkson is trying to do, and it has merit, but against the two best drilled units in the AFL it has come unstuck.

Delivery into the attacking half is the area I feel needs addressing.
It came unstuck against Collingwood due to disposal efficiency.

Against Geelong, a game we lost by 5pts, we also had to contend with 3 injuries(Roughead, Young, Guerra) which conspired to our lack of scoreboard pressure in the last, and which in this age of the sub-rule is like fighting with 2 hands tied behind your back.

It's fine to make assumptions that the gameplan doesn't work against Collingwood based on 1 game, but let's not suggest that Geelong blew it out of the water.
 

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#15
i dont think game plan matters that much , but i do think that in this day and age , where players are proffessional , and football is a fulltime gig , every player should be able to kick with their oposite foot reasonably well . enough to get you out of trouble anyway . as a kid growing up , you always played around kicking with your oposite foot and got pretty good at it ( even banana's from the boundry ) .even if you drop the ball with both hands ( krakour style ) you should be pretty good on both feet and capable of field passes . i dont think there is any excuse for a player getting mown down and caught with the ball just because " he has no left or right foot ) , thats crap and not good enough imo .
kicking for goal is different .
 

jpzhawk

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#16
You've played two contests against the Cats this season and lost on both occassions.

Collingwood and Geelong are the two best drilled units in the AFL, I'd say West Coast are next cab off the rank.

IIRC that game could have been all over at quarter time had West Coast not butchered their shots on goal.

It's a gameplan that is more susceptible to pressure than most.

There is no release valve and as we saw against Collingwood when all that pressure builds and has no outlet, the gameplan doesnt stand up.

I certainly think it has merit backward of centre, but more contested ball inside forward 50 is required.

Currently it's the equivalent of shooting 3's all game in basketball terms.
i agree , i am much more a fan of the fast running in waves , play on style with players prepared to run the length to create an option etc . when we are not in possession , absolute hunt to kill pressure on the ball carrier to win it back . this is exactly how our great teams of the 80's won flags .
it is the only way . kicking short , backwards or sideways all the time is boring , suseptable to the above stated plan , and costly .
against lesser teams it may stand up because they are lazy , but against a team that applies mass pressure ? its an epic fail every time .
 

Abasi

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i agree , i am much more a fan of the fast running in waves , play on style with players prepared to run the length to create an option etc . when we are not in possession , absolute hunt to kill pressure on the ball carrier to win it back . this is exactly how our great teams of the 80's won flags .
it is the only way . kicking short , backwards or sideways all the time is boring , suseptable to the above stated plan , and costly .
against lesser teams it may stand up because they are lazy , but against a team that applies mass pressure ? its an epic fail every time .
It's failed once.
 

burner1

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#18
We have lost one of the best contested marking forwards in roughy and have lost a ridicolous amount of talls down back (who otherwise could have gone up fwd - e.g. shoe, lisle).

Bombing it into the 50 as a 'release' option is good in theory but in reality if you don't have the height up forward its just damn stupid. Take cloke, dawes and brown (and tarrant) out of the pies fwd 50 and see how their forward strategy goes. We have no other option than trying to spot up targets up forward if a teams backs do not get drawn up the ground.

I'd also state in terms of game plans the 2008 zone was a high risk strategy - when it didnt work it looked horrible - but when executed properly it brought our game to a level above what anyone could match.

Given our injury/list position there's no way we can win the flag playing a replica of a pies or geelong gamestyle. We are trying something different - which if works and can break the cats and pies down in a final will get us a flag, if it fails well that was probably going to happen anyway if we tried a conventional game style.

AC coaches for premierships. Not top 4, not for a prelim final spot. When he wins another flag hopefully the wider community will realise this, instead of praising coaches whose teams are realisitically never going to win a flag.
 

Cyrillic

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#19
We have lost one of the best contested marking forwards in roughy and have lost a ridicolous amount of talls down back (who otherwise could have gone up fwd - e.g. shoe, lisle).

Bombing it into the 50 as a 'release' option is good in theory but in reality if you don't have the height up forward its just damn stupid. Take cloke, dawes and brown (and tarrant) out of the pies fwd 50 and see how their forward strategy goes. We have no other option than trying to spot up targets up forward if a teams backs do not get drawn up the ground.

I'd also state in terms of game plans the 2008 zone was a high risk strategy - when it didnt work it looked horrible - but when executed properly it brought our game to a level above what anyone could match.

Given our injury/list position there's no way we can win the flag playing a replica of a pies or geelong gamestyle. We are trying something different - which if works and can break the cats and pies down in a final will get us a flag, if it fails well that was probably going to happen anyway if we tried a conventional game style.

AC coaches for premierships. Not top 4, not for a prelim final spot. When he wins another flag hopefully the wider community will realise this, instead of praising coaches whose teams are realisitically never going to win a flag.
:thumbsu::thumbsu::thumbsu::thumbsu::thumbsu:
Could not be expressed any better with what we have available. Brilliant. Well done.
 

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#20
There is definitely not an issue in having more left footers in a team. Assuming teams have mostly right footers, they would have a similar issue.
A benefit of being a left footer is that a defenders natural instinct expects a player to move to the right. So a smart left footer only needs to offer the slightest fake to the right and the defender will fall for it. An even smarter left footer will work on their right side so they can never be corralled into a corner so to speak.
 

Jaeger

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#22
By all means, recount how you saw things.
We didn't play with any particular structure in the first Geelong game.

Clarko even said after the match "we wanted to see where we're really at".

I consider this a discussion.

Perhaps leave your preconcieved ideas at the door and join in.
Hard to do that with you GG. You constantly troll us on the main board.

Flogga.
 

Abasi

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Moderator #23
So there is to be no outside discussion?

Im hear providing an outside perspective. By all means Im not saying Im right, it's my opinion and one, on the evidence thus far has some merit.

Do you think it's a gameplan which will achieve the ultimate success come September?
Outside discussion from posters who don't troll Hawthorn on other boards, yes.

Paint it any way you want, the majority of posters who've read your posts elsewhere do not want to read your thoughts here.
 

Sixpence

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#25
Outside discussion from posters who don't troll Hawthorn on other boards, yes.

Paint it any way you want, the majority of posters who've read your posts elsewhere do not want to read your thoughts here.
Pretty much sums it up.

GG, you can't constantly hang shit on us in other boards and then expect us to have a reasonable discussion just because you act a little more respectful here. It just comes across as fake.
 
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