it’s not really a fair comparison, barrass has a reasonable size advantage on lav and also one of the best zoning KPDs of the last decade next too him.
Barrass also wasn’t asked to spend the year pressing up to the wing while watching the ball sail over his head
Lav punches well above his weight but can get exposed on the lead by taller opponents. he has a similar style to rampe and he’s pretty good at it but it’s hard to execute that style if there’s lots of space around, little support and the ball is flying in completely uncontested.
he’s no world beater but i think he can be an important cog in our backline and will remain so for a while yet. he’s a good athlete, courageous, disciplined and hates getting scored on. It’s a good combination and he’ll towel up plenty of opponents this year.
I’m a Laverde fan. I’ve sat behind the goals and watched him in action. He is undersized for a key position and it would be great if he didn’t have to take the biggest forward now. He’s an aggressive and physical brute.
It would also help if we could stop the leaking of coast to coast forward entries.
You forgot to mention that in piano-playing, golf and cricket there’s basically one round surface hitting, or being hit by, a flat (or almost flat) surface, whereas in football there are two rounded surfaces involved. Plus in the other three it’s the hand that’s controlling the strike, as opposed to the foot. Both of those factors add hugely to the difficulty of the action.
There’s one good reason for not practising kicking as much as pianists practise at the piano, etc., and that’s that there’s more strain on the body each time you kick. But learning the correct technique and practising it frequently until it becomes ingrained is definitely something that would improve almost all our players.
Sort of. From the reports, they all line up and take pot shots at goal from different angles for a while, but there’s little if any actual teaching technique and drilling that technique into them. That’s what’s needed.
I read all the reports and dont know how much they teach and drill technique, it could all be happening inside the hangar, or it could be that what you describe as taking pot shots at goal is actually them teaching and drilling technique. It could also be done when they are kicking around the field seperate to goalkicking. Are other clubs spending significantly more time drilling kicking technique then we do?
There is some drill technique.
I didn’t notice it on set shots because we’re too far away.
But there is some technique training when I was there last time. Specifically with the Davey’s when they are having their shots on goal from the pocket.
There is a guy (have no idea who he is) who points out that they both need to work out where they start from, how many steps you need, etc.
He also pointed out that someone will be ten metres off to the side of the man on the mark so as soon as play on is called, his space will be closed up.
He said, try to get used to two step snaps from the pocket otherwise the third step could cause a smother.
He also said you have to think about the situation. Try to get into a habit of taking one step and being in line with the man on the mark (or something along those lines).
The reasoning behind that is he mentioned, if the siren goes, you have to kick over the man on the mark, otherwise you’ll be called for play on once you cross that angle.
The same guy was also pointing out to Alwyn Jnr that he was leaning back a bit too much on his set shots.
So yes, there is someone there. But it doesn’t look like they are there for all players. It’s probably more directed towards the younger players to try and get their bad habits out of them before it gets worse.
Well that sounds promising. I never ceased to be amazed that every team doesn’t have a permanent specialist kicking coach on the payroll. When Matthew Lloyd gave some coaching to Joe Daniher he noticeably improved for a time (and reverted to his native erratic state as soon as Lloyd stopped); and Jobe Watson went from an every-time-misser to a very reliable shooter after specialist help from someone I forget.
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