Author Topic: A tale of two games  (Read 794 times)

Offline tiga

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A tale of two games
« on: March 28, 2005, 10:40:31 AM »
As I live in NSW, I was watching the Swans v Hawks games live on the tube and saw the Hawks get absolutely flogged. It was a comedy of errors on their part, especially in defence. Lots of stuping handballs going to players under pressure. It was depressing to see a club play so badly. Then I tune in on the net to listen to the Tigers match only to hear a very similar thing occuring. It seems that whenever a club starts to lose confidence in a game they resort to mindless handballing.

Have a look at these stats

Richmond

Kicks 100
Handpasses 124

24 more handpasses than kicks

Geelong
Kicks 254
Handpasses 159

95 more kicks than Handpasses

Hawthorn
Kicks 144
Handpasses 104

40 more kicks than Handpasses

Sydney
Kicks 172
Handpasses 106

66 more kicks than handpasses

looking at those stats even Hawthorn had more kicks than handpasses. They had 20 more kicks than us and it was on a much smaller ground in the SCG. You'd think you would need to kick more on a much larger ground. Obviously something lost on our players.  We did this regularly last year. Another classic display of indirect football. Hope we can turn it around.
 

Offline mightytiges

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Re: A tale of two games
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2005, 04:09:06 PM »
Yeah you're right tiga about poor sides overusing the handball. Geelong's kick and mark stats were inflated by their keep-ball switch and chip style in the back-half but it still reflects the dominance they had from just prior to 1/4 time. 

When we're losing our players (especially the senior guys) go into safe mode dishing off a short handball rather than taking on the responsibility to stand up and do something about changing the situation. Under game pressure their first instinct is still to handball. I'd guess this is what Wallace is referring to when he called our senior players selfish. More interested in self-preservation than showing the leadership to gain back the momentum lost or slowing down the game to nullify the opposition's momentum. Allowing 9 goals straight kicked against us is pathetic  :help.

That's why I gave Hyde 3 votes. He decided he had enough of this handball crap and tried to play on immediately and run and carry in line with Wallace's gameplan.

It'll be interesting next Sunday how we go against the Hawks who are a similar poor standard. Let's hope we straighten up as a team.
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