AFL Rd 15 2024 Pre-game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

[DJC]

I heard Hoyne also on SEN, it was very interesting.
So, when we go down the line out of defence between the arcs , we only retain possession or half the contest 20% of the time.
Worst in the comp and worst for many years over the last 4 weeks.
Conversely, when we switch play from defence we are the most successful team in the comp at retaining possession.  However, we only switch the play 20% of the time.
So Hoyne posed the question do we bring in Pitto to fix the down the line problem but potentially weaken our transition game or do work on switching the play more out of defence.
I'm firmly in the camp of the 2nd option.

I like listening to Hoyne's analyses but looking at plays or play phases in isolation misses the big picture.  Kicks down the line seems to be a last resort for us and many of ours are dump kicks intended to clear the defensive 50 and enable us to set up behind the ball.  Short kicks, forward handballs and running the ball seems to be our preferred transition method and we do that very well.

Our long kicks down the line work best when Harry or Charlie provides the target.  De Koning has managed to clunk a few marks down the line in recent games but providing an outlet target down the line isn't a strong point.  Pittonet rarely takes a mark at all and the only way his addition to the 22 would improve our ability to win or draw down the line kicks is by allowing Harry or Charlie to play up the ground more often.

Our last four weeks includes the Sydney game where our systems broke down for much of the game.  That poor effort will skew our data to some extent.  The next three games were convincing wins against teams in reasonable form and, while there's always room for improvement, I wouldn't want to be changing much for the Geelong game.