And…all players do it. Watch any mark taken close to goal and a swarm of small players will run past the marker on both sides if they are there. It is what they are trained to do in case the ump calls ‘play on’
I suspect that our small forwards are under instructions to run back with the flight to provide options for our marking forwards, ie, so they can off load a mark, or tap to advantage if they can’t mark. It happens quite a lot and mostly works pretty well.
Likely, and also if the ball spills out the back, big chance of a crumb goal.
Stewart also did not seem surprised. He was able to either offload or take his kick and had good enough awareness to decide to take the better option. I’m not going to get too excited (in a negative way) about Green creating other options. What I want to see is that when Green has the ball and there is a better option than him taking the shot himself, that he is also willing to offload.
He actually works hard to shepherd as well does the little blood nut
The goal that Stringer kicked that was commented on could have handballed to Guelfi (but risk a fumble) you see Green actually turn around the other way and ran away from goals to shepherd.
Also on that note Stringer in that final TIPPA goal sprinted to ensure that the closest man to TIPPA was also shepherded out the way. And this is at the end of the last quarter for someone whose supposedly meant to have poor workrate.
I can’t understand why Green is copping so much crap on this forum.
After 4 rounds, Green is in the top 10 small forwards in the game for goals and his forward pressure is off the charts.
Breust >Green
LeCras >Green
Green>Puopolo
Green>Betts
Green>Cyril.
Green > Tippa
Green >Wingard
and so on.
At Essendon he is #1 Small Medium forward for
Forward 50 ground ball gets.
Contested Possessions
Disposal Efficiency
Ground Ball gets
Goals ( average )
Kick Efficiency,
Score Launches
Shots at Goal.
Rebound 50s
Tackles inside 50
The guy is on fire, and some even want him dropped . Go figure.
It’s the “offloading a mark” that i have a problem with. Stewart was almost dead in front 30 out and he ended up kicking the goal.
He almost should’ve been called play on because he motioned to handball to Green who had a player right on his tail. I would have hoped he had learned from last week but that’s clearly not the case.
EDIT: The look on Stringer’s face when Green played on and missed the goal spoke volumes.
There is no such thing as perfection. Brings plenty to the table does The Corgi. How about enjoy the positives rather than focusing on the negatives. There are way more positives than negatives. Way more.
I agree however people tend to only ever look at the negatives with players. Every mistake is over-analysed while all the good actions are excused away or downplayed. This tends to only be for their clubs players, they look at other clubs and extol their brilliance and ignore all the things they get wrong.
The fact he in the right spot to get a crumb if they didn’t mark it is a positive. That’s his job.
If there is no one in front of him to goal it’s fair enough asking for handball. Up to the person with ball in hand to make decision if viable or not to give it to him & improve chance of scoring.
A player running into open goal from 15m out with no defender in front better chance than from 30 out set shot over the MOTM
The Stringer scenario happens week in week out across all teams and not just in front of goal. He took the advantage, had clear opportunity to make use of it but didn’t.
He used to really annoy me when we played Brisbane. There he was kicking smart goals, swindling cheapies and generally getting right up our noses on the scoreboard, with his ridiculous little slashing machine legs spinning like crazy. Its hard to get over that, but now he is helping us win games and that’s what matters.