kicking skills

[pete and tys]

Warm-up & training.

Geez even in training some of our more experienced young players can't hit a target.

Have said this for the last 10 years.
Quality' footballers'needed recruiting,not people who can run and jump!
Hence the result,nice athletes,pathetic footballers,some exclusions>ie moore

 

[pete and tys]

I'm going to ask for a guest pass to the Darksiders club on this one. At least 15 years of terrible skills at Richmond football club and I am yet to see the signs that it is getting better. Was chatting with an ex Tigers player on Sunday, and he stated catagorically his opinion that if you haven't learnt to hit a target through all the junior footy you play, there ain't much improvement going to come once you get drafted no matter how much you practice.

There may be the odd exception, the odd player with a technique problem that gets ironed out, or a player late to the game that has switched from another sport. But as a rule these 18 year olds that can't kick should not be drafted.

EXACTLY!
Stupid drafting!
Result is what should be expected.
Stupid reject drafts and non skilled"athletes".

There has been a lot of fuss about the improvement in the recruiting staff over the last few years. Francis Jackson and others who now have more time and resources to put into the identifying of better skilled players. Well, what have we got to show for it?

Last year we got an elite ruckman with OK skills (no problem with that), a mid range KP with average skills (addressed a need I guess) and then we traded picks away for 2 players with average to poor kicking skills?!?! Is this where our resources for drafting are going?

My ghast is still flabbered that Shane Edwards was taken in the mid 20s, small, skinny, not that quick, and a pretty terrible kick. Exactly which box did he tick in the recruiters minds? I only saw a few junior games on Foxtel, but I thought a couple of Queenslanders in Petterd and Tippet would have done me fine at that pick. Surely it can't be that hard to find guys with a good skill set.

I am sick of hearing about how no more high picks will be traded away, and only players with good kicking skills will be selected, I have heard the talk from the recruiters, about time they walked the walk.

 

[gold1]

Why are all you guys surprised?Handball is all the rage. :

 

[gustiger12]

The vast majority, myself included believed Meyer was a 'skinny flanker' and that we had far too many of his type on the list. IMO the right decision was made with regard to Meyer. No-one on this forum disputed his kicking skills, just his size, body type and the style of footy he plays...and the fact that he is injury prone. T

Yeah we have plenty of that type, but we should have started by delisting the ones that can't kick first. ;D

 

[geoffryprettyboy]

I can't speak for Casserly as I don't know his game well enough to make a judgement.

Many on here would of seen him play footy for Coburg. Hampered by continuous injuries, if I can recall correctly was about to get a gig on a couple of occasions. I liked the kid.

 

[TimTamMan]

I've just got back from Melbourne, had a great time, took my three year old daughter to the 'G on thursday night for her first time there and although I was not happy from the 3 minute mark (when Symo dropped a sitter, reminicient of the one he dropped in Richo's 200th) I was reminded of what true faith was when my little girl kept on shouting out 'go tigers' from go to woe. Actully got the Carlton supporters to laugh when I exasperatingly said "Oh my god he even dropped that" after Symo won a free kick and dropped the ball that was returned to him ever so gently (you had to be there, trust me it was funny at the time!). But what were my observations.

Warm up: Constant shooting for goal from 50 metres out - like a golf pro go with the short distances first and work your way out. This may have helped with the numerous 20-30 metre kicks that went awry.

Centre bounce drill: about eight or so, half with a bib on, re-enacted the centre bounce. Now Symo's roving team did not get one ball from the five or six drills that they went through that he tapped out and although the other half always got the ball everybody seemed pleased with themselves - this was replicated time and time again at the centre bounce during the real game, and as expected we got smashed out of the centre and hence this was no surprise to me.

Concerns just before the boune: Apart from Cousins (and Browne) no real new blood, so knew there was not going to be a great lift in skills from the rest of the team as there poor skills have been weel documented over the years, but I did not believe we would go backwards that much.

During the game: No in and under type (thompson will surely play now), skills atrocious and if I hear one more recruitment guy say about our next draft picks (as they have said about some in the past) that they are a good athlete we just need to work on their foot skills I will ask my daughter to support another team!!

Bowden: Has been tried 2 or 3 times up forward and all have failed. His best position is floating across the back/half back line. Put him back where he played great footy for most of his career.

Vision: I've crapped on about this before but when we had the ball (except cousins) we constantly picked the wrong option. There were so many groans from the outer that after another poor choice in disposal, I cloased my eyes and thought I was in one of those XXX clubs, ahh 2 seconds of bliss!!.

Guarding Grass: If we were playing against a team of Victor Mowers we would have done well, becuase all we did was guard grass. Carlton easily brough the ball out of defence as there was no pressure because of our rolling zone defence which was a farce. It seemed they always had space and time, the ball was at their half forward line in no time. I think Malthouse has got it right when he said on talking footy that teams try to impliment the Flag winning style the next year, but what they forget is they aint got the cattle to do it. He said if he had the same playing talent as Hawthorn then he might adopt a different playing style. Richmond needs to adopt a plan that suits it's current players and for me, looking at our lists skills, it is plain and simple one on one football and contest every possesion.

Summing up: If we don not inject new blood in to the team ASAP we will end up in a very close run for 9, 10 or 11 yet again as the bunch who played on Thursday night gave their all, but unfortunately history shows that that particular playing group is only capable of finishing in the bottom half of the ladder and will not produce high skills on a consistant basis and can not impliment Wallace's current game plan in any shape or fashion. We need to give our new recruits a go, we surely can not get any worse.

 

[AstroboyUK]

There may be some truth to this. The players know TW's future at RFC is tenuous at best. Would also explain why they aren't tackling. Why would they put their bodies on the line for a guy who has EXIT stamped on his forehead?

I would have thought a modecom of self respect means that they tackle not 'for' or 'in spite of' the Coach but because its part of being an effective footballer.

Whats surprising is that they havent actually gone overboard on tackling - ie it was a clear weak area, agreed by all including the Coaches, they had the Rugbly League franchise come over and do some training... and all that focus leads to ....


Wallace is not to blame for Thursday's effort and the woeful skills on show. We all know the team is better than what they displayed that night. It doesnt excuse it or explain why the skills arent generally better than they are: but Thursday was bad bad bad from the PLAYERS - even for us.