BRERETON: AFL TEAMS HAVE GONE TOO DEFENSIVE
Michael Randall
-CHRIS VERNUCCIO
Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton says watching a game of AFL is like observing cyclists riding “around the velodrome for three laps” before “making a break in the final lap”.
A pattern has emerged in games this season where teams play cat-and-mouse for more than three quarters before going into all-out attack in the final minutes, which has produced low scoring but close results.
Brereton said Geelong assistant coach Matthew Scarlett was spot on when he said teams had a “defence-first focus” when they had the footy in hand.
“What I’ve heard there is for the first time in 120 years of football a coach of a team, albeit a line coach, talk about ‘we are more hellbent on defending while we have the football then we are on attacking," Brereton said on AFL360.
“And this is the three laps around the velodrome. We are conserving the situation, we’re making sure we don’t get scored against.”
Brereton pointed to a passage of play involving Geelong last week against the Western Bulldogs where the Cats were in possession in their defensive 50 but had up to four players across the backline in case of a turnover.
“We’re going down in the amount of times we’re playing on from kicks,” Brereton told AFL 360.
“As forwards, we love it. Bloke marks it, rolls and plays on. We can read that.
“It’s difficult for the forwards because we want to make sure our back six can defend if we turn it over.”
Brereton said the defensive nature of games was partly to blame for Collingwood ruckman Mason Cox’s form slump.