Strategy Game Plans.

[Amers]

It is often the case that Clubs attempt to copy the game plan of the top 2-4 teams of the previous season.

IMO a better thought or question is how can we develop a game plan to beat the top 2-4 teams already existing game plans?

So going in the the 2014 pre-seasaon what can we learn from Hawthorn and Freo's game plan and what can/should we implement to be able to beat them?

Discuss !!

 

[AndyLucimitis]

We need more structures.

 

[Sublime]

I honestly think at times its the players workrate. Look at how Richmond picked us apart in the first half of our last game against them. All those little hit up leads into space. How often do we see us doing little things like that? Too often players run 55m down the ground just expecting the long kick down the line. Simple things that i was taught while playing soccer. You work hard to make an option. If that doesn't work you get the hell out of that space so someone else can make an option. If that doesn't work then you go again and present. Basic things like that which just isn't seen often enough.

 

[Claypigeon]

We need more structures.

This. .. Game plan is built around the cattle that you have with the possibility of trading in better cattle before the endeavour of a season. .. Structure is what the top teams have in spades and what Fremantle displayed so well on the weekend. .. Execution of those structures under pressure, is the hard part (even Hawks and Cats panicked - were pressured - into losing their structure on Friday)

 

[gbatman]

The influence a game plan has is a little over rated. End of the day it comes down to how good your players are.

The way I see it our team is suited to a more open free running game style but we will never win a premiership or go deep into finals playing this way because the good teams wont let us play this way when it comes to it. Sure it might see us flog the weaker teams by a lot more and it might see us win an extra couple of home and away games to play a very open free flowing up the middle game style but it will also see us not progress in September and against better teams.

Previous seasons we have adjusted our game plan to suite our players. It's allowed players with deficiencies in their game to get away with it and therefore stay on the list longer than they should. This shifting of the goal posts and accommodating of second rate players has done us no good.

The current game plan focuses on the key aspects of winning finals footy. It's contested and for it to work tall players need to be able to play tall and take marks and small players need to be very good at playing small and be very good runners and be aggressive, hard working, good tackling and good at winning big numbers of the ball and they can't be soft. It also creates situations where players need to be good kicks as targets can be a little harder to hit up when you play around the boundary.

The beauty of this game plan is that it prepares teams to play finals footy and play against good teams because it's hard for opposition to change how we move the footy because we aren't afraid of going to contests and going wide. It also prepares players for the in tight hard contested environment of finals and big games. It gets players used to doing the physical stuff and makes those who don't look bad.

After this season I don't think I have ever been so certain of who can and can't play and where our list is at and where individuals are at and what they can do. Unlike previous seasons where there were still unanswered questions on some players, this season has made things so definite. There is nowhere for second rate players to hide in our game plan under Malthouse and this is how it should be. Malthouse's game plan makes it so easy to make correct decisions about your list and get de-listings and trades right and this is one of the most important things in football. Our list is poor, we have made some terrible decisions with our drafting and trading and with the low player turnover. I feel that with a game plan that exposes players weaknesses and weak players, you can really make a list develop and build a list of quality players and keep that steady filter of quality players coming in.

I'm happy with how we are playing the game, and when we have a good team, which this game style will help build by weeding out the weeds, we will grow to appreciate what it has done for us and we will appreciate the players who can play this way.

 

[Jekee]

Need more tackling/defensive discipline. Freo style.

Also, whatever the game plan, it needs to work over four quarters, not just the first or second half. This can be attributed to work rate.