_RT_
Hall of Famer
- Sep 17, 2006
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- AFL Club
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- Furies Premiers 2010
Jack Riewoldt
Tom Lynch
So far after 4 games Lynch averages 5.3 marks with only 2.8 marks per game inside 50, with Jack averaging 4.3 marks and 2.3 marks inside 50 per game. For 2 players whose strengths have been their marking ability we seem to be not playing in a way that maximises their strengths. Instead we seem happy with them not getting out marked and bringing the ball to ground for our ground ball players to go to work, but that hasn't been working either.
As you can see from the heat maps above, both Jack & Tom are getting most of their possessions inside the F50, but as I said they are not doing so in terms of clunking marks, but more getting handball receives or gathering the ball when it hits the ground.
The trouble with this is that it works into the oppositions hands in terms of them defending our entries into F50 as they know where it's going and so far this year have been very good at rebounding it out and opening us up on the rebound.
So how do we fix this?
I would have thought the stand rule would have played into our hands a bit more with our chaos style of play, but so far this season we've rarely taken the game on with quick ball movement which would have created more 1-1 contests for us inside F50. Having Houli come back into the line up will no doubt help in that area as he and Short will get on their bikes and attack more.
However that alone won't solve the issue, for mine we need to see our forwards actually getting on the front foot and start leading at the ball carrier and encourage our players up the ground to start lowering their eyes and honouring the leading option to start putting doubt in terms of how the opposition defends. Another option I want to explore is a return to the 3 tall forward structure that we played with in the early 2010s when we had Jack Griffiths and Vickery often stationed forward. Bringing in CCJ would also allow us to stop using Balta/Astbury in the ruck. Having seen plenty of him at VFL level, CCJ is a player who can clunk it when forward, can play ruck when Nank needs a break and as a 3rd genuine tall forward would really stretch the oppositions back 6 and may well stop them double teaming Jack/Tom with a 3rd coming over the top when they are contesting inside F50.
HF: Castagna Lynch Bolton
F: Martin Riewoldt CCJ
I'd like to see us trial the above structure with CCJ having finished his suspension. Castagna and Bolton are good enough to provide the pressure at ground level, Martin is Martin, while the 3 talls can alternate through CHF and deep forward, with the highest forward being the get out option that pushes to the wing, then one of the 2 deep guys provides a leading option, while the other stays at home as the marking option down in the square.