Our No. 1 Problem - Ball Handling

[kelvin_sheedy]

Clean hands and ball handling is killing us right now.

We are the worst team in picking the ball up off the ground or receiving from a handball.

Under pressure we capitulate and fumble and the opposition takes the ball away.

We have one player at the moment that is A grade in that respect - Watson. Davey is another buts he's injured and Lonergan and Hislop might be.

Sadly, McVeigh is not great at that and thus puts a lot of pressure on peopel around him.

If you're not clean with your hands you allow the opposition time to tackle, turnover the ball a lot more, get exposed defensively as teammates have moved into position to receive.

Young bodies can be an excuse but the guys that are the worst at it are Welsh, Stanton, NLM, Lovett, McVeigh, Nash, Winderlich.

Thoughts?

 

[ant555]

Agree , i have said a number of times before that we fumble a lot when we do get the footy at clearance's. We also seem to struggle big time at hitting targets with handball.
People can jump up and down all day long about accountable footy but our biggest problem is the players can not execute the most basic of football skills , the short handball to a player less than 2 meters away.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Yeah, that little two metre handball seems to always pop out.

It's shocking our lack of skill in that department.

There is only one other side that is as bad and thats Freo. They drop and fumble the ball religiously.

Can this be fixed or is it the players we have.

The loss of Hird is exposing us badly in that area this year and Davey's injury.

 

[ant555]

Yeah, that little two metre handball seems to always pop out.

It's shocking our lack of skill in that department.

There is only one other side that is as bad and thats Freo. They drop and fumble the ball religiously.

Can this be fixed or is it the players we have.

The loss of Hird is exposing us badly in that area this year and Davey's injury.

Not sure it can be fixed.

 

[Windas_Magic]

Not only ball handling, but missing a player that is right beside you. An instance was when Monfries had a free kick and went to handball to McPhee (who was less than 5 metres away) and missed him completely! These mistakes are simply not good enough. Just imagine what will happen when we play the Hawks

 

[ant555]

Not only ball handling, but missing a player that is right beside you. An instance was when Monfries had a free kick and went to handball to McPhee (who was less than 5 metres away) and missed him completely! These mistakes are simply not good enough. Just imagine what will happen when we play the Hawks

Yep, instead of running out to our theme song they can cue the circus music straight up.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Not sure it can be fixed.

Either you have the skills or you don't. It's one of the hardest areas to work on and fix.

You look at a player like Porplyzia who comes in off the rookie list with sublime ball handling.

Have we drafted enough players with the right skills or do we need to find more in the next draft?

Myers - looks to have it
Davey - yes
Hislop - he looks clean to me.
Lonergan - good.
Jetta - No
Houli - Not really
Reimers - No
Ryder - No
Dempsey - looks okish

 

[Willow76]

I think alot of it is confidence we seemed to have clean hands early in the season and Knighter said they have worked alot on skill level just seems to be falling apart in games. We need to start a game well and they will get confidence to run and carry, easier said than done though

 

[Merv]

While i agree and made mention of this earlier in the season it is being exaggerated atm as our side has no confidence at all.

 

[efcboy]

whilst i agree this is a problem i think the biggest problem currently is effort. the players are not running hard enough to contests or to make position. how often from the kick-ins do you see the guys just standing still offering nothing? they need to work harder - too many blokes happy to put in minimal effort and take home exorbitant pay cheque to pay for their beauty treatment.

 

[OzBomber]

Our possesion was so terrible in the first quarter yesterday that I had to turn it off. Was just embarassing.

 

[The Donners]

It's tough not to fumble when the handpass is at your feet. I find a lot of handpasses in traffic is exactly that, in this regard Watson is A Class.

 

[The Donners]

Our possesion was so terrible in the first quarter yesterday that I had to turn it off. Was just embarassing.

Yeah, it wasn't good for my blood pressure, I didn't turn it off, I listened to it for the 2nd quarter...... I couldn't watch it!

 

[DaSawx]

Seems to me the game is moving to fast in their heads, I think it can improve as they gain experience, certainly hope so anyway

 

[mxett]

We have a pretty lightly built and young midfield. Its as if they feel the contact coming and try to rush the disposal of the ball before they get tackled.

A year or two in the gym could help in this area. Then they may be able to withstand some physical pressure a bit better, and stop the handball clangers.

 

[james_omahoney]

Clean hands and ball handling is killing us right now.

We are the worst team in picking the ball up off the ground or receiving from a handball.

Under pressure we capitulate and fumble and the opposition takes the ball away.

We have one player at the moment that is A grade in that respect - Watson. Davey is another buts he's injured and Lonergan and Hislop might be.

I agree that ball handling is one of our biggest problems but there's no way you can call watson a good ball handler. He may be able to pick it up cleanly but his delivery with both kicks and handballs is shocking. He really needs to stop doing the big looping handballs because they always get us in to trouble across the centre and we lose possession.

 

[The Donners]

We have a pretty lightly built and young midfield. Its as if they feel the contact coming and try to rush the disposal of the ball before they get tackled.

A year or two in the gym could help in this area. Then they may be able to withstand some physical pressure a bit better, and stop the handball clangers.

It's not just the young bodies, Mcphee avoided contact with Jordan McMahon in our forward line in the 4th quarter last night... it was absolutely embarrassing. If Mcphee ran through McMahon it would've been a certain goal!