Roast Our Clearance Work has been Really Poor in 1st 6 Rounds

[Saintly Viewed]

17th for clearances per game, yikes... The Power are 1st, we're going to get roasted on Friday.

I like it.

All for the positivity.

We’ll get the ball more than enough and if we do good things with it, we’ll be fine.

 

[Thatsmyname]

It improves every time De Goey goes into the middle because sans Treloar we have no explosive speed in that midfield.

 

[Apples]

Good call Dave. The eyes are not lying.
Collingwood R1-6:
Clearances: 17th
1%: 17th
Stoppage Clearances: 16th
Tackles: 15th
Contested possessions: 11th
Centre Clearances: 8th
Inside 50s: 8th
Hit outs: 5th
Disposal Efficiency: 2nd
Uncontested Poss'ns: 1st
Effective disposals: 1st
Marks I50: 1st

 

[TradeDraft]

17th for clearances per game, yikes... The Power are 1st, we're going to get roasted on Friday.

and There Rucks can Compete well vs Grundy

 

[Yidaki]

Good call Dave. The eyes are not lying.
Collingwood R1-6:
Clearances: 17th
1%: 17th
Stoppage Clearances: 16th
Tackles: 15th
Contested possessions: 11th
Centre Clearances: 8th
Inside 50s: 8th
Hit outs: 5th
Disposal Efficiency: 2nd
Uncontested Poss'ns: 1st
Effective disposals: 1st
Marks I50: 1st

Ouch. That is pretty telling. God help the rest of the competition when we correct this.

 

[MarkT2]

Grundy's tap work is not great. He gets plenty of taps but the % that are realy to the advantage of a moving mid is small. Grundy needs to better direct his taps and the mids need to back him and be moving rather than stationary. Chnage this and we will be a hell of a lot more effective. IMO this is the difference between being an also ran and a very big flag chance. We don't have the pace or footskills to counter attack effectively often enough. Better clearnace work eases the burden down back and opens the forward opportunities were we do have mobile talent.

 

[TradeDraft]

Grundy's tap work is not great. He gets plenty of taps but the % that are realy to the advantage of a moving mid is small. Grundy needs to better direct his taps and the mids need to back him and be moving rather than stationary. Chnage this and we will be a hell of a lot more effective. IMO this is the difference between being an also ran and a very big flag chance. We don't have the pace or footskills to counter attack effectively often enough. Better clearnace work eases the burden down back and opens the forward opportunities were we do have mobile talent.

Think it's more that our Mids getting Easily Beaten in Stoppages is more the Issue

 

[Saintly Viewed]

Good call Dave. The eyes are not lying.
Collingwood R1-6:
Clearances: 17th
1%: 17th
Stoppage Clearances: 16th
Tackles: 15th
Contested possessions: 11th
Centre Clearances: 8th
Inside 50s: 8th
Hit outs: 5th
Disposal Efficiency: 2nd
Uncontested Poss'ns: 1st
Effective disposals: 1st
Marks I50: 1st

Imagine what happens when it all clicks?

They’ll be a bear in there.
And it will be our time.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

Think it's more that our Mids getting Easily Beaten in Stoppages is more the Issue

All the opposition mids are effectively roving to Grundy.
So say in a centre square ball up, there’s 3 lovely players and 3 other parasites trying to live off the host.

Once we click, watch out.

 

[TradeDraft]

All the opposition mids are effectively roving to Grundy.
So say in a centre square ball up, there’s 3 lovely players and 3 other parasites trying to live off the host.

Once we click, watch out.

Then should Grundy let the Oppostion Ruck get the Tap so then our Mids be there?

 

[Thatsmyname]

Think it's more that our Mids getting Easily Beaten in Stoppages is more the Issue

Which is maddening because Beams, Adams and Sier especially are those bull mids types that should excell at extracting.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

Then should Grundy let the Oppostion Ruck get the Tap so then our Mids be there?

Always better to be first to the ball.

I love it when Grundy roves his rucking. Then nothing stops him.

De Goey being such a beast helps.
Once Sier is back he can also help out as he’s another beast.

 

[sirlothie]

17th for clearances per game, yikes... The Power are 1st, we're going to get roasted on Friday.

In reality it's just a mad scramble, it won't look so bleak as stats suggest on field.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

In reality it's just a mad scramble, it won't look so bleak as stats suggest on field.

Especially when the scoreboard has us 10 goals to the good.

 

[live fast pieyoung]

Interesting where our game is at thus far this year:

Defence - has been very strong: We conceded 98 points to WCE, but next highest is 72
Forwards - look very dangerous when they get a chance, but overall we have struggled to kick large scores in 4 of our games. So far our attacking game is very tentative, and we are having more trouble than last year getting the ball past our wings when transitioning out of defence
Midfields - as you've identified, this is really where we aren't clicking. JUst not winning enough clearances

 

[JB1975]

Good call Dave. The eyes are not lying.
Collingwood R1-6:
Clearances: 17th
1%: 17th
Stoppage Clearances: 16th
Tackles: 15th
Contested possessions: 11th
Centre Clearances: 8th
Inside 50s: 8th
Hit outs: 5th
Disposal Efficiency: 2nd
Uncontested Poss'ns: 1st
Effective disposals: 1st
Marks I50: 1st

Statistics can be slippery, and I wonder what sort of numbers these rankings are based on. If they are based on the total number of clearances for each team then that would be problematic because the numbers after 6 rounds would be more vulnerable to one or two really good or really bad days. More to the point, total clearance numbers are related to the total number of stoppages and centre bounces during the course of each game, which we know can vary pretty widely.

I'm not saying we're doing well at clearances, but I think that any assessment which puts us at 17th is misleading. I prefer to look at the game-to-game differentials, which gives a sense of how well we've been doing in the clearances in each game and (in my opinion) gives us a clearer sense of overall performance relative to our opponents. So some measures from the first 6 rounds:

- We've won total (centre and stoppage) clearances in 3 of our games, lost 3;
- We've won centre bounces on 4/6 occasions, lost twice (WCE and Essendon);
- We've won stoppages on 3/6 occasions, drawn even once, lost twice (Geelong and Essendon).

Overall the numbers still look underwhelming, but less alarming than saying we're 17th. One concern for me is that our stoppage numbers have been healthy in the past but have looked a bit sick at the start of this season, but I'm less concerned about this and more concerned about the movement of the ball when we win clearances and the connection between mids and forwards.

Some of this is about personnel, and there is some cause for optimism on this front:
- Sier hasn't played, and he will make a difference;
- Beams is finding his feet;
- Adams missed two games, looked 'off' in a couple of games, but will get better;
- Sidebottom's clearance numbers are low, but I think he'll get better as the season goes on.

Summary: I think we're doing better than the ranking of 17th would suggest. Not great, but numbers can be misleading and clearances aren't telling the whole story. We will improve in these areas, which must be a source of concern for opposition given the fact that we're underperforming at 4-2 with a kind run of games coming up.

 

[MarkT2]

All the opposition mids are effectively roving to Grundy.
So say in a centre square ball up, there’s 3 lovely players and 3 other parasites trying to live off the host.

Once we click, watch out.

That is ruck craft and connection between mids and ruck. Getting the tap v hitting your mid is the difference between battling and wining. No better example than last years GF. A couple of clearances in the last half off the last Q and we probably win. We need to be mopre agressive with out set up, positioning and movement. Ryder v Grundy will be an interesting contest. Grundy is a more rounded player but Ryder's tapwork is very good.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

That is ruck craft and connection between mids and ruck. Getting the tap v hitting your mid is the difference between battling and wining. No better example than last years GF. A couple of clearances in the last half off the last Q and we probably win. We need to be mopre agressive with out set up, positioning and movement. Ryder v Grundy will be an interesting contest. Grundy is a more rounded player but Ryder's tapwork is very good.

Should be a highlight with those two.

 

[76woodenspooners]

Winning hitouts is one thing, hitouts to advantage then onto a clearance are far below that as a percentage. This is perversely the case with a truly dominant ruckman as the opposition midfielders expect their man not to win the tap.

If that were the case, what’s the point of having a dominant tap ruckman? Wouldn’t teams be better off trading out their gun ruckman for a clearance beast - and then having a Cameron Wood type in the ruck?

 

[76woodenspooners]

Similar thing happened in 2010. Ball and Jolly took a while to settle in, and Jolly’s team-mates took a while to build up chemistry.

They sorted it out in the end.

 

[sr36]

Statistics can be slippery, and I wonder what sort of numbers these rankings are based on. If they are based on the total number of clearances for each team then that would be problematic because the numbers after 6 rounds would be more vulnerable to one or two really good or really bad days. More to the point, total clearance numbers are related to the total number of stoppages and centre bounces during the course of each game, which we know can vary pretty widely.

I'm not saying we're doing well at clearances, but I think that any assessment which puts us at 17th is misleading. I prefer to look at the game-to-game differentials, which gives a sense of how well we've been doing in the clearances in each game and (in my opinion) gives us a clearer sense of overall performance relative to our opponents. So some measures from the first 6 rounds:

- We've won total (centre and stoppage) clearances in 3 of our games, lost 3;
- We've won centre bounces on 4/6 occasions, lost twice (WCE and Essendon);
- We've won stoppages on 3/6 occasions, drawn even once, lost twice (Geelong and Essendon).

Overall the numbers still look underwhelming, but less alarming than saying we're 17th. One concern for me is that our stoppage numbers have been healthy in the past but have looked a bit sick at the start of this season, but I'm less concerned about this and more concerned about the movement of the ball when we win clearances and the connection between mids and forwards.

I'm sure clubs would be more interested in % of stoppages won, rather than the raw data. The other factor is how big is the gap between top and bottom in terms of % won - I'd be willing to bet that it's pretty small.

I do think we currently lack strength and blokes with an explosive first couple of steps in our stoppage group. Obviously Degoey could help change this, but we lose too much up forward - I also think we lose a bit in transition, because the other mids are very very good at transitioning the footy and I'm yet to really see this from Degoey. Hopefully Sier can come good and rectify this without us losing too much in transition. I personally think that Sier's pre-injury issues this year are because he's been asked to improve his spread and transition game and he's getting lost because he doesn't know where to run. As good as he was around the contest last year, he didn't play much of a role in transitioning the footy. At the end of the day we may have been beaten around stoppage in the Grand Final, but the main reason why we aren't the reigning premiers is because we couldn't transition the footy - hence the recruitment of Beams.

 

[sirlothie]

The stats make some kind of sense really.. we are number 1 in uncontested marks and uncontested possessions meaning we keep the play flowing leading to less stoppages in our games meaning less clearance numbers. Are we 18th for the amount of stoppages in our games?

We obviously have had some issues with clearances but the numbers have generally been close so I don't think we are the 2nd worst clearance team, I think our numbers are lower because the amount of stoppages to get a clearance are lower... due to us maintaining possession of the ball.

 

[sideswipe]

If that were the case, what’s the point of having a dominant tap ruckman? Wouldn’t teams be better off trading out their gun ruckman for a clearance beast - and then having a Cameron Wood type in the ruck?

The “following” part of a ruckman very important.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[PicaBoo]

Won't this be the first game where Elliott , WHE , DeGoey en Stephenson play together? That will be fun to watch.

 

[sirlothie]

The “following” part of a ruckman very important.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Remember him lumbering from end to end in the centre square during play, not getting involved at all. It was like having 17 men if it wasn't a stoppage. We have it much better with Grundy.