NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

[Before I Die]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

How do you teach guys who can't kick to kick in 4 weeks?

Over the last few years we have been seen as a team highly skilled by foot. These skills don't disappear over the summer, but they do get rusty. Elite golfers and tennis players need to practise hitting balls almost every day ot they lose their touch. Footballers are the same.

[Mantis]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

Over the last few years we have been seen as a team highly skilled by foot. These skills don't disappear over the summer, but they do get rusty. Elite golfers and tennis players need to practise hitting balls almost every day ot they lose their touch. Footballers are the same.

We are also supposed to be a quick team. I don't see too many quick players, do you?

On your second point these players have been training for the best part of 3 months to ready themselves for the upcoming season, and yes we read that they have concentrated more on fitness than football thus far, but at a guess I would have thought they would be training with balls for 2 to 4 hours a week. Some of the kicks and handballs I have viewed in the past few weeks are like those of a beginner.

I am a fairly handy golfer and recently I had a 5 week lay off. After this lay off I was hitting the ball all over the place, but within a week I was back to playing some pretty good golf. My golf is no where near being at a professional state and thus the amount of practice I put in would be limited to 1 perhaps 2 hours a week, but our football team are professionals and I would hope to see professional performances from them when they play be it a NAB Cup game or an official H&A game.

[soupman]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

We are also supposed to be a quick team. I don't see too many quick players, do you?

We haven't been an overly quick team for at least 1 year.

We move the ball quickly, and play a quick style, but we have no Davey type players, and most of our quick guys are in the pacy group, without being anything outstanding.

The only really quick players on our list to have played a game are Lynch and Harbrow.

[Desipura]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

We are also supposed to be a quick team. I don't see too many quick players, do you?

On your second point these players have been training for the best part of 3 months to ready themselves for the upcoming season, and yes we read that they have concentrated more on fitness than football thus far, but at a guess I would have thought they would be training with balls for 2 to 4 hours a week. Some of the kicks and handballs I have viewed in the past few weeks are like those of a beginner.

I am a fairly handy golfer and recently I had a 5 week lay off. After this lay off I was hitting the ball all over the place, but within a week I was back to playing some pretty good golf. My golf is no where near being at a professional state and thus the amount of practice I put in would be limited to 1 perhaps 2 hours a week, but our football team are professionals and I would hope to see professional performances from them when they play be it a NAB Cup game or an official H&A game.

I agree we are not as quick as some say. Gee I hope Lynch comes good as his genuine pace in the forward line is badly needed. My bro was talking with one of the conditioning guys at the praccy game and he said that Lynch is one of the quickest in the league! My bro asked how about Alwyn Davey, he said Lynch is quicker. I found this most surprising.
Cooney will help the pace in the midfield when he comes back then you have Griffen (both have great acceleration), other than that, I am unaware with other players on our list with genuine pace.

[Desipura]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

We haven't been an overly quick team for at least 1 year.

We move the ball quickly, and play a quick style, but we have no Davey type players, and most of our quick guys are in the pacy group, without being anything outstanding.

The only really quick players on our list to have played a game are Lynch and Harbrow.

I disagree about Harbrow having pace. Dont get me wrong, he is not slow however I would not say he has pace. In fact I wish/hope he has gained a yard with the new conditioning guy.

[Before I Die]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

I don't think we have ever (well, not in a long time) been a team with a lot of genuine pace. What we have had is a generous number of players who like to run and carry and a few players with good acceleration. The departures of McMahon and Ray (though for the best) reduce our run and carry, as does the ageing of Eagleton. However, I think the heat was the main factor on Friday. There was no gut running from the backline or through the midfield and given the conditions and the risk to players, I think that was probably a good thing. Unfortunately the foot skills were also down (on the day) so short passes regularly missed targets and long kicks were rarely to our players' advantage.
However, there was no shortage of endeavour and plenty of tackling pressure, areas that have been a concern in the not too distant past.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

I think the heat was the main factor on Friday.

How will this affect our players who play in Perth in rounds 1 & 4?

Freo game starts at 4.10pm & West Coast game at 2.40pm local time.

Those living in WA may be best placed to answer this one.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

We are also supposed to be a quick team. I don't see too many quick players, do you?

Is it leg speed, or speed of ball movement that needs to improve though? If we had super quick players but moved the ball slowly, it wouldn't make any difference at all. Sure, it would be nice to have some extra leg speed, but I don't think its the be all end all.

At the end of the day, I feel leg speed is most important out of the clearance, where explosive speed can make space and time to create. Cooney and Griffen can provide enough in this regards. I don't know many other centre square combos that have 2 pretty good players with such explosive leg speed.

[Before I Die]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

How will this affect our players who play in Perth in rounds 1 & 4?

Freo game starts at 4.10pm & West Coast game at 2.40pm local time.

Those living in WA may be best placed to answer this one.

Pre-season and home and away are very different. You run yourself into the ground to get the win in a home and away game. In the pre-season you experiment with other things and look after the players.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

Pre-season and home and away are very different. You run yourself into the ground to get the win in a home and away game. In the pre-season you experiment with other things and look after the players.

Hang on, in your previous post you said the heat was a factor on Friday night but then say in your next post that in a proper match you 'run yourself into the ground'. Given that the heat was a factor on Friday night & we're playing rounds 1 & 4 in Perth during the day where we'll be running ourselves into the ground, surely the heat will again be a factor, will it not?

[Before I Die]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

Hang on, in your previous post you said the heat was a factor on Friday night but then say in your next post that in a proper match you 'run yourself into the ground'. Given that the heat was a factor on Friday night & we're playing rounds 1 & 4 in Perth during the day where we'll be running ourselves into the ground, surely the heat will again be a factor, will it not?

I am being consistent in my intent, but I apologise if I am not communicating it too well. I am suggesting that the heat impacted on the style of play adopted on Friday night. If the team adopted a gut running style it would have had a detrimental effect on their ability to train over the next week. Being that the result of the game did not matter, but the ability to train at this time of the year is paramount, I am suggesting that they chose (not necessarily a conscious decision) to play a more sedentary game style. In the home and away season, winning is everything and with the fitness base and ball skills in place, a game in hot conditions would be followed by a very light week on the track. Of course this is all just surmising on my behalf, but I hope I have now made my thoughts clear.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

To shy away from the concern for a moment, Lynch has had a good pre-season and was probably our best against St. Kilda - or close to it. He's using his pace to good effect and in one instance, took on about 3 or 4 St. Kilda players when running forward because we simply had no other options. He did this very well and then delivered the footy nicely to the right spot. On top of that, in an earlier piece of play he used his pace to get on the end of a pass from Stack to kick a very good goal from a difficult angle about 45m out.

Obviously there hasn't been a whole lot to write home about, but the signs from Lynch are promissing. He looks as though he's definitely got over last year's troubles, and whilst he needs to find more of the ball, he could play a role this season. Having Minson up forward to bring the ball to ground could help his game too, but unfortunately we haven't really been able to trial this yet, as we haven't had a structure up forward TBH.

I hope Lynch makes it though - we really need some genuine pace/x factor, and he could be pretty dangerous as a FP. Kind of like Alwyn Davey.

[LostDoggy]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

If heat was a factor for our team, how come it did not effect St Kilda as much?

[Before I Die]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

If heat was a factor for our team, how come it did not effect St Kilda as much?

I think it did. The game was crap from both teams. I just think the style played was closer to that typically played by St Kilda and they were better at it than us. I am not trying to read good things into how we played, it was terrible. I just don't think it means very much in terms of how we will go when the real stuff starts in a month.

[Guest]

Re: NAB CHALLANGE MATCH v ST KILDA

Could someone who watched the game let me know how Farren played if he did.

I know he used to divide opinion amongst us but I thought he had really healthy hair and would like to know how he played. I would also be interested to know if the heat caused him any frizz problems.