Forwards or midfield issues?

[Winmar7Fan]

There’s been some debating on whether our forwards form have been our main problem or the midfield with lack of goal support and poor delivery to our forwards and I think yesterday answered that question a bit .

Midfield scored just about all the goals (along with Milne who I don’t count as a key position forward but a small crumbing roving forward) and our big key forwards struggled and didn’t provide enough goals again . Delivery and opportunities I feel definitely cant be argued for yesterday.

We can get away with it with teams like Melbourne but if we are going to win against top sides we need players like Riewoldt, Kosi, Ferg or whoever else is there to kick more than 3 goals between 3 key goal kicking forwards .

Ok Riewoldt played a good game but 1 goal isn’t enough to help us win games I’d rather he had half the kicks and marks and kicked 4 goals.

[bigcarl]

We can get away with it with teams like Melbourne but if we are going to win against top sides we need players like Riewoldt, Kosi, Ferg or whoever else is there to kick more than 3 goals between 3 key goal kicking forwards.

agree. and they will once a couple of issues are resolved.

1) riewoldt needs to spend an hour at every training session taking set shots at goal.

a guy who gets as much of it within range as he does should be worth four goals a week, not two.

it is becoming excrutiating to watch him dish off shots at goal he should nail himself.

confidence has become an issue and roo seems to drop his head if he misses one early.

2) kosi needs to be told to lead and taught how to. if he ever wants to make it as a key forward this is one part of his armoury that is badly lacking.

nothing says "kick it to me" more than a guy who presents at every opportunity ... and not by taking a few slow steps, but by committing to the lead and going at it full tilt.

he needs to keep doing it, even if they aren't looking for him. present and make himself a target.


i was heartened by some of the other things i saw though, albeit against the worst team in the competition.

we gave our forwards some space and there was a real urgency about the way we moved the ball for a change. space and quick delivery ... a potent mix that is hard to beat.

i feel that if our big forwards can get a bit of confidence we can worry more than our share of teams in the remainder of 2008.

[Otiman]

We break down across half forward. It's been like that for the past two and a half years.

[Winmar7Fan]

Yep definately agree with both of you

[degruch]

I agree with both of you too...but when I posted it last week, I got shot down in flames. Aparently St Nick is an above average kick and should stay at HF instead of the wing, by general concensus.

But all of our forwards need a kicking coach...where's Peter Hudson when you need him? He'd be in his 70's wouldn't he? Bet he could still outkick our lot.

Don't forget Schnieds kicked 5 goals...after half the forum wanted him dropped this weekend! Not having a dig, just saying you can't judge on 3-4 average/poor games, not when you've got a history of great performances like he has.

[bigcarl]

I agree with both of you too...but when I posted it last week, I got shot down in flames. Aparently St Nick is an above average kick and should stay at HF instead of the wing, by general concensus

thing is he has such endurance that he's sort of playing wing and half forward as it is. spent a lot of time up around the centre on sunday.

as for schneider, he was lucky to be selected on form.

he must have realised he needed to pull his finger out and responded like a good player. timely and well done.

[degruch]

I agree with both of you too...but when I posted it last week, I got shot down in flames. Aparently St Nick is an above average kick and should stay at HF instead of the wing, by general concensus

thing is he has such great powers of endurance that he's sort of playing wing and half forward as it is. spent a lot of time up around the centre on sunday.

as for schneider, he was lucky to be selected on form. he must have realised he needed to pull his finger out and responded like a good player. timely and well done.

Yeah, true for both. But I think Nick roaming up the ground without being double teamed would be awesome. Besides, I'd rather see him passing to forwards than kicking for goal...he's too wobbly...maybe he thinks about it too much, or is easily distracted?

[Red]

I don't believe one game where the midfield kicks goals means the problem

is solved. Lets hope they can have that impact on the game next week

against quality opposition for 4 quarters.

[bigcarl]

But I think Nick roaming up the ground without being double teamed would be awesome.

agree and that's sort of what he did on sunday. kosi was playing as a deep chf and ferguson at ff. roo was pushing further up more often.

[Winmar7Fan]

I don't believe one game where the midfield kicks goals means the problem

is solved. Lets hope they can have that impact on the game next week

against quality opposition for 4 quarters.

No it's not the problem solved thats the whole point of this thread, relying on just the midfield to kick our goals wont win too many games but also the point of Nick going to the wing weakens our forward line even more.

So who then do we rely on as our focus up forward to kick goals just Kosi and someone we're putting our hopes in that has impressed us with one game kicking 4 points ?
If so we're f----d.

[bigcarl]

i was a proponent of riewoldt on the wing (where i still think he can be a match-winner) but that was when we were trying to fit him, kosi and gehrig into the same team.

we don't have that problem any more so, unless allen comes in or ferguson gets a sudden growth spurt of four or five inches, riewoldt should play chf and kosi ff.

milne and schneider are better than average crumbers and ferguson could be a surprise packet if he can start turning some of those opportunities into goals.

but as i said earlier, riewoldt needs to work on his kicking and kosi on his leading for them to be as effective as they can be.

if they can get it right then look out.

[Huzzad]

I think the players, Ross and the Media have repeatedly said the midfield delivery has been woeful. I think the forwards are leading but they are not always being honoured (as highlighted by Michael Gardiner) and some pretty average kicks into the forward line that we saw. Last week was definatly and improvement but there still needs to be work done. The dogs will be a big big test

[bigcarl]

I think the players, Ross and the Media have repeatedly said the midfield delivery has been woeful.

it has been slow and haphazard and so lacking in urgency as to allow the opposition time to get back in numbers.

we need to create space for our big forwards and bang it in there quickly and regularly.

to our credit this is what we did on sunday.

our big forwards weren't able to capitalise on it on the scoreboard, but i reckon milne and schneider crumbed a couple of goals each from pack situations involving kosi.

riewoldt also must have given away four goals with his little chip kicks inside 50.

so while it didn't quite work the way we intended, it worked well enough for us to win by 70 points.

another week roo or kosi will kick a bag and the little blokes will miss out, i guess.