Bad news Josh

[Ford Fairlane]

Josh Francou is lamenting Port not finishing teams off (as we all do) and is tired of seeing Port go into its shell when it gets on top of a team (Collingwood gave a great example last night of not taking the foot off the pedal).

Why won't Power go for kill?

JOSH FRANCOU | May 23, 2008 12:30am

PORT Adelaide coach Mark Williams needs to change his gameday mindset.

I've been saying it all year but I am tired of the Power seemingly having a team at its mercy and then taking its foot off the pedal.

And it all comes down to the coaching staff.

Rather than go for the kill like Geelong and Hawthorn, every time Port is challenged by an opposition it shuts up shop and plays defensive football.

Williams constantly talks up the Power's strengths - speed and skill - and recruits players who fit this mould.

But when was the last time Port played to its strengths for an entire game?

This year the Power has played this way only in patches and even had the best teams on the ropes - a la Hawthorn in Launceston on Saturday.

But far too often when it has a good lead it goes into defensive mode in an attempt to slow the game down and hold its position rather than make it better.

How often do you hear me go off on Radio FIVEaa when Port has possession at the end of quarters - even five minutes out - and plays keepings-off football rather than try to score to bury its opponent.

The fans hate it and so do I.

More here ...

But Choco in today's paper (article not online yet) has suggested that Port could increase the use of tempo football.

"During the week" said Williams at AAMI Stadium yesterday "I spent two and a half hours with a person who is all in to do with sport and education and understanding of the different flows of sport.

He actually said to me 'The tempo thing, do you think you can use it more?'

"He was thinking it was a tactic we don't go to enough."

 

[Black 18]

Oh my god

 

[Quadzilla]

...hopefully some mind games only ... we do that well, too?

...but we've been practising interchanges ... Thomo has been showing lll how to do that

 

[Port01]

Watching Collingwood i was totally envious that even when challenged (Geelongs 3 goals early 3rd quarter) they maintained their structure, and when they did go forward they were able to score and kill off that momentum. Couple of won contests in their forward half in the mid third quarter and the game was sewn up.

If it was us, the players that won the contests in the forward 50 would have been defending through the midfield/back half, and giving the cats the oppurtunity to claw back to striking distance by 3/4 time.

 

[Black 18]

Watching Collingwood i was totally envious that even when challenged (Geelongs 3 goals early 3rd quarter) they maintained their structure, and when they did go forward they were able to score and kill off that momentum. Couple of won contests in their forward half in the mid third quarter and the game was sewn up.

If it was us, the players that won the contests in the forward 50 would have been defending through the midfield/back half, and giving the cats the oppurtunity to claw back to striking distance by 3/4 time.

Exactly

 

[5107power]

Josh Francou is lamenting Port not finishing teams off (as we all do) and is tired of seeing Port go into its shell when it gets on top of a team (Collingwood gave a great example last night of not taking the foot off the pedal).




But Choco in today's paper (article not online yet) has suggested that Port could increase the use of tempo football.

And the hierachy wonder why our attendances are crap! and getting worse by each home game!

 

[Black 18]

Not to worry though. If Choco can't see that his negative, controlling, coaching style is crap, then eventually it will be taken away from him. At some stage (with our crowds decreasing at the rate they are) the board will be forced to seek "fresh blood", even if they don't really want to. The mighty dollar will eventually get Choco.

 

[Forzaport]

Does francou ever have anything positive to say???

 

[Santos L Helper]

Does francou ever have anything positive to say???

Different points of view not allowed? I think he is being positive if you read between the lines. He's basically imploring Choco to let our guys play, and to not hold them back. To me, it reads like he wants to see positive footy.

 

[Daz]

LOL he's my year 9 footy coach. good bloke

 

[*PAF]

Does francou ever have anything positive to say???

Calls it as he sees it. Good on him.

As far as using more of the tempo thing whilst we are on a roll

 

[Andre]

Does francou ever have anything positive to say???

And what's he supposed to say? 'Um, yeah, they keep losing after being in front, but sure if Port adopt the Freo. close enough is good enough attitude, they'll have the same great success the dockers have had ... oh wait'.

I don't agree with everything he says, but the blowtorch needs to be turned on the club and Choco in particular a lot right now.

 

[Forzaport]

I still maintain that i've never read anything positive from francou. Good times or bad, during the season or off season.

 

[powerbabe]

Calls it as he sees it. Good on him.

As far as using more of the tempo thing whilst we are on a roll

Nail. Hammer. Head.

Why waste momentum on shutting down?? It doesn't make sense. Sydney do it well, we don't.

FFS when attacking and winning the ball, KEEP THE GAMEPLAN!!!!!

Fyck tempo footy.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Francou's correct in saying the fans hate the tempo stuff but this was the wrong week to make the point. We got our noses in front and kept right on hammering away. Unfortunately we messed up a couple of chances and a sensational tackle stopped Pearce putting us 11 points ahead.

No one could complain about this game Josh, it was gripping stuff. I do hope Choco takes the comments on board in a general sense though and it's concerning that he's made the comments in the quote posted by Ford.

Port will tamper with it's heritage at it's peril. It will do more harm than good sowing confusion and unrest in the supporter base.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Nail. Hammer. Head.

Why waste momentum on shutting down?? It doesn't make sense. Sydney do it well, we don't.

FFS when attacking and winning the ball, KEEP THE GAMEPLAN!!!!!

Fyck tempo footy.

This thread is going to split into two topics I think, one dealing with the heritage part of Francou's view and the other dealing with his comments on tempo footy. Maybe a mod might think of splitting it appropriately?

Getting back to the tempo footy, like the vast majority I detest it when we do it however as I said earlier Francou's picked the wrong week to criticise as we didn't do it on Saturday.

What happened was Sydney successfully closed the game up with contested footy. When a team does that you can't walk away from the fight they've chosen to pick. You have to get down in the trenches and fight them for possession of the ball and smash your way forward. Hopefully in doing that you'll get a ten minute opportunity to ram on some goals at some point but you have to get your hands dirty first.

I think it's taken us a while to wake up to the realisation that you can't expect to beat a side with speed and skill when they're bringing lots of players to the contested area. You simply won't get the ball and you wind up getting hammered. Better to fight fire with the same fire and wait for the opportunities to come. That to me was the really heartening thing about Saturday. We got down in the trenches and out Sydneyed the Swans. We didn't nail our chances when they came was the only problem.

 

[carntheroos4eva]

Good to see Josh Francou getting stuck into his old coach....

 

[PAFC04]

I think it needs 2 new threads for this topic (s)....

I would agree with Josh, while watching the Hawthorn game, we should have embarrassed them based on the first quarter performance.

But, watching the Collingwood and Geelong game, Collingwood showed that they controlled the game superbly, attacked when they wanted too and played that tempo football when they needed to.

AS for the tradition side things, I think that its important to emphasis this to possible new supporters. Shoot me down if you wish, I just can not get out of my head the after the great win in 2004, a news video clip with a young boy on the back of a Harley with his Dad doing a burnout.

There might be a niche market there to advertise with a bikie format to entice the younger market, while on the same advertisement showing a granny knitting a new Crows scarf, with a heading "Power or a scarfe"....