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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
Ohhh. Libba has discovered the Doors! That's so cute.
Actually I shouldn't be commenting. I'm probably the only other person in this conversation that had his favourite band tattooed on him as well. I have a Black Flag on my leg.They say Burt Lancaster has one, but I don't believe them.Comment
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Don't piss off old people
The older we get the less "LIFE IN PRISON" is a deterrent...Comment
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Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023Comment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
Dropped into training yesterday. They did look very sharp. Really good movement of the footy in drills. A few of the guys being given some running duties. Boyd has fined down from where he was at in the VFL three months ago. Without getting too excited, my mate and I began discussing Libba's Brownlow odds..
Feeling pretty good....
Then the goal kicking drills started. If you could call them that.. They were bloody awful!
It is a massively neglected part of our game. The amount of inconsistency in individual players' techniques, gaits, head position, balance, ball drop, routine etc.
One thing I'll give rugby league - their goal kickers have improved markedly over the past 30 years. That's backed by conversion rate figures. AFL has regressed. And we're the worst in the comp!Comment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
What's Lindsay doing now days, we need him back asap.
Don't piss off old people
The older we get the less "LIFE IN PRISON" is a deterrent...Comment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
I've banged on and banged on about this for years but look at Lindsey's technique. It's perfect, upright, head over the ball, he is going to send the ball where he wants it to go. Gilbert made the ball talk not because he is naturally gifted but because he does it properly and he has respect for the ball.They say Burt Lancaster has one, but I don't believe them.Comment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
One of the issues with set shot goal kicking is that everyone thinks techniques need to be perfect. This is not the case. Often, players are encouraged to become "over correct" and end up becoming worse.
They become robotic. Unnatural. Almost like a bunch of dressage horses. Ankles too close together - meaning they become top heavy and unbalanced. Hips too square, too much going on in the mind etc etc.
In rugby league in the 1980's, there was a trend towards consistent, homogenous, robotic routines. It didn't work. Players have a natural gait. A bit like batsmen. Look at Steve Smith. It's an ugly, ungainly technique - but it works.
Look at Buddy. His technique is 'horribly wrong' like Steve Smith's or Bubba Watson's.. But it works. It's instinct.
I don't want to see players achieving wonderfully classical actions. I just want to see consistency of method. Narrowed down variables combined with natural instinct. Dickson has it and the results are obvious.
As I said earlier, our field kicking was elite on Saturday. Players are instinctive. The ball drops are rarely perfect, but players instinctively adjust their foot position, trajectory, or weighting of their kicks to compensate. However, with goal kicking, everyone seems to simply drop and blast. There isn't that same instinct to adjust to a non-prefect drop, or ball angle.
It's either perfect, or it's awful. This is the element that can be changed - but there's a missing link in AFL footy which I think is embarrassing.Comment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
I think it's a lot to do with learning to dart the ball with field kicking but going back to floating it naturally through goals.
As we all know darting a football quickly through the air is a lot harder than just floating a kick, players don't practice floating it anymore.
Suckling, buddy and many others have an awkward style but it works. I think it's about letting the player kick what's natural to them, maybe it's coaches trying to change the natural that's the problem, let's face it kids got into AFL clubs doing what's natural, the moment they go to clubs they are taught other ways that isn't natural to them.Bring back the biffComment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
I dropped in for a bit too. The other thing that stood out was even during the general play drills they'd move the ball down the ground cutting different angles with their kicks before eventually a player would receive the ball 50m or so out and run in to have a shot at goal, and that player routinely missed, yet no one seemed to even care.
It didn't look like anyone was tracking how many were being kicked and how many were missing. I saw 4 in a row miss from 20-30m out and no one said a word. It's as if the shot at goal was the meaningless formality and the end of the drill.
It defies belief that we just don't care about such a critical part of the game, a part that costs wins regularly, yet we obsess over making fractional gains in tiny 1% areas. It's beyond madness. You have to think the coaches are so absorbed in their bubble of sexy AFL trends that they can't see fundamentals are hopelessly lacking.[COLOR="#FF0000"][B]Western Bulldogs:[/B][/COLOR] [COLOR="#0000CD"][B]We exist to win premierships[/B][/COLOR]Comment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
Buku had been playing forward for Jets, but moved to a half back/intercept defender role during last season - and was more than handy at it. Would be good if he grew another 5-6cms....but I think his athleticism bridges the height gap a fair bit. Kicks the footy well.
Both Buku, and Rhylee West have been training a bit with the main group. Both NGA players for us - so a really good initiative to have them spend time amongst the big boys.Comment
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Re: Pre-season Training 2018
Let's bring back the place kick for goals. Surely there is no man on the mark for them.
It's not as if they are like an underarm bowl. They didn't die of stigma.Footscray Football Republic.Comment
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