Re: Jack Riewoldt
Tigers of Old said:
Whilst we're developing some alternative avenues to goal, we're still way too Riewoldt centric atm.
If heaven forbid he gets injured who's going to play up front?
Need another genuine option.
funny you bring that up because they over the last month I've developed a theory on this.
i agree that we are jack centric and i don't mind us being riewoldt centric but I get the feeling dimma may be getting it wrong. in developing a multi pronged attack he has made jacks work 3 times harder than it should be.
we are relying on jack to create a contest and either take a big pack grab or bring the ball to ground where we back our mids and smalls to hustle a goal. the problem is that there is no bloody space in our fwd line for anyone to work. when there is no space it makes leading impossible, hitting up targets even harder than impossible and increases the likelihood of a intercept mark by opposition backs
and here's the problem. we create a lot of opposition turnovers and f50 entries because our mids and backs push so deep forward. which is great but its the very thing that hurts our f50 entry efficiency and goal kicking accuracy because while our players are pushing they bring their opponent with them creating a congested f50 arc.
I can see what we are trying to do in that we press so high we create the pressure on our attacking 50m arc as opposed to our defensive 50m arc. but in doing this we have dysfunctional fwd line structure and a player in jack who never gets a ball one out with an opponent which also happens to be his biggest strength. we are intentionally playing to a plan that reduces the effectiveness of arguably our best players biggest strength.
is hardwick's game plan based around his high press and weight of f50 entries creating scoring shots OR because he doesn't want a one dimensional fwd line and a heavy reliance on jack? we all know and saw how that can be a poisoned chalice after witnessing the frawley era of "kick it to richo"
if jack worked as hard as he does right now in an open fwd line we'd have jacks opponent exactly in the situation all backs hate being in, one out deep. i would back riewoldt to beat just about anyone one on one with even an average kick to advantage. jack would kick a hundred goals a year and we would be kicking 25 goals 12 behinds a week instead of 12 goals 25 behinds
looks like a robbing peter to pay paul scenario right now but its evident he still doesnt have the personnel at his disposal to execute the game plan under the right structures. until we get vickery back next season and see how the astbury/griff situation unfolds i'll cut dimma some slack
