The kicking game plan is dead. We must adapt to the prevalent running and throwing

[The Jet From Poowong]

I feared we had not spent enough time over summer learning the intricacies of the modern handball. Until such time as the match committee picks a side that will play with run (it is not just speed) and dare, we will continue to see similar results.

I can handle losing, I just want to see the stop-start game plan given the flick. It's dead. You need to run at the opposition and throw it around any which way to create overlap.

 

[Horatio Hartung]

Need some young legs that want to take the game on, last week va the crows this is when we looked most damaging need more run and dash from Gibson and the back half

 

[Sleutheren]

We drafted and put time into players who could compliment the precision kicking game plan. Now that we need to move on from it, I think we're seeing those players exposed as the uncontested specialists that they are.

 

[crazywildhorse]

Clarkson is too stubborn, we will persist for half the year.

 

[Jables]

That's actually really funny to me, I've seen so many people on this board and heard so many at the ground bitch about how much we handball when we're not playing well for years.

 

[Walshawk]

Clarko will need to stick around a lot longer than 2019 to sort out this mess.
Bottom six is a given now. No draft pick last year or this means any rebuild is a while away.

 

[DrEvil_]

Mate did you watch the game? We got in so much trouble because we didn't kick and instead throw a loopy handball at the feet of a stationary teammate

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

That's actually really funny to me, I've seen so many people on this board and heard so many at the ground bitch about how much we handball when we're not playing well for years.

It is no longer about pure footballing ability and execution of the skills as we knew them. The beauty and neatness which we Hawthorn supporters became accustomed to is no longer going to cut it. It is about scrambling the ball forward by taking the tackler on and creating an open man to get behind and create an overlap and then it is down hill skiing with minimal pressure.

We have to drop this notion of how the game plan looks. It is no longer going to win. Our supporters complain of handball overuse because it almost always goes backwards. And then bang, an error and an easy goal.

 

[A Cut Above]

There's not enough time & space in 2017 football to rely on precision kicking. If the AFL addresses congestion with rule changes next year that may change. Too many of our players were recruited for elite kicking skills which are no longer a requisite for beating top teams.

Clearances are so valuable now and we don't have many players who can clear from stoppages with run & carry. Just look at Dangerfield, a pretty s**t kick but he's still the league's best player because clearances right now are worth their weight in gold because they break the game open.
Our defense is shot full of holes with Hodge, Gibbo & Burgoyne all on their last legs and the midfield isn't capable of protecting them anymore. Midfield lacks class, speed & depth. Unfortunately none of Rioli, Bruest or Poppy have made the transition to top-flight midfielder, and coupled with McEvoy being cooked & Ceglar injured it compounds our weakness.

We still have plenty of talent but vital pieces are missing and its throwing out our entire structure making things look worse than they probably are. There's also a lack of desperation in our best 22 thanks to an absence of hunger & tired worn out bodies, the victim of our own success essentially.

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

Mate did you watch the game? We got in so much trouble because we didn't kick and instead throw a loopy handball at the feet of a stationary teammate

They are predominantly passive handballs designed to buy time for a teammate to kick it with perfection. This is the problem, we need to use handballs in a daring manner not as a retreating mechanism.

 

[zyzzbruh]

We drafted and put time into players who could compliment the precision kicking game plan. Now that we need to move on from it, I think we're seeing those players exposed as the uncontested specialists that they are.

They're not getting exposed because they're no longer at your club. Can't get rid of precision kickers like Mitchell then bring in t Mitchell who can't kick and expect the same outcome. The precision kicking plan would work as you have shown the past few years but you need the players who can do it

 

[Mrzohs]

There's not enough time & space in 2017 football to rely on precision kicking. If the AFL addresses congestion with rule changes next year that may change. Too many of our players were recruited for elite kicking skills which are no longer a requisite for beating top teams.

Clearances are so valuable now and we don't have many players who can clear from stoppages with run & carry. Just look at Dangerfield, a pretty s**t kick but he's still the league's best player because clearances right now are worth their weight in gold because they break the game open.
Our defense is shot full of holes with Hodge, Gibbo & Burgoyne all on their last legs and the midfield isn't capable of protecting them anymore. Midfield lacks class, speed & depth. Unfortunately none of Rioli, Bruest or Poppy have made the transition to top-flight midfielder, and coupled with McEvoy being cooked & Ceglar injured it compounds our weakness.

We still have plenty of talent but vital pieces are missing and its throwing out our entire structure making things look worse than they probably are. There's also a lack of desperation in our best 22 thanks to an absence of hunger & tired worn out bodies, the victim of our own success essentially.

GReat post agree. would it not be crazy to have our fastest and best line breakers behind the footy ???
so this mean putting burgoyne in the fwd line and drop gibson.

i would suggest half back isacc smith and cyril for 6 weeks see how that goes.. ill probably get my head bitten off so could if u like keep burton there or bring in sicily there instead of cyril. but i like them up fwd with gunston. (gunston roughead burton sicily burgoyne poppy dangerous fwd line)

as a min play smith burton and another small there. play hartung on the wing. and birchall wing when he back.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Other teams look like the Harlem Globetrotters against us. It's running in packs and playing keeping off. We have not recruited for this.


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[PenAndPaper]

What? Our biggest problem is that we are handballing way too much

 

[Gene Simmons]

Clarkson is too stubborn, we will persist for half the year.

In Clarko's defence, I remember heaps of people (including myself) bagging out the game plan during 2010/2011 about being too stubborn..etc it didn't turn out too bad..

Have faith

 

[Roger Rogerson]

They're not getting exposed because they're no longer at your club. Can't get rid of precision kickers like Mitchell then bring in t Mitchell who can't kick and expect the same outcome. The precision kicking plan would work as you have shown the past few years but you need the players who can do it

Nah mate the kicking game has been worked out. Cant do it anymore. Not sure how you havent worked that out?

 

[Nugett]

Is it time to bring Roughy back into the ruck? As with most things Roughy he was quite proficient there.

 

[crazywildhorse]

In Clarko's defence, I remember heaps of people (including myself) bagging out the game plan during 2010/2011 about being too stubborn..etc it didn't turn out too bad..

Have faith

I agree for the most part, but I do worry his stubbornness will go too far

 

[Walshawk]

Clarko is like Bjorn Borg who kept using the wooden tennis racquet after everyone else switched.

 

[Gralin]

Clarko is like Bjorn Borg who kept using the wooden tennis racquet after everyone else switched.

so Clarko is one of the most successful tennis players of all time?

 

[Walshawk]

so Clarko is one of the most successful tennis players of all time?

Never seen him play, but reckon he'd go OK.
The point is that change comes quickly, and those that won't change because it worked in the past are left behind.

 

[Great 2008]

I feared we had not spent enough time over summer learning the intricacies of the modern handball. Until such time as the match committee picks a side that will play with run (it is not just speed) and dare, we will continue to see similar results.

I can handle losing, I just want to see the stop-start game plan given the flick. It's dead. You need to run at the opposition and throw it around any which way to create overlap.

Counted 4 throws in a row from doggies at one point on the weekend. The fifth one got called. Umps are cracking down but not quickly enough.

 

[Furn2]

What we are seeing and what the gameplan is are probably very different things right now.

Reminds me of when we were playing poorly in 2009 i think and we smashed Carlton one week but then lost the next week and people were asking why we only used that gameplan for 1 week and went back to the old one.

We have 0 confidence and belief right now, we cant even hold a chest mark or pick up a ball in space. Thats mostly why theres no run or taking the game on. Players are taking the safe option and chipping backwards and making it someone elses problem.

 

[OzJohnnie]

Mate did you watch the game? We got in so much trouble because we didn't kick and instead throw a loopy handball at the feet of a stationary teammate

Bingo. The issues, upon clear reflection, are many-fold:

* Players are uncertain regarding what they should do in many offensive situations. This shows up in over handballing. They know they are supposed to handball to a breaking runner, but there are no breaking runners so we just get looping handballs to stationary targets. You can see that players are still thinking through their decisions rather than reacting instinctively. At lot more practice required here.

* Defensive pressure, particularly at holding in the opponent f50, is almost non-existent. Players seem more concerned with positioning and are missing the play. They are rather one-dimensional and seemingly slow because their setups seem so easy to pick and avoid by opposition rebounds. Players seem far more focused on their own positioning within the game than in playing the game. More practice required.

* The front six are entirely non-threatening. They are a running some sort of pattern than is entirely non-threatening. Every f50 entry is a contest, almost always outnumbered. No players are being hit on the lead. It seems that whatever we are trying is overcome by a basic defensive setup. Although I'm getting quite sick of the bomb and pray, I must admit that there don't seem to be a lot of other options for the ambitious midfielder. Our forward line is creating little open space to lead into.

Anyhows. Practice, practice, practice. Whatever we are trying is proving very difficult for our players to deliver under the pressure of a game. It's obviously not simple because our boys aren't stupid. Perhaps we're a round or two from a thread trying to analyse what game plan we are creating.

 

[Hawk Dork]

Pies played a good kicking game on Friday
They looked like they couldnt kick the previous 2 weeks