It's bombs away as teams look to kick long (Herald-Sun)

[one-eyed]

It's bombs away as teams look to kick long
Matt Windley 
Sunday Herald Sun
March 20, 2011

AFL captains have forecast the return of the long bomb to combat the defensive press.

This pre-season's kick-to-handball ratio was the lowest since 2006.

Short kicks per long kick levels were also well below the 2010 season.

Richmond captain Chris Newman said he'd rather his teammates use a quick kick out of defence than get caught with the ball close to goal.

"I think one of the ways of combating the press is to kick it over the top of it," Newman said.

"Sometimes you can fall into the trap of over-possessing it with handballs, in particular.

"You more easily find yourself under pressure and all of a sudden you start referring pressure back to your teammates. Before you know it you're pressed back into the goal square.

"I think you'll see a lot of games now played with some longer kicking."

Melbourne's Brad Green and Adelaide's Nathan van Berlo said they noticed more kicks and less handpasses this pre-season.

Green said it was important to back the ability of teammates to win contests up the ground.

"No doubt teams are going longer to one-on-one marking contests or longer to try to force a stoppage," Green said.

"I think most teams would rather go to a stoppage and set up from there rather than get caught deep in defence where you're going to get pressed and can't get it out."

Western Bulldogs skipper Matthew Boyd and Port Adelaide's Domenic Cassisi said players had less time than ever to execute skills.

Boyd said "creative handballing" is almost impossible with increased numbers around the ball.

"A lot times players are just going to have to try to get their kick in, clear the area and get numbers to the fall of the ball," Boyd said.

One captain who disagreed was North Melbourne's Brent Harvey.

Harvey said a balance between quick handballs and long kicks was needed to clear the lines, but said he would welcome a return to the days of the long punt.

"It would be just like how I started in 1996 under Denis Pagan, back then it was get the ball and kick it as long as you can to Wayne Carey," Harvey said.

"If we can get the ball and get kick it as long as we can to Drew Petrie and it works out for us, I'll be pretty happy."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/its-bombs-away-as-teams-look-to-kick-long/story-e6frf9jf-1226024723140

[Mopsy]

Bring back the drop kick for the kick outs (ah la! Freddy Swift) torps should only be used for long shots at goal, anyway the so called torps they kick today are only glorified flat punts

[Infamy]

Sounds like we just need to stack our half back line with our biggest kicks of the ball
Stack the half forward line with our fastest runners and play a few extra men in that area to shepard their opposition for our quick players to run onto the ball and run forward into open space

[RollsRoyce]

It'd have to be a pretty long bomb from the kick-in to clear the zone. I noticed in the Adelaide practice game that time and again their press extended all the way back to the centre square.
Behind that of course there were tumbleweeds
IMO the only way to stop this ugly epidemic is for the AFL to get off the pot, and introduce a cap on the number of rotations. 170 per game with four on four off every five minutes is against the spirit of the game.
Let's see Collingwood and all their copycats continue to clog up our arteries if they're too knackered to run up and down the ground all day long.

[10 FLAGS]

120 would be a better number and even that is too high.

[Infamy]

It'd have to be a pretty long bomb from the kick-in to clear the zone. I noticed in the Adelaide practice game that time and again their press extended all the way back to the centre square.

I didn't mean from the kick in, just from half back to the half forward line. Usually the zones only go back as far as someone can kick.
I still like the Adelaide method used for kick ins. Look at the zone on the 50m line near the boundary, there is usually only one player in that area. Put two talls (and good marks) in that area and you create a 2 on 1, hopefully also with a height advantage.


So if we can at least get our kick in routines right, once the mark is taken at half back (or we at least have the ball), a quick run of 10-20m (or pass to a player instructed to run past) and a long kick into half forward should have most zones beaten. This is why if we can stack the half forward line with a couple of extra players (perhaps even the forward pockets and leave the FF at home) we should be able to win a lot of the contests by making sure we have more men at each one. If it works we have clear space into goal.

[RollsRoyce]

Actually Infamy I was replying to the author of the article who said the long bomb was the way to go, not your post.
Also 10 Flags, the 170 interchanges I was referring to was the average number Collingwood was utilising last year IIRC. I believe St. Kilda took it to a ridiculous 270 in their recent NAB Cup win over Geelong, which is just appaling.
I would like to see the ceiling set at 80-100 and strictly enforced. Then, hopefully we'd get back to seeing some attractive footy being played again.

[Hellenic Tiger]

This flooding is a blight on the game from all these interchange rotations.

The rotations have become a 23rd  player. You execute them better than your opponent on the day and its like

you have an extra few men to play with.

[Infamy]

Actually Infamy I was replying to the author of the article who said the long bomb was the way to go, not your post.

Ah, the fact it was right after mine had me thinking it was a response