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Mr Magic wrote:Please forgive my naivete on this, but if our F50 entries are being delivered from the middle of the ground (or further back) isn't it logical to assume that a large number of them are going to be directed at the best marking half forward who is leading at the player with the footy?
sure, if he is one out and it is working on the day.
If he's a stationary target and has 2-3 opponents 'all over him', then I would agree it doesn't make sense to direct the footy to him.
But if he is leading, surely the plyer up the ground will automatically kick it to him, because he will mark it more often or not?
It's a difficult one because he's such a great player and leader and demands the ball.
From one point of view the right thing to do is to look for the best option. On the other hand, the player most likely to get it and kick a goal is often riewoldt.
The problem with going to Roo nearly 50% of the time (even when he only played 70% of the match!) is that we're predictable, and over-reliant.
Meaning, our opponents know exactly what we're going to do and can structure themselves for this (ie. triple team Roo).
And it also means we need him to capitalise on these entries otherwise we're wasting nearly 50% of our entries.
He's been good enough to nullify both of the above. He's beaten 3 opponents over the past 18 months, and has been effective in making the most of the amount of ball that goes his way (his goal kicking improved dramatically).
The problem is though, as we saw on GF day last year it does leave us vulnerable if we rely on one player this much.
In his absence, we should have learnt so much in terms of finding the goals without him. As I said previously - his injury was a blessing in disguise.
So surely we can excuse his first game back - not excuse his game, but excuse the team for taking some time to settle into a mix of what we did without him for the past 2 months, and what we did with him in the team last year.
I don't doubt these stats but I would have thought we'd gone to Patto more than twice - unless it was just beyond the 50 arc but it felt like we used him a lot.
Also, the stats should probably read something like this:
McEvoy 2
Patto 2 Patch of turf two metres in front of Roo 7
Over Roo's head 3
Roo 2
Milne 4
Schneider 3
Gardi 4
Geez Roo must miss Robert Harvey putting it on his chest lace out over 20 metres. Must admit though it is normally a lot better than what it was on Sat night
Strength through Loyalty
Go those mighty Sainters!!
rodgerfox wrote:The problem with going to Roo nearly 50% of the time (even when he only played 70% of the match!) is that we're predictable, and over-reliant.
Meaning, our opponents know exactly what we're going to do and can structure themselves for this (ie. triple team Roo).
And it also means we need him to capitalise on these entries otherwise we're wasting nearly 50% of our entries.
He's been good enough to nullify both of the above. He's beaten 3 opponents over the past 18 months, and has been effective in making the most of the amount of ball that goes his way (his goal kicking improved dramatically).
The problem is though, as we saw on GF day last year it does leave us vulnerable if we rely on one player this much.
In his absence, we should have learnt so much in terms of finding the goals without him. As I said previously - his injury was a blessing in disguise. So surely we can excuse his first game back - not excuse his game, but excuse the team for taking some time to settle into a mix of what we did without him for the past 2 months, and what we did with him in the team last year.
A blend of the two will leave us unbeatable.
the issue really is now the saints have to learn to combine the two and that might take time
I reckon those stats would include a number of long kicks that were necessarily directed to Roo but he went hell for leather to get to & ended up competing for it (like the one in the goal square late in the game where he ran with the flight).
I do think that it will take a few weeks for the guys to re-adjust to having Roo there again, hopefully they won't lose the ability to look for others & spread the goalkickers.
