Analysis Field Positioning

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

On Sunday I noticed that we changed our field positioning for centre bounces slightly.

Normally we have 4 forwards and an Eddie Betts or Charlie Cameron coming through from CHB at the bounce. This week we had 4 players starting on the wings of the square. Our 2 half forwards were just slightly forward of the centre square, while the wingmen were almost coming off the back quarter of the square.

I'm not sure if this was us messing around with our field positioning in advance of finals, if it was something to specifically combat Port, or due to the weather conditions making a clean possession harder. In any case, it was interesting to watch.

I also noticed that at stoppages we had 1 midfielder (saw Atkins do it multiple times) that defended the space just forward of the stoppage, presumably to stop Ryder from knocking the ball forwards for a Robbie Gray or similar to run onto.

Anyone else notice anything different to our field positioning on the weekend?

 

[Carmo]

didn't notice that one, but did notice we are getting much better at switching modes and working the opposition around. During the bad part of the year we were total attempt to run the ball through the center and not much else. Now we have a good balance of short hit ups vs switches vs long down the lines vs handballs to someone running past. It makes it much harder for the opposition to close us down, much less certainty for them.

 

[whitey_1975]

Its harder to notice that stuff on TV. Being at the game makes so much difference.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

I only saw it on TV but I think your right about the loose man ahead of the ball. They hacked passes forward all night and we gobbled them up 90% of the time. Wherever the ball wen't, we had a man there waiting.

Both Kelly and Lever also did a good job mopping up the blind kicks into Port's forward line.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Its harder to notice that stuff on TV. Being at the game makes so much difference.

Watching live is definitely a lot better from an overall strategic point of view. I like being able to see how we are setting up structurally, who is playing on who, what midfield combinations are we mixing together and who is on the wings we we do that.

However, I do find it harder to know which midfielders are having a good game (it's generally easy enough to see which forwards and backs are playing well). There are other things that are easy to miss. For example, I didn't notice that Mackay was injured until I overheard someone sitting near me talking about it.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

I only saw it on TV but I think your right about the loose man ahead of the ball. They hacked passes forward all night and we gobbled them up 90% of the time. Wherever the ball wen't, we had a man there waiting.

Both Kelly and Lever also did a good job mopping up the blind kicks into Port's forward line.

We had a spare man in defence for most of the game.

The big difference I found between this game and the Hawthorn game was that our 4 man forward line at centre bounces was able to at least halve the contests and make it a 50/50 ball. Against Hawthorn we'd get a quick kick forward from the centre bounce and a Hawthorn player would mark uncontested and rebound straight away.

 

[whitey_1975]

Yeah the game in close is superior on TV. Injuries are also highlighted on TV. FWIW, i would far prefer to be at the game. Living in the country means i only get to 2 or 3 games a year.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Yeah the game in close is superior on TV. Injuries are also highlighted on TV. FWIW, i would far prefer to be at the game. Living in the country means i only get to 2 or 3 games a year.

I like the best of both worlds. See the game live, then go home and watch it again on TV (unless we lose badly, in which case I sometimes don't, like the Hawthorn game).

My wife doesn't understand why I want to watch the game again when I just saw it live, but it is a completely different experience watching it on TV.

 

[StonesThrow]

I wasn't sure where to post it, but I was thinking last night about how it may have been a good thing for us to be figured out by the opposition earlier in the season. It's given pyke and co. the chance to develop tactics against it.

When Sloane is quiet the midfield now still functions. The numbers behind the ball was countered against Melbourne. Nullifying Smith hasn't been as effective as it used to be.

It's good that this has been figured out (to some degree) when it has.

I still think clubs will use these tactics though. When Sloane is on we look damn good. Why not at least try to stop him.

 

[MRB37]

Saw we were using Lynch and McGovern as extra wings at centre bounces. That left Tex, JJ, Eddie and Cameron forward, while Smith was pushing from the back of the square, which is something that's usually left for Eddie/Cameron to do.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Saw we were using Lynch and McGovern as extra wings at centre bounces. That left Tex, JJ, Eddie and Cameron forward, while Smith was pushing from the back of the square, which is something that's usually left for Eddie/Cameron to do.

I'd seen Lynch come off the wing in previous games. This was the first time I'd seen McGovern there.

Brad Crouch also lined up on the wing at one point, but I think that was just a situation where we had 1 too many players at the centre bounce, so he was just filling that spot.

 

[NikkiNoo]

On Sunday I noticed that we changed our field positioning for centre bounces slightly.

Normally we have 4 forwards and an Eddie Betts or Charlie Cameron coming through from CHB at the bounce. This week we had 4 players starting on the wings of the square. Our 2 half forwards were just slightly forward of the centre square, while the wingmen were almost coming off the back quarter of the square.

I'm not sure if this was us messing around with our field positioning in advance of finals, if it was something to specifically combat Port, or due to the weather conditions making a clean possession harder. In any case, it was interesting to watch.

I also noticed that at stoppages we had 1 midfielder (saw Atkins do it multiple times) that defended the space just forward of the stoppage, presumably to stop Ryder from knocking the ball forwards for a Robbie Gray or similar to run onto.

Anyone else notice anything different to our field positioning on the weekend?

We've been doing that set up since the Melbourne game which counters teams who push even more players off the back of the square.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

It's good to see us do some different things at the centre bounces rather than setting up with the exact same structure every single time

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

I wasn't sure where to post it, but I was thinking last night about how it may have been a good thing for us to be figured out by the opposition earlier in the season. It's given pyke and co. the chance to develop tactics against it.

When Sloane is quiet the midfield now still functions. The numbers behind the ball was countered against Melbourne. Nullifying Smith hasn't been as effective as it used to be.

It's good that this has been figured out (to some degree) when it has.

I still think clubs will use these tactics though. When Sloane is on we look damn good. Why not at least try to stop him.

Yeah, after the Melbourne and Geelong losses, where they held 2 players back as "goalkeepers" I felt like we changed our style of play to deal with that set up. It requires your forwards to present multiple lead-up targets and the midfield to lower their eyes to hit those targets, before continuing to run forward to take advantage of our numbers advantage to kick over the top of the goalkeepers.

Definitely better dealing with that sort of tactic now, rather than come finals time.

I'm still slightly concerned with contested possessions. We won them convincingly against Port, but got smashed against Collingwood. Given that finals are a lot more about contested possessions, I worry that having another Collingwood-type game in a final would be the end of us.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

We've been doing that set up since the Melbourne game which counters teams who push even more players off the back of the square.

I think the key to that set-up working is being able to halve the contest when we win the centre clearance. It puts a lot of pressure on the 4 forwards (generally Walker, Jenkins, McGovern and 1 other) as they are typically outnumbered 4-6 or 4-7.

 

[NikkiNoo]

I think the key to that set-up working is being able to halve the contest when we win the centre clearance. It puts a lot of pressure on the 4 forwards (generally Walker, Jenkins, McGovern and 1 other) as they are typically outnumbered 4-6 or 4-7.

More importantly it is a set up to counter if the opposition win the centre clearance. We've adjusted about not getting too sucked in to contests and teams getting us on the outside.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

More importantly it is a set up to counter if the opposition win the centre clearance. We've adjusted about not getting too sucked in to contests and teams getting us on the outside.

You mean by the fact that it puts our 2 wingmen in a defensive position to push back if the opposition scramble a quick low kick forward that goes towards the D50?

 

[Crowfoot]

My wife doesn't understand why I want to watch the game again when I just saw it live, but it is a completely different experience watching it on TV.

My wife doesn't understand why I want to watch the game again on TV when I just watched the game on TV.

 

[GameofSloanes]

I wasn't sure where to post it, but I was thinking last night about how it may have been a good thing for us to be figured out by the opposition earlier in the season. It's given pyke and co. the chance to develop tactics against it.

When Sloane is quiet the midfield now still functions. The numbers behind the ball was countered against Melbourne. Nullifying Smith hasn't been as effective as it used to be.

It's good that this has been figured out (to some degree) when it has.

I still think clubs will use these tactics though. When Sloane is on we look damn good. Why not at least try to stop him.

Yes. This.
We have also been trying some different things in the last few weeks, as the OP mentions. Like tagging selwood and throwing guys into different positions, different set ups at stoppages etc. So far they are unexpected which should make us much harder to play against.
The main concern is whether we show up mentally, if we do we will be hard to beat

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Yes. This.
We have also been trying some different things in the last few weeks, as the OP mentions. Like tagging selwood and throwing guys into different positions, different set ups at stoppages etc. So far they are unexpected which should make us much harder to play against.
The main concern is whether we show up mentally, if we do we will be hard to beat

Yep, I noticed in the first Geelong game we made several changes when the game was lost, presumably not to try and desperately win the game (although that would have been good), but to see how such a change might work when we played them again.

Similarly, Keath was switched to Dixon yesterday once the game was in the bag, presumably to give him some experience against a bigger bodied forward.

 

[NikkiNoo]

You mean by the fact that it puts our 2 wingmen in a defensive position to push back if the opposition scramble a quick low kick forward that goes towards the D50?

Earlier in the season our wings were heading in to the contest quickly at centre clearances to get more numbers around the ball for us. This left their players staying outside the contest and a quick give to them and they were off with limited pressure from us. We've stopped being so sucked in to the contest since about the middle of the season. We now set up a 'circle' around that stoppage with four outlets or stopping their four outlets having free space. Both Matt and Brad have changed the way they play as well since the inclusion of Hugh. Both are showing more more outside work than they were at the start of the season and it's working very well for us. Watching the placement of our wings is key to figuring out which structure we are working with. At the start of the year when we were flying, we always had one of the wings often being that last player in defence to protect the goal square (often Atkins). This then stopped for a while when other teams started to stop that happening. The last couple of weeks you see our wingers floating down back again.

About half way through the third quarter we changed a few things up as well on the weekend and stopped that 4 wing set up. Laird had a little midfield stint for a short period. There was some other things but I couldn't fully figure them out as we were still kicking goals, so I was a little invested in watching those happen, and we weren't doing it for too long.

The one set up that really killed Port was the way our defence set up protecting the wing where the ball was in our forward line. We shut that space down as it is the only game plan Port have. This meant that there was often a Port player free in the middle, but his opponent was standing just far enough away that he could get to him if they decided to switch into the middle or could become another intercepting loose defender when Port would kick it long down the wing.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Earlier in the season our wings were heading in to the contest quickly at centre clearances to get more numbers around the ball for us. This left their players staying outside the contest and a quick give to them and they were off with limited pressure from us. We've stopped being so sucked in to the contest since about the middle of the season. We now set up a 'circle' around that stoppage with four outlets or stopping their four outlets having free space. Both Matt and Brad have changed the way they play as well since the inclusion of Hugh. Both are showing more more outside work than they were at the start of the season and it's working very well for us. Watching the placement of our wings is key to figuring out which structure we are working with. At the start of the year when we were flying, we always had one of the wings often being that last player in defence to protect the goal square (often Atkins). This then stopped for a while when other teams started to stop that happening. The last couple of weeks you see our wingers floating down back again.

About half way through the third quarter we changed a few things up as well on the weekend and stopped that 4 wing set up. Laird had a little midfield stint for a short period. There was some other things but I couldn't fully figure them out as we were still kicking goals, so I was a little invested in watching those happen, and we weren't doing it for too long.

The one set up that really killed Port was the way our defence set up protecting the wing where the ball was in our forward line. We shut that space down as it is the only game plan Port have. This meant that there was often a Port player free in the middle, but his opponent was standing just far enough away that he could get to him if they decided to switch into the middle or could become another intercepting loose defender when Port would kick it long down the wing.

I missed Laird’s midfield stints. Despite trying to keep an eye on some of our positioning and set-ups, like you, I get a bit too invested in just enjoying the game.

One thing I did notice was that Port very rarely switched play yesterday. It may have been that the conditions weren’t really conducive to that sort of thing (the Crows almost came unstuck several times trying to switch play), or it may have been because we weren’t allowing them to.

 

[John Who]

It would be interesting to know if any fans have been to all 3 of the Adelaide Oval wet weather games against Freo, Dogs and Port. More importantly, if anyone has noticed any field changes from dry weather footy as opposed to wet weather footy. Because it does seem like we're playing a different brand of footy in wet weather.

 

[NikkiNoo]

I missed Laird’s midfield stints. Despite trying to keep an eye on some of our positioning and set-ups, like you, I get a bit too invested in just enjoying the game.

One thing I did notice was that Port very rarely switched play yesterday. It may have been that the conditions weren’t really conducive to that sort of thing (the Crows almost came unstuck several times trying to switch play), or it may have been because we weren’t allowing them to.

They don't have the kicks really to do it, and especially not in the wet.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

It would be interesting to know if any fans have been to all 3 of the Adelaide Oval wet weather games against Freo, Dogs and Port. More importantly, if anyone has noticed any field changes from dry weather footy as opposed to wet weather footy. Because it does seem like we're playing a different brand of footy in wet weather.

Do you mean in regards to the actual oval itself? As in, how well is it draining, etc?