Travis Cloke's Form

REAL FOOTY

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley believes Travis Cloke will regain top form through his ongoing hard work and the help of his teammates, predicting the key forward will soon “tear a game apart” as the side starts converting more of its goal-scoring opportunities.
Cloke has finished four of Collingwood’s eight games goalless, scoring 9.15 for the season, but Buckley expects his goals tally to increase the more ground he covers, and the more marks he takes.
“He’s actually kicking for goal really well. We’ll see that when he gets more of [the ball],'' Buckley said.
“He’s not in his best form, and when you set a high standard for yourself, generally the questions are going to come when you don’t maintain it. That’s one of the crosses to bear when you’ve been such a consistently high-performing player over a number of years.
“He’s a fantastic player and it’s a matter of time. He’ll tear a game apart and he’ll go from there. The coach is always hoping that’s the next game. There’s only one way to find your way back into good form and that’s hard work. Clokey’s done that consistently over his career and he’s continuing to work on that.”
While Collingwood has excelled this year at scoring once it gets inside 50, ranking third, Buckley said his players could generate even bigger scores by using the ball better through defence and midfield, and simply by kicking more accurately for goal.
He said the Magpies were continuing to explore ways to get the ball to Cloke - or to other players - when he was dealing with the additional attention of the opposition side’s spare defender.
“Our scoring efficiency needs to improve,'' Buckley said. "As a front six we’re taking advantage of our chances - we just need to convert more of them as goals rather than points.
“Forward play has shifted and adjusted as the game has evolved, but I would have thought that in the last three, four, five years you expect most of your forwards to get up and support when the ball’s in the opposition’s hands, and all the way forward when you win it.
"In many ways the point ends of the ground - the full-backs and full-forwards - who used to do almost no work, are doing as much transition running as midfielders.
“Trav can cover the ground and we’d love him to be taking more marks and to be hitting the scoreboard more, but he can play his role better in our front six.
“He always has the opposition, plus one around him, and we’re still discovering and looking for ways of optimising that fact, so it might not be in Travis’ form that things improve.
"It might be in our ability to position him and to use the ball more effectively around him that we take advantage of Jamie Elliott, Jesse White, Jarrod Witts, Brodie Grundy, Tyson Goldsack, Jarryd Blair, or any of our mids who might spend time in that front six.”

Travis Cloke Season 2014 Totals/Averages

	Games	Kicks	Handballs	Disposals	Marks
Total	8	69	19	88	47
Average	8	8.6	2.4	11.0	5.9

	Goals	Behinds	Tackles	Hitouts	Frees For	Frees Against
Total	9	15	14	3	7	6
Average	1.1	1.9	1.8	0.4	0.9	0.8

Travis Cloke 2014 Statistical Rankings

Ranked 19th in Total Goal Assists	Ranked 20th in Total Contested Marks
Ranked 6th in Total Marks Inside 50	Ranked 7th in Marks Inside 50 Per Game
Ranked 8th in Time On Ground % Per Game