Firstly, let me say I can highly recommend the Country Club Hotel for a superb meal if you ever visit Yea.
Even allowing for it being a practice match and in the overall scheme of things the result means very little if nothing at all I came away pleased with a few things. There are other things that have you doing this
but it was a vast improvement on a fortnight ago
I was really pleased to see the Tigers play a more direct style of footy this week. The kicking into the F50 involved much longer kicks than what we saw down in Tassie.
The other thing too was there was alot more running out of the back line which meant the linking up through the middle via handball worked more often than not and players receiving the handball were not under as much pressure. Also when we did switch play in the back half we tried to go forward and across as opposed to the other week when we usually went either just across or backwards and across. We also didn't seem to go as wide and when did there appeared to be a effort to get the ball back in the corridor.
I really like the set-up at a lot of the centre bounce downs that had Cotchin, Martin and Thomson around the circle with Lids and Tambling sweeping in off the wings. This worked really well because Thomson thirves in congestion and has quick hands so out of traffic he offloads to say a Cotchin who then offloads to Kids or Tambling who are long penetrating kicks. At times they swapped it around with Cuz or Lids or Jackson in the middle and others on the wing but again it worked well
Having Simmo in the ruck also assisted our mids because his ruck work even if there was no tap to advantage meant there was an extra body assisting whether that be creating a path for our mids or just keeping the oppsoing ruckmand away fromt he contest. I must add that Vickery seemed to play with more confidence with Simmo in the side.
As I've mentioned in other threads I was disppointed with the disposal of some players because they continue to be unable to hit targets when they are under no pressure. And although these misses dont necessarily result in turnovers they are costly because they create extra pressure that shouldn't be there
I was really impressed with our backline this week. McGuane being there released Moore to be one of our 2 main "go to men" out of the back half. Will Thursfield seemed to moving alot better and playing with alot more confidence than he in the 2nd half of last year - was really happy to see him running and chasing blokes down.
It was also pleasing to see much more defensive pressure coming from our forwards. Tom Hislop may have poor disposal but it is very clear to see why he is there and what his role is. Roberts is find - he has pace, is bloody good tackle and has something I love "FOOTY SMARTS" and gee he is deceptively quick. It took close to 2 quarters but once Jack and Polly got in "sync" and out of each others way the forward set up actually worked well.
And just on the game plan - when it works it is great to watch and will win you a lot of games. When it doesn't come off (like Tassie) it is awful and you could get thumped. We have a very young side and as a result I reckon we are going to have good days and shockers but I did come away yesterday thinking there is a tiny (more likely miniscule) light at then end of a very very long tunnel - we just have to kept persisting with these kids
Playerr reviews to come.....
