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Perhaps it's time for RL to reassess/rethink what Ball's role is or should be?
Not sure which of the papers suggested it this am, but they said maybe just run him as a pure mid for two weeks and see how he goes. Play one less tall at the back and bring in a runner - probably Geary - as the extra mid rotation. The more I think about it, the more I think Ball's value is perhaps being charted incorrectly...
And if he is hurt/struggling with OP, then that's that, he shouldn't be picked.
Whatever, contested ball is where it is at. Win it, it's daylight second.
"The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break in the game. Every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches that's gonna make the f***in' difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!'
Contested. It's a funny word really. Why are we winning it more?? Skill, determination...a combination of the two?? I'd say our players skill level has dramatically increased, as well as our confidence this season. You can't just turn it on and win a contested footy because you feel like it, especially if you're down on skill level and confidence.
I love it....it's like a coach saying " Just get the ball out of the middle, boot it to a forward and kick the goal"....It's easy...what's so hard about it???
When they created LENNY HAYES (in the shadow of Harvs) they forgot to break the mold (again)- hence the Supremely Incredible Jack Steven!!
This was an interesting article and sure the stats tell us what we always know about footy - the side that wins the contested ball often is the side that wins the game. Except we've stuffed that trend a bit this year - all those games we lost contested footy and still won......only Essendon put us to the sword truly by blowing out to 43 pts......so maybe against this St Kilda side "just" winning contested footy isnt enough - you need to really spanks us.. and Im not sure many sides can do that. Im confident IF we win enough of our own ball agains say Cats AND that includes enough clearances (without allowing them to have huge centre clearance run-ons) we have the fire power up fwd to stay/win the game.
Im intrigued now at the amount of times I hear "I reckon we'll go well in Finals....remember we really pushed St Kilda"....(usually a carlton buffoon..) but none the less every side now thinks we have a chink in the armour....is it pace? speed of ball movement? winning contested footy?....it doesnt matter...you still have to be able to do it for 4 QUARTERS as we proved against Bombers.....slip a little and we come back (good sides are like that and we are).
I agree with whoever on this forum said we are a quality mid short - no question. I also truly believe unless someone steps up to "Hayes" level come finals we'll struggle a bit.....I watched last year with Hayes the only "true" mid how much we struggled....he needs help. This is why the Luke Ball problem is huge for us. He's not consistently delivered what many suspect he could (be it injury or whatever) but now we simply MUST find out IF he has another gear in him.
For Ball to just get 11 tackles and be a bottom of the pack grunt player in finals isnt enough (sure hes elite in that area but so are so many others). I can see what Lyon wants - he KNOWS every side expects Luke Ball to play this way...what they dont expect Luke Ball to do is what Joel Sellwood does and thats also run off and CREATE the play.
How many times you seen Luke Ball scream through the middle of the ground with real purpose and deliver the footy inside fwd 50 lace out to Riewoldt???.....hardly......I see Hayes do it often.
Imagine the concern for a Cats or Pies side if all of a sudden IN ADDITION to his grunt work Luke Ball starts taking the game on a bit and really becoming damaging by creating and setting up fwd thrusts (as Sellwood and Watson did the other night...) what a headache on top of Hayes, Montagna, Goddard, Dal et al...(like the rhyme...).
Im praying its not injury related. Im praying the internal relationship between coach/player is good cause then its up to the penny dropping with Luke Ball. Hes a smart boy - he would know what Lyon wants....so whats stopping him from "spreading"....taking a dash/bounce....if it aint injury (if it is I suggest we cant carry him into finals..) then its mental/confidence and hes got 2 weeks to overcome it.
Teflon wrote:This was an interesting article and sure the stats tell us what we always know about footy - the side that wins the contested ball often is the side that wins the game. Except we've stuffed that trend a bit this year - all those games we lost contested footy and still won......only Essendon put us to the sword truly by blowing out to 43 pts......so maybe against this St Kilda side "just" winning contested footy isnt enough - you need to really spanks us.. and Im not sure many sides can do that. Im confident IF we win enough of our own ball agains say Cats AND that includes enough clearances (without allowing them to have huge centre clearance run-ons) we have the fire power up fwd to stay/win the game.
This is pretty much my reaction to that article. Its one thing to know what can beat us, its another to actually do it....and lets get real here, dispite the smashing in contested ball, we only lost by 2 points!
No team has been capable of convincingly beating the Saints.
Sure Essendon by 2 and a couple of close ones doesnt do us any harm.
The press again figure they have worked out how to beat the Saints .....but as someone commented ....its yet another thing to be able to do it , play the way needed to beat us for 4 qtrs.
Sundays loss hasnt doe us any harm ....just relieved the unbeated tag and pressure.
In the run up to the finals its all about conditioning and the final rejigging of the ins and outs .
I agree with whoever on this forum said we are a quality mid short - no question. .
Well I have certainly been posting that...and winning contested ball is the reason.
A Luke Ball of several years ago vs the Luke Ball of today (or at least on his recent form) could well prove to be the difference in winning or losing the 2009 GF.
Lets all hope that somehow that Luke can lifta few cogs.
Flying the World in comfort thanks to FF Points....
