Fix the forward line, dammit

[Shinboners]

It's about the only place where we don't put pressure on the opposition....on the scoreboard.

Our backline does very well considering the weight of opposition attacks they have to contend with. Sooner or later, they'll crack. Remember, about 15 minutes into the 3rd quarter, we were only down by about 4 goals.

Our midfield does well in keeping pressure on the opposition and winning the ball, but they must improve their positioning and delivery. Too many times and loose kick landed in the arms of a waiting Essendon player. Again, for patches of the game, they managed to stop Essendon from generating too much run....but with the likes of Smith, Harris, and Rawlings there, their young legs were bound to run out of steam while Stevens and Simpson have never been that fast. As for their positioning, there were a few times when a North player would be coming out of defence and find no free player ahead of him because all the midfielders were parallel to him, not forward. Also, if a midfielder was going forward, there were no crumbers to compete with the Essendon loose man in defence for the ball. As for delivery of the ball, they're still bombing it to the area where Carey would have been if he was out on the field....instead, there was usually one north player (either Rocca, Petrie, or McKernan) and 3 Essendon people to keep him company.

The forward line. Pagans Paddock only works if Carey is there to take the pack mark, or if he misses it, can get it down to a forward running by (Abraham, Grant, Harvey). As you can see, there was no Carey, Abraham got injured, Harvey was with the magoos, and Grant was too busy in the midfield. If you are going to have Rocca as the key forward, then the midfield has to send him low passes for him to lead into. He will not take contested pack marks a la Carey. Still, I like the idea of Carey and Rocca leading out to differing directions from the goal square....so we'll see how things go when both are in the side. Once they get the forward line fixed up and functioning, we can get rewards for the work of the backline and midfield...every goal we score is one that the opposition has to match. And we're far better off making them match us than for us to try and match them.

We have the components of a good side, the coaching panel just has to find a way of making them work to their best talents.

Keep the faith.
Shinboners

 

[Daphne]

I agree with most of what you said. But I do think that Rocca is able to take a contested mark. Can someone remind me what we lost our first game by last year?, when i went into the Official forum just now, much of what I read was exactly the same as this time last year. Was it 34points or was it more? Was at a party last night and just about everyone I spoke to, (Opposition that is) said how impressed they are with Harris. Another thing that happened was, as soon as they kenw I was a Kanga supporter they started giving me crap about our low supporter base, so at the party of 6o I managed to round up 10 of us and made them all get together and go see the smarta.s.s, they were impressed. Made me think that maybe we should have one of those days where we should all get together and have a march on the radio and Tv stations and just let them see how many of us there really are.

[This message has been edited by Daphne (edited 01 April 2001).]

 

[hotham]

Shinboners,

Given our performance it appears we learnt nothing from the thrashing Essendon gave us in the final last year. That is all i am going to say, because i am still peeved.

 

[schimma_20]

l agree Shinboners the Pagans paddock is to easy to defend against with 2or3 defenders flooding our forward line it's so easy for them to run the ball out when their under no pressure.Also where are our loose players we always seem to be under the pump when we come out of defence.Pagans paddock might work against the weaker teams but against the best teams it is failing.

 

[Shinboners]

There is one other comment I want to make about Pagan's Paddock. One of the main issues about the Paddock is that if the opposition get a player to drop back loose in defence, it means that there must be a free North player somewhere along the half forward line or midfield, thus giving us a numerical advantage and a second chance to send the ball forward. On Friday night, Essendon would often have three players (and sometimes four) in the backline against the one North forward, which means that there had to be at least two/three loose North players in the midfield. However, when the Essendon player gets the ball, those extra defenders run to the flanks and wings to create extra options for the ball carrier, and suddenly, those extra players we had in midfield find themselves out of position (thus the positive becomes a negative). Teams like Essendon and Melbourne no longer simply bomb the ball out of defence, they run with it.

If North reverted to a more traditional forward structure, the Essendon backline would not be able to run off and create attacks because if they did, you would have loose North forwards who could almost certainly score if our midfield won the ball back.