News Frustration over off-target Blues

[Beloved]

http://www.carltonfc.com.au/season2008/newsarticle/tabid/4311/newsid/75198/default.aspx

CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has rued his side's poor kicking for goal after the Sydney Swans defeated the Blues by 17 points on Saturday.

A wasteful Carlton booted 9.13 to register its second loss on the trot after a four-point reversal to the Bombers last week.

Ratten half-joked there would be kicking practice each day this week ahead of the Blues' round-five clash with the Western Bulldogs at Docklands next week.

"That's the frustrating point about this week and last week. We had numerous opportunities and we squandered them again," he said after the game.

"We'll sit back and look at the tape and be frustrated as hell."

The Blues got off to a flier in the first quarter, taking a slender lead into the first break and dominating possessions 118 to 64.

But the Blues failed to kick accurately and were made to pay. The Swans turned up the heat on the Blues to grab the lead and hold onto to it until the final siren.

"Another good start, but we had that with Essendon and against them we lose by four points and today we lost by under three goals," lamented Ratten.

"Maybe our turnovers hurt us big time and they got some soft goals because of that and that sort of deflates your confidence.

"We might do kicking training Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday… and hopefully by the time we get through to next week, we'll kick them through the sticks."

Ratten rejected the idea that expectations were too high after the Blues were 2-0 following wins over Richmond and the Brisbane Lions, but he did concede the last fortnight had been under par.

"We've been pretty good in that we've been able to score and kick goals. But the last two weeks have been a real burden to us.

"I don't think it's a mental thing. It's just the way it's panned out. Some of the guys have been scoring 18 out of 20 for their set shots in training but on match day we just need to get back on the horse.

"There are no excuses. We had our opportunities but by the end the Swans were at their best and they strangled us. They do that very well."

 

[blue gunslinger]

100% correct
Train them, run them, kick to kick, more running,goal kicking practice, more running, kick to kick, more runinng and finish with sprints!

 

[Beloved]

100% correct
Train them, run them, kick to kick, more running,goal kicking practice, more running, kick to kick, more runinng and finish with sprints!

With the training sessions that I'd seen, they all seemed to be doing the Midfield drills and such but I never saw much shooting for goal. I'm not sure if it was only the times that I was there but...

 

[Dustyjackman]

Truth is, bad kicking is bad footy.

However, if only a few (well, four) of those missed goals over the past fortnight had snuck home we would be carrying on like rabid Saints supportors at the minute.

And, it's all about expectation. Here we are spewin' that we're 2 and 2, and yet, the Swans are rapt that they are sitting at 2 and 2. Same result different out look.

 

[blue gunslinger]

it is how we lost the 2
Run them and learn them something good and proper

 

[Warsaw]

Shouldn't just be practicing set shot kicking, but kicking for goals on the run aswell.

 

[blue gunslinger]

passing to a teammate in the openfield in a forward direction might help
Also how not to handpass to a teammate that is flat footed and stationary amongst a bee hive of opponents

 

[Kaladin Stormblessed]

So what happened after half time then?

Why couldn't we run the game like we did in the first quarter? Sure you can excuse one half of football to inaccuracy but we didn't give a yelp in the second half, why??

 

[Beloved]

So what happened after half time then?

Why couldn't we run the game like we did in the first quarter? Sure you can excuse one half of football to inaccuracy but we didn't give a yelp in the second half, why??

Because we were simply out coached, unfortunately.

 

[blues4flag]

Because we were simply out coached, unfortunately.

Why the lift in the last two minutes of the game? The only time the pressure was up at a decent level the whole second half...

 

[blue gunslinger]

game over and Syd knew it. As did we so a few won some cheap stats (Eddie not included - nice goal)

 

[thylacine60]

• the majority of AFL players will have won their junior club's B&F on several occasions
• these blokes have been training and practising their skills since they were about 9 years old
• when a player comes into the big-time, he is usually pretty set in his skills - the way he kicks, handballs, marks, goals
• players skills mostly improve as they establish themselves within a club but basically they are recruited/drafted with their abilities known

If people think taking these ****ing bozos out onto the ground and putting them through multiple repetitions of goal-kicking night after night AT THIS STAGE OF THEIR CAREERS is going to produce the slightest improvement in our scoreline they have rocks inside their empty ****ing heads

• accuracy at goal is a week by week proposition - some weeks you do some weeks you don't
• really

 

[blue gunslinger]

that is why my coaches just ran us until we hurled

 

[Beloved]

Why the lift in the last two minutes of the game? The only time the pressure was up at a decent level the whole second half...

I guess Sydney took the foot off the pedal. I'm trying to search for another excuse but I can't find one. We weren't there to play.

 

[Cruiser23]

He is kind of deflecting the attention off himself by saying kicking skills cost us the game isn't he? For me Rattens strategy has been shown up over the past 2 weeks and i think if he was a little more inventive we would have won both games even though we weren't playing our best footy.

Also don't agree with Ratten when he says he doesn't think it's mental. If players are kicking over 90% at training then why aren't they doing it in a game? They have the ability, like Thy said they've been training for years and years on their kicking skills. It is mental Ratts and i think he knows it.

 

[CTwenty]

• the majority of AFL players will have won their junior club's B&F on several occasions
• these blokes have been training and practising their skills since they were about 9 years old
• when a player comes into the big-time, he is usually pretty set in his skills - the way he kicks, handballs, marks, goals
• players skills mostly improve as they establish themselves within a club but basically they are recruited/drafted with their abilities known

If people think taking these ****ing bozos out onto the ground and putting them through multiple repetitions of goal-kicking night after night AT THIS STAGE OF THEIR CAREERS is going to produce the slightest improvement in our scoreline they have rocks inside their empty ****ing heads

• accuracy at goal is a week by week proposition - some weeks you do some weeks you don't
• really

No. Practice actually does improve your skills. Pretty obvious I would have thought. Gee, even Ratts suggested they might be focusing on kicking for goal this week. Mind you, next week when we wont be able to hit a target by hand, the focus of training will change again.

 

[40yearBLUE]

• the majority of AFL players will have won their junior club's B&F on several occasions
• these blokes have been training and practising their skills since they were about 9 years old
• when a player comes into the big-time, he is usually pretty set in his skills - the way he kicks, handballs, marks, goals
• players skills mostly improve as they establish themselves within a club but basically they are recruited/drafted with their abilities known

If people think taking these ****ing bozos out onto the ground and putting them through multiple repetitions of goal-kicking night after night AT THIS STAGE OF THEIR CAREERS is going to produce the slightest improvement in our scoreline they have rocks inside their empty ****ing heads

• accuracy at goal is a week by week proposition - some weeks you do some weeks you don't
• really

Except Thy that the reason they are missing is mental not physical. Its not that they could not kick those goals 9 out of 10 under little or no pressure at training. But under the pressure of an opposition that will hurt you hard if he catches you, and missing will hurt you on the scoreboard as they regain possession and sweep the ball into their attack.

And to reinforce your point that some weeks they come off, when you have exerted scoreboard pressure because the first few shots sailed through and now you are 5 goals up, this shot is not as critical as it would be if we have already kicked 2.9 and another miss will look really bad, so that lack of scoreboard pressure on us makes the shot more getable, more scoreboard pressure because despite our dominance we are a goal down and that slot looks tiny.

Perhaps more focus on kicking under pressure will help a little but we have to straighten up, but I can tell you one thing, I would be far more concerned if we were not getting more scoring shots than the opposition each week and but for straight kicking we would be belting sides out of games by half time. We had double their scoring shots at quarter time yesterday and should have been 6 or 7 goals up and effectively game over. It wasnt, nor was it last week when again it should have been.

I think the game plan is working, we just have to fine tune some aspects of it, and it will deliver the results we need.

 

[mac25]

Except Thy that the reason they are missing is mental not physical. Its not that they could not kick those goals 9 out of 10 under little or no pressure at training. But under the pressure of an opposition that will hurt you hard if he catches you, and missing will hurt you on the scoreboard as they regain possession and sweep the ball into their attack.

And to reinforce your point that some weeks they come off, when you have exerted scoreboard pressure because the first few shots sailed through and now you are 5 goals up, this shot is not as critical as it would be if we have already kicked 2.9 and another miss will look really bad, so that lack of scoreboard pressure on us makes the shot more getable, more scoreboard pressure because despite our dominance we are a goal down and that slot looks tiny.


Perhaps more focus on kicking under pressure will help a little but we have to straighten up, but I can tell you one thing, I would be far more concerned if we were not getting more scoring shots than the opposition each week and but for straight kicking we would be belting sides out of games by half time. We had double their scoring shots at quarter time yesterday and should have been 6 or 7 goals up and effectively game over. It wasnt, nor was it last week when again it should have been.

I think the game plan is working, we just have to fine tune some aspects of it, and it will deliver the results we need.

No question two weeks in a row our kicking in the first half has been costly, but both last week in the last quarter and yesterday in the second half they looked flat and really did not even look like winning, good sides do have a tendency to lift and find a bit extra and we have failed two weeks in a row against middle of the road teams, and considering we are yet to play a quality team as yet, we are facing some challenging times and unless there is a marked improvement we will reach the half way point of the season well below expectations.

 

[40yearBLUE]

No question two weeks in a row our kicking in the first half has been costly, but both last week in the last quarter and yesterday in the second half they looked flat and really did not even look like winning, good sides do have a tendency to lift and find a bit extra and we have failed two weeks in a row against middle of the road teams, and considering we are yet to play a quality team as yet, we are facing some challenging times and unless there is a marked improvement we will reach the half way point of the season well below expectations.

Yes it is an interesting problem. It appears our mids are really putting in big first quarters and appear to run out of legs in the second half, when games are still there to be won. I know the evidence pool is shallow but it appears that when we are in full control at half time then our mids are able to apply enough pressure to stay on top but when needed to run down an oppositon that we have not been able to put away with poor kicking we struggle. I think we got away with it against Brisbane, because we maintianed the lead, had they hit the front (and it got close) I dont think we would have got back in front.

So we have 2 issues here, scoreboard pressure early in the game, and fitness levels to run out games when so much energy has been expended in the first half. I think our game plan is sound if we are kicking straight. If we cant fix this, then we will get to mid way with very few wins and an uphill battle to make the finals.

 

[blues4flag]

Give them the ball at training, tell them to kick a goal or else. You mightn't be able to simulate match pressure but they sure as hell can employ other forms of pressure.

Kick 8/10 or find yourself running laps for an hour. If they don't want to wear them out, threaten them with something else. Maybe the threat of 10 lashes to the arse will be pressure enough to simulate match conditions? I'm sure a few of the boys would sweat buckets at the threat of having to read through a few hundred page novel if they don't kick well enough at training.

 

[thylacine60]

No. Practice actually does improve your skills. Pretty obvious I would have thought. Gee, even Ratts suggested they might be focusing on kicking for goal this week. Mind you, next week when we wont be able to hit a target by hand, the focus of training will change again.

Obviously. Please tell me how Fev kicks bags of 6, 7 and 8 when apparently they just don't have time to do any goal-kicking practice? How a forward like Lloyd can come back from a bad injury and snag 4 or 5. Why would kicking a a few in a row on a Thursday night mean you could do the same the following Sunday afternoon?

Practice does not make perfect. Sure have your goal-kicking at training - it's a skill of the game. But don't tell me a couple of weeks where it is the major focus will produce majorly better results. More goals will just be part of the swings and roundabouts.

And don't patronize me, I'm in a **** of a mood today.

PS: How much goal-kicking practice do you think Richo does every week?

 

[Blue Dawn]

**** the goalkicking - much rather see a sharp focus on tackiling and gut running! Not impressed with the deflection coming out of Carlton in the wake of our average recent efforts.

 

[as0l0]

Truth is, bad kicking is bad footy.

However, if only a few (well, four) of those missed goals over the past fortnight had snuck home we would be carrying on like rabid Saints supportors at the minute.

And, it's all about expectation. Here we are spewin' that we're 2 and 2, and yet, the Swans are rapt that they are sitting at 2 and 2. Same result different out look.

you've really said it well, but most people aren't going to accept it.

 

[as0l0]

Obviously. Please tell me how Fev kicks bags of 6, 7 and 8 when apparently they just don't have time to do any goal-kicking practice? How a forward like Lloyd can come back from a bad injury and snag 4 or 5. Why would kicking a a few in a row on a Thursday night mean you could do the same the following Sunday afternoon?

yeah, but;

""I haven't done too much goalkicking practice in the past month because I haven't been out on the (training) track so I have just got to try and get myself on the track and try to start kicking straighter," he (Fev) told Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show"

http://sportal.com.au/afl-news-display/fevola-hindered-by-heel-68437

 

[Beloved]

yeah, but;

""I haven't done too much goalkicking practice in the past month because I haven't been out on the (training) track so I have just got to try and get myself on the track and try to start kicking straighter," he (Fev) told Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show"

http://sportal.com.au/afl-news-display/fevola-hindered-by-heel-68437

That's Fevola taking responsibility for his poor form. That's a start.