Some body please teach our boys to tackle properly....

drew1602 · Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: Northcote Victoria

One thing I can say about our team is that we lay many many tackles, have a look at last GrandFinal as an example. But even last year most of those tackles were either broken or the opposition still got the ball on by hand or foot.

Sat night I watched out tackling very closely...all but three of the legal tackles were made around the upper part of the oppostion players body. Have a look at how they tackle in Fugby....go the stomach/hips area. Gavin Brown and Gavin Croscisca were great exponents of this.

Our boys are so often caught out watching the ball and not the hips...The player with the ball can wave the ball around every where...it dosnt matter he cant go anywhere without his hips. But our boys seem to often go the way of teh ball npot the body and hence lay a very weak tackle as the player has basicaly already got around them.

I believe this is one way we can start the march back to winning form, and am sure MM will work to change this ASAP...

Remember we are only one win away from winning football !!

pies4ever · Joined: 11 Feb 2002 Location: rosebud,vic,australia

drew1602,maybe we should get a couple of the melbourne storm boys down to vic park and show our boys on how to tackle properly,the storm boys will show them a thing or 2 im sure of it....

cheers bryan..!!

drew1602 · Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: Northcote Victoria

Pies4 ever....it certainly couldnt hurt !! We are moving to Olympic Park so maybe it coul dbecome a regular thing ??

CQ · ambitious that Joined: 25 Jul 2000 Location: melb

yeh that would be a good idea, cant hurt can it?

too right about the hips, lol reminds me of boxing! Wink

Blanch · Joined: 01 Jul 2002 Location: Back in Perth!

IMO some of the roles of the players have changed. A large reason for our success was that we left no room for easy possessions. Lica's prime role was as a tagger. He could run off but that was secondary. He was awesome in this role and when the opposition did get plenty of the ball it was always under pressure. This year it seems Lica has license to run.... I don't mean to single out lica, he is part of the midfield. My point is that the midfield last year applied physical pressure on every kick the opposition had. It will come in time and when it does come, we will be back better than last year.

sharp9 · Joined: 05 May 2003 Location: Melbourne and Buxton

The obvious response is that a tackle around the stomach allows a strong player to take his time and still get off an effective handball. What is missing is the "ball and all" front on League tackle, grabbing the player's upper body (to stop the pass) but with enough strength to bring the player to ground. Actually Barry Hall does it very well, those are the times he uses oppostition players as rag doll play things to be flung into the crowd

chalky · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Location: victoria

I watched in frustration as swans players not only broke through one tackle but in one circumstance, near the boundary line FP, they broke through FOUR, and duly kicked a goal. There are always missed tackles in a game, sure, but it was the ease with which they shrugged us off that was torture to watch.
IMO I dont think its a technical thing. At a coaching course I attended all the senior staff concured that good, fierce tackling is inherent. The best tackles are laid when breathing fire. We showed at times that when really pressed we can be very physical but a few weak tackles later they would hurt us again ( no names )
Not technical but mental application. It would seem that we have to get used to being favourites therefore being the hunted. ATM we are just like stunned mullets, frozen, apprehesive in decision making. Once our confidence returns I'm sure all these technical things will will resolve themselves as will our confidence in each other
Interesting article in Sun about how Storm boys turned it around - passion! C'mon boys grit your teeth and do those crows!

AnthonyC · Joined: 09 Aug 2002 Location: Melbourne, Victoria

I thought our main problem on Saturday night was not that we were tackling ineffectively, but that they weren't tackling at all. At some times I could swear they were just standing STILL watching the opposition standing STILL. What were they thinking?

Kristin5 · Fiery Redhead Joined: 19 Apr 2001

Same as against Essendon, we allowed them to have too many loose players. Bloody hell, man up for crying out loud!

And did anyone do a head count? Seemed to be heaps of them on the ground!

On the occasions when we do tackle, we don't seem to hold them very well. They easily slip away from us.