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Tackling gripes

Roar Guru
19th September, 2018
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Roar Guru
19th September, 2018
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Watching finals football, with its increased pressure, it has been notable that teams able to hit hard in tackles leave a telling effect on their opponents – leading to skill errors.

Footballers are full-time professionals, yet the number of skill errors made by teams that get hit hard in tackles are remarkable.

Call it ‘perceived pressure’ or finals nerves, the number of mistakes made even when there is little pressure, and the poor ball use decisions made in the rush to get rid of it before the anticipated crunch tackle indicate these highly trained football brains are not working well.

There have been numerous functional imaging scans of persons suffering traumatic stress disorders that show severe brain function impairment when trauma memories are triggered.

I propose that this is what is occurring when a team like Geelong play like bumbling idiots in pressure finals. It is annoying to constantly get only blithe analysis about these aspects of the game from the usual commentators whom it seems are afraid to be critical for fear of talking down the sport and maybe putting their comfy boys club job at risk.

There has never been a premier that has shirked the need for hard tackling in a finals game. I think even if the opposition is also tackling hard, to respond vigorously is protective against getting into a fraught traumatised error-making state as a feeling of agency and control remains, and may push the opposition into some errors.

There are trauma treatment measures that athletes can use during games to reduce the impact of these traumatic memories, which can be unconsciously remembered as body sensation memories, thus making them hard to access and manage with word thinking.

The Cats especially need to get their claws out, since Chris Scott has been coaching they have been vulnerable to this approach, I am sure opposition players know they are soft, even if The Geelong club don’t. Everyone else can see it including Geelong supporters. Stop mouthing platitudes Chris Scott and commentators.

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Whilst on the tackling subject, when I played footy there was no such thing as ‘prior opportunity’. The AFL is taking the game they are wrecking by poor umpiring interpretation and twisting it with more rules and the ludicrous 18-metre goal square which ruins the feng shui of the game.

Abolish prior possession, pay holding the ball and suddenly the game opens up. Why hasn’t this been trialled? The coaches will close up the current proposed opening up changes before the 2019 season even starts.

Has anyone ever really worked out why players ran off after kicking a goal? I notice it happens less often now, presumably coaches might have accepted the confidence boost of kicking a goal against your opponent may be more useful than a pat on the bum on the bench.

I watched the VFLW Geelong vs Collingwood preliminary final third quarter. Horrible mashed up game, terrible no free kick umpiring. Players not taught to kick with any technical correctness, not guiding football onto foot with one hand. Wouldn’t want my daughter to be playing in that game.

– By Bernard Hickey

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