Game Plan

[Jelly Bean]

Let me start by absolutely agreeing that winning is the most important thing...

But I've been noticing the distinct change in our game plan since mid last year, and it was well elucidated on last night's Fox Footy coverage. It was once our superpower to go straight through the corridor with quick, direct footy, using hands and running in waves. We were tough to beat, and brilliant to watch - with even non-Collingwood supporters loving our game style. The 'run and gun' seemed to suit us well, and we picked up a flag.

But since mid last year (possibly even earlier) we changed to an 'around the boundary' style, where we'd move it slow, kick long down the line over the mark, and pray for a contested mark or being able to win the ground ball. It is slower, and a little bit more 'hit and hope'. It didn't serve us well at all last year as our contested marking players forward of ball spent a lot of time out of action, but even so, I wonder whether it really is the best game style for us in this modern day when so many teams are still trying to replicate what we did in 2023.

Thoughts?

 

[manicpie]

Most sides worked out our plan of going through the middle, so we had to change it. It also looks like most sides are going around the boundary line this year. Football has become so meticulous today that you need to keep trying to find ways. 4 on the trot tells me it's not an issue

 

[gouki88]

The way we move the ball this season is completely different to last season. Our kick:handball ratio is roughly 2.07:1.58 where it was 2.03:1.39, which is significant.

We also have better users in the back half these days with Houston & J Daicos compared to the Noble & Markov types.

I think the more significant change is our cohesiveness in team defending. We seem much more connected, and our midfield is doing a better job of not letting our backs get quickly hit on turnover.

 

[Vankri]

Good little tidbits on this in Fly’s presser yesterday. I think offensively we did try to change it up last year when the corridor game was failing but it wasn’t as rehearsed and purposeful as yesterday. Short kicks on the boundary are our main avenue this year and it was obvious even from our practice games we were going to go down that path. We prefer taking the corridor from an inboard kick rather than handball chain.

Now the most interesting part is his comment on the defensive plays we tweaked. He didn’t give out much obviously but I think it has to do with defending territory and where we position our players from the forward line til the defensive line. Helps that our defenders are starting the year well.

 

[sr36]

Let me start by absolutely agreeing that winning is the most important thing...

But I've been noticing the distinct change in our game plan since mid last year, and it was well elucidated on last night's Fox Footy coverage. It was once our superpower to go straight through the corridor with quick, direct footy, using hands and running in waves. We were tough to beat, and brilliant to watch - with even non-Collingwood supporters loving our game style. The 'run and gun' seemed to suit us well, and we picked up a flag.

But since mid last year (possibly even earlier) we changed to an 'around the boundary' style, where we'd move it slow, kick long down the line over the mark, and pray for a contested mark or being able to win the ground ball. It is slower, and a little bit more 'hit and hope'. It didn't serve us well at all last year as our contested marking players forward of ball spent a lot of time out of action, but even so, I wonder whether it really is the best game style for us in this modern day when so many teams are still trying to replicate what we did in 2023.

Thoughts?

We only started doing it at the end of last year and it worked really well with a strong finish.

It enables us to protect the transition that was killing us last year and stops our mids getting getting cut up through a lack of pace.

Most weeks we do still look for handball chains through the middle. But Sydney were loading up the corridor to protect against it.

We're a really mature team that is experienced enough to adapt to the opposition.

 

[Gaspard]

Adaptation to circumstances is the key. Pendlebury is the man holding it. (In my view). He is able to switch the team from one mode to another as circumstances demand. We'll see against Brisbane how well this works under extreme pressure. Watching how they throttled a Footscray team that was tearing them apart was scary. The upcoming game will be a true measure of where we sit. We will need a full game of complete awareness of what the opposition are up to, and total concentration to get home in this one.

 

[Kes1984]

Nothing to worry about. We play good to watch footy. We move the ball with plenty of run and carry still.

Agree with others who have pointed out we started this late last year. We were finding form but just missed finals. This year we’ve got it more refined and rehearsed.

 

[Brad Goodman]

Let me start by absolutely agreeing that winning is the most important thing...

Thoughts?

Yep, hard agree.

 

[northcotehead]

The Fly Trap explained

 

[Vankri]

The Fly Trap explained

I don't follow him but I saw his video on our defensive shape with his V-shape theory post Lions game and was skeptical then. I still think the same, I think he's picking the right time stamps on the video to fit the V-shape narrative but when you look at it in live action (or from the ground) it doesn't fit the narrative.

I do think there is something in it because the way we defend the corridor has changed but it's less complicated than in the video (because let's be honest you can't really train that level of discipline and spatial awareness to 23 footballers). To me at least, it looks like we go man on man in defence but zone in the middle of the ground after the first kick out of the oppo D50. So players guard space in a 'grid' fashion to make that inside kick very difficult and hope for either the turnover if they attempt it for fast scoring (we're #1 for forward intercept scoring), or for them to go conservative to the boundary because it slows the team down and allows us to push numbers back.

We also often stand 5m from the kicker outside of the zone (same as last year) but seem to consciously go to the angle towards the corridor again to make the boundary kick more appealing to the opposition. But I don't think it's always enforced as our forward do sometimes stand the mark. I think it depends on what we feel puts the most pressure the kicker.

Happy to be corrected but as the saying goes seems like the podcaster starts off with a good observation but puts a bit of mayo on it.

 

[manicpie]

It's called " The FLY Trap". Good luck working it out