I actually thought some of Francis’ field kicking was really good. He definitely looks fitter, and seemed to be chosen to be kicking the 45 degree kick from the backline into the middle. Some nice pinpoint passes.
Stewart stood out for me, was really physical, pushing blokes off himself and contesting strongly in the air for marks. Looks like Tarzan, was playing like Tarzan.
Adam Saad - wow. He runs flat out AT people and then zigs or zags around them and through their tackle at the last second. He really open up play by doing this and on a couple of occasion during the half-ground ball movement drill, was responsible for setting up a chain that resulted in a shot for goal.
Zerk-Thatcher intercepted well on a few occasions. noticed him most of the new crop.
Langford and Laverde just both looked…ready. Like they are both ready to step up and be good contributors to the senior team.
Stringer was doing a solo drill on the Etihad oval when I got there. Start in the goal square, lead out hard towards a flank, mark (or gather) a kick from 1 trainer, turn and run towards the other flank and pass to 2nd trainer, run back to goal square a lead out again, mark and take set shot. The gut running and gathering of loose balls below his knees was impressive. He had brand new boots on and sprayed about 5 of the set shots in a row.
How do i know the boots were brand new? He took them off to change boots and gave one to my son! Barely a mark on them. Thanks Jake!
Francis certainly prefers right foot, but I also noticed him kicking with his left earlier this preseason. Must be one of the 101 things he is being asked to work on. I wonder if they ever asked Pig to kick with his right ?
I’ve noticed that most of our lefties don’t like to kick on the right although I understand why Myers refuses to kick on his right most of time: he CANNOT kick on the right to save his life. Pig is obviously one of them, but too bad he is not with us anymore. Zerrett is not bad yet he kept going to his left, Heppell is a leftie too, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him kick on his right.
I find this odd because, generally, left-footers are better at kicking on their non-preferred foot than right-footers. Or is this a myth?
I think Hurley is the only player on our list who can kick on both feet comfortably.
Other way around I believe. Left footers are generally better on their primary foot than right footers are on theirs, conversely they tend to be worse on their right foot than righties are with their left.
Possibly because at junior levels most players are right-footed therefore that’s the side that’s normally covered by someone attempting to smother, etc. So right footers have to kick on their non-preferred more often than left footers. Maybe.
Not sure how either of them really supports the theory one way or the other, all they talk about is how many left footers are on lists. The second one does say that left footers are associated with high skill levels, but that’s it.
Richmond winning the flag with the least amount of left footers on the list proves… nothing? :). FWIW I don’t think anyone would say that Richmond has particularly good disposal, nor does their game plan rely upon it, although Hawthorn’s did.
They rushed Fantasia back for the final with that hamstring of his, which was quite a significant tear. Perhaps they are just easing him back into it or he’s had a minor setback with it?
Who knows.