Review attack vs defense

[Dustin Credible]

After this weekends game against Brisbane, I noticed that despite not scoring as much as I felt we should given our dominance. We had scored more than any other side had against the lions this year. But we had also allowed them to rack up their highest points total for the year.

Our poor defence and Merrett's performance on JR kept them in it, when they shouldn't have been.

Looking at the first 6 rounds (approx 1/4 of the season) this becomes a recurring theme with sides scoring either their highest or next highest points for against us. But also conceding more than average to us.

Carlton: Only Collingwood have scored more against them but only Gold Coast have conceeded more to them.

Saints: Have their highest points total against us and have only conceeded more against Essendon

Hawks: Have only scored more against Melbourne. All other teams have scored more against the Hawks than we have.

Collingwood: Achieved their highest points tally of the year against us but also no other team has scored as much against them as we did.

North: Until they beat Port they had their highest points total of the year against us, but only the third highest points against.

Brisbane: As mentioned previously both their highest points for and against was in round 6.

FWIW if the trend continues Freo will score between 94-127 pts and we'll score between 89-98. Draw anyone?

To me it appears that we can kick a winning score but the key to winning more games is to tighten up our defence.

Are our defensive woes due to a lack of cattle or to the gameplan?
If the gameplan then is it simply experience or do we need to change it? and if we change it would we score less?

Personally I think the defence is the biggest problem we have. And though individuals seem to play well the whole team defensive structure doesn't seem to be workng. We can rebound but we can't stop the opposition.

Perhaps we need less run and more stop.

 

[El Tigre]

Dimma has highlighted that the defensive part to our game is still needs alot of work.

 

[the ranger]

Not surprising that our defence has been under pressure with Moore missing plus McGuane and Rance for a few games each.

 

[tunksy]

if we fix our defence then we improve heaps its as simple as that. I dont think we should be cutting our run as that will affect our game plan. the lions cut our run in the 3rd and look what happened. It as simple as Dimma has been saying, we are conceeding too many easy goals. that sort of improvement will come with time and experience.

 

[Tzatziki_Man]

Good find.


Rance looked great on the weekend, Grimes will prove to be an absolute steal, he's a gem.

Astbury's confidence is shot, even getting demolished in the two's, he needs more work. McGuane won't play in our next premiership side, he is just too clumsy. Thursfield has been relegated to 17th best defender. Kelvin Moore is the only real loss from defence right now. Impressed big time with Alex Rance.

 

[SteveoTheTiger]

Are our defensive woes due to a lack of cattle or to the gameplan?

I think its a little of both.

On the gameplan side of things we are trying to bring in a more complex defensive gameplan with zones, presses etc rather than just man on man and its taking time for the boys to adjust to it.

And from the cattle side of things we have a bunch of kids who are for the most part barely 12 months out of under 18's where defence is almost a foreign concept. I think we have at least some of the talent in place we just need to give them some time to learn and hopefully add a big bodied KPD next year.

 

[Cathal Brugha]

Our defence has been unsettled for a variety of reasons this year. Give them several games together and inject Moore before being too judgemental. I thought they did well last Sat given the circumstance.

 

[juss]

We knew coming into the year that the defence was our major weakness. It looks to be shaping up that way. We are are 2-4 preseasons into guys like Astbury, Batchelor, Grimes and to a lesser degree Rance from having a good defence. We can either be patient and wait, or go out hard in the trade period and target a young big bodied defender.

 

[delediofan3]

Mcguane, too many high frees in our defensive 50

 

[Dustin Credible]

And the trend continues:

Freo: Got their second highest score for the year only scoring more against North and conceeded their highest score for the season

Bulldogs: Games yet to finish but already we've scored more against them than any other team this year and have also allowed them to kick their highest score for the year.

Lets hope this trend stops next week as Essendons two highest scores for the year are 136 and 197

 

[NQTIGER]

defence is rubbish, rance , mcguane grimes....all very poor

 

[tugga]

We are not dissimilar to Essendon last year. Good in attack and one way running, but horrid in defence.
I said last week, allowing opposition to score 100-plus points is fine is you are playing a poor opponent and you are confidence of scoring more than them, but against a good side, we are not good enough, yet, to win a shootout. 118 points should be good enough win most games of footy, but conceding 153 won't win you any games.

 

[Oh we're from..]

defence is rubbish, rance , mcguane grimes....all very poor

Was absolute rubbish, as was the defensive pressure on the ball carriers up the ground.

 

[McGun]

Bring Astbury back in, Try Gourdis?

 

[Gak Attack]

Our defense is just pure shit but that being said we know this, as does the team going into the game. It's the one way running tugga mentioned that frustrates me, you know the backs struggle with anything close to 1 on 1 so get back and help them out and FFS don't turn over the ball in the middle of the ground. How hard is it as an AFL player to think what is the better option... handpass to an opponent in a 50/50 or kick it 50m forward to a 50/50..

 

[Underarm]

I was amazed at how easy the goals were at both end of the ground today. But ours were certainly poor.

Only GC and Port have a higher PA total, but only Pies and Bombers have a higher PF. We've got our Forwards alright, now just our defence and rucks to go

 

[Dustin Credible]

I was amazed at how easy the goals were at both end of the ground today. But ours were certainly poor.

Only GC and Port have a higher PA total, but only Pies and Bombers have a higher PF. We've got our Forwards alright, now just our defence and rucks to go

Gold coast have also had a bye, the Doggies scored 122pts against them at ES in round 3.

The Pies have also had a bye.

 

[Calcium Man]

The defense is still young and inexperienced. Rance has played 30 odd games, batchelor and grimes less then 20 between them. Newman as good as he is has always been a little suspect defensively. Lids has been pretty good but we are much better when he is in the midfield. Mcguane has never been great but does a job. They just need time and somebody to really come on and be the general down back.

Also need to work harder defensively thru the midfield. Sometimes teams just stroll away with clearances to easy.

But people forget we are still very young. Yes we need to work harder defensively but when we get going teams struggle to shut us down. Even Collingwood struggled.