We scored at 42.3% which put us at 17th place overall. The best rating was Geelong at 52.6%, which makes for just over a 10% difference between the best & second worst ...
That screams a significant result at me - NOBODY IS ANY GOOD AT KICKING INTO THEIR FORWARD 50! It's not just us, everybody is just ordinary at doing it.
Even the best side are losing possession 47.4% of the time! It's close enough to pot luck, even for the best at it. That leaves plenty of room for a rapid improvement!
Those stats were for retaining the ball inside 50 not kicking into it.
Our delivery into the forward half has been horrid. We consistently miss open targets, thats when the forwards actually find space,and work to make space. We kick to packs often outnumbers two on ones or just blindly throw it on the boot under pressure we kick it along the ground creating more pressure.
The ball doesnt stay in the forward half because we generally kick it to the oppositions advantage AND THEY JUST BRING IT OUT EASILY.
We have slow mids we have running players who are ordinary by foot or just make dumb decisions. we have running players who are slow and cannot break lines and create space, we have blokes who poo their pants every time an oppo player runs at em and they panic kick or handball to a team mate under more pressure, all of this and more
Another one our failures to come away fast and clean from stoppage. We are 2nd last for clearances.
If you want forward half improvement, fix what happens up the ground first. We may get significant improvement if the kids can take big steps but most likely it will be incremental hence i dont think it will be quick.
Our problem we will continue to play the usual slow culprits and poor kicks, and our kids are just that kids who will take time to develop no matter how quickly we wish them to develop quickly.
We have recruited some real quick players with very good skills that will help but the question is will they play them.
Players like Grlj, Retschko, Cumming, Algar, Hotton, Lalor Smillie Campbell McAuliffe, Even N R-T and Peucker have attributes that most of our older players dont have that will go some way to addressing most of the above shortcomings both forward and thru the midfield and even the backline. The sooner we play them as a collective the better.
I will ask again will they play them ? do they have the courage to go with these kids who have such good attributes for roles we are lacking in.
Just my opinion
We pick the number of experienced players we think we need to help the kids in each area of the ground i think we have 11 all up who are needed and thats enough and we build the rest of the team around them with kids.
Most weeks last year we played played around 11 younger players each game. imo we need to do that every game again especially with most of them with a proper preseason and injury free to start with.
Rapid improvement well i cant see it improvement yes but we have to give our kids time to properly develop before heaping expectations on them.
