Change of game plan ...

Big Ted

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Thread starter #1
It looks obvious over the last few weeks that the game plan has changed .. And for the better I may add.

We have become more direct, kicking long and running hard through the midfield. The Wins over West Cost and Richmond showed this.

We also saw it during the 3rd Qtr on Saturday against the Pies. We looked like that side from 2005 that we all loved so well.

So what happened in the 4th Qtr on Saturday ? ... We went back to the defensive minded, cheap possesion gathering, chip kicking, afraid to back ourselves mind set.

Why ?

When Fraser kicked that goal in the opening minute of the 4th Qtr, we looked home. We were ready to finish the game off there and then. Collingwood kick a couple of goals and we were gawwwwwn. You, like myself knew it. We didnt even look like kicking a goal as we went ultra defensive again.

The goal that Alan Didak kicked, after Dal stuffed the kick in was disgraceful ..

I just dont get it. Do you think the players are sub-consciencely doing this, or it is something that Lyon is instruction them to do ?
 

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TheVideoMan

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#2
it seems to be the trend atm started by the cats. Kicking it long and direct is back in vogue and the slow keepings off is slowly dying.

But it's good to have as an option. I am glad Lyons has not turned the Saints into the swans mk II.

Good luck.
 
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#3
Yep, the long direct ball is so much better. The defensive game has not worked well at all, maybe just against Sydney when we won at the dome, but it's a terrible strategy and Lyon brought it to our club. Yep, you're right, we did go direct against West Coast and won. And against Collingwood in Q3. In Q4 you could see the defensive game plan was applied, and it stuffs us up. Go direct to Gehrig, Riewoldt and Koschitzke! and hopefully soon hamill! Someone who's good at sending the ball is Lenny Hayes, if he grabs it out of the centre, he usually bangs it into the forward line...
 

Saint4Life

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#4
yea we did show a better style of play, although we still flood.

the last quarter, we went into our defensive shell again. I sat at the TV just waiting/knew that collingwood would kick four goals and win, we didnt seem interested in creating a 40+ point win, but rather be defensive for an entire quarter, which does not work, hopefully lesson learnt for Ross.
 

sauce_head

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#5
OUR game plan was never meant to be defensive, but more accountable. We did go direct in the last quarter, it was just that Fraser was beaten four times in a row. We had no crummers in postion (probably because the ball was in there too fast).

I would have been happy to see every man behind the ball once we got up by 21 points, but it is difficult to know that that will be your biggest lead until afterwards.

I was angry after the game but have since realised you can not, or deserve to, win games by playing one good quarter of footy.

We will get there, at least there were no more injuries.
 

The Punter

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#6
In 20 minutes of football on Saturday, in the wet, we were a five goal better side than Collingwood, who are quality.

But as soon as Fraser kicked that goal we went into our shells, and the game was lost from that moment.

We seriously need work on our kick-ins. There is no plan B, although sometimes rushing another behind is better than conceding that Didak goal. Kicking it long to a get-out target like either Rix (who is improving) long or someone short in a pocket.
 
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#7
OUR game plan was never meant to be defensive, but more accountable. We did go direct in the last quarter, it was just that Fraser was beaten four times in a row. We had no crummers in postion (probably because the ball was in there too fast).

I would have been happy to see every man behind the ball once we got up by 21 points, but it is difficult to know that that will be your biggest lead until afterwards.

I was angry after the game but have since realised you can not, or deserve to, win games by playing one good quarter of footy.

We will get there, at least there were no more injuries.
Agreed. The bottom line is that we didnt deserve to win that game...Collingwood outplayed us in the first half and did not put us away on the scoreboard.

In the last quarter we just stopped running and working. We couldn't even sniff the ball. It was a repeat of the way WCE rallied in the 4th qtr 2 games ago...except this time we weren't as resillient and when we did go fwd we did not hit targets.

Another couple of things....we gave away some very soft goals in a low scoring game - a couple of very very poor 50m penalties lead to goals for them - costly! Also, i reckon the decision to play both Goose and Kosi was wrong. We could've used another midfielder (prolly Thompson) ....also given it was a wet day there wasn't the need to have as many talls.
 

sauce_head

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#8
Also, i reckon the decision to play both Goose and Kosi was wrong. We could've used another midfielder (prolly Thompson) ....also given it was a wet day there wasn't the need to have as many talls.
Was a strange decision. I though we may have left Rix out. But I guess that was to try and counter J Fraser, which did not work anyway.
 

Persevering Saint

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#9
I was watching the game on the AFL internet-feed, which had the Channel Ten coverage. Just before the last quarter, they showed "the fresh legs" comparison, and when I saw it, my stomach twisted - they were just WAY ahead on that. We'd played Hayes, Dal and Ball far too much (I think it was those three...). I wasn't surprised at all that the team decided to try to close the game down, play the tempo game, but I also knew it was never going to work. Joey will have been given a tough review after the game, as will have Roo - they're both professionals, and they'll take the critique they deserve squarely on the chin, and play better this week.

One thing I was really happy about was the scoring. 80 points under those conditions was the equivalent of 100+ at the Dome. Factor in that Roo will play better, and that we might FINALLY play Watts (and it's about time!), and I think it's not as bad as everyone says. All the games we have left actually look, to me at least, as being winnable, even if they're not shoe-ins. We only need to win 6/7 (okay, I'm the tragic optimist)... if we beat the Crows this week, then the Hawks (who are not the team they were earlier in the season), we've then got Carlton. That wouldn't just be 3 wins in a row, it'd be 5 wins out of the last 6 games, and I think people would stop writing us off.
 

foxy_dal

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#10
I thought we showed some good signs. Unfortunantly 1 shocking quarter cost us 4 points and our chance at the finals. We are obviously top 8 material as we were just as good as collingwood for most of the day and they are sitting reasonably high on the ladder. I guess in the spirit of heritige week we had to remember to fall over at the last hurdle......For some reason i knew all along we would lose when we were 20 points up.
 

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