TonyK
CibbuanoWe rely on Fevola too much: Ratten
August 18th 2008 03:28
CARLTON will not make the eight if it continues to rely on star forward Brendan Fevola, according to coach Brett Ratten.
Ratten said the Blues would ignore other forward options in preference to Fevola, who at times had as many as five opponents against him.
"If you go down that path you probably won't make the top eight," Ratten said.
"I think sometimes we went out of way to kick the ball to him."
But Ratten said it was not Fevola's fault the Blues searched for him.
"Brendan just leads. He's a big forward, who's quick. He usually gets a bit of a gap so he looks like the best option most times and we seem to honour that a fair bit," he said.
The Blues coach said the blame lay on the ball-carrier and other forwards who Ratten suggested were playing selfish football.
"But we need to move our direction and kick the ball to other people to bring them into the game," he said.
"I think it's the bloke, he's virtually captain of the team when he's got the ball in his hands, and he just needs to use it a little bit different at times."
"I think sometimes we do, and we've had a focus going forward to try and do that but today was really obvious that we didn't use too many other forwards."
"We said to play at home a bit more, maybe blokes worrying about some possessions … instead (of) about what they were doing for the team. I think it might have taken some pressure of Brendan, maybe given ourselves a chance of getting more on the scoreboard."
Besides Fevola, only two Blues have kicked more than 20 goals this season - Brad Fisher and Eddie Betts, who missed the clash against the Kangaroos.
Ratten said the Blues would improve as a side as soon as the workload was shared up forward.
"Until other players start to kick threes and fours, no one's going to worry about playing on them," he said.
"And they'll just keep pulling back into the hole, in front of his space. That's the whole team debate that we need to get better as a team to honour these players. If someone's got three behind their name the opposition starts to look a little bit closer."
Ratten said shifting Fevola from the goal square would be considered this week while moving utility Jarrad Waite from defence into attack was also an option.
"Jarrad gives us great counter attack so that's the conundrum; whether we reduce our counter-attack and we might not get it in our forward 50 as many times," he said.
Ratten said the Blues would ignore other forward options in preference to Fevola, who at times had as many as five opponents against him.
"If you go down that path you probably won't make the top eight," Ratten said.
"I think sometimes we went out of way to kick the ball to him."
But Ratten said it was not Fevola's fault the Blues searched for him.
"Brendan just leads. He's a big forward, who's quick. He usually gets a bit of a gap so he looks like the best option most times and we seem to honour that a fair bit," he said.
The Blues coach said the blame lay on the ball-carrier and other forwards who Ratten suggested were playing selfish football.
"But we need to move our direction and kick the ball to other people to bring them into the game," he said.
"I think it's the bloke, he's virtually captain of the team when he's got the ball in his hands, and he just needs to use it a little bit different at times."
"I think sometimes we do, and we've had a focus going forward to try and do that but today was really obvious that we didn't use too many other forwards."
"We said to play at home a bit more, maybe blokes worrying about some possessions … instead (of) about what they were doing for the team. I think it might have taken some pressure of Brendan, maybe given ourselves a chance of getting more on the scoreboard."
Besides Fevola, only two Blues have kicked more than 20 goals this season - Brad Fisher and Eddie Betts, who missed the clash against the Kangaroos.
Ratten said the Blues would improve as a side as soon as the workload was shared up forward.
"Until other players start to kick threes and fours, no one's going to worry about playing on them," he said.
"And they'll just keep pulling back into the hole, in front of his space. That's the whole team debate that we need to get better as a team to honour these players. If someone's got three behind their name the opposition starts to look a little bit closer."
Ratten said shifting Fevola from the goal square would be considered this week while moving utility Jarrad Waite from defence into attack was also an option.
"Jarrad gives us great counter attack so that's the conundrum; whether we reduce our counter-attack and we might not get it in our forward 50 as many times," he said.
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