No pressure in our forward 50 - Why ?

[Enrico_Misso]

Much as I don't like Robert Walls he has an interesting article in today's Age ...

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/g ... 57590.html

What isn't in the online version, but is in the paper, is a table of

Tackles by Club inside the Forward 50

North is number 1 with 236
Coll/WCE are over 200
10 more clubs have between 160 and 200
Ess are 14th with 153
Then a gap to Bulldogs with 142

And then we come in.
StKilda - Stone-motherless LAST on 138 !!!!!!!!.

So that is almost 100 tackles less than North inside the forward 50 in 5 rounds !!!!

Look I understand that this is only one measure of how a forward line functions.
But it seems to confirm in numbers what we have observed so often this season.
We bomb the ball up to Riewoldt/Kosi who are outnumbered 2 to 1, or to Gehrig who can't take a pack mark. The ball spills free. The opposition defenders then mop up with little opposition and sweep it upfield quickly before our back half can re-organise.
This lack of pressure inside our 50 is hurting us big time.
Milne and Schneider are good tacklers but too often they don't seem to be able to read the play.
They should be front and centre trying to read the ball as it comes off the pack to either snare possession or contest it.
Too often they are no-where to be seen in these situations.

[True Blue Sainter]

Forward-line pressure is a huge part of the game... The more you lock it in your forward 50, the more pressure you put your opposition under. Pretty simple - EVERYONE in the forward line must be chasing and harassing at 110% and working overtime to keep the ball up in the forward 50... Look why the Kangas do it well - Campbell, Thomas, Grant, Harvey and to a lesser extent Edwards all work their guts out to keep the ball up forward. Likewise with Geelong; Chapman, Kelly (10 tackles last night!), S Johnson and Mooney all do the same...

Riewoldt isn't quick enough to apply real pressure to the smaller, quicker rebounding players - nor is Kosi and G. 3/4 of Milne's tackles don't stick. Schneider is the only one who really threatens to keep the ball in our attacking 50. We need to work hard on this area of the game.

Good points Enrico..

[saintsRrising]

I think RL stated that in the last game that our tackles in the forwatd 50 were up 50% (not sure whether that was actually meant to be 50% or double,,).


However it is big reason why I was not a fan of the 3 tall forward structure when two of the talls are GTrain and Kosi..

[mad saint guy]

So that is almost 100 tackles less than North inside the forward 50 in 5 rounds !!!!

Those stats must be taking into account previous season/s.

North have a total of 257 tackles this year. There is no way 236 of them were inside 50.

[SaintBot]

Those stats must be taking into account previous season/s.

North have a total of 257 tackles this year. There is no way 236 of them were inside 50.

They are the 2007 season statistics, doubt the stats would've changed much this year. This is why having players like Luke Ball and David Armitage up forward will be so important.

[Enrico_Misso]

And tonight was the perfect illustration of that.

We pissfarted around in the midfield till Port had time to get players back.
Then we bombed it in to Riewoldt who was outnumbered two to one.
The ball hit the deck and they had a fleet of players to run it straight back out.

NO Forward Pressure

Did we lay ANY tackles inside our 50 tonight ???????