by Ethan Phoenix

Created on: May 17, 2009

Decision making by a player during a game of Australian Rules Football is the key to success. When a player gathers the footy and is being chased or confronted by an opposition player, what they decide to do next is the key to success or failure.

The way I see it, you have three options. Option 1 is you either balk around the tackler or try and outrun them if they are behind you. This is something the Crows don't do very often and I believe they either don't have the leg speed or don't have the confidence in their own ability. Option 2 is you handpass to a teammate near you. This seems to be the option that the Crows players favour. It is certainly easier as you only have to move the ball 5-10 metres where as a kick may have to travel between 20-50 metres. When the Crows do kick they prefer short kicks and I sometimes wonder whether they look any further than 20 metres for leading targets. Walker has made many leads and players either haven't seen it or they have preferred to go for a shorter option. A handball is effective if it hits the target and if the receiving player is running and not going to get tackled. I have seen the Crows handpass to stationary players or players who are about to get tackled. This is a wasted possession. You are better off kicking long to a contest than handpassing in this situation. You can even get away with kicking along the boundary line and letting the ball roll over the line in some instances. There must also be a limit to the amount of times you handpass in my opinion. I reckon three is enough to find a player in clear space who has time to dispose of the footy. After three handballs in the centre of the ground, your forwards should be making leads and you don't want to ignore these leads.

Option 3 is you kick the footy. All the supporters want the players to kick the footy more. They must also realise that kicking the footy long to a one-on-two contest is pointless. If a player has made a lead and is within kicking distance, then the player with the footy should honour that lead and kick it to them. They must pick a spot about 10-15 metres in front of the player and kick to space. This is where accuracy is so important and either over kicking or under kicking can be disastrous. If there is not a 10 metre gap in front of the player leading (i.e. no opposition players there) then there is no point kicking it to them. If there are no decisive leads then you could kick to a contest. If it is a one-on-one contest that is ideal,

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