Clearances

[Nico]

Article in the Melbourne Herald Sun gives a chart on clearances of all clubs.

Hawthorn leads with 50.7%, we are last on 34.9%.

Tells the whole story. Essendon is 41% (12th), Port 42.7% (8th), Carlton 42.5% (9th).

I dare say the reason they are so high up is that all 3 who have only won 1 game have all played us, and smashed us at the stoppages.

The big thing I saw in 2005 that turned our game around was we started winning the centre bounce clearances consistently.

Is it now a simple solution to getting that winning confidence back. Win a lot more clearances. Put more instant pressure on the opposing backs and give our forwards quality quick moves into attack.

As I have suggested before, get Mathews and Ablett out of the centre bounces as they only act as stoppers and poor ones at that. Get people in there who win the ball by competing and who can give us clean decent disposal.

[dendol]

as they all say, the game is won and lost in the midfield these days.. and unfortunately we've got more defensive midfielders/taggers rather than ball-winners. When we do win it, most can't hit a target this year.

[stellation]

I'd love to see either Goodes or Davis in there at all times.

[sharp9]

Been saying it for ages, but at least this week the players and coaches have been saying it as well.

Jude even said something about the other teams winning the ball CLEANLY out of the centre and with FORWARD MOMENTUM.

This has been my big bug bear (say that three times fast). According to the stats we used to win the clerances. My arse. A cursory watching of the game over the past souple of seasons would demonstrate that we get far less clean, quick, FACING THE RIGHT WAY ball than any other team we play against. Lots of our clearances are actually three metre handballs to a guy who gets tackled, whereas a clearance for the Bombers is a 30 metre pass to the chest of Lloyd on the lead. I'm sure they wouldn't mind losing the "Clearance Battle" 30 to 40 under those circumstances.

This year, however, we haven't even been winning crap clearances and (as I said last wek!!!!!) this needs to change if we are to progress this year.

GET PLAYERS IN THE CENTRE WHO CAN WIN IT AND USE IT. So that means Ablett out for a start and Kirk tagging (which I think he did last week, though a bit difficult to tell on the tele) and Jude to Half forward (which we did last week). Maybe Jude should go to half back....then at least he's a chance of facing the right way when he goes into the contest.

Davis, Malceski, Goodes, Buchanan. Put them on the ball and leave them there for a bit, I say.

Goodes is a weird one.....he seems to win the ball so easily and find time and space in traffic, but he also is nowhere near the ball for huge periods of the game. Why is that, anyone?

It's almost like he doesn't get involved unless we're losing a particular battle at which point he goes "sigh, I guess I'll have to go over there and show the littlies how they're supposed to get clean ball out of a pack." Then he wins a couple of contests and says "OK you guys you do it now I'll be watching you very closely from now on."

[Ruck'n'Roll]

I don't think moving Jude our of the square is the solution because so far this season he is by far the attacking player in there.
But I agree wholeheartedly that Mathews ahould never be allowed in the square and also that Kirk and Ablett in there if a bit too defensive.

[royboy42]

Sharpy said..
Goodes is a weird one.....he seems to win the ball so easily and find time and space in traffic, but he also is nowhere near the ball for huge periods of the game. Why is that, anyone?

It's almost like he doesn't get involved unless we're losing a particular battle at which point he goes "sigh, I guess I'll have to go over there and show the littlies how they're supposed to get clean ball out of a pack." Then he wins a couple of contests and says "OK you guys you do it now I'll be watching you very closely from now on."


__________________

I was round when Ronald Dale Barassi was playing at his peak for Melbourne in the Fifties, I guess it must have been. EXACTLY the same thing was always said about him! And I watched him do it plenty times against the Roys..he would hang around ther forward pocket till the Demons got into trouble, then whammo, he'd put himself on the ball for 10 or 15 minutes, get them back in the game and say " OK you guys , you do it now "etc.
I really believe there will come a time when Goodesy will be seen as a genuine champion of the game..he already has a Brownlow!

[Nico]

Originally posted by Ruckman
I don't think moving Jude our of the square is the solution because so far this season he is by far the attacking player in there.
But I agree wholeheartedly that Mathews ahould never be allowed in the square and also that Kirk and Ablett in there if a bit too defensive.

I really watched the centre bounces closely last week. When Kirk wasn't in there we were terrible.

I had my head in my hands when Ablett and Mathews were in there together. Shizen.

[NMWBloods]

Same. Ablett has no ability to read the ball or to react quickly enough. Mathews spends too much time watching his man.

[giant]

But we were seriously awful all night on clearances - and not just in the centre square.

The issue sadly seems to be deeper than bullets for Mathews & NOG.

[Ryan Bomford]

But our game plan is not based on quick clearances from the centre where the risk is that the quick snap from the centre may just as likely fall into opposition hands as our own.

Rather, our tactic seems to be to manufacture stoppages at the initial bounce thereby encouraging subsequent ball-ups where we can bring numbers to the ball, maintain control and link up players to run the ball out of congested areas. That's why we've got Ablett and Mathews in at the centre bounce.

[Young Blood]

Would be great to have a better user of the ball in there join Jude and Kirk as the A Team. Monty goes OK. Would like to see Davis spend more time there.

I love Goodes playing midfield, but I can't recall him winning many centre square clearances...and he has had a few chances.

[SimonH]

My gut reaction when it comes to clearances and the first 3 games of the year was: no Kirk, no Sydney. When he's a bit off the boil, we really struggle. And, as Roos rightly said (kind of), we're the sort of team that could only drop its performance level by 5% this year and plummet from 1st to missing the finals.

And I love it when statistics confirm my prejudices: according to ProStats, 132 clearances for Kirk last year at an average of 5.1; 8 so far this year at an average of 2.7.

Jude Bolton has been the only one to really step forward and try to fill the gap; but he can't do it alone. Forget Ablett and Mathews; we need Crouch, Buchanan, Schneider, Malceski, McVeigh, Fosdike and occasionally Davis to get rotated (or keep getting rotated) through the centre bounces and make it count when they do. Kirk is more or less irreplaceable in our team, and so we just have to trust that his touch will come back; certainly the commitment is still there.

[Go Swannies]

See this article by Terry Wallace for a good rundown of how we play - and others.

http://tinyurl.com/ztlp5

[The Big Cat]

The secret to our clearances is to grant one - to Chambers!