Why we haven't been able to stop transition

[BAAKKEERRRR]

What’s this bloke (circled) doing?
Not with an opponent. Not close enough to be a spare in defence, or have been sucked up into where the contest was.
He’s quite literally in no-man’s land.

[barnz]

by definition that would be one mans land

[millagurnzie1]

@Humbert_Humbert

Three Swans heading downfield in a full-on sprint, two Bombers running at 3/4 pace. It’s that simple. Who hasn’t notice our half-ar5ed defensive running? Extract the digit. Simple.

I think this is why we need to give Brad a few years. The list need to be recycled. If blokes don’t run hard both ways then they won’t play. Unfortunately our current list has been allowed to be lazy and we’ve drafted the wrong players.

Rebuild is what we need. Keep a few obviously.

[Tyler]

Looks like hes the only Essendon player beating his off screen opponent back to defend

[millagurnzie1]

Clearly our defence is getting sucked up the ground and then not working hard enough to push back.

Essendon must be such an easy team to defeat. As long as the opposition keeps the ball moving forward they will have space out the back. Wait for Essendon to bomb it forward, beat our ■■■■■■ forwards and then go manic on the transition. Simples.

[simmo41]

@SplitRound

As an aside, sometimes I find it frustrating how little technical jargon there is in the AFL. When discussions like this are going on it’s kind of annoying to have no vocabulary to describe the shape of a zone, or who’s supposed to be doing what. Absolutely, American football sounds like wank when you say “man outside cover six” or whatever, but it does describe where the defense is standing and how they’re going to play.

the continuous nature of footy doesn’t lend itself well to this. too much for players to be thinking about and get wrong.

soccer would be a better sport to learn from

[simmo41]

@millagurnzie1

Maybe the coaches just don’t have confidence in our players winning 1v1’s?

finally something the coaches and fans can agree on

[Clone_Hirdy]

@whereswalla

Our players simply have to work harder when they don’t have the ball. What I am hoping for is when Brad does match review with the team and has his 1:1s with the players he’s telling them “If we see you not working harder when we don’t have the ball versus when we do have it you will be delisted and we will find someone who does value this part of the game…” or words to that effect.

Caldwell and Perkins are two who have immense AFL talent but that’s 2 weeks now where I question their willingness to run back hard on defence. A strong canter won’t do it and doesn’t pass the eye test. Richmond built a 3peat with players born with less talent but a hunger and will to chase and tackle. We need more of that…

I’ve said it before. I doubt that it’s because our players refuse to chase. I’ll give you 2 scenario’s.

1. Martin has the ball, running through the center, our mids are all running hard forward to be an option, Martin handballs the ball 20 meters ahead straight to the opposition. Suddenly, all our mids are caught out because they had just busted their gut running forward into space and are now expected to turn around and bust their gut to chase the opposition and therefore look like they are jogging. (This was a real example from the weekend and happens multiple times a game)

2. We are structurally setup with an aggressive zone, pushing right up to keep the ball in the 50. Our opposition hang back a little. The ball gets over our defenders and it’s all open space. All our mids are guarding grass hoping to get an intercept off a bad pass, but the problem is the opposition can actually kick the ball and hit targets. Because they are standing 10-15m away from their opponent, the opponent can take off and exploit the open spaces between the zone with little pressure. Our Mids look like they are jogging 10m behind their opponent, because they are, this is all because they started 10m away from their opponent.

The reality is that we are a poorly skilled team that hope Martin can become Nick Daicos, but he simply isn’t at the same level. Our structures are too aggressive forward which leaves a lot of open space behind and unless we are playing a bottom 4 team, they just chip and run through our Zone.

You would have thought after the ANZAC day fiasco 2 years ago when we couldn’t stop the ball transition from a point, that we would have changed our structures completely. But it seems like nothing has changed. We have the same assistants that brought in this structure, but it just hasn’t worked with this group of players. We have tried to emulate Richmond’s pressure game, but we simply don’t have the same nippy smalls they had during their premiership years. It’s clear that we need a different setup for this group of players because they are not fast or smart enough. This is why I keep going back to man on man. Just beat your man, forget about everything else.

[andrewb]

What good teams play man on man?

[Tyler]

@Clone_Hirdy

This is why I keep going back to man on man. Just beat your man, forget about everything else.

This would be a good way to never improve.

[Clone_Hirdy]

@millagurnzie1

Clearly our defence is getting sucked up the ground and then not working hard enough to push back.

We get caught ball watching.

I tell my 11yo son who plays soccer, stop admiring what you have done after you have passed the ball and move on to the next play.

Our players are being forced to become robots and are therefore losing tough with what is going on in the game.

[Clone_Hirdy]

@andrewb

What good teams play man on man?

What bad teams play man on man?

[Clone_Hirdy]

@Tyler

This would be a good way to never improve.

Oh, we have that down pat already…the never improving part that is.

[Strewth]

@whereswalla

Brad does match review with the team and has his 1:1s with the players he’s telling them “If we see you not working harder when we don’t have the ball versus when we do have it you will be delisted and we will find someone who does value this part of the game…”

Look familiar

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks fires up over a lack of defence | Making Their Mark | AFL

[millagurnzie1]

Really interesting considering B Couch was resistant and nows he’s running around for St Kilda. Obviously Nicks was speaking directly at him when he said “packs your bags and ■■■■ off”

[Windy_Dill]

Personelle is the biggest factor IMO. Every EFC coach of the last 20 years comes up against the same road block. We do not have enough players willing to play a sacrificial game. We are stacked with see-ball-get-ball types like Parish, Tsatas, Hobbs and Perkins who lack the intent to run hard defensively. That’s where our draft capital is spent.

Disco believes that the players needed to play a team-first role can be found late in the draft or through cheap trades. Sometimes he is right, but for every Heath Hocking there is a Mitch Hibberd, Dylan Clark and Trent Mynott. That is why we look a million bucks when the game is on our terms, but also why we fall apart when pressure is applied.

[barnz]

@simmo41

@SplitRound

As an aside, sometimes I find it frustrating how little technical jargon there is in the AFL. When discussions like this are going on it’s kind of annoying to have no vocabulary to describe the shape of a zone, or who’s supposed to be doing what. Absolutely, American football sounds like wank when you say “man outside cover six” or whatever, but it does describe where the defense is standing and how they’re going to play.

the continuous nature of footy doesn’t lend itself well to this. too much for players to be thinking about and get wrong.

soccer would be a better sport to learn from

idea works with basketball which has fluidity in the same postcode as soccer and afl

[whereswalla]

I’m hoping Brad is having the same conversations with some of our players.

The bottom line is we will not win finals if we defend like that. I loved the added aggro vs Sydney. That’s a starting point for me. Get the players up and ready for a ‘fight’ but then their hearts and attitude have to take over for the whole game and not only look to hurt at the contest but also defend and celebrate that too.

I’m a soccer man first and foremost. No team ever won anything without being the best defensive sides in their competitions. No manager lasted in a job saying we will simply score more goals than the opposition because we can!

[millagurnzie1]

@whereswalla

I loved the added aggro vs Sydney. That’s a starting point for me.

Agree. The starting point should always be orientated around aggression and effort. @Clone_Hirdy is right when he says it isn’t an effort thing…its an attitude. We aren’t playing team footy yet. I feel we’ve come a long way in addressing/fixing the effort/application side of things, now its on brad to instil a selfless, team footy mindset in these players.

I also think this is why Brad keeps playing Kelly and Heppell. For all their flaws, they are some of the only blokes who apply a team first approach. Unfortunately they are just limited in th current capabilities to be damaging as a footballer.

[SplitRound]

For sure. I didn’t really mean for players, more for the public. I mean, at the centre bounce you see teams set up their forward line and back line in different ways, but there aren’t any names for the different ways they line up. Not every team sets up to defend kick-ins the same way, and I feel like in most sports you’d get commentary that sounds like “Redman with the kick-in duties, the hawks have set up with a deep centre line and a high side press” or some ■■■■. Everyone knows teams are zoning in general, and presumably in different ways, but there’s no shorthand for describing what they’re doing. Except every few years David King will say “west coast web” or something and everyone will call him a numpty.