Hit Outs and Clearances

[sharp9]

Now is it just me or are we UNBELIEVABLY BAD?

Last week (from memory) hit outs 37 to 12
This week 51 to 23

How is that possible? Is this a record? It's two similarly sized guys jumping up to tap the ball isn't it?

But even worse (and Sydney have been like this for 2 or 3 seasons) when we do get the tap it almost never goes to a Swan. Why is this? Don't they know where the midfielders are? Don't they practice during the week?

In contrast I can recall at least three action replays in my head of Clake tapping the ball down to a young dark haired Adelaide player standing less than a metre from him. No Swan within 2 metres, ball to Mac or Ricciuto or Bode before a Swan has moved.

Contrast Ball getting an excellent tap on our defensive 50 it goes 5 metres forward straight to a completely unmanned Macleod (no swan within 5 of him, Mac misses it, it goes through his legs and another 10 metres toward our goal, he turns chases, picks it up, turns to face the Adelaide goal and is still not confronted with an opponent. How is this possible? In our defensive zone?

Can someone confirm for me that the hit out stat relates only to the taps themselves?

Where can I get Clearance Stats and Clanger stats - neither of whach are in the Age or on the website (although am I right in thinking T is for turnover?)

[Charlie]

T is for tackles.

The problem is simple.... Ball isn't match fit yet - although yesterday was his best game thus far - and Goodes, at 192cm, gives away too much height.

[NMWBloods]

Re: Hit Outs and Clearances

Where can I get Clearance Stats and Clanger stats

http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/games/2003/ADSY20030413.html

[desredandwhite]

That stat is no surprise to me. We do NOT have any proper ruckmen. Goodes can compete, and thrash the big ruckmen around the ground, but at centre bounces and throwins he will be slaughtered. Ball and Doyle (even when both fit) are more suited to a tall forwards' sort of role. Your second point about roving the ruck contests is a valid one and has me puzzled too.

We are amazingly bad at the foot of the pack, basically. whether it's 3 players flying for a mark with no one crumbing or basic lack of awareness at stoppages...

[Bart]

Originally posted by desredandwhite
That stat is no surprise to me. We do NOT have any proper ruckmen.

Adelaide led the league for clearances last year and always play with 2 specialist ruckmen. No surprises there at all. They do this to most teams

[sharp9]

I was going to mention crumbing as well but I got too upset!

Why weren't Nicks, Davis etc at the fall of the ball whenBBB was under pressure and unable to marK????

Weird.

BTW Fancy having a kid like Johncock hanging around the back pocket, spoiling and generally having a great time. Made some of ours look very ordinary and he was probably ranked 8-10 in Adelaide's best.

[ugg]

Well, not having a proper ruck coach isn't going to help things.

[Mike_B]

Nor a proper ruckman. Once fit, I can't see Doyle being used anywhere but in the forward line (and doing the odd bit of ruckwork inside forward 50) because I have severe doubts about the ability of his body to stand up to the heavy contact at centre bounces. Hopefully the body-on-body work at stoppages around the ground will allow him to at least do some ruckwork.

We really need a genuine ruckman, and fast. Maybe its time to give Meiklejohn a run?

[Bron]

I think we've gotta try whoever we can. It's just not working.

[Dave]

Originally posted by desredandwhite

We are amazingly bad at the foot of the pack, basically. whether it's 3 players flying for a mark with no one crumbing or basic lack of awareness at stoppages...

I noticed yesterday that the crows outnumbered us at practically every fall of the ball or marking contest.

They were just getting the ball out of the pack, bombing it into the forward line where they would either mark it or crumb and snap for goal.

It seemed to me also that in most of the centre bounces the ball was basically going to ground, they were just able to crumb better.

[chammond]

Once fit, I can't see Doyle being used anywhere but in the forward line (and doing the odd bit of ruckwork inside forward 50) because I have severe doubts about the ability of his body to stand up to the heavy contact at centre bounces.

I must admit, Mike, that that has been in the back of my mind for a while. But when I actually stopped and thought back, I believe Doyle continually gets injured in the forward line rather than in ruck duels.

And I think that's because he so often goes to ground in the marking duels, especially when he's on a lead. Longmire needs to teach him to play forward like a ruckman (like Alessio or King for example) rather than like a forward, and avoid going to ground as much as possible. No diving on the ball, no crumbing the packs, no snaps around the corner. Just take the mark and go back and take a set shot at goal.

In the ruck he'll get lots of body hits, but not so many bone (and knee) crushing tackles.

[undy]

Getting back to the original topic - its pretty common for the ball to take more than three possessions (or touches anyway) after the bounce to get moved out of the centre square. This seems to apply to most teams - winning the tap-down seems pretty irrelevant as there is a good chance that whoever gets the ball first will spew it up when he immediately gets hit by two opponents, even if they are on the other team. Goodes is actually looks pretty good with his secondary tackling efforts in this loose centre square play compared to other ruckmen.

This isn't just a Sydney problem. Adelaide had this problem the week before - despite winning a fair proportion of the taps, they apparently only got one centre clearance, so they would have been working on that during the week. This seemed to hurt us in the second quarter.

I think that we should probably issue our midfield players with cattle prods. That should do the trick (can use it on our own ruckmen to make them jump higher too).

[NMWBloods]

Brereton made an interesting comment wrt our clearances. He said that we were trying to be too fancy and perfect, getting a clean possession and finding a player running past who could deliver perfectly into the forward line. Because of this we were often losing possession. Instead, it was better to simply get the moving forward as far and fast as possible. When we started doing this, it seemed to work well.

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by undy
This isn't just a Sydney problem. Adelaide had this problem the week before - despite winning a fair proportion of the taps, they apparently only got one centre clearance, so they would have been working on that during the week.

Early on, that would have been due to Lenny Hayes giving a nice push in the back of his Adelaide opponent occupying the area that Clarke was tapping the ball down to...

[penga]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Brereton made an interesting comment wrt our clearances. He said that we were trying to be too fancy and perfect, getting a clean possession and finding a player running past who could deliver perfectly into the forward line. Because of this we were often losing possession. Instead, it was better to simply get the moving forward as far and fast as possible. When we started doing this, it seemed to work well.

he was very spot on with his comments...

i like the caddle prod idea