Why oh why, do the Saints love to BOMB?

[saintsRrising]

I went to JLT game against the Dees and much to my horror noted that the St Kilda Love Affair with the Bomb into our forward remains unabated. I strongly wish that this relationship was over, but no it remains in full bloom.

But why, oh why?

We know that our players goto is to bomb it into the forward line (even if is the diminutive 180cm Jack Steven vs 198cm tall Liam Jones.
We know that while our players goto is to bomb it into the forward line, that our crumbers do not position for it
Opposition coaches know we are going to bomb it into the forward line
Opposition players know we are going to bomb it into the forward line

Results in the Demons game were that despite it being our dominant means to enter the forward line that:
- We only kicked ONE goal as a result
- Opposition players and coaches set up for it (just as they have done for most games for a while now)
- Most times we bombed it our players in the bomb-zone outnumbered and so:
-- We rarely mark it
-- We rarely crumb it
--The ball mainly rebound out

Now we do have forwards that can lead and mark. Indeed if Paddy is to succeed he must do this.
Most teams now have intercept marking players in their backline.
But yet our goto is to bomb.

But why, oh why?

[Drake Huggins]

I was thinking the same myself. It might be a hangover from Rooey running in and taking contested marks on a regular basis. His presence took focus away from the overall ineffectiveness of the tactic. Perhaps the coach believes Paddy will fill that void and take contested marks inside 50? It is Paddy's main strength. I can't think of any other reason you'd persist with it. We have three decent contested marks up forward, but wouldn't life be easier on them as well if we entered quickly with precise movement to hit the man on the lead? The long bomb option should only be an occasional tactic, not what you build a scoring system on.

[parkeysainter]

Tony74 said they were instructed not to bomb last night in a thread.

[sunsaint]

Tony74 said they were instructed not to bomb last night in a thread.

well they must not have been listening last year as well
Tony74 also said after the carlton game they didnt follow instructions as well
Is it possible we have a bunch of deaf players
They all have wireless ear buds in during the coaches address

[Jacks Back]

Tony74 said they were instructed not to bomb last night in a thread.

lol

[CQ SAINT]

Tony74 said they were instructed not to bomb last night in a thread.

lol

There is a lackadaisic epidemic when it comes to team rules and strategies apparently.

[SMS]

Somethings not right with the coaches.
Its not working. Structures/Motivation.
What other head coach is available. Richo is not the man im afraid. Main attribute a coach needs is to be the LION THE LEADER THE GUY YOU DIE FOR. Richo?? LOL. Hes a nice guy and good strategist and hes ok but at this elite level???

Look at the best coaches

Clarkson - lion youd die for or be killed
Lyon - is a lion again you do the work
Longmire - see him a player favourite? Ha no
Worsfold

We have a vanilla nice guy he aint a lion or leader. Players are his mates and equals. They dont respect him as their leader. And this is subconcious level. Cant be changed. They dont mean to not their fault but its fact. Richo is vanilla. We must change now.
Look at the preseason all Love no pain.

Shouldve got beveridge. Another recruiting blunder.

[Leo.J]

You would assume three scenarios...

1. The players are instructed by the coaches to bomb it.

2. The players are not following instructions and bombing it.

3. We’re instructed to bomb it long under certain circumstances but we’re over doing it in panic, while under pressure.


If it’s 1. we’re in the need of a new game plan/new coaches as they think our tall forwards are 210cm and slow, and our crumbers get f&c every contest and kick a lot of goals...which they aren’t/don’t.

If it’s 2. we’re in trouble because we’ve got some poor decision makers that continue to get a game despite making bad decisions and ignoring coaches.

If it’s 3. this can be worked with hopefully, but still somewhat concerning as this has been going on for a while and it’s generally the same offenders, some have been or are in the leadership group. And it appear’s that despite being 100+ gamers are either unable/unwilling to be able to make pretty basic footy decisions under pressure.

When we are able to isolate our talls and hit them up we look dangerous, when we bomb it we are rubbish, far too predictable.

[saintsRrising]

Tony74 said they were instructed not to bomb last night in a thread.

Sorry but this pattern of play is not new. It is entrenched.

If it is the coaches instruction to not bomb then my tip for Richo from now on is that every time a player just bombs when they are reasonable options that they drag him then and there. No friendly chats after the game please.

If the player re-offends in the same game, then drop him the following week.

Either the players will amend their ways , or we will lose our ability to field a team. But at least the aimless bombing will cease.


There is little point in going through the motions of the 2018 season unless they can rectify this very obvious flaw.

[skeptic]

Somethings not right with the coaches.
Its not working. Structures/Motivation.
What other head coach is available. Richo is not the man im afraid. Main attribute a coach needs is to be the LION THE LEADER THE GUY YOU DIE FOR. Richo?? LOL. Hes a nice guy and good strategist and hes ok but at this elite level???

Look at the best coaches

Clarkson - lion youd die for or be killed
Lyon - is a lion again you do the work
Longmire - see him a player favourite? Ha no
Worsfold

We have a vanilla nice guy he aint a lion or leader. Players are his mates and equals. They dont respect him as their leader. And this is subconcious level. Cant be changed. They dont mean to not their fault but its fact. Richo is vanilla. We must change now.
Look at the preseason all Love no pain.

Shouldve got beveridge. Another recruiting blunder.

I’m not Richo’s biggest fan by any means but this is a silly post.

Do you really believe that the players don’t listen to solid strategy and continually do the same failing thing because they don’t respect the coach who isn’t a lion.

More likely the issue is that many players on the list lack the ability and the composure to deliver clean.
After that, the structure isn’t there or breaks down hence there are no good options under pressure.

Not exactly a glowing defence but whatever...

The issue for Richo is that like so many before him, he struggles to get the balance right btw rewarding hard work and developing raw talent... and he leans towards the Ross Lyon mantra of preferring the players that train and work the hardest.

It’s not a bad mantra but the elite coaches identify talented players with attitudinal issues or questionable work ethics and still get enough out of them to play and develop them rather than have them drop their heads.
I fear White is headed this way

[tony74]

No.3.
I had to edit it as I panicked as well!

[saintsRrising]

No.3.
I had to edit it as I panicked as well!

Always appreciate your insights, but this flaw costs us goals, whilst also setting up goals for our opponents, and it is just so frustrating.

It wastes our talent and will IMO prevent us from winning more games of football. IMO I am certain that just altering this one thing would alter our fortunes more than anything else.

We can only hope that the post-game review will lead to a major turn around and that the bomb used so much will be a thing of the past. However we have heard pretty much the same thing from the coaching staff many many times before.

Good players, and good teams, execute well under pressure. It is no coincidence that we looked good in the third term as the Dees came out after half-time listless. Three quarter time they stepped it up again and we just fell back in our bad old ways again.

[saintsRrising]

Pic of St Kilda Fans from tonight's Season Opener....

[Con Gorozidis]

The Tigers bomb it. The Dogs bomb it. So the coach reckons he is on a good wicket.
The big difference is those two sides move it much much quicker out of defence and in the corridor so that when they bomb it the defence is in a panic.
Our ball movement is so slow that when we bomb it the defence is set.

[elizabethr]

Maybe we have 4 or 5 dumb players

[jonesy]

Since when did rewoildt ever take big contested marks from long bombs ala Lockett and Loewe???

It's a myth this was his game and humorous that we've done it for a decade now

[jays]

dont judge a season on 2 worthless practice matches

[Leo.J]

Maybe we have 4 or 5 dumb players

I’m actually starting to think this too, and combine that with no genuinely classy ball users through half back and the midfield.

[congorozides]

dont judge a season on 2 worthless practice matches

Do you think we werent trying?
North also lost both their JLT games.
HOw are they going to go this season?

[shrodes]

Pretty sure Jono Brown called us out on it in the commentary also. It's well known that we are a team who like to bomb to the forward line, and as such it must be extremely predictable for our opponents.

[stkfc1]

Pretty sure Jono Brown called us out on it in the commentary also. It's well known that we are a team who like to bomb to the forward line, and as such it must be extremely predictable for our opponents.

Yep he said it in the 2nd Qt after we had bombed it in for the 5 or 6th time in a row. Steven is a big part of problem here as he does it a lot. Savage and Ross guilty also. There were 4 or 5 Dee defenders just standing there waiting for it everytime. We were also outnumbered everytime and no small forwards front and centre to pack to crumb. Quite frankly you have to blame everyone, players and coaches because there can be no reasoning to it unless it is us outnumbering the contest or the player who is transitioning the ball is under pressure and no obvious lead. The last kick in F50 has been a massive problem foir us for a long time now. That lies at the feet of the coaches. We have great ball uses in Sincs, Billings, Gresh playing forward of centre. Need the ball in their hands going forward. Unfortunately it tends to end up in the hands of Steven,Ross etc who continually bomb it.

[saintsRrising]

We have great ball uses in Sincs, Billings, Gresh playing forward of centre. Need the ball in their hands going forward. Unfortunately it tends to end up in the hands of Steven,Ross etc who continually bomb it.

Exactly.

Look at Banger. Was not much of a accurate kick over distance but over over 30-40 m going into the forward line he became a master.

[St_Cave]

My theory for this bombing it forward epidemic we seem to be going through is that early last season when it became apparent that our scoring efficiency was well down compared to the league average we made a change.

Richo was routinely talking about our need to take shots from better positions in order to increase our goal accuracy. This seems to have led to us trying to get the ball to 20 metres out right in front of goal every time when entering the forward 50. Obviously this leads to the issue that everybody else knows we are trying to do it which makes us very easy to defend.

It's certainly time that we use the fact that opposition teams know what we want to do and use that against them. Lower the eyes and take the easy pass to the players a bit further out whilst our opposition are running back towards goal to defend that space. The initial strategy was a short term fix to a kicking problem, long term we needed to work on our set shot goal kicking so we can use the whole forward 50 rather than just the corridor.

[groupie1]

Tony74 said they were instructed not to bomb last night in a thread.

well they must not have been listening last year as well
Tony74 also said after the carlton game they didnt follow instructions as well
Is it possible we have a bunch of deaf players
They all have wireless ear buds in during the coaches address

Dude... seriously.... if course they listen, but heat of the moment, pressure is on, forced to bomb before being tackled.... it is a symptom of midfield spread issues, lack of options and time... not the bomber's fault

[WellardSaint]

Maybe we have 4 or 5 dumb players

the dumbness is contagious.
Look at Ross, who is like Tom Mitchell;
just collects possessions that have NO value because
he kicks WITHOUT LOOKING or aiming.