hardball/tackling

[thegur]

Woosh was quoted in today's paper that he didn't mind them having more tackles, implying that we must have won the ball in the first place to be tackled.

But, dare I say it, I disagree with Woosh.

Anyone got the hardball stat? I just don't think we did win the hardball, and I don't think we tackled nearly as well, we just didn't apply the pressure that they did, when we had the ball. You cannot ignore the fact that most of the papers listed us as having 20-30 tackles less, I think the possession stats were about equal, so how can you rationalise the lack of tackling?

So where am I going with this thread? The same way i have previous weeks, but the loss highlights it more.

I believe we have three really hard nuts. Chick, Wooden and Read who can run through the midfield all day. I don't think that Braun or Banners fall into this category anymore, and the Hummer will, eventually.

Now, Chick was underdone yesterday. When he was on, he hardly spent any time on the ball, in fact, he was about the only player to apply forward line pressure. So without Wooden or Read, we were left without players who apply pressure well. We basically had players who are not very accountable.

Especially away from home, I don't think we can maintain this strategy, that we can get away with at the House. Surely we should be playing different style of football away from home? And IMO, this means including tight(er) checking players.

rant over

thegur

 

[ozzult]

I agree. We aren't hard enough.

 

[RzrBlade]

Originally posted by ozzult
I agree. We aren't hard enough.

well with our contingent of small players, it is understandable if we are a bit less opposing than other teams. But soft? I don't think we are, just a little more beef is needed to scare the opposition teams (that is what wilson is for, but he needs to work on his marking a bit more) possibly is wilson can't get it together, we give paul johnson a go, he looks to be the stocky type, and we need to breed him for the future sooner rather than later.

 

[steve_rat]

i agree that we aren't hard enough..

but fair go, everyone of our midfielders was being tagged big time, we could barely move!

steve rat

 

[ozzult]

I didn't mean to say we were soft, we are anything but.

We just need to apply more physical pressure when chasing and tackling.

 

[RzrBlade]

Originally posted by ozzult
I didn't mean to say we were soft, we are anything but.

We just need to apply more physical pressure when chasing and tackling.

yes, our defensive side does seem to be lacking in that regard. i agree with you on that part then.

any ideas on how to counteract this besides making woosha train and push the idea of more physical defensive pressure into the playing group harder?

 

[The Passenger]

we are definetaly not hard enough at the ball and at the man with the ball. One area to improve on.

 

[ozzult]

The only way to improve this is to make the players chase hard.

It's not a physical thing, it is a mental thing. If we all chased as hard as Chick and Matera, we would lay a heap of tackles. How many times do you see Cousins or Fletcher just running alongside a player, waiting for them to dispose of the ball?

How many times do you see Chick running alongside them waiting for a disposal? Never, his sole focus is on the ball, and if he doesn't have the ball, his sole focus is hitting the bloke who has the ball.

 

[jod23]

Originally posted by thegur


I believe we have three really hard nuts. Chick, Wooden and Read who can run through the midfield all day.

thegur

I would rank Daniel Kerr in that category, he has been a little off his game this year due to the niggling ankle injury. But you will always see him at the bottom of packs and tackling etc

 

[iceman]

I really think we lacked a physical presence on Sunday. Chick tried his heart out but looked underdone. We need someone like him to get in there and tackle hard and put some physical pressure like Essendon were doing to us.

My first thought on SUnday was to throw Green into the midfield to throw his weight around a bit and give Cousins and Co an easier run of it - definetly one area we need to improve in

 

[GoEagles]

We need a Bryon Pickett in our side.

Also the tackles we did make were too weak and the Bombers were able to break free or get their disposal out. Enough of the kick-to-kicks on Wednesday and Friday, we want to see the tackling bags out!