Analysis "The game has changed" - 2022 Strategy Talk

Feb 13, 2006
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Big thing I noticed was the better teams knew when to go man on man and kill that chip-chip game that saw teams basically walk the ball into their forward 50. We stuck with the "guarding space" structure and they just kicked holes in it every time.
Also, the amount of times teams would run the ball out of the centre was unacceptable. Made it nearly impossible to defend against. We genuinely need some contested ball winning mids even if the contested game isn't our 1-wood, we need to be at least competitive in the centre.
 
Oct 8, 2011
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Hobart
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Big thing I noticed was the better teams knew when to go man on man and kill that chip-chip game that saw teams basically walk the ball into their forward 50. We stuck with the "guarding space" structure and they just kicked holes in it every time.
Also, the amount of times teams would run the ball out of the centre was unacceptable. Made it nearly impossible to defend against. We genuinely need some contested ball winning mids even if the contested game isn't our 1-wood, we need to be at least competitive in the centre.
The way we play we don't need to win in the middle. We just need to break even, but we got smashed in there this year with our opponents scoring way too easily from stoppage.
 

db26

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 26, 2007
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For me the biggest drop off was our skills kicking and decision making massive let down.Teams are now slicing teams open with accurate kicks through the middle and use the angles well to.We didn't evolve enough preseason for me for some reason when teams started picked us a part and the new rules come in.
 
Big thing I noticed was the better teams knew when to go man on man and kill that chip-chip game that saw teams basically walk the ball into their forward 50. We stuck with the "guarding space" structure and they just kicked holes in it every time.
Also, the amount of times teams would run the ball out of the centre was unacceptable. Made it nearly impossible to defend against. We genuinely need some contested ball winning mids even if the contested game isn't our 1-wood, we need to be at least competitive in the centre.

Our game relies on us stopping easy ball from contests. We ended up appalling at that by season's end. Cotch is still capable, but the elite mid he was. We really do need someone like Wallis/Narkle just to have depth inside. That is, until Dow, RCD etc are mature AFL mids.
 
We need to play man on man and not zone defense - feel like I said that every week this season. We also need to be smarter kicking inside 50 and not hoisting it up and hoping jack/lunch can do something. Also need more intensity when attacking the ball carrier like Port did to Geelong the other night

Man on man when we need to and zone when we need to. We continued to try our hard press when the stand rule allowed teams easy 10m kicks. They just marched down the ground and stuffed us up. And apart from a few games we sucked at that.

When the ball is in contest we must play the zone. tat's where our intercepts come from. That allows us to break from the back and kill teams.

But playing our old zone when you can waltz past the man on the mark is stupid. I have no idea why we continued, or even started, to play that method with the new rules.
 

YeOldTiger

67-69-73-74-80-17-19-20
Jul 22, 2016
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Screenshot_20210901-065124.png
 
This is all really about tinkering with our style so that we can get our mojo back.

It was a final, there was a crowd.

I reckon there's a couple of really important points here that don't relate to game style. By a certain point in the season, our confidence was shot. Zero mojo.

And the Tiger Army. Can't replace it. Momentum means so much and at the MCG, with all us flogs in full voice, we are very hard to beat.
 
For me the biggest drop off was our skills kicking and decision making massive let down.Teams are now slicing teams open with accurate kicks through the middle and use the angles well to.We didn't evolve enough preseason for me for some reason when teams started picked us a part and the new rules come in.

In wins, we were +3 in the clangers - so the oppo made 3 more clangers than us. +11 in losses. Had some shocking games for disposal.
 
I reckon there's a couple of really important points here that don't relate to game style. By a certain point in the season, our confidence was shot. Zero mojo.

And the Tiger Army. Can't replace it. Momentum means so much and at the MCG, with all us flogs in full voice, we are very hard to beat.

IMHO we lost faith in the game plan. Now we have finals we see it still stacks up, with a few changes.

Dimma and co didn't really adjust to the new rules, and when they adjusted we fell apart. I reckon that isn't happening in 2022.

And get the Tiger Armytm back will not hurt.
 

Oncewererabble

Cleared by the match committee
Aug 29, 2021
57
85
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I'm not keen on wholesale changes to our game style. If we do that, it's very easy to get off to a bad start next year, for confidence to drop off, for players to get disenchanted and then for the team to fall away to the bottom of the ladder.

The Tiges have always thrived on a high intensity fast paced style of play and that should continue. We have the cattle for that style of game and we need to re-commit to it.

It's far too early to decide on major changes. We need to see how the team looks close to fully fit, confident and aggressive.

If it doesn't work in those conditions, then you look at changing it.

It's not like the game evolves yearly, it's a periodic thing and as someone else said, Port are playing our style and winning.
 
Nov 11, 2010
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I don't think we need to change much. If we aren't hit by the injury bus again, then we need a few defensive tweeks and that's it.

Our game is built on some simple fundamentals. Pressure the ball carrier while in motion and force a long/high kick to disputed 50/50 situation. Turn the ball over, move it by hand & foot into space with speed before the opposition defense can organise themselves. Unless the pressure comes on the ball carrier which slows ball movement and/or disrupts it, our defense is left vulnerable regardless of the personale available. That's or game plan in a nutshell.

All we need to do to adapt our defense to force teams long down the line again or to take unnecessary risks through the corridor allowing us to quickly turn the ball over. That was what the stand rule was designed to take away from us. To take it back, we need to use Ports tactic and place a defenders 10m to the inside of the man on the mark so they, and the man on the mark, can collapse in on the kicker when they play on. This also makes it more difficult to execute the short 45 degree chip kick and attacker running past strategy too.

This one strategy will enable us to bring back the our defensive game plan which, in turns, flows into our offensive game. With a good run with injuries, I can't see why we won't be back up contending again next year.
 
I don't think we need to change much. If we aren't hit by the injury bus again, then we need a few defensive tweeks and that's it.

Our game is built on some simple fundamentals. Pressure the ball carrier while in motion and force a long/high kick to disputed 50/50 situation. Turn the ball over, move it by hand & foot into space with speed before the opposition defense can organise themselves. Unless the pressure comes on the ball carrier which slows ball movement and/or disrupts it, our defense is left vulnerable regardless of the personale available. That's or game plan in a nutshell.

All we need to do to adapt our defense to force teams long down the line again or to take unnecessary risks through the corridor allowing us to quickly turn the ball over. That was what the stand rule was designed to take away from us. To take it back, we need to use Ports tactic and place a defenders 10m to the inside of the man on the mark so they, and the man on the mark, can collapse in on the kicker when they play on. This also makes it more difficult to execute the short 45 degree chip kick and attacker running past strategy too.

This one strategy will enable us to bring back the our defensive game plan which, in turns, flows into our offensive game. With a good run with injuries, I can't see why we won't be back up contending again next year.

We can pick the eyes out of other teams' successful tactics to upgrade the Richmond way. Reckon we'll be there or thereabouts next year if we are smart and a bit lucky with injury.
 

BF Tiger

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 5, 2007
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Big thing I noticed was the better teams knew when to go man on man and kill that chip-chip game that saw teams basically walk the ball into their forward 50. We stuck with the "guarding space" structure and they just kicked holes in it every time.
Also, the amount of times teams would run the ball out of the centre was unacceptable. Made it nearly impossible to defend against. We genuinely need some contested ball winning mids even if the contested game isn't our 1-wood, we need to be at least competitive in the centre.
I have this feeling too that we need a reliable ball winner in the guts.

Games with 30+ possessions in 2021
Rd 1 - Graham, Martin
Rd 4 - Short
Rd 5 - Martin
Rd 7 - Houli
Rd 9 - Baker
Rd 17 - Short
Rd 20 - Cotchin, Prestia
Rd 21 - Graham, Vlastuin
Rd 22 - Short, Cotchin

In a number of games our leading possession winner had less than 25 disposals.

Remove Short, Houli and Vlastuin rebounding off half back and we only had eight games with a player getting 30+ disposals. I know we are a low-possession side and try to win the ball at the turn-over, but I feel if we were winning a few more clearances it would mean opposition teams would have to cover that option as well as looking to work their way through our "force the turn-over" game.
 
May 17, 2004
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It’s a good point , I watched Ess quite closely to see how their game style compared and was quite surprised that it was more like the Ross Lyon Park the bus with plenty of numbers back. Clearly not the answer as it makes it extraordinarily difficult to score yourself , man on man would be a real departure from zoning style we have successful used. Our forward handball weapon was stifled for much of year with 6 of top 7 handball meters gained ‘20 missing big slabs of ‘21
I’m pleased to hear dimma suggest it won’t just happen, we need more talent into the midfield as we laboured their and no matter what bloody style you adopt if you’re being smashed by the margin we were in midfield you will lose ea week
 
May 23, 2010
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Another thing that stood out this year was our inability to clear D50 , not having our A team hurt , however we were indecisive , often short then the hack kick out down the line . We’ve previously been so much better than this , looked real bottom 4 stuff , no bloody wonder we were 2G in a half so often

The decline of Houli played a big part in this.
He took the handball, ran 20m, and kicked 50m. Ball goes from D50 to 30m out from goal. Or thereabouts.
It was that quick movement by foot, or hand thru the middle that allowed the forwards opportunity without outnumber. Even 2v1 on JR meant Butler Rioli Lambo and George got to work.
We need that run and carry desperately
 
May 17, 2004
43,959
67,166
Punt Rd ‘17? ‘19?
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Richmond
The decline of Houli played a big part in this.
He took the handball, ran 20m, and kicked 50m. Ball goes from D50 to 30m out from goal. Or thereabouts.
It was that quick movement by foot, or hand thru the middle that allowed the forwards opportunity without outnumber. Even 2v1 on JR meant Butler Rioli Lambo and George got to work.
We need that run and carry desperately
yea the transition out is the thing,,,much work to do. reckon rioli can be an offensive weapon in this role, was gowing in confidence by the week
 
May 23, 2010
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yea the transition out is the thing,,,much work to do. reckon rioli can be an offensive weapon in this role, was gowing in confidence by the week

Agree on Rioli. He can find it, evade and run with it. Kicking part is not that great. 40m and slow thru the air.
 
Agree on Rioli. He can find it, evade and run with it. Kicking part is not that great. 40m and slow thru the air.

Yes, but Rioli is a very dangerous runner. He's really good in tight spaces, which Bachar wasn't so much. I reckon Dan's a pretty good plug and play replacement for the great man.
 
Feb 13, 2006
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Yes, but Rioli is a very dangerous runner. He's really good in tight spaces, which Bachar wasn't so much. I reckon Dan's a pretty good plug and play replacement for the great man.
Backline Dan has been fantastic. Starting to get his natural attacking game up and running that was badly stifled up forward.
 
Backline Dan has been fantastic. Starting to get his natural attacking game up and running that was badly stifled up forward.

I wonder if in future he will be moved onto a wing. Although his defensive work is really good, so he is a prototype modern HBF. Reckon his form pretty much signed and stamped Bachar's papers.
 
Aug 27, 2009
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I reckon there's a couple of really important points here that don't relate to game style. By a certain point in the season, our confidence was shot. Zero mojo.

And the Tiger Army. Can't replace it. Momentum means so much and at the MCG, with all us flogs in full voice, we are very hard to beat.
This was noticeable with Geelong losing at home in the last couple of weeks, no crowd takes away a lot of advantage from the home game.
 

richard parker

The Killer Bees
Feb 11, 2016
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Was hard to watch this year because we gave up easy goals then our goals just looked so laboured. Exact opposite of our successful seasons and not a good sign at all. The functionality of our forward line was nonexistent. It’s was excruciating to watch actually. At least dimma commented on it many times so surely there will be some serious rethinking of our ball movement/strategy/structure.
 
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