Game Style Changes/tweeks/modifications

Wandered down to sleepy hollow stadium today to watch the Cats and the Dockers and then watched the Pies v Power game on TV. What stood out from both games was a few areas where we either don't have the game plan or the players to execute.

 

Both the Dockers and the Power based their game predominantly on hard, inside contested footy combined with a ability to run and spread both with and without possession of the ball. Combined with their WILL and ability to run hard BOTH ways was the difference. Both the Dockers and Power set up well at stoppages with an exit player/s sitting behind the ball and using that player (usually with good disposal) to get the ball forward to advantage.

 

Additionally the ability for an on ball brigade of now 8-12 players with STRONG bodies to both absorb tackles/bodies and to keep the ball moving until they found a spare player to exit was STARK difference to our players and style. Add to this the ability to keep the ball moving even in tight confines........

 

What do we need to do in terms of changing or modifying our game plan/style next year and do we have the personnel??

I think you answered your own question with the insights you delivered in the first part of your post.

 

Your analysis is more sophisticated than what we have seen from TRB for a long time. Maybe you could apply for a job on the coaching panel at EFC?

At the same time it's hard to argue with 13 wins in what was a difficult season for the players.

 

But I agree, there is a lack of running hard both ways and players being in the right spots.

 

It's been an issue for a long time. Look at Goddard asking players to get to their spots throughout the whole year.

 

I am assuming that the fitness/running is still a work in progress.

 

It is interesting how Hinkley and Lyon can change things so quickly at other clubs though.

 

who knows.

Good post. The majority of blitz/football followers have next to no understanding of structure of the game. So this will go almost unnoticed.

There is more interest in slagging individual players than understanding a game plan and structure

At the same time it's hard to argue with 13 wins in what was a difficult season for the players.

 

But I agree, there is a lack of running hard both ways and players being in the right spots.

 

It's been an issue for a long time. Look at Goddard asking players to get to their spots throughout the whole year.

 

I am assuming that the fitness/running is still a work in progress.

 

It is interesting how Hinkley and Lyon can change things so quickly at other clubs though.

 

who knows.

It seems that Hinkley (and Macca) have the strong ability to TEACH football and Lyon from what I hear absolutely demands a certain style, approach and application from his players - play this way or don't play in my team! Plus they recruit "smart" footballers in terms of their ability to know how to play defensive space and where and how to run.

 

I worry that we have "dumb" footballers...

 

In terms of our midfield - Watson, Hocking, Melk, Hepp and BH can absorb tackles and stay upright - Stanton doesn't want to and it's not BJ's style. Zakka is getting a bit better at this but its also not his style.Kav is still developing and needs a stronger body. Yes we need outside run in the home and away but someone who can both the win the ball and carry is important for us to find/develop. Today I watched Fyfe, Mundy and Barlow carve it up in the middle combined with Suban, Spurr and the smooth moving Hill - they were just so hard at it. However, they knew their structures - where to run, where to position, how to defend both space and a man and were prepared to run hard. We just seem to keep pointing around aimlessly and our only real GUT runner is Licha.

 

Does our game plan stack up or do we have more holes than we think both in game plan and player stocks..?

 

At the same time it's hard to argue with 13 wins in what was a difficult season for the players.

 

But I agree, there is a lack of running hard both ways and players being in the right spots.

 

It's been an issue for a long time. Look at Goddard asking players to get to their spots throughout the whole year.

 

I am assuming that the fitness/running is still a work in progress.

 

It is interesting how Hinkley and Lyon can change things so quickly at other clubs though.

 

who knows.

It seems that Hinkley (and Macca) have the strong ability to TEACH football and Lyon from what I hear absolutely demands a certain style, approach and application from his players - play this way or don't play in my team! Plus they recruit "smart" footballers in terms of their ability to know how to play defensive space and where and how to run.

 

I worry that we have "dumb" footballers...

 

In terms of our midfield - Watson, Hocking, Melk, Hepp and BH can absorb tackles and stay upright - Stanton doesn't want to and it's not BJ's style. Zakka is getting a bit better at this but its also not his style.Kav is still developing and needs a stronger body. Yes we need outside run in the home and away but someone who can both the win the ball and carry is important for us to find/develop. Today I watched Fyfe, Mundy and Barlow carve it up in the middle combined with Suban, Spurr and the smooth moving Hill - they were just so hard at it. However, they knew their structures - where to run, where to position, how to defend both space and a man and were prepared to run hard. We just seem to keep pointing around aimlessly and our only real GUT runner is Licha.

 

Does our game plan stack up or do we have more holes than we think both in game plan and player stocks..?

 

All evidence points to the latter. 

Interesting.

We did beat both Port and Freo this year :slight_smile:

This is my two cents worth. Firstly I would discount the last few games as I’m not sure it gives any kind of fair indication. I still believe the major problem, and really the only problem we have is the rabble that is our forward line. Game after game saw extra pressure on the mids and back line because the ball would bounce straight back out of our forward line. I can’t think of two weelks running when we played the same six up forward. We must decide where Hurley is best suited and that is probably in the back line. His body doesn’t seem to sand up to the constant strain of the was he plays as a forward.

Our game relays heavily on run from the back line, I think Dalgleish strengthens that.

Zakka and Stanton have carried injuries for a lot of this year. If they’re both right for next year that solves a lot of the midfield problems. Jake has gone to another level, I’m so excited to see what he will be able to do next year.

I haven’t been over enthusiastic about BJ this year and I have a feeling that’s unfair, I’m just not sure he’s having enough influence on games. I will qualify this by saying that I have been unable to attend a game this year and things look totally different when watching on TV.

In a few words, I believe the gamelan is sound, and when the forward line comes together, just like finding that corner piece of a jigsaw puzzle, everything else will fall into place.

Wandered down to sleepy hollow stadium today to watch the Cats and the Dockers and then watched the Pies v Power game on TV. What stood out from both games was a few areas where we either don't have the game plan or the players to execute.

 

Both the Dockers and the Power based their game predominantly on hard, inside contested footy combined with a ability to run and spread both with and without possession of the ball. Combined with their WILL and ability to run hard BOTH ways was the difference. Both the Dockers and Power set up well at stoppages with an exit player/s sitting behind the ball and using that player (usually with good disposal) to get the ball forward to advantage.

 

Additionally the ability for an on ball brigade of now 8-12 players with STRONG bodies to both absorb tackles/bodies and to keep the ball moving until they found a spare player to exit was STARK difference to our players and style. Add to this the ability to keep the ball moving even in tight confines........

 

What do we need to do in terms of changing or modifying our game plan/style next year and do we have the personnel??

Hi all my first post here at Blitz. I watched both games on TV and noticed exactly what you did. If you go back to our early games this year when we where playing WELL. We did run hard both ways and also won the hard contested ball, and watson is a genius in tight situations as we all know. When we beat Freo over there, we where not great in the first half but beat them at there own game in the second half!

 

I think our coaching staff are doing a great job and our players just need to get fitter so that they can play in the second half's of seasons like they do the first. I really think we have the game plan and are developing well. 

 

In saying that our forward line is our biggest problem, but its hard when you have a different fwd line every week. Next year when there are not so many distractions around the club, and less injury's in our fwd line we will be even better.

 

Port must have the best fitness staff in the comp, they just seem to have more run then any other team, amazing turn around in one year. I thought they butchered the ball a lot last night and collingwood are a much more skillful side. But Ports ability and willingness to run so hard both ways won them the game. Collingwood have been poor all year with there defensive run. 

 

Exiting times ahead for the Bombers me thinks. 

One thing that must be eliminated is when players call for the ball, even though they're under extreme pressure, or on their wrong foot. Young players often give off to senior teammates  who proceed to kick the ball into opponents or have nowhere to go.

 

Small forwards can't be dragged up the field and leave the talls exposed.

 

And I really worry about the people at the football who yell "kick it", or keep screaming at forwards to stay back and let their opponents run upfield unattended. One guy, respected in the GS as a knowledgeable guy always used to abuse Lloyd for following his opponent. Fair enough, if your defenders can take the ball off them and kick to unmarked players, but we have to improve a hell of a lot to get to that level.

What won last night's game was accountability.

 

Shaw, Maxwell and O'Brien were made accountable all night and they couldn't handle it.

At the same time it's hard to argue with 13 wins in what was a difficult season for the players.

 

But I agree, there is a lack of running hard both ways and players being in the right spots.

 

It's been an issue for a long time. Look at Goddard asking players to get to their spots throughout the whole year.

 

I am assuming that the fitness/running is still a work in progress.

 

It is interesting how Hinkley and Lyon can change things so quickly at other clubs though.

 

who knows.

I agree. But it's a chicken/egg situation.

Is it the players dn't work hard enough defensively, or do the coaches not demand it enough, and make it a non negiotable of playing in the seniors ?

 

As you mention, Hinkley and Lyon have come in and made statements. People laugh at the likes of Clarkson, Scott and similar coaches, cos they are angry and emotional in the box, yet their teams are the ones who are and have been at the top of the table, because their players know what is expected of them, and if they don't live up to that, they won't play.

 

Idon't believe we have that culture at our club, and as you point out, defensive running is the biggest weakness we have. Espcially when things start to not go our way, and we lose confidence.

 

on the gameplan, well i'm not paid to figure out ways to improve it, so no point wasting time on that, but we can point out what doesn't work.

 

When stuck in defence, bombing it long to a ruckman is an ok choice. It's not however wise to always kick it too them, when we are outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1.

 

when we get the ball in our fwdline and cause a stoppage, IMO it's not wise to allow all our players to push up to the contest. No clear ball is coming out our way, and it allows way too easy a counter attacking oppotunity when it gets out.

 

Stupid decision making. I don't know how the hell you fix that, in already ingrained players, but it still needs dramatic improvement.

What self-serving bulldust.

The reason why you push your defensive line up is to squeeze and congest the space your opponent has to play in. Without that ‘compactness’, passes are made into that area and your defenders are drawn to the ball anyway - however they’re behind and being led to the ball by the forward instead of making interceptions like the best defenders do.

Our best team has a good combination of guys that anticipate well and cover for each other with pace.

And it’s a cop out to point out what you perceive to be weaknesses yet shy away from solutions.

■■■■■■ gutless if you ask me.

We lack composure, You watch Freo and the Hawks they don't panic, They wait until the right option presents and hit that target, They're willing to cop the hit by holding the ball that 1 second longer to make sure it finds the right target.

The best structural change we could make to our gameplan is to get an actual forward line. Otherwise we have some good strengths which were on display (excluding the last few ASADA impacted games).

 

A bit more endurance running will help too.

 

Need to put lots of effort in the forward line.

The best structural change we could make to our gameplan is to get an actual forward line. Otherwise we have some good strengths which were on display (excluding the last few ASADA impacted games).

 

A bit more endurance running will help too.

 

Need to put lots of effort in the forward line.

 

 

Yeah I think we will become a real premiership threat when Joey really finds his feet, Just having a natural forward will make us look very damaging, Then we trade/draft for a creative smart small forward.

It is patently obvious that Freemantle & Port Adelaide had absolutely rubbish games when they played us in 2013 as we defeated them both.

I would imagine that Essendon, who were under intense scrutiny at the time, must have fluked both wins as the way the team has been rubbished in this thread I don't understand how we won a game let alone thirteen for the season. Any chance the last six games is clouding vision of the entire season?

It is patently obvious that Freemantle & Port Adelaide had absolutely rubbish games when they played us in 2013 as we defeated them both.

I would imagine that Essendon, who were under intense scrutiny at the time, must have fluked both wins as the way the team has been rubbished in this thread I don't understand how we won a game let alone thirteen for the season. Any chance the last six games is clouding vision of the entire season?

So you're saying we're fine as we are and we don't need to improve anything?

 

At the same time it's hard to argue with 13 wins in what was a difficult season for the players.

 

But I agree, there is a lack of running hard both ways and players being in the right spots.

 

It's been an issue for a long time. Look at Goddard asking players to get to their spots throughout the whole year.

 

I am assuming that the fitness/running is still a work in progress.

 

It is interesting how Hinkley and Lyon can change things so quickly at other clubs though.

 

who knows.

It seems that Hinkley (and Macca) have the strong ability to TEACH football and Lyon from what I hear absolutely demands a certain style, approach and application from his players - play this way or don't play in my team! Plus they recruit "smart" footballers in terms of their ability to know how to play defensive space and where and how to run.

 

I worry that we have "dumb" footballers...

 

In terms of our midfield - Watson, Hocking, Melk, Hepp and BH can absorb tackles and stay upright - Stanton doesn't want to and it's not BJ's style. Zakka is getting a bit better at this but its also not his style.Kav is still developing and needs a stronger body. Yes we need outside run in the home and away but someone who can both the win the ball and carry is important for us to find/develop. Today I watched Fyfe, Mundy and Barlow carve it up in the middle combined with Suban, Spurr and the smooth moving Hill - they were just so hard at it. However, they knew their structures - where to run, where to position, how to defend both space and a man and were prepared to run hard. We just seem to keep pointing around aimlessly and our only real GUT runner is Licha.

 

Does our game plan stack up or do we have more holes than we think both in game plan and player stocks..?

 

It's a bit hard to see exactly which is game plan and which is playing list. I tend to think more of the latter, borne out by our results when we've got a ful lside vs results with a few out, although a great game plan should be able to help smooth that out.

 

Certainly we fall down in slickness & execution forward of the ball.

 

Working our way out of a zone - going back, sideways, forward the other side was IMHO a strength this year where it's been a weakness in previous years. That requires patience, calmness under pressure and a team who run to options. Don't have all those things & you either have to try and kick it too far and turn it over or hoof it straight to them. Setting up a zone also improved. We strangled Richmond & Collingwood and a few other teams early.

 

Conversely, if anything, we were less dangerous, and more predictable when we did get it over the back. Jetta & Davey got a lot of goals that way last year, both had their struggles this year. Predicament - Jetta's probably one of our worst at positioning himself to either make or break a zone, big part of why he's out of favour - but also one of our best when he was out the back.

 

Winderlich's abscence really hurts here. Not only great at doing all those things but great at helping organise the zone. I don't know if (as you say) he's our only gut runner, but he's certailny our most dangerous & creative. He makes more space for Hurley & the other talls because he's that little bit more dangerous in the air, and he honours them with good delivery more often. Huge difference to our side.

I'm unsure whether we should continue with Zaha in the midfield, or whether we're best served with him in more of a half forward role - at least when Winders is absent.

 

For mine we can match Barlow, Spurr, Suban even Fyfe - but probably not Hill, and definitely not Ballantyne or their other small attacking options. And that really hurts with the amount of goals coming 'out the back' or on turnovers these days. Priority #1, #2 & #3 for mine are dangerous, attacking smalls. Even if that means we're just crossing our fingers & hoping like heck Browne/Kav/Ashby/whoever come good in the midfield.

 

 

 

As for gamestyle tweaks. I'm not sure you can do a heck of a lot when you just don't have guys who's ball handling & pace & disposal, in a key part of the ground, doesn't stack up to the best of the competition.

We can kick goals when we're pressed up & holding the ball in their backline.

We get run down far too often when we get the ball on the break. You can't hold the ball in their all game every game. I've often thought we could do worse than Watson (OK, falls down on the pace, but his ball skills are top notch) as a mid-sized forward. Leads up, marks well, uses it well generally (bar his goalkicking which was AWOL this year). But then you're significantly weakening the midfield. I hope Merrett continues to improve as he does a lot of the things we lack; and we might even see Gleeson next year. Very elusive.

Just crossing my fingers for a few benfti specials.

I think we definitely play a brand of footy that could win a premiership. We saw in games where it was hard, tough and close that we would find a way to win even if we’re didn’t play brilliantly…a trait of a great team. I think it just comes down to personnel and gradual development of our still reasonably inexperienced team. Our forward line looked dangerous when we had all our players on the park for an extended run but I think you will really see the team flourish when Daniher can contribute consistently along with regularly playing with a solid group of 3 to 4 small to medium forwards so thar they can gel and actually put together the game plan. It’s unlikely to work when you are having different players in your forward spots almost every week. How often did we see Hurley, Winderlich, Gumbleton, Daniher, Merrett, Davey and Dell go in and out of the side this year?!

I think a successful setup would be

  • a consistently contributing Daniher @ FF,
  • a fit Hurley @ CHF regularly giving an option and actually taking marks. He doesnt have to be a star there. If the doctors and coaches don’t think he can properly mark above his head then he must go down back switching Carlisle to CHF.
  • Crameri as our 3rd tall leading up CHF through the wings. He should get more natural with his forward play as he becomes more experienced.
  • Merrett on a flank in his 3rd season after a great 2nd development season in the seniors. The kid is quality and reminds me alot like Bruest or Caracella.
  • a small speedy crumbing forward? Davey is an ok option but he definitely has some rough traits about hin especially seeing as how he has never put together a full consistent season. Definitely an area we need to draft in.
  • a second natural forward who can kick goals and keep applying pressure? Dell? Is a star at VFL with quality all-round forward skills but hasn’t shown he can do it AFL level. If he can come out of nowhere next year it would be huge for our forward line.
  • Kommer as the defensive pressure pest. Great in his debut year, will only get better. Will look to get more involved in attacking next year.
  • Winderlich as a bonus. I don’t expect him to play much but we look awesome up forward when he plays. Just shows we need players like Merrett to step up along with unearthing some other quality forward talent.
  • TBC and Ryder floating in and out to stretch the defence.

    Sort of going around in circles here but bottom line is I think if we can get Daniher, Hurley, Crameri, Merrett, Kommer and 2 other natural small/medium forwards playing together consistently then I think our whole game plan will click.

    I wouldn’t read much into the fact that we had another late season fade out…we faded out because we heard we wouldn’t be in the finals end of story. I genuinely thought we would have finished top 4 otherwise. We are on the right track. The sooner we can get back to solid off-field structure and plan with our football department the better.

 

It is patently obvious that Freemantle & Port Adelaide had absolutely rubbish games when they played us in 2013 as we defeated them both.

I would imagine that Essendon, who were under intense scrutiny at the time, must have fluked both wins as the way the team has been rubbished in this thread I don't understand how we won a game let alone thirteen for the season. Any chance the last six games is clouding vision of the entire season?

So you're saying we're fine as we are and we don't need to improve anything?

 

Not at all. Every football club needs to improve every season, indeed every week, but I get the sense that we are perceived as well below these two teams when we defeated them during the home & away season. I believe that we need to acknowledge that we did something right in season 2013 - 2014 is for another discussion!