Even if was free flowing why wouldn’t you want him there? Against most of the opposition inside mids he’d leave them for dead for pace in space.
The opposing team would actually want to try and create a more contested/congested game to avoid just being burnt out of stoppages. Think Danger / Dusty / Shiel etc being able to run freely.
Will be nice to see a big bodied inside mid of ours running off on their man for once. Always seem to be us being too slow around contest.
Stringer can roost them from 60m as well so would be even more dangerous in a free flow gaming in centre of ground.
Dea, Redman, Mutch, Zaharakis. Nothing much to report just stock standard.
Dea is always impressive, strong and good disposal
Redman was going hard in the wrestling drills
Mutch i was interested to see lined up in the centre bounce as one of the rotations in the match sim. Mind you the match sim only went about a quarter length.
Zaharakis, always better when right on the ball as per 2016/2017 second half of the year but didn;t do anything good or bad.
Smith was quiete actually, maybe because he is so small I didn;t really notice him.
Something iv’e noticed with the trainings iv’e been to. Might be just the sessions ive seen its only a couple over the past 2 years but the other guys that go regularly might have an opinion. I always find it strange they stop the drills with a whistle just as something is about to happen and re-start for the stoppage. Like i understand stopping it because its a stoppage drill but just as someone is about to be tested (blows whistle) everyone stops and starts again, i would of thought it would be better to wait that few seconds to give the player practice in how to react in a sticky situation than stop it. It also use to annoy me in match sim they wouldn’t let the player finish his shot at goal before taking it back to the centre. I always think its better to finish the play and acknowledge it, creates good habits.
Another thing iv’e never seen is one on one marking duels, defender v forward. Remembering being smashed in the air in the final i reckon our defenders could do worse than to be put one out against some of our marking forwards. Maybe modern day training methods dictate this but even last year the coaches seemed obsessed with stoppage based drills and everything else was forgotten about.
Appreciate your view. Generally in games we won by large margins, you are correct Its true our game plan was an uncontested, fast ball movement plan, but reliance on turnovers at half back is not enough. The mids poor defensive stoppage work lead to too many I50s against us and our ability to turn these over was never going to be enough. For centre clearances there is little range in clearances between teams. We were only 2 per game below average. It was at stoppages were were 10 per game below the top team. We were found out by teams who prevented our uncontested game, beat us up at stoppages and denied us the corridor.
Now we have to at least replace Jobe and lift all the rest of the players stoppage craft , contested ball and tackling.
Was part of our problem with around the ground stoppages simply that some of our mids (eg Jobe) didn’t have the running capacity to get to enough stoppages? So he was good when he was at a stoppage, but he didn’t get to enough and it’s why the opposition dominated them
Interesting view. I was not able to see games at this level of detail. Almost always our ruckmen ( who are not the fastest players tbh ) will get to almost all stoppages. But when you look at our clearance winners, it seems like “non midfielders” infill for mids to some extent in their parts of the ground. Something to watch.
I think our clearance issues started in the ruck last year. Intially I think the connection between luey and the returning guys was very poor and the set ups were all wrong and didn’t take into account luey’s preferred tap zones. Luey certainly isn’t the world’s greatest tap ruckman either.
When tbell came back I think we certainly saw and increase in taps to advantage and we improved around the clearances. Unfortunately tbell’s consistency was/is a bit of a problem and if he lost the ruck we seemed incapable of adjusting to a more defensive posture at stopagges, the final being an obvious case in point.
This is spot on and the basis of my whole argument. We got scored against heavily due to poor defensive pressure in the midfield, exactly the reason you wouldn’t be playing Stringer in there full time but only during high stoppage games.
Would have to think Zerrett, Heppell, Zaharakis, Smith, Parish with Stringer to move through, McGrath to do an apprenticeship and one of Langford/Myers, Begley or perhaps even Laverde at some point is something to work with towards a unit that can compete with the better sides for first use as well as pressure to turn over opposition first use.
I think there has been a definite shift in how preseason is conducted.
In the past you could split preseason training into the phases.
Fitness phase (running, gym, running and more running) - pre xmas and January
Skills - Febuary
Game plan (practice drills, match simulation, practice matches etc) - March
As preseason progressed the time spent on each changed.
Now preseason seems to be an even spread of all three over the entire period. Also there is less running only drills (i.e endless laps, sprints, 400m sprints, time trials etc). The players now get their running training whilst doing a drill that encompasses running, skills and game plan.
I think it is because of this that they don’t hold up play for a player to take a shot at goal at the end of a game simulation drill. As the drill is also about fitness and running, they need to restart the drill again ASAP to keep the intenstity (and heart ate) up.
