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Forward Line Structure

  • Thread starter Thread starter doppo
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doppo

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Freo
What has happened to our forward line over the past few weeks?

This is the same forward line that was kicking around 25 goals a game towards the start of the season with several players contributing 3 or 4 goals. Now the majority of our goals are coming from our midfielders, Bell, Pavlich and Haselby meanwhile Medders, JLO, Farmer and Croad are hardly making an appearance.

Is it the delivery into the forward line?, over crowding of the forward line? Our players getting more respect by opposition?

Any ideas?
 
Collingwood played a spare in defence and he killed us. A move had to be made and wasnt.
I dont think we play the G well. We take it too wide and bomb it to the 50 (nightmare for forwards).
Other teams get it into the center corridor about 70mtr out then drill a pass to a lead.
 
JLo's been dismal for a while now, Im no expert but I'd say he's lazy!

At one stage we had Longmuir, Sandilands and Polak? in the forward liine. Polak dropped the mark and Sandilands had to try and crumb the ball. You know things aren't going well when someone whos 10 foot 10 has to crumb. Who knows where our small men were.

What happened to Farmer he spent the second half on the bench?
 
The forward structure needs some major improvement for next week. As was shown in todays game, Sandilands is not the ideal full forward. Sure, he commands a contest because of his size and has a much longer reach than any of his opponents but he doesn't crash the packs like Pavlich or even Croad, which means his opponents are still on their feet and able to gather the ball when it hits the ground before he can.

We need Pavlich at CHF, where he can use his pace, mobility and fitness to lead up the ground and run his opponent ragged, as well as creating a contest by crashing the packs and creating the best opportunity for the likes of Farmer, Medhurst, Bell and Schammer to gather the crumb when he can't take the mark by making sure his opponents his the deck.

Medhurst should stay in the forward line, not on the wing like he often was in todays game. Longmuir needs to be left in the goal square one out against his opponent. He is much better one out than in a pack situation and he needs to drastically improve his second efforts if he wants to keep his spot in the team. At one stage in the game he couldn't take the mark but instead of putting in a second effort and going after it again for himself, he expected the 7 foot Sandilands to gather it...

And I agree with Fitzmantle, we can't afford to be bombing it inside fifty when their loose man is killing us.
 

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It's the structure more than anything. Players are contesting in packs rather than being one out. J-Lo has been soft the last few weeks and should give better 2nd efforts. Farmer was looking ominous today but then got injured, like he did against Melbourne when he looked dangerous.
 
I wouldnt blame the structure. I think alot has to do with the delivery coupled with the fact Medhurst & Longmuir havent been there best lately. Pavlich IMO is very close to being our permanent CHF - He was excellent today.
 
I had to laugh when CC put Sandilands in the square.
At first I was worried that Wakelin gave away 20cm in height, but as soon as I saw Wakelin run away from the Ogre he got lost and was confused in whether to chase him or stay in the square. This happened all day with even Presti running off the Ogre.
 
As soon as the opposition sees Presti baulking forwards, blind-turning and taking marks on the wing, you know you're in trouble.:D
 
With Freo bombing it in and letting us have Clokey loose it made your forward structure look non existant and it showed with all your goals after Farmer went off coming from midfielders.

The conditions you experienced today will help the team in the future to 'play the ground' better at the G'.
 
What did we kick, 7 goals 16? 16 bloody points! That's not bad structure, that's our forwards forgetting which direction the goals are. 16.7 would have won us the game and everyone would be saying what a great forward setup we have.

The form of a couple of individual players is disappointing atm (i.e Longmuir and Medhurst) but I don't think there is too much wrong with the structure.
 
inaccuracy in front of goal is usually an indicator of good defensive pressure on the goalkicker and controlling the corridor just as much as having a poor kicking game. need a significant improvment in the the midfield and forwardline to get the winning scores back
 
Originally posted by zero
inaccuracy in front of goal is usually an indicator of good defensive pressure on the goalkicker and controlling the corridor just as much as having a poor kicking game.
Click to expand...

In many cases, yes. But not in this case. Misses from set shots were incredible costly. Even Hasleby missed 2 shots on goal from general play that he is usually odds on to kick. And I suppose we did have the worse end of the luck. Pavlich was unlucky not to have one of his shots roll through, Polak got an unbelievable bounce over his head and Fraser managed to totally arse a goal after making a complete botch up of it.
 
May I comment in your forum?

I was struck by the absence of structure in Freo's forward line. The little blokes all looked like Brodie Holland on a bad day and the big blokes were all mobbed every time they went near it. This impression may have been created because decent delivery was stifled and the conditions interfered with disposal (it was quite windy).

Certainly Freo players (even the excellent Pavlich) had trouble with sighting the goals correctly: the MCG are a bit tricky (something to do with the angle of the stand behind I guess) and the wind was fluking around. The Pies were snapping em through from all angles-we know that ground so well.

I also felt Freo's handballing lacked penetration, so clean takeaways and run-on was rare for the Dockers. Collingwood seemed slicker in the packs and on the burst-maybe its experience or coaching there, but certainly conditions played a part as well.

Connolly did try to match Malthouse in creating the loose man, allowing Sandilands and Polak to chop off some forward thrusts, but he conceded more than he gained. With one or two loose men, the Collingwood defense was close to impenetrable-a lot of Dockers running forward had to bomb away because all leads were covered.

Overall I think Freo can take some positives out of the match. You gained much needed experience in chilly conditions at the MCG. You were subdued by a side who played three and a half quarters of hard footy, but you weren't annihilated. Symmons (sp?) Polack and Pavlich all did well and Sandilands got another game under his belt-I think this guy is a bit of a long shot, but if it pays off (ie he actually learns to play footy) then you'll have a mighty ruck duo.
 

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Originally posted by jabso
I had to laugh when CC put Sandilands in the square.
At first I was worried that Wakelin gave away 20cm in height, but as soon as I saw Wakelin run away from the Ogre he got lost and was confused in whether to chase him or stay in the square. This happened all day with even Presti running off the Ogre.
Click to expand...

What you call that is experience. Trust me in 4 years time you wont be laughing , you will most likely be doing gardening at home as you probably dont like crying in Public
 

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