On from 6.10pm
- Tenacity and hardness is the key. Protecting the player going for the ball and the ballcarrier to give him more time and space (less pressure) to deliver the pill. This then results in poor disposal (put the ball on someone's head you're going to get smashed).
I usually think that these guys speak poo but for once they make sense. I have been preeching the same sermon for the last couple of years and even began a thread (on yellowandblack) a year a go staing the same thing.
We need to block and shepperd much more. All the most successful teams do it while our team is always looking to recieve the ball.
For example in a game last year we were playing the doggies. When two or more of their midfielders were running the players without the ball were looking to block and shepperd the ball carrier to
(1)give them room to run into space &
(2) give them more time to despose of the ball. The doggies left their forward 50 open to allow their ballcarriers to run into the forwardline and kick for goal.
Conversely when the Tigers were in the same senerio, instead of shepperding approaching opposition, the richmond players without the ball ran ahead looking for the ball to be handballed on to them. The problem was that, with the ball carrier unprotected, they frequently had were pressured into a mistake, had the ball intercepted, were carroled or were tackled leaving all their team-mates who had run ahead empty handed.
Similiarly, we don't shepperd or block in our forwardline. If our forwards blocked for each other and created space for leads then we would have a much more functional and high scoring forward unit.
Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprized to read some sense coming from the Ox's mouth for once
Stripes
