All of this weeks insights come from the North Melbourne/Collingwood game where I thought the Pies were pretty good but the talent of NM just does most things better then anyone else.
IS THIS THE BEST KICK OF THE AFLW SEASON BY JASMINE GRIERSON?
This kick is set up through a few different aspects:
- Jasmine is one of the elite kicks in AFLW to start with
- NM always go backwards from the contest to a quarterback who has time and space to make a decision and also perform an effective disposal
- They love a 45 degree square up as well which can be performed often by teams with NM talent level.
Here it is:
That video makes the kick look excellent but this image does it even more justice:
She has hit the 1 player in between both lines of players perfectly.
Kick of the year for mine.
STACEY LIVINGSTONE TOE POKE
Stacey has played a lot of footy but even as a defender she has an attacking style of play which is a plus but in this case if was her downfall.
With the ball between the center circle and center half forward there is a contest on the ground and instead of shoring the ball in for a ball up, or even attempting to go backwards out of the contest where there was a Collingwood player or 2, she decided to do a little nothing-2m toe poke.
There were 2 major issues here:
1 - The toe poke was never going to clear the congestion
and;
2 - North Melbourne always set up with a free player at the back of the contest
All that the toe poke did was have the ball go straight to that free NM player who had all the time and space to deliver the ball into NM's forward 50.
Always pick the ball up if you have the opportunity and also cause a stoppage if you think you're outnumbered.
NORTH MELBOURNE CENTER CLEARANCE
The beauty of being in an elite team is that at times you can "cheat" by predicting what will happen, being proactive to make your opposition player reactive (being reactive takes way longer).
Keep your eye on the NM wing player at the bottom of the screen:
You can actually see what's going to happen quite early as Bruton is going to get the clearance but well before then the NM player has taken off down towards the half forward flank with the Collingwood winger still moving in towards the center of the ground.
Bruton, also knowing that they have wingers instead of half forward flankers simply kicks the ball into space, knowing that her wingers have full license to take off into that space.
EMMA KEARNEY DECISION MAKING
With 16 players in the ground there are times when AFLW players can get a fair bit of ground in front of them with fast breaks out of congestion but what we often see is poor decision making with ball in hand and it rarely results in a goal or actual scoring shot.
Fortunately for NM Kearney is one of the top 3 players in the comp so instead of blazing the ball forwards look what she does here:
High quality player scanning results in a nice little hit up, even at full pace.
Look what happens to the all the Collingwood players too:
Literally a third of Collingwood's team get drawn to the 1 North Melbourne player receiving the ball from Kearney, leaving potentially more unmarked NM players pushing forward.
BONNICI MISSED KICK
Brittany Bonnici is a workhorse but her kicking lets her down too often for mine which makes a little sense, she works so hard to get from contest to contest, often covering the oppositon's best mid at the same time, that she is often fatigued by the time she gets the ball.
She outplayed Kearney on the weekend too.
That being said this missed, barely legal distance kick, should not happen at any level of football.
That kick needs to hit the target as it's in a prime turnover-to-score area.
She also needed to steady herself because for 100 years coaches have being saying you can;t kick while running backwards, which is what she tried to do in this instance to get the ball to a free player.
If she can get her kicking up then she'll be close to an elite operator in AFLW - something the Pies need desperately.
KATE SHEVLIN POOR EXECUTION
Shevlin will be a star in a year or 2 but this situation was similar to one from the Geelong team a few insights back.
After a nice intercept mark she wanted to change of direction of play which is a good thing but unfortunately she sort of forced the action herself.
Without actual free players on the far side she kicked to a contest in the middle of the ground where plenty of NM numbers were who marked it unopposed.
That kick needs to go wider then the center square wing line on the far side into space, or to a teammate OR it has to go back to the side of the ground where it came from but deep towards the boundary line so if you don't mark it you can get an out of bounds stoppage and reset.
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