A taxing session in the heat with the players working steadily through their drills.
Hooker and Walla were inside today. Hurley did mainly running on the small oval and looked okay as did Heppell. Myers joined them wearing a finger splint.
The good news is that Bellchambers joined in some of the main training today and Francis completed the full training load.
The main emphasis was moving the ball quickly down the corridor trying to get off their kicks within three seconds of receiving the ball.
I was surprised to see little work being done on clearances as this was clearly our Achilles heel against Gold Coast. In particular I refer to the disconnect between the ruck and the receivers where Gold Coast midfielders consistently stood in front of their Essendon opponents and negated our good ruck work.
Our centre trios need to work together with one to receive, one to block for him and a sweeper if we lose the tap.
Today I decided to concentrate on Begley who is potentially in contention for a forward spot and I think he furthered his claims in leading drills one on one with a defender outplaying Morgan to such an extent that Harvey called “Bags go on Fridge.” which resulted in a two all duel.
At the other end of the ground Francis, to my mind our potential full forward, was well out of sorts in a similar leading drill. Joey called to him “You’ve got to be stronger in leading drills.” Advice from a member of the leadership group which is a little hollow after Joe’s one possession game. I noticed that some of the players, Stewart in particular, were complaining with some justification on the quality of the kicks into the forward line but it was not a good look and didn’t please Harvs.
Is it possible that Begley is moving ahead of Francis for a forward spot?
I should conclude by mentioning that Ambrose did very well with his spoiling in the leading drills and this is one aspect of his game that is pleasing. He just needs to do more to follow up after the spoil.
Not an outstanding session today but part of the grind that is so necessary as we build up to the first game against Hawthorn.
The problem with our clearances is not the individuals who contest them, it's that there's not enough support. Clearances are won by the team that has the extra player there to receive that last handball and take off. It's what Hawthorn have been doing for decades and it's what Footscray did better than anyone else in the finals last year -- plus the spread to capitalise on the swarm.
We’ve been substandard for years and we’ll stay that way until we master that style and do it better than anyone else.
If you watch our set up we don’t hit the ball anywhere near our spare who is always on the defensive side.As to why we have the spare there its a mystery may as well send him around and sit on there spare me thinks!
Jobe likes to play defensive side because he can dictate the stoppage from there, provided of course that Ryder puts it down his throat. Do you see the problem now?
That is not a knock on luey but he is a different kind of ruckmen to Ryder who uses leverage (jumping early) to win clean carefully directed taps .
Luey prefers to neutralize his opponent and force a dirty tap to wherever he can. If there is an area where the players need to ‘gel’ and come to understand their new teammates this is the one.
I think the loss of Ryder and the impact that had on our stoppage work is a little underestimated. It’s also worth noting that port don’t really have a stoppage player that plays like jobe. Jobe and Ryder was a match made in heaven.
I never understood why port made such a big play for Ryder, I didn’t think he suited their style of play and I thought he unbalanced their forward line. With Schultz gone, lobbe out of the frame, a more mature wines around the ball and Dixon upfront (another trading choice I thought odd all the same) maybe they will use Ryder more effectively.
The whole Ryder trade thing really bugged me because we got a ■■■■ deal (though in hindsight I’m happy with Langford and hird should have backed disco and Keene on draft day) and port farked their structure up. Lose lose, fark port.
BEGLEY went past Francis after about 10 minutes on Sunday. Not to say that's how it'll stay, but Francis is nowhere near the seniors and to me, that's disappointing
He would have played seniors last week if he didn’t get sick, just like Begley.
Imagine if Francis played on Sunday and he kicked 4…
Just the thought of it makes me go wild.
Toto Schillaci was a last minute sub in the 1990 WC - went on to kick 6, win the golden boot, etc.
you just never know…
Lesser known fact, no less curious, is also the name of a cover band that runs the gamut from 70’s and 80’s prog pop to 90’s post hardcore.
And also the name of Melbourne’s first pizza joint.
Australia’s first, according to them anyway.
Everybody in Adelaide claims Lucia’s was the first
BEGLEY went past Francis after about 10 minutes on Sunday. Not to say that's how it'll stay, but Francis is nowhere near the seniors and to me, that's disappointing
He would have played seniors last week if he didn’t get sick, just like Begley.
Imagine if Francis played on Sunday and he kicked 4…
Just the thought of it makes me go wild.
Toto Schillaci was a last minute sub in the 1990 WC - went on to kick 6, win the golden boot, etc.
you just never know…
Lesser known fact, no less curious, is also the name of a cover band that runs the gamut from 70’s and 80’s prog pop to 90’s post hardcore.
And also the name of Melbourne’s first pizza joint.
The problem with our clearances is not the individuals who contest them, it's that there's not enough support. Clearances are won by the team that has the extra player there to receive that last handball and take off. It's what Hawthorn have been doing for decades and it's what Footscray did better than anyone else in the finals last year -- plus the spread to capitalise on the swarm.
We’ve been substandard for years and we’ll stay that way until we master that style and do it better than anyone else.
If you watch our set up we don’t hit the ball anywhere near our spare who is always on the defensive side.As to why we have the spare there its a mystery may as well send him around and sit on there spare me thinks!
I’d be lying if I said that I was shocked to hear that our forwards cannot lead and that an 18 year old kid is looking the best out of every one of our forwards and that the rest of them were blaming the delivery.
It’s been ■■■■ on both ends for years. Players who cannot lower their eyes or hit easy targets and just prefer to bomb it long to 3 on 1’s when moving forward with the ball and forwards who constantly lead to the boundaries or just proceed to lead directly under the ball.
We seriously need to give something like our next two first rounders in order to try and pry a franchise FF from another team to allow for Joe to go to that roaming CHF role he has thrived in.
Tom Lynch would be nice but perhaps totally unattainable.
BEGLEY went past Francis after about 10 minutes on Sunday. Not to say that's how it'll stay, but Francis is nowhere near the seniors and to me, that's disappointing
He would have played seniors last week if he didn’t get sick, just like Begley.
Imagine if Francis played on Sunday and he kicked 4…
Just the thought of it makes me go wild.
Toto Schillaci was a last minute sub in the 1990 WC - went on to kick 6, win the golden boot, etc.
you just never know…
Lesser known fact, no less curious, is also the name of a cover band that runs the gamut from 70’s and 80’s prog pop to 90’s post hardcore.
And also the name of Melbourne’s first pizza joint.
The problem with our clearances is not the individuals who contest them, it's that there's not enough support. Clearances are won by the team that has the extra player there to receive that last handball and take off. It's what Hawthorn have been doing for decades and it's what Footscray did better than anyone else in the finals last year -- plus the spread to capitalise on the swarm.
We’ve been substandard for years and we’ll stay that way until we master that style and do it better than anyone else.
I don’t think it is an extra man per say just using the men you do have smarter. The Hawks are the masters of staying on their feat and not over committing numbers to the coal face or the man with the ball. If there is 1 hawk on the ground vs 3 opponents his two teammates will stay on their feet and wait for it to pop out. The man on the ground will aim only to knock it to their advantage.
If an opponent has the ball they will not send two guys to him, they will send one and the others will cover the options.
This takes a degree of trust in your teammates defensive actions and it has been something that has driven me crazy about our on field decision making for a long long time.
During the first qtr against GC there was a moment where they were transitioning down the wing. Their guy with the ball was streaming out of defense carrying the ball, he had to guys running support in front of him as hand ball options. We had one guy between the ball carrier and his options and another working his tail off in a strong chase. Our man ahead of the play was drawn to the ball carrier and arrived just as the chaser got him. All 3 went to ground but not before the ball carrier dished an easy handball to his teammate. We’d Turned a bad two on 3 into an awful 2 on zero because our guy on the wing didn’t back in his teammate giving chase.
Now if our player ahead of the ball had backed his teammate who was chasing and positioned himself to cover the two options at best he could, he could have created enough hesitation in the ball carrier so that he got caught and we forced a turnover. Alternatively the carrier may been forced to take a longer down the line option to where we had our numbers. Basically we found the worst possible solution to an alreay bad defensive situation.
This scenario just gets repeated over and over again at stoppages when we lose first posession. The other team pop it around until we commit 2 men to the 1 with the ball creating the spare for them and they are away.
Conversely we aren’t doing this enough and bomb it away with our eyes down far far too often.
This sort of defensive decision making is par for the course in association football where you rarely commit 2 defenders to one man unless you have a clear outnumber situation in your advantage, a very risky goial scoring opportunity to defend, or there is an opportunity to force the turnover. More often than not however one man would back off and try to stand up the dribbler while his teammates worked to cover his options. The aim of course is to force the attacking team to retreat and look for another angle.
I’ve been waiting to see improvement in this area for at least a decade from us. It’s something good coaching should fix…
The problem with our clearances is not the individuals who contest them, it’s that there’s not enough support. Clearances are won by the team that has the extra player there to receive that last handball and take off. It’s what Hawthorn have been doing for decades and it’s what Footscray did better than anyone else in the finals last year – plus the spread to capitalise on the swarm.
We’ve been substandard for years and we’ll stay that way until we master that style and do it better than anyone else.
BEGLEY went past Francis after about 10 minutes on Sunday. Not to say that's how it'll stay, but Francis is nowhere near the seniors and to me, that's disappointing
He would have played seniors last week if he didn’t get sick, just like Begley.
Imagine if Francis played on Sunday and he kicked 4…
Just the thought of it makes me go wild.
Toto Schillaci was a last minute sub in the 1990 WC - went on to kick 6, win the golden boot, etc.
you just never know…
Lesser known fact, no less curious, is also the name of a cover band that runs the gamut from 70’s and 80’s prog pop to 90’s post hardcore.
Great report as always thank you. Hope Franga plays JLT 3. People have memories like goldfish around here. He led beautifully last year against Lions in the second half and took some vanilla one grabbers in front of the beak. Looked every bit the player that Fridge did. It’s a good problem to have. Too many forward
BEGLEY went past Francis after about 10 minutes on Sunday. Not to say that's how it'll stay, but Francis is nowhere near the seniors and to me, that's disappointing
He would have played seniors last week if he didn’t get sick, just like Begley.
Imagine if Francis played on Sunday and he kicked 4…
Just the thought of it makes me go wild.
Toto Schillaci was a last minute sub in the 1990 WC - went on to kick 6, win the golden boot, etc.
you just never know…
Lesser known fact, no less curious, is also the name of a cover band that runs the gamut from 70’s and 80’s prog pop to 90’s post hardcore.
Francis was drafted as a back, right? We actually have a need for an intercepting back. So why not play him there?
What is our obsession with drafting players who play a particular position and making them play other positions? Think Hurley (drafted as a FB, played him forward, now back again), Langford (let’s make a forward into a midfielder) or any of the countless hbfs or hffs we have tried to unsuccessfully turn into midfielders over the years.
Francis was drafted as a back, right? We actually have a need for an intercepting back. So why not play him there?
What is our obsession with drafting players who play a particular position and making them play other positions? Think Hurley (drafted as a FB, played him forward, now back again), Langford (let’s make a forward into a midfielder) or any of the countless hbfs or hffs we have tried to unsuccessfully turn into midfielders over the years.
How do you know we drafted Francis as a back?
He dominated games in every part of the ground as a junior
Francis was drafted as a back, right? We actually have a need for an intercepting back. So why not play him there?
What is our obsession with drafting players who play a particular position and making them play other positions? Think Hurley (drafted as a FB, played him forward, now back again), Langford (let’s make a forward into a midfielder) or any of the countless hbfs or hffs we have tried to unsuccessfully turn into midfielders over the years.
BEGLEY went past Francis after about 10 minutes on Sunday. Not to say that's how it'll stay, but Francis is nowhere near the seniors and to me, that's disappointing
He would have played seniors last week if he didn’t get sick, just like Begley.
Imagine if Francis played on Sunday and he kicked 4…
Just the thought of it makes me go wild.
Toto Schillaci was a last minute sub in the 1990 WC - went on to kick 6, win the golden boot, etc.
you just never know…
