Anyone notice the article by Mr Ralph in the Sun last week who said we could win the flag and when listing our vital missing players, left out the most obvious in our Captain. Pathetic journalism.
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It was just so ■■■■■■■ frustrating yesterday watching the difference in the defensive setups between the two clubs.
St Kilda had one or two spares standing in the dangerous spot in our forward 50 all game and we kept kicking straight to them.
Up the other end we usually had a gaping hole in our defensive structure that gave their forwards space to lead.
I don’t mind if Rutten want to play a defensive game plan where we organise behind the ball, I don’t think it’s our strength but he’s the coach. Failing to guard that space is an indictment on our entire coaching team.
If we’re playing that style well, then Ben King should not be able to compete for a mark one out against Hurley at ANY point other than on the turnover. Membrey and Dan Butler should be working in a phone box. They shouldn’t have a paddock to lead into.
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Come on, the game plan is pretty clear. This is what it looks like when executed correctly. Red is Kicks that hit targets, Orange is those that miss the target but we manage to get hold of the ball and Green is handball.
Edit: I should mention that this has been simplified for Blitz.
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Escher likes this.
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Is it good or bad TIPPA at the end of that? Or does the siren blow as he’s running into goal?
Dunno, but pandering to the whims of a wantaway player has potential to hurt us a great deal…
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Sorry, I’ve been asked not to give away the whole game plan.
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The game plan seems to be built on quantity not quality of entry into forward 50. Or at least it is made to look that way when you don’t have mercurial talent in the forward half like Daniher, Stringer and (when actually fit and inform) Fantasia. With those players missing, they have two options; embed the game plan that may be successful when (if) they get the forward setup they want, or completely change the game plan to better suit a forward line of Townsend mckernan and Stewart.
Personally, I don’t mind persisting with the first option. Even if Daniher goes there’s no way the second option is going to bring any type of success, even if it does make for slightly more respectable performances in the short term.
You can’t have 9 players with less than 50 games, plus another 2 with less than 10 games for the club (cutler and Townsend) like we did on the weekend and expect any sort of consistent system-based game plan. Despite this, we again won clearances and inside 50s against a quality ruck and midfield unit. Just no one decent to kick it to.
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Ha. Dunno if this is good news or not, unless we can do a complete forward line transplant.
She is one of the extremely few people I don’t mind listening to on footy matters.
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It is clear to me…our game plan is:
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When we kick out from behinds, kick it on top of Clark’s head or anyone his height or shorter, who are surrounded by oppositions best tall forwards.
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Kick from side to side and backwards until we turn it over so opposition can intercept and kick goals.
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On the odd chance we go forward, clear out our talls so Snelling, Tippa etc can compete against the opposition’s tall backs and two spare men waiting for us to kick it to them.
Rinse and repeat.
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Step 1: injure the best CHF in the game
Step 2: spend 3 years trying to undo step 1
Step 3: pretend steps 1 and 2 didn’t happen
Step 4: kick long down the line
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Yep you nailed it 
Here’s some examples just to get the blood boiling. If we’re supposed to be folding back behind the ball then we’re not doing it very ■■■■■■■ well.
This is a stoppage in the saints’ forward 50. We’ve outnumbered them at the contest but we’ve left 25m of space in front of King who is one out in the square with Hurley. Goal.
This one is after a stoppage on the wing. Cutler - behind the umpire at top of picture - is standing in absolute no mans land, guarding grass. Fortunately the Saints player spilled an absolute sitter. Cutler’s defensive positioning is utter trash here, it’s almost like he doesn’t want to be where the ball is going.
Here’s BZT? forced into a one out again (which he won) after a forward flank stoppage. If you count the jumpers you’ll note even numbers in their F50. If we have a spare starting where Hurley is standing then we gobble this up and rebound.
In this one Butler has just taken a mark on the 50. McKenna is forced to run away from the dangerous spot to man up because someone hasn’t run hard enough to cover their man. Butler has three live options, fortunately King doesn’t lead into the space.
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Here’s a question for those that feel they understand a lot about how we play.
Last game was a catastrophe - it looked terrible and we looked impotent.
The Saints blasted us away in the first half.
The second half looked terrible - yet we held to even for the entire half.
Point out what the difference was.
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They put the cue in the rack?
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I expected better from you, Scorpio. You used to coach.
we got a few quick goals early in the third before the saints regained the ascendency.
maybe saints got a little ahead of themselves after half time.
Not football
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It feels like our game plan is overly complicated and it exposes players who can’t process stuff on the fly. Like there’s about 50 “if - then” statements in the playbook and most of our players can’t remember half of them.
Other thing I wonder is why we’ve stopped attacking via 45 degree angles off half back into the back of the centre square. Can’t be as simple as “opposition prevents that”. Wasn’t that long ago we were quite good at that.
Also the point I’ve made several times now is I think that our plan is built almost entirely around Daniher being at full forward, and instead of innovating in his absence we’re treading water until he comes back.
I wouldn’t mind seeing us just adopt a two-step game plan (1. obtain ball, 2. shoe), go hell for leather at it and not care if we get torched on turnovers 3 out of every 4 attempts just to see what comes of it.