Analysis 2014-2015 tactical changes

[Rexie J]

All the tactics in the world are meaningless if you kick like a 10 year old.

In cricket you cant set a field for bad bowling. In footy you cant really make plans when you have bad kicking.

Sums it up really - all else is irrelevant.

 

[ash_78]

The answer is workrate. Teams that work harder get more players to more contests and get players in position faster.

Teams are also pretty happy to let us chip the ball around in our own half.

We also do play a +1 or even +2 occasionally with a lot of success.

But notice that we're not losing 120-80. We're losing 40-80. Teams are happy to clamp down and make games against us scrappy slugfests, because they know in a free running shootout we'll destroy them. So they'll allow us spares in defence.

I suspected you would say workrate - it is an indictment if so, because our +1 or +2 should already be parked behind the ball and shouldn't have far to run to prevent that space in the oppo fwd line.

I'd like to see us ditch the +1 / +2 next week, match the oppo for numbers around stoppages and make their spare men accountable - essentially man on man.

 

[Janus]

I suspected you would say workrate - it is an indictment if so, because our +1 or +2 should already be parked behind the ball and shouldn't have far to run to prevent that space in the oppo fwd line.

I'd like to see us ditch the +1 / +2 next week, match the oppo for numbers around stoppages and make their spare men accountable - essentially man on man.

Then you add to the midfield congestion and make run even more impossible. The way you beat a zone is through speed of ball movement, whipping it around until you overload one side as the defence shifts from one position to another (which they will - no zone worth its salt is static).

Our issue is, as REH has said, that our kicking is shithouse. We keep going for the million dollar pass when there are safer options because for some dumb reason the players equate being brave to taking the most risk possible, when it's actually about doing things like leaving your man to lead up for the ball instead of worrying about whether or not he'll burn you going the other way in a turnover.

I get the feeling that we've concentrated so much on adding a defensive element to our gameplan that the players are too afraid to take those calculated risks anymore. That's why they are always standing near their opponents and being stagnant - there's no trust in the other player kicking the ball, and they deliver accordingly because they don't have a target that is leading towards them.

 

[ash_78]

Then you add to the midfield congestion and make run even more impossible. The way you beat a zone is through speed of ball movement, whipping it around until you overload one side as the defence shifts from one position to another (which they will - no zone worth its salt is static).

Our issue is, as REH has said, that our kicking is shithouse. We keep going for the million dollar pass when there are safer options because for some dumb reason the players equate being brave to taking the most risk possible, when it's actually about doing things like leaving your man to lead up for the ball instead of worrying about whether or not he'll burn you going the other way in a turnover.

I get the feeling that we've concentrated so much on adding a defensive element to our gameplan that the players are too afraid to take those calculated risks anymore. That's why they are always standing near their opponents and being stagnant - there's no trust in the other player kicking the ball, and they deliver accordingly because they don't have a target that is leading towards them.

Good observations re going man on man at stoppages. Although, nothing would be stopping us matching their extra numbers on our defensive side of a stoppage. And we have to find a way to get even numbers (or better) in our forward line, and when things are going to shit on gameday, the only way to do that is man up their loose defenders.

 

[Dave Omsby]

We don't seem to have a player running hard to make a leading option downfield when we have the ball , sometimes it would be a better option than running into trouble and then bombing it when we can't create run .
I don't know the stats but we must be turning the ball over a lot

 

[*PAF]

The answer is workrate. ...

Partially agree.
Our players have been working their arses off, no question about that, but maybe not necessarily working towards the same team plan.

If they have tried but are unable to carry it out then the team plan may need some fixing.

 

[Nemisis]

Things aren't going to change any time soon listening to Hombsch this afternoon.
Port are still banging on about team defence - like some magic wand.
Port are suffocating themselves - there needs to be more running to space and for ducks sake have an organise forward line.i
The game has shifted - we are stranded

 

[El_Scorcho]

Partially agree.
Our players have been working their arses off, no question about that, but maybe not necessarily working towards the same team plan.

If they have tried but are unable to carry it out then the team plan may need some fixing.

If you don't work hard enough to get the ball, you have to work twice as hard to get it back and you'll be a lot more fatigued by the end.

I guess we need to work harder and smarter

 

[Ford Fairlane]

We look like we are trying to play two styles of footy at once and stuffing them both up. We are trying to combine our old slingshot with possess and switch footy. The trouble with that is they are incompatible. Once you start chipping the bal around you give time for the opposition to get into position upfield and choke you up.

We had one brief moment in the last quarter where we looked like last year's team and ran the ball coast to coast up the middle of the ground with brave quick release footy. We stuffed it at the end as was the story of the night but for brief magical moment it was back.

Maybe it's time Ken took back control and makes us play on his terms not the socialist gameplan of a bunch of overrated assistant and senior assistant coaches etc.

And unlocked the weights room

 

[*PAF]

We look like we are trying to play two styles of footy at once and stuffing them both up. We are trying to combine our old slingshot with possess and switch footy. ..

100% and the question I've pretty well asked a few times over the last couple of weeks is is it the players reverting to what they know best and not executing the new plan, or do we have a complicated and confusing plan.

Last year we played as one
but now as maany
and we don't ... execute it well.
Its time to change
a....

Ahhh that's worse than a dad joke.

 

[TeeKray]

Things aren't going to change any time soon listening to Hombsch this afternoon.
Port are still banging on about team defence - like some magic wand.
Port are suffocating themselves - there needs to be more running to space and for ducks sake have an organise forward line.i
The game has shifted - we are stranded

Hamish Hartlett was interviewed walking off the ground at half time v West Coast and said we weren't happy with the way we were playing because we'd conceded too many inside 50s and needed to focus on improving our defence in the second half. Since then we've coughed up a 17 point lead in that game, lost to Brisbane and now lost to Richmond, scoring a sum total of 16 goals in those 10 quarters of football. At that moment I felt uneasy, it was a comment akin to when Chocolate used to spend hours rambling on about what we needed to do to stop the opposition seemingly without even half a thought given to just worrying about our own game. We've gone into our collective shells and we need to poke our heads out and soon or this season will be lost before the bye.

 

[hazard]

I noticed that ~70% of the oval is empty because we have all our players in or near the defensive 50. How about we plonk Ollie Wines by himself near our forward 50, and every clearance just boot it long to him to make a 1 on 1 contest? It's not like he understands how to lose a contested ball.