Thinking about our forward line...

[lacrow]

Ladies and gents,

I've been doing a little thinking about what is really wrong with our forward line and I've come up with a theory. It's probably a little misguided, but here goes anyway:

It seems as though we only use two options when attacking: either we kick the ball to the top of the 50 meter arc or we bomb it in long to the center square (never mind the other 90% of the time we kick to a forward pocket for now )

I think that this presents us with a real problem in delivering to our forwards because when we kick to the top of the arc, that is about the other team's half-back line and so it is always flooded (at least against Bris, Port, etc.). So in that situation we rarely take the mark and often turn the ball over.

In our other scenario we bomb the ball long and deep into the forward line to a FF who can't take a contested mark and who is unsuited for that type of play (in other words, we don't have a big gorilla sitting in the GS who can push his defender off).

SO... maybe we need to change the location we are aiming to hit when we come forward? Perhaps aim to drop the ball in somewhere around the 40 meter mark? I noticed that a lot of St. Kilda's kicks were landing in that zone and they seemed to take marks with little or no opposition. Plus, I think that might get us past that troublesome HB line that we seem to be unable to penetrate.

Thoughts?

 

[napsyd]

Interesting.

My observations, for what they are worth.

1. The 50 metre arc was a bad addition to the game. It is artificial and means absolutely nothing. I wish players would pretend it was not there.

2. St Kilda moved so freely in there forward area because they had successfully flooded our attack. You would have noticed the acres of space they had in their forward 50. Ayres has never had an answer for teams that successfully flood.

3. I think our problem lies in the areas previously talked about, ie delivery and ability to take a contested mark. To be honest this has been our problem for a number of years, remember at one stage Beinke was about our only chance of a contested mark. This is not a new phenomenon.