The destruction of our forward line pillars

[Crowboto]

Strong AFL clubs like Geelong, Collingwood or Brisbane would not tolerate these obvious repetitive and negative traits in regards to selection and tactics from a head coach. That's why they are always genuine contenders. Silvers recent apology re. Mileras rabble comment really made me realise we are a piss weak club that is just not in it to be winners.

I think deep down we all know that we are not really a strong organisation. This club is all about revenue nothing else. Premierships and what it takes to get there is something that is just too hard for this club to get their head around. God they might upset someone along the way.
Imagine that!

 

[Southerntakeover]

This was my original point, which is why I’m not sure what we’re arguing about.

You entered the thread disagreeing. If you're not sure why there's an argument that's on you.

 

[Eddie Murphy]

You entered the thread disagreeing. If you're not sure why there's an argument that's on you.

Huh?? I came into the thread suggesting the reason for change in ball movement wasn’t because Nicks decided to go ultra defensive but because he can’t work out how to stop other teams from doing it to stop our brand. I ended my comment with this

Regardless, if the first month of footy is “our brand”, you’d want to see it held up against the good sides.

Which you somehow interpreted as me defending how we’re currently playing.

 

[pjcrows]

Tex shouldn't be playing. It's blatantly obvious.

 

[Scragmaster]

Tex hasn't been taking anywhere near as many of the forward 50 ruck contests. ROB seems to be spending more time in the forward 50 as a result. What's that about?

 

[BunjiMac]

Tex shouldn't be playing. It's blatantly obvious.

I think this is a big part of the problem. I'm not saying forever, but surely given the conditions we shouldm have gone smaller in our forward line over this period.

The end comes very quickly, and this is an adjustment we need to make.

Tex needs to.stand aside unless the conditions are perfect.

 

[Magma]

the entries are horrible and all 3 seem to end up at the same contest instead of making space for each other. look how open hawthorn's forward line was at times. we continually had contests with 6-7 players from both sides and struggle to get it on the ground.

tex is the obvious out, he struggles to even compete in a 1 on 1 these days and his kicking and game sense seem to be on the decline too. club needs to make the call but dont seem to have it in them per usual.

 

[Archie87]

Tex is going to be dragged to 300 games regardless of form and even if it blows up the season . The club isn't going to stand for him being stranded on 298 or so games...

Nicks even referred to chats about the milestone with Tex last week so it's clearly his goal.

 

[hugecannon]

They are jumping together and not having separation where you’d back fog Thilthorpe and occasions Tex in a 1 on 1 most times.
Then there’s ROB clogging up the deep 50 thinking he’s a 60+ goal forward.
GTFO
Surely has to be instruction as we know they can play together well.

ROB in particular seems to be pushing deeper and deeper into the F50 lately.

Tex isn’t taking many ball ups/throw ins anymore- maybe the toll the season has had on him already means he doesn’t want to/the coaches don’t want him to and TT rarely seems to contest them in the forward line either.

 

[dogs105]

I've not been at the ground - is Fogarty not presenting enough, or being ignored? Been way too quiet in recent weeks.

 

[dogs105]

They are jumping together and not having separation where you’d back fog Thilthorpe and occasions Tex in a 1 on 1 most times.
Then there’s ROB clogging up the deep 50 thinking he’s a 60+ goal forward.
GTFO
Surely has to be instruction as we know they can play together well.

To be fair, ROB almost kicked that snap from half a metre out

 

[dylan123]

Tex shouldn't be playing. It's blatantly obvious.

I don't think this suddenly fixes the output of the others.

Fogarty v Tex H2H this season -




I think it's pretty alarming Tex is still able to find it more, tackle more, same shots on goal as a 35 year old that many believe is only playing to get to 300 games. What is Fogarty's excuse for not being able to offer us more?

You could argue Tex getting to play higher up the field allows him to find it more but why isn't Fogarty able to push a 35 year old out of that role? For someone as slow as Walker, why is he able to tackle more than Fogarty? Perhaps Walker is more of a target up forward - but is that because he's in the right spots ahead of Fogarty or do players purely have Tex vision only?

Funnily enough, I thought it was Dawson that spoiled Fogarty on a marking attempt or two last week which didn't help.

Would love to see him step up and impact the game more often. He's a fantastic goal and field kick but he needs to find a way to impact the game more than he does.


--------------------

Overall though, it's frustrating we keep retreating back into our shell and going defensive when our attack mode is so very hard to stop.

 

[adelaidecrows]

Our club has achieved something remarkable over the last five weeks or so. We've managed to turn key forward stocks the envy of the league into no production.

This is the last five games of scoring from our key forwards:

Thilthorpe: 0 goals, 2 goals, 2 goals, 1 goal, 0 goals
Fogarty: 4 goals, 1 goal, 2 goals, 0 goals, 0 goals
Walker: 1 Goal, DNP, 1 Goal, 1 Goal, 0 goals.

That's an astonishing 15 goals across 14 games from our three key forwards combined. The numbers are even uglier if you just do the last month and exclude Fog against Collingwood.

Sure the last two games have been in unfavourable weather, but the span also includes West Coast and our destruction of Sydney.

The eye test, without any research, suggests to me that our structure is suffering from both a reversion to bombing to the pack and hoping thilthorpe will take a hanger, an increase in the amount we're targeting Walker who now wins an astronomically low number of one on one marking contests, and a complete absence of any attempt to hit leading key forwards.

Fog has had two extremely quiet weeks. Not good enough. And yet I basically can't remember a single inside 50 target towards him in either game. Thilthorpe's getting some targets, but none are on the lead it seems. This is how they're both most dangerous.

To put this into context, Fogarty has not kicked a goal the last two weeks (or really looked like it), and still kicked the most from the trio across the period.

Have our coaches managed the impossible? Have we actually constructed a structure and ball movement that turned what was basically a can't miss forward line into a toothless team weakness?

Nicks loves the strategy of kicking long to the context leaving our key players often out numbered 2 or 3 to 1. Which is insane because each one of our tall forwards are your more leading forward types than having the ability to pack mark. This is strategy is even more daft because teams can predict it and can have one player hang off the contest and jump over the top to spoil.

When we use plan A we hit our forwards up on the lead. When we move into hit and hope football, it appears that we revert back to bombing it deep into the forward line with the clear attempt to either markt it and goal, rove it and goal or its spoiled and we can trap it into our forward line. Either way this clearly doesnt work in our favour yet Nicks continues to try it.

 

[kirky]

One of the problems is Fogarty has gone into that wrestling mode with his opponent again.

 

[twiggy4PM]

The three headed system worked well when they had space to operate in. Hawthorn flooded the defence at every opportunity and denied room to get a lead to the ball. Our response was to kick to long to a pack time after time after time. None of the talls could get a clear run at it. Having ROB loitering makes things worse as he has the recovery speed of the Titanic after it hit an iceberg.

Last couple of games we have reverted to slowing down and hugging the boundaries, a noticable change to our first half a dozen games when we ran the ball and weren't afraid to use the corridor.

In wet conditions, three talls plus Keays and ANB is too top heavy and leaves only one spot for a small forward.

 

[FR0GGY]

I don't think this suddenly fixes the output of the others.

Fogarty v Tex H2H this season -

View attachment 2342721


I think it's pretty alarming Tex is still able to find it more, tackle more, same shots on goal as a 35 year old that many believe is only playing to get to 300 games. What is Fogarty's excuse for not being able to offer us more?

You could argue Tex getting to play higher up the field allows him to find it more but why isn't Fogarty able to push a 35 year old out of that role? For someone as slow as Walker, why is he able to tackle more than Fogarty? Perhaps Walker is more of a target up forward - but is that because he's in the right spots ahead of Fogarty or do players purely have Tex vision only?

Funnily enough, I thought it was Dawson that spoiled Fogarty on a marking attempt or two last week which didn't help.

Would love to see him step up and impact the game more often. He's a fantastic goal and field kick but he needs to find a way to impact the game more than he does.


--------------------

Overall though, it's frustrating we keep retreating back into our shell and going defensive when our attack mode is so very hard to stop.

Probably because Tex gets half the entries directed at him?

 

[George CantStandYa]

Well we no longer have the highest scoring attack. We are 3rd once Bulldogs catch up a game.

Bloody Nicks

 

[Southerntakeover]

Probably because Tex gets half the entries directed at him?

The stats were posted a few weeks back. Tex is getting twice the targets that Fog is.

If he's only producing comparable results that's very very bad.

 

[dylan123]

Probably because Tex gets half the entries directed at him?

Why is that though?

The stats were posted a few weeks back. Tex is getting twice the targets that Fog is.

If he's only producing comparable results that's very very bad.

Haven't seen that one yet, would be nice to see how they stack up along with Thilthorpe.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Why is that though?


Haven't seen that one yet, would be nice to see how they stack up along with Thilthorpe.

Preview - R12: Changes vs. Sydney Swans

You appear to be irritated that I stated the obvious ...? I was replying to another poster and if anything I was saying I do not think we will win a Flag under Nicks. If you cannot comment with civility, please don't. don't be so precious

www.bigfooty.com

 

[FR0GGY]

Why is that though?

That’s a good question, can only be by instruction surely.

 

[Crows I Am]

I agree that there is clearly ssomething not right with our forward line atm. Seems to be a combination of factors.

Thilthorpe has the yipps when having a set shot close to goal, he misses a sitter just about every week. He goal tally should be 6-7 goals higher than what it is.

Fog is terribly out of form, just can't get near it. He seems to be struggling with the lack of F50 entries being directed at him. Tex and TT get the bulk of the entries and he is left to go and win his own ball. He needs to push up the ground to get more involved when he is having a quiet game.

To me Tex is probably our biggest issue. He is no longer able to compete like he has in the past, but we keep going through him so often. The opposition uses his defender to run off Tex and set up their rebound out of defence. He is a champion of our club, but his time is now done and he needs to retire. It's time for TT to be the main man and take controls of the forward line. We seem so fixated on having this '3 headed monster' but we don't need it. TT and Fog should be our two key forwards and then you have Curtin or Dawson as the 3rd part time option.

Our switch to a more defensive game style has also massively impacted the output of these guys, but its not the only issue.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

We can put that theory about having a clutch forward line to bed. Our forwards choked as hard as the 2017 side on Friday.

 

[1970crow]

Tex shouldn't be playing. It's blatantly obvious.

Tex wants 300 games and that’s all that matters. We’re not a genuine footy club, our core principles are HR based. Retention metrics outweigh winning flags by a fair margin.

 

[1970crow]

Tex hasn't been taking anywhere near as many of the forward 50 ruck contests. ROB seems to be spending more time in the forward 50 as a result. What's that about?

We’re carrying Tex to 300, it’s blatantly obvious. His personal milestone and feelings are more important than overall team performance.