According to the HUN he had 21 touches (95% efficiency). Of these he had just 4 kicks, 4 f***ing kicks from a guy who finds more open space than Burke & Wills... It's not good enough.
Of these 17 handballs how many were attacking? Now I haven't watched the game as yet (doing so tonight), but I will make a note of every handball that goes backwards and get back to you.
Last edited by Mantis; 27-04-2009 at 03:08 PM.
Cross is struggling at the moment.
He's still finding the ball and open space as others have alluded to, but his impact is almost next to nothing at the moment. FAR too often he decides to go to ground, putting his body over the ball rather than just bending down and picking it up. Clubs are starting to work it out - let him slide in, then stand off him because he's not going to be able to handball far on his backside. One player makes the tackle and the other covers the space in which Cross is going to handball it to.
His kicking is going backwards but I think the biggest concern is the amount of times he's fumbling the ball in congestion. His use of handball and decision making has been ordinary lately too.
He's been super consistent to date in his career but he really needs to turn it around soon. Boyd has surpassed him by a long, long way.
1st rule of forum life: Don't quote your own posts... oh well.
Cross:
1st qtr - 6 handballs for the qtr, 3 within 10 sec's , only one of these is creative. All travel backwards or sideways. Two more during the qtr release running player's.
2nd qtr - All handballs sideways or backwards. Two release players. Stuff's up goal opportunity.
2nd half - Two handballs put players under more pressure than he was. One results in a Carlton goal.
Although his handballs were effective (hit a target) I would say less than half of these released running players. His game was better than I was led to believe, but played too wide of his opponent.