I think after all the ups and downs are balanced the thing that the biggest single factor to prevent our success this weekend and possably going deep intp the finals is....
Poor Conversion
please read Ben and Kent
-------
Cats: beware of Saints
By Rohan Connolly
July 27, 2004
Few games this season have been as eagerly anticipated as Sunday's Geelong-St Kilda clash at Skilled Stadium.
For the Cats, two games behind the top four on the ladder, it's a huge and maybe final opportunity to stay in the hunt for a double chance. And the stakes are no less for the Saints, whose spot in the top four Geelong may well end up pinching if it does get there.
The sub-plots in the drama are no less intriguing. St Kilda has won at Geelong only twice in its past 13 visits, and not since 1999. Then there's the lingering ill-feeling around their Wizard Cup grand final clash, when the Saints simmered about their defeated opponent's supposed lack of graciousness, not to mention young Cat Paul Chapman's comments after the game that he still believed Geelong to be the better team.
Perhaps the most significant game within the game, however, will be played out between arguably the AFL's best defence and most potent forward line. And it's a battle that, for Geelong, could prove very instructive when it comes to the other end of the ground.
The Cats have conceded 49 fewer points than any other team this season, the only side in the league whose points-against tally is still under 1400. But their record isn't nearly as impressive in attack, where they rank just seventh, 326 points behind the second-ranked Saints, an average of more than three goals a game.
St Kilda's power-packed forward combination of Fraser Gehrig and Nick Riewoldt, who kicked 15 goals between them last week, will be thoroughly tested by Geelong's key defenders Matthew Scarlett and Tom Harley. But the one thing you can confidently count on is that what chances the Saints do have will be taken. And that's one boast the Cats, even on the back of their recent winning run, can't possibly make.
St Kilda isn't just close to the heaviest-scoring side in the competition, but with a conversion rate of 67 per cent of its shots at goal, according to Prowess statistics, is easily the most accurate. The Saints booted 20.7 against Essendon last Friday night, and have registered several "Dead-eye ****"-type scorelines this season, including 31.10, 20.10 and 18.5.
Geelong isn't in the same ballpark. With only 58 per cent of its shots translated to goals, only three teams convert more poorly than the Cats. Over the past five rounds, that figure has slumped to 50 per cent.
In those five games, of which Geelong has still won four, the Cats haven't once kicked more goals than behinds, their tallies including an incredibly wasteful 12.22 in the round-15 win over Collingwood, and last Sunday, 18.23, a score that included 1.6 to Ben Graham, and which allowed Carlton to stay in the contest far longer than it should have.
In Gehrig, Riewoldt, Brent Guerra, Aaron Hamill and Stephen Milne, St Kilda has five of the AFL's top-20 converters. Chapman remains the Cats' only representative on that list.
Guerra turns 78 per cent of his shots to goals, second in the league only to Essendon's Justin Murphy. Hamill is at 69 per cent, Gehrig and Milne at 66 and Riewoldt 64. Eight of St Kilda's leading nine goalkickers convert at a rate of 60 per cent or better.
It's in marked contrast to Geelong, whose leading goalkicker, Kent Kingsley, with 39.32, is at a very ordinary 47 per cent. Graham's off-target Sunday took his season tally to 27.21, at a less-than-impressive 51 per cent. And only three of the Cats' leading nine goalkickers in 2004, Chapman, Gary Ablett and Cameron Ling, convert at 60 per cent or better.
It's one significant difference between the teams that has already been felt in 2004. In the night grand final, it was Guerra's deadly boot that provided St Kilda with four goals right when the Saints were starting to slip out of touch. Then, with the game in the balance, and after Geelong full-back Scarlett had performed a superb stopping job on Gehrig, the Saints' spearhead slipped loose to make the most of two rare scoring opportunities, two resultant goals all but sinking the Cats.
St Kilda romped home by 61 points in the round-one clash just a fortnight later, but accuracy was still a decisive factor, the Saints again on target with 19.9, Geelong barely breaking even with 9.7.
It's a timely reminder to Cats' coach Mark Thompson that his team's evenness, its cast-iron defence and hard-working midfield may count for little against St Kilda if his forwards can't thread the ball between the big sticks. And that should be enough motivation for Kingsley, Graham and co to indulge in more goalkicking practice than they appear to have for some time.
-----------
To the Boys
Ben you are great long kick, we know, you know but before the game dont practice from 55 out go to 35 to 40.Practice kicking the goal.That being said I think your due, your playing fantastic. You are due for a bag. 6.2 this week would do very nicely thankyou.
Ken , put more weight into your soles , bend over the ball a tad more and your drop will imediately improve and be more consistant.Get some video's of Locket, watch and learn PLEASE !!!!!
Poor Conversion
please read Ben and Kent
-------
Cats: beware of Saints
By Rohan Connolly
July 27, 2004
Few games this season have been as eagerly anticipated as Sunday's Geelong-St Kilda clash at Skilled Stadium.
For the Cats, two games behind the top four on the ladder, it's a huge and maybe final opportunity to stay in the hunt for a double chance. And the stakes are no less for the Saints, whose spot in the top four Geelong may well end up pinching if it does get there.
The sub-plots in the drama are no less intriguing. St Kilda has won at Geelong only twice in its past 13 visits, and not since 1999. Then there's the lingering ill-feeling around their Wizard Cup grand final clash, when the Saints simmered about their defeated opponent's supposed lack of graciousness, not to mention young Cat Paul Chapman's comments after the game that he still believed Geelong to be the better team.
Perhaps the most significant game within the game, however, will be played out between arguably the AFL's best defence and most potent forward line. And it's a battle that, for Geelong, could prove very instructive when it comes to the other end of the ground.
The Cats have conceded 49 fewer points than any other team this season, the only side in the league whose points-against tally is still under 1400. But their record isn't nearly as impressive in attack, where they rank just seventh, 326 points behind the second-ranked Saints, an average of more than three goals a game.
St Kilda's power-packed forward combination of Fraser Gehrig and Nick Riewoldt, who kicked 15 goals between them last week, will be thoroughly tested by Geelong's key defenders Matthew Scarlett and Tom Harley. But the one thing you can confidently count on is that what chances the Saints do have will be taken. And that's one boast the Cats, even on the back of their recent winning run, can't possibly make.
St Kilda isn't just close to the heaviest-scoring side in the competition, but with a conversion rate of 67 per cent of its shots at goal, according to Prowess statistics, is easily the most accurate. The Saints booted 20.7 against Essendon last Friday night, and have registered several "Dead-eye ****"-type scorelines this season, including 31.10, 20.10 and 18.5.
Geelong isn't in the same ballpark. With only 58 per cent of its shots translated to goals, only three teams convert more poorly than the Cats. Over the past five rounds, that figure has slumped to 50 per cent.
In those five games, of which Geelong has still won four, the Cats haven't once kicked more goals than behinds, their tallies including an incredibly wasteful 12.22 in the round-15 win over Collingwood, and last Sunday, 18.23, a score that included 1.6 to Ben Graham, and which allowed Carlton to stay in the contest far longer than it should have.
In Gehrig, Riewoldt, Brent Guerra, Aaron Hamill and Stephen Milne, St Kilda has five of the AFL's top-20 converters. Chapman remains the Cats' only representative on that list.
Guerra turns 78 per cent of his shots to goals, second in the league only to Essendon's Justin Murphy. Hamill is at 69 per cent, Gehrig and Milne at 66 and Riewoldt 64. Eight of St Kilda's leading nine goalkickers convert at a rate of 60 per cent or better.
It's in marked contrast to Geelong, whose leading goalkicker, Kent Kingsley, with 39.32, is at a very ordinary 47 per cent. Graham's off-target Sunday took his season tally to 27.21, at a less-than-impressive 51 per cent. And only three of the Cats' leading nine goalkickers in 2004, Chapman, Gary Ablett and Cameron Ling, convert at 60 per cent or better.
It's one significant difference between the teams that has already been felt in 2004. In the night grand final, it was Guerra's deadly boot that provided St Kilda with four goals right when the Saints were starting to slip out of touch. Then, with the game in the balance, and after Geelong full-back Scarlett had performed a superb stopping job on Gehrig, the Saints' spearhead slipped loose to make the most of two rare scoring opportunities, two resultant goals all but sinking the Cats.
St Kilda romped home by 61 points in the round-one clash just a fortnight later, but accuracy was still a decisive factor, the Saints again on target with 19.9, Geelong barely breaking even with 9.7.
It's a timely reminder to Cats' coach Mark Thompson that his team's evenness, its cast-iron defence and hard-working midfield may count for little against St Kilda if his forwards can't thread the ball between the big sticks. And that should be enough motivation for Kingsley, Graham and co to indulge in more goalkicking practice than they appear to have for some time.
-----------
To the Boys
Ben you are great long kick, we know, you know but before the game dont practice from 55 out go to 35 to 40.Practice kicking the goal.That being said I think your due, your playing fantastic. You are due for a bag. 6.2 this week would do very nicely thankyou.
Ken , put more weight into your soles , bend over the ball a tad more and your drop will imediately improve and be more consistant.Get some video's of Locket, watch and learn PLEASE !!!!!
