Van_Dyke
Moderator
- Moderator
- #3,001
could also see Hogan’s performance against GWS last year, IIRC he had 20 touches and 3 goals that day, where he either managed to create space for himself in transition, and position himself nicely for marking contests with his 3rd goal also coming up from a simple lead. as a forward if you can do that effectively than you can be a damn good forward without necessarily been a great contested markI was trying to reconcile elite forward with those goals as well and it took me a while but I think I realise why I thought what he was doing is disappointing and I blame;
A) Freo Coaching
Contrary to what the Freo gameplan of the last 25 years would tell you, a KPF can score goals from ways other than contested marking. They do this through being a smart player with tank and speed to match so they cant get separation. This is greatly helped by having a forwardline that actually works for one another where players make space for eachother to work into AND a midfield that actually tries to hit targets rather than bombing it on their head
B) Tabs
Now, dont get defensive here but Tabs does not have speed and is not that smart a player BUT he is just about the best contested marking KPF in the league. In other words, Tabs is the quint essential Freo forward where he is everything (this year anyway) we expect our KPFs to be because it suits how our gameplan has worked. This is not a slight on Tabs, but how we seem to be conditioned to view our KPFs
Hogan kicks goals in a different way to Tabs when utilised correctly, he even kicks more goals than Tabs, just because he's not a contetsted marking beast (he's no slouch here either, just not Tabs level) doesnt take away from those goals
it’s going to take years for me to unsee us kicking it high to Ballas as wellWe kicked it high over the head to Pav, we kicked it high over the head to Kersten, we kicked it high to McCarthy, hell, we kicked (and still do) it high to Walters...