-
IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
Telstra Dome
- Thread starter Redford
- Start date
I thought the condition of the ground was appalling - umpires couldn't bounce in the centre and the ground looked too soft and wet , very spilery indeed - a discrace - they have had months to get it right - this is as good as this ground will get!
In ideal conditions that the Dome provides on most occasions we get exposed from our lack of skill compared to most other sides.
Wez said:
Thanks for that Wez.
If memory serves me correct, I think we initially had a record of something like 6 wins from 6 games …or something similar to that. Then that doofus Frawley came out bragging about how good we were at Telstra and it all went downhill from there. So our record the last few years at Telstra is actually quite abysmal.
Apart from the fact I just plain don’t like the place that much, I dislike it even more for the fact that we really, really struggle on that ground. It just has this ability to highlight or exploit some of our key weaknesses in my opinion. One in particular.
I dunno what it is, but our inability to move the ball quickly and with any half decent delivery always seems to get exacerbated on that ground. It seems we allow our forward line to get clogged up too easily because: 1) the ball carrier doesn’t move it into the forward line quickly enough and; 2) the forwards don’t play their part either by leading into space quickly enough. The two sort of bounce off one another I know, but its bloody infuriating. I know Harry has raised this inability to move the ball with some speed and intuitiveness before, and with Wallace’s game plan which favours that sort of quick movement we’ve made some inroads, but we just don’t seem to be getting any better at it on Telstra for some reason ?
I was sitting next to a Tiger legend on Saturday who like myself could see the loss of forward momentum that was about to come from slow, proppy advancement of the ball about 5 seconds before it would happen. It was just so obvious at times that we were gonna turn the ball over or give up posession because of a lack of purposeful movement. As an example, there was a passage of play in the first minute or so of the game where P. Bowden marks the ball in some space just forward of the Western side wing. Instead of turning, playing on and running a few steps and then crossing it into a reasonably clear corridor, he propped, stopped, and went back to take his kick. To be fair to him, there was nobody up forward who was making a lead into that vacant corridor i.e. there was just no INSTINCTIVE movement by BOTH the ball carrier and the forwards. Instead, what happened was Bowden held onto the ball, waiting for a lead which enabled the forward line to then be flooded. That forced Richo to eventually lead to the boundary line into some narrow space where Bowden kicked it to him. 3 Hawthorn opponents had no problem what so ever punching the ball over the boundary line. I reckon something similar to that must have happened 12-15 times during the game.
We seem to be improving a tad in this area, but what is it with our inability to move the ball with any INSTINCTIVE purpose (especially into our forward line) on that ground ? The ground has enough space, its got a closed roof and we’re supposed to be employing a free running and attacking game. But every time I go to a game at that place we really struggle to move the ball with any freedom and purpose and put up a decent score.
These blokes still don’t have enough confidence in each other to move the ball forward with any quick and INSTINCTIVE movement to each other in a game. You go to training and it all looks fine. But in a game, they revert to nervous, proppy, conservative movement that just kills us. And I dunno why, but it seems to happen more at Telstra.
Richmond - Telstra Dome - 2001 Record
Played - 5
Wins - 5
Loss - 0
Points For - 581
Point Ag - 398
% - 145.98
Win % - 100
2001 Results at Dome
R06 - Richmond 19.15.129 def Kangaroos 12.6.78
R12 - Richmond 12.14.84 def Sydney 8.12.50
R13 - Richmond 19.12.126 def St Kilda 13.9.87
R17 - Richmond 15.12.102 def Western Bulldogs 15.10.100
R20 - Richmond 20.18.138 def West Coast 10.13.73
Stats from www.allthestats.com
Played - 5
Wins - 5
Loss - 0
Points For - 581
Point Ag - 398
% - 145.98
Win % - 100
2001 Results at Dome
R06 - Richmond 19.15.129 def Kangaroos 12.6.78
R12 - Richmond 12.14.84 def Sydney 8.12.50
R13 - Richmond 19.12.126 def St Kilda 13.9.87
R17 - Richmond 15.12.102 def Western Bulldogs 15.10.100
R20 - Richmond 20.18.138 def West Coast 10.13.73
Stats from www.allthestats.com
I don't want to sound like a nerd :hihi, but I have to make a correction to the stats at TD.
To date we have played 40 games, with 24 losses, the figures supplied by Wez (by the way thanks Wez) were as at the end of the 2005 season.
Doesn't make much of a difference really.
To date we have played 40 games, with 24 losses, the figures supplied by Wez (by the way thanks Wez) were as at the end of the 2005 season.
Doesn't make much of a difference really.
Ian4 said:
I haven’t checked my calcs, and for GPB's sake, they only go to the end of 2005....but…
At the MCG between 2000 and 2005 we have a win/loss record of 32-35 which is a 47.76% win rate. Our average score has been 87.60 which is 7.99 points underneath the competition average of 95.59. Over the same period at Telstra, our win loss record has been 16-23 which is a 41.03% win rate. Our average score has been 93.71 which is 8.36 points under the league average of 102.07.
But its worse over the last 3 years where at the MCG we have a 12-17 win/loss record which equates to a 41.38% win rate and we have an average score of 85.75 which is 8.14 points less than the competition average of 93.90. Compare that with the Telstra Dome where we have a 7-16 record which equates to a 30.43% win rate and where we have an average score of 91.00 which is 11.73 points underneath the league average of 102.73 points per game and you can only come to the following conclusion:
We certainly have a poorer record at the Telstra Dome than the MCG and we also have a worse average score in comparison with all other teams. I knew it !
What the hell are we doing playing there ? !
(Stats from, and derived from, allthestats.com)
Ridley said:
Yeah, that's probably true Madcow, but I reckon its a bit more than that.
The Dome seems to provide a more physical/close quarter sort of contest. The ground is smaller than the MCG and it just seems to me that its always more of a "contestable" (if there's such a description) sort of game that occurs at the Dome. Space seems to get filled up a bit easier at the Dome is what I'm trying to say.....
To that end, yeah, maybe we aren't quick enough to take advantage of the spaces when they are there, and yeah our skill level is also getting exposed. But is the latter exacerbated by the fact that we are under more pressure to dispose of it ? Its that more intense pressure at the time of disposal that i reckon is exposing us big time on the Dome. We just hate it when we have the physical pressure on us at the time of disposal. Skill errors come in bunches. We don't cope with it as well as other teams.