Interchange Shamozzle

[Marlin01]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned in another thread or in the game's commentary, but I am absolutely gobsmacked by what I have seen and I want to get it off my chest.

I was sitting on the second level of the two-tier stand, bang on centre wing, so I had more or less, a perfect view of the interchange. I lost count of the number of times a player came running off the field and no one replaced them. That's right, we were playing a man down for countless minutes in the second half. It wasn't some kind of tactical ploy either, because the players were all looking at each, not knowing who was supposed to go on. Also numerous times, a player would run to the bench, get withing 2m's of the interchange, only to be told to go back out there. This is inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. Having 18 players on the park, at any one time, is about as fundamental as it gets.

I'm certainly not suggesting this is the reason we lost, what concerns me, is it shows a total break down of communication at the most fundamental level. It shows a total lack of preparation by the coaching staff and it is not what is expected from a group of coaches in professional football.

 

[sonson]

Had 8 on the interchange, it's february.

 

[WCEforeverman]

Had 8 on the interchange, it's february.

Thanks sonson. As much crap you give the eagles you can give an unbiased assement if you want to.

 

[larrikin]

Had 8 on the interchange, it's february.

Yep.

Would've confiused everyone

 

[Double the Fist]

Had 8 on the interchange, it's february.

Aw c'mon guys, if the average workplace was as poor as our interchanging, there would be a round of layoff's at the end of the game

 

[Mattman93]

I was right at the front on the 2nd tier, right on the wing and was watching the interchange quite closely. As far as I could see there was never a time when we were playing a man down, just plenty of times when someone went to come off but no one was ready, so they had to hover on the wing a for a bit. As I have said in another thread, I think that because the substitutes were replaced with an eight man bench, they tried to preserve players by making constant rapid rotations, and combining shitloads on interchanges with an eight man bench would've completely taken some players minds off the game.

 

[Marlin01]

Well if you didn't see it, you must not have been watching very closely, because it was happening very frequently.

 

[JADED]

Constant running off the ground probably uses up more energy than settling in for a good spell on the field.

I understand BURST efforts but we would have averaged more than 1 change a minute. Way to hard to settle a side when you're doing that.

Surely 15 changes a quarter is HUGE, 60 a match. But well over 100 and I think we need to re-evaluate what we're trying to do.

 

[Marlin01]

Constant running off the ground probably uses up more energy than settling in for a good spell on the field.

I understand BURST efforts but we would have averaged more than 1 change a minute. Way to hard to settle a side when you're doing that.

Surely 15 changes a quarter is HUGE, 60 a match. But well over 100 and I think we need to re-evaluate what we're trying to do.

Is that how many interchanges we did?

 

[Avalor]

Is that how many interchanges we did?

I believe a record was set - possibly by both teams. Not surprising in 36 degree heat.

 

[bigburger]

There was 80 alone in the first quarter (from both teams).

 

[eagleskickass]

I have to back Marlin up here, it was atrocious. I was also sitting in the second tier directly in line with the centre square, and therefore above the interchange. I counted 4 specific times that we had a player come off, stand in the 'box', go back onto the ground, run about 10m then turn around and come back again. It was comedy hour.

On the alternative side Port didn't seem to have this issue, so saying 'they had 8 interchange players' isn't really a valid excuse.

Part of it i think was they seemed to be playing set 'groups' in the midfield, so regularly had 6-7 players coming off at once. After the first goal we kicked the ENTIRE midfield brigade came off and was replaced by an entire new group. This happened a few times. This obviously WON'T take place in the real season.

I am not really concerned about this because it will clearly be different in the season proper, but there is definitely room for improvement in terms of being organised for midfield rotations.

 

[Brave Sir Robin]

Tanking for draft picks again!! Typical Eagles behaviour.

 

[CursoryMercenary]

Interchange rotations were a joke yesterday. Half the bloody squad kept being replaced every five minutes.

 

[rhysxanthis]

No one knows whats going on, I doubt even the coaches know...the runners are probably getting confused too.

2 on the bench and 2 super subs needs to be implemented IMHO.

The rest of the squad can just harden up and not require a rest every 5 minutes.

 

[shoe]

Was at the game and i did actually notice this once or twice, however i was sitting behind the goals so it wasnt so easy to see.

Would think it's because the AFL rushed it through as part of the heat [policy in the last few days, and I would imagine an 8 player bench would be difficult to manage, especially with the staff with no practice doing so.

 

[jdisc]

I once saw 2 players go on for 1 player comming off. Oh and a change after the first 30 seconds.

 

[The Passenger]

i noticed fox sports stats at 3quarter time had both team's in the 120's for interchanges.... i was thinking holy **** that is a lot.

some of what people are saying here is pretty ordinary - it's like describing an ice hockey style line change. hopefully this isn't a tactic that is employed in the season proper.

 

[Marlin01]

some of what people are saying here is pretty ordinary - it's like describing an ice hockey style line change. hopefully this isn't a tactic that is employed in the season proper.

It definitely wasn't a tactic. You could see by the looks on the players' faces that they didn't have a clue what was going on.

I'm just disappointed that the coaches weren't able to come up with an interchange plan and implement it efficiently. To me, it shows poor communication which could lead to bigger problems during the course of the season. Hopefully, it was just a once-off.

 

[The Falcon Strike]

It definitely wasn't a tactic. You could see by the looks on the players' faces that they didn't have a clue what was going on.

I'm just disappointed that the coaches weren't able to come up with an interchange plan and implement it efficiently. To me, it shows poor communication which could lead to bigger problems during the course of the season. Hopefully, it was just a once-off.

maybe the blokes brought themselves off because it was too hot.

i wouldn't get to wound up about it - it was february,

I had to laugh about Seaby's "brainfade" - surely you'd want the bloke to play on and kick the open goal. I'd hope our club weren't devising strategies about kicking supergoals or even letting it influence any strategy.

 

[JADED]

Pretty sure both sides went over 150 EACH.
In a game with shortened quarters... Don't care if it's 28 players a side, it's well over an interchange a minute so instead of watching the ball you've got a guy or 3 sprinting to the bench.

Hopefully over the next 10 years the trend settles and the # drops a bit.

They had the game average by year in the paper the other week and it obviously increased by year but even 5 years ago it was only like 40 a match, then 50, 60, 70, 80 per side.

Like i said in another post it's for burst efforts but who cares when you've got terrible matchups whilst trying to obtain that burst..

Who's forgotten our resting Darren Glass for 2 minutes before 3/4 time vs Collingwood in our overtime finals loss where they piled on 3 quick goals (2 to Rocca when he was goal less at that point?) You're a full back, freakin wait til 3/4 for your damn orange & a drink. That was terrible coaching, just trying to obtain that freshness. Not much good if the hack that replaces you isn't as good anyway. But hey, they're fresh.