Perfect Tactics.

[Axl the great]

Got to hand it to the Crows, they are the only team to play us the way most teams have failed to do so all year.
Many will say and have said we had an off night, i dont beleive this to be entirely true even if it seemed that way.

The key was Adelaide's game plan and tactics against us, they recognised that you must attack Collingwood where we like to attack from, not put numbers back all night or line up in the corridor waiting for a turnover, we have become too smart and too polished for that old trick, what the Crows did last night was something i was worried about for a while and really if we are being honest we escaped last night, very lucky were our boys.

Adelaide had a man on man plan focusing on our boundry movement, they made sure all the links in the chain had a man on them or at least intense pressure on the ball carrier.
They did not have players lining up in the corridor but made it a contested ball fest where the play was, they made sure runners and link players were covered as were the next kick targets that we usually spot up so easily as most teams retreat back to help out the defenders.
They were focused on stopping it before it got to the wing or HF but because most of their guys were attacking the contest they didnt have players free to create a lot of run themselves hence such a dour and uninteresting game unfolded.

Most teams hope that Collingwood turn it over along the boundry line and then try to switch back to the corridor and cut us up on the rebound, as i said this used to work against us but now that we are a more skilled and better contested possesion team we often have the numbers and support linking up and so those opposition players lurking for the cheap ones become useless and wasted.

Adelaide found the perfect way to play against us considering the skill and class gap between the two teams and are to be commended, i doubt whether any of the other teams took enough notice to implement the exact gameplan the crows did though, most sides think pressure pressure pressure!!! is the way to defeat us but actually have no idea where and when to apply it and eventually tire themselves out when it doesnt work.

Still expect big things from the team this year and think we are in with as good a chance as any but last night showed that tactics in a game if carried out 100% to instruction can be a very very dangerous weapon.

 

[Syphoncom]

Every time a team like Geelong gets beaten (e.g against the Blues a fair bit) people read a lot into the way they were negated and how tactics played into the win.

I'm sure it does but realistically we wouldn't put in a performance like that in the finals, and if we do we're assured of losing anyway.

We'll need to kick straight for 3 games to really have a shot at winning the flag but that shouldn't be too difficult. Win the first hopefully and see where that takes us hopefully. It should come down to the intensity of the best team in the league suffocating the opposition and simply winning.

 

[thecig]

Yeh thought Craig coached very well last night. To me at the game it looked like they were almost creating a zone on the wing we were attacking, like one kick in front of the ball. They did it to us a couple of years ago, again there we were lucky when burton did his knee and i think the porpus did his shoulder.

Whole time i was hoping Mick would man up their spare man in the backline (stevens i think it was) cos it looked like Dawes constantly had 2-3 opponents on him. Oh well, at least we were able to pull off a win when all the chips were down. Good character and endevour by the boys i say!

 

[The Panther]

It was shades of the 09 SF'. We played a zone/full ground press & given ADL play the same tactic, we were exposed. Last year we really only got on top b/c we went man/man.

 

[Football God]

They also used the switch more than us cos of their zoning up the ground, couldn't find an easy option thats why we had to play the handball game and they created the pressure we use on opposition.

Good effort by then but the better team faught hardest in the final quarter.

 

[Axl the great]

Yeh thought Craig coached very well last night. To me at the game it looked like they were almost creating a zone on the wing we were attacking, like one kick in front of the ball. They did it to us a couple of years ago, again there we were lucky when burton did his knee and i think the porpus did his shoulder.

Whole time i was hoping Mick would man up their spare man in the backline (stevens i think it was) cos it looked like Dawes constantly had 2-3 opponents on him. Oh well, at least we were able to pull off a win when all the chips were down. Good character and endevour by the boys i say!

Yeah i felt that too, they seemed to focus their numbers and manning up on where we prefer to move the ball and we looked unsettled at this and generated no run or easy transition.

 

[Syphoncom]

Also, to win as many as we have in a row and finish top of the ladder is no mean feat. I guess you look at every year and you'll find the GF getting beaten in quite a few games they shouldn't have and coming close in some others.

It's funny that every time you have a close match or a loss you can watch one of the 5-6 AFL shows that dissect the game and what went right/wrong for both teams. At the end of the day we probably played poorly, they played well, a few things fell into place and it was just a good match (score-wise anyway).

Shouldn't really impact how we aim to play in the finals nor dictate any of the outcomes. I enjoyed the debate prior to the Geelong v Collingwood game about our plan A/plan B and how both sides really were going to stick to their game plan and slog it out.

There's a difference between altering the game plan and some tactical moves - sure, but realistically we're going to be rolling with the same game plan that's got us to the top of the ladder and I'm pretty confident it will do the job. No brain farts and accurate kicking is what will decide whether we take the flag or not this year for mine.

 

[Axl the great]

They also used the switch more than us cos of their zoning up the ground, couldn't find an easy option thats why we had to play the handball game and they created the pressure we use on opposition.

Good effort by then but the better team faught hardest in the final quarter.

True but they isolated that pressure to the wings and knew and waited till we moved the ball and pounced on it, had we attacked the corridor we would have smashed them as they were not prepared for us to do that, it would have been a smart move or a plan B perhaps????

This is what worries me, if the structures are not working esp in finals you need to be able to adapt to turn things around, i will be so angry if we lose a final because we cant adapt a different approach when in trouble and drop a game or get bundled out.

 

[Football God]

True but they isolated that pressure to the wings and knew and waited till we moved the ball and pounced on it, had we attacked the corridor we would have smashed them as they were not prepared for us to do that, it would have been a smart move or a plan B perhaps????

This is what worries me, if the structures are not working esp in finals you need to be able to adapt to turn things around, i will be so angry if we lose a final because we cant adapt a different approach when in trouble and drop a game or get bundled out.

Mmm yeah, I think we tried to get it moving into the corridor as we moved Travis into the centre but Adelaide still had us covered well enough in the middle...

We won it the ugly hard faught way, not like the glitz and glampur of last week. I;m glad we did well enough against them seeing as this is what it'll be like in the finals. We have to earn it to win it, and as we know in finals "It doesn't matter if you win by an Inch or a Mile, winning is winning."

Game was a good wake up call for the players, Players like Sidebottom will find it hard now to keep their spot after a shocker of a game.
(imo Sidebottom isn't in our best 22.)

 

[Prince_Rhodesia]

I agree with the OP that they did a good job on us in negating the style of play that has gotten us to where we are. That was good coaching by Craig, but you can't say that's why we kicked poorly again. That's all on our players. We fought out the game and luckily came away with the four points. had we kicked with any accuracy at all though, the margin would have been a lot better in our favor.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Were we watching the same game?

Man on man? That was our zone they were using. If it was man on man we would have won by 15 goals because we just have better players.

To the naked eye, it looked like Adelaide had 'worked us out'.

If that was the case, I wouldn't be that worried.

I'm more concerned about the REAL issue. Our players just couldn't be f**ked playing. There was no run, no effort and no hardness. That was the REAL problem. Which is a concern at this time of year.

The fact that we again had 8 more scoring shots (plus a few on the full) shows that Adelaide technically didn't work us out. That's the flattest I've seen the team for a long time, and Mick himself said he could tell before the game that they seemed flat, and that's definitely how it looked.

On the couple of rare occasions that a few of them could be bothered making an effort, we sliced through them like a hot knife through butter.

Which just further reinforces my belief that this Grand Final is ours to lose. We can win IF we continue to keep the energy levels and effort up. But if this game was an indicator of where they're at, we're screwed.

Next week will probably confirm whether we can win it, or go out in straight sets.

 

[Somebody]

Interesting discussion.
I'd just add that the addition of an A-grade small forward, like Medders or Leon would have made a big difference as a foil to the big fellows - not that that is the total answer to an Adelaide type of approach, but it might be enough to win this sort of game in finals.

We'll find out if Medders is really in form next week, perfect test.
Maybe they'll even throw Leon in as well.

 

[Kirby]

That's a pretty good analysis by the OP.

It won't effect how we go in the finals though as all the teams we meet will stick to the way they play and will not alter their game plans in any major way. Same with us, we will stick to what has got us this far.

There will be some tinkering but the overall structures and game plans are now set in concrete.

 

[shawthing09]

That's a pretty good analysis by the OP.

It won't effect how we go in the finals though as all the teams we meet will stick to the way they play and will not alter their game plans in any major way. Same with us, we will stick to what has got us this far.

There will be some tinkering but the overall structures and game plans are now set in concrete.

This is so true. Although I'd first of all like to agree with Speshal Ed, from where I was watching it looked a lot more like Adeliade where using that frontal pressure zone / press and not man on man at all. They did to us for a large part of the night what we have done to other teams, they worked harder to get numbers around the contest and to starve the player with the ball for option in front of them and like we have seen all year it means that your build up is so stagnant and slow that IF the ball makes it towards the center there is very little space.

As Kirby mentions though the defensive side of the game has evolved so much teams don't just chop and change from game to game. It's one of the things that gets me about people complaining about coaches not making drastic changes on game day. The sides are picked, set up and drilled to play in the manner they do not on a week to week basis but all year. Teams aren't just going to through away their "brand" of football coming into the finals. It would be stupid too.

 

[ksardog]

for whatever reason adelaides tactics of zoning us works well and we have trouble moving forward with any system, was bewildered why we didnt go man on man after quarter time. we did this in the second half in the final last year and the quality of player we had on the ground would of got on top alot earlier. i think we were stubborn and wanted to stick " TO THE SYSTEM" . its always good to have a plan B and hawthorns zone this week will be a good test

 

[Quicky]

Were we watching the same game?

Man on man? That was our zone they were using. If it was man on man we would have won by 15 goals because we just have better players.

It looked like man on man to me but I was watching on TV and it can be hard to tell when you are not at the game.

The fact that we again had 8 more scoring shots (plus a few on the full) shows that Adelaide technically didn't work us out. That's the flattest I've seen the team for a long time, and Mick himself said he could tell before the game that they seemed flat, and that's definitely how it looked

It reminded me of the performances we were putting in before the midseason break. After the break we came out refreshed. It's a shame there isn't a week off before the start of finals.

That's a pretty good analysis by the OP.

It won't effect how we go in the finals though as all the teams we meet will stick to the way they play and will not alter their game plans in any major way. Same with us, we will stick to what has got us this far.

There will be some tinkering but the overall structures and game plans are now set in concrete.

Geelong never muck around with their tactics. I think it would be too much of a change to the Doggies usual gameplan for them to bother too. I don't think it would take much of a tweak of the Saints tactics for them to utilise this and thats a bit of a worry. I hope you're right.

 

[daics_35]

It was shades of the 09 SF'. We played a zone/full ground press & given ADL play the same tactic, we were exposed. Last year we really only got on top b/c we went man/man.

Spot on and we went man on man in the last quter and dominated.

 

[Swooper18]

Spot on and we went man on man in the last quter and dominated.

The blitz came in the 3rd quarter. We trailed by 26 at half time, had a 10-point lead at three quarter time before losing the final term by 5, despite winning the actual contest by 5 points.

 

[Dicky_Knee]

yup perfect, and they got done.

 

[lgarth80]

The blitz came in the 3rd quarter. We trailed by 26 at half time, had a 10-point lead at three quarter time before losing the final term by 5, despite winning the actual contest by 5 points.

I think he was talking about last match swoops not the final

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

yup perfect, and they got done.

This is what I don't get.

Adelaide apparently applied the perfect tactics, kicked relatively straight, ran hard, spread well, we played shit, kicked horribly, and yet won?

And more so, probably should have won by 5 or 6 goals despite the crows 'dominance'.

We didn't come to play, yet still came away with a win.

We won't win the flag unless we keep up our intensity levels.

 

[Axl the great]

This is what I don't get.

Adelaide apparently applied the perfect tactics, kicked relatively straight, ran hard, spread well, we played shit, kicked horribly, and yet won?

And more so, probably should have won by 5 or 6 goals despite the crows 'dominance'.

We didn't come to play, yet still came away with a win.

We won't win the flag unless we keep up our intensity levels.

Adelaide are a far inferoir side to what we are, they applied the perfect tactics against us and i disagree that we should have won by 5 or 6 goals they wasted some prime chances too and had it been a good team out there we would have got done easily.

We played poorly because Adelaide made us play that way not because we were lazy or didnt work hard enough a lot of credit must go to them because they showed chinks in our armour that nearly all sides have been unable to penetrate.

In my OP i pointed out how they played us and what tactics they used, they approached the game in the right way and employed the perfect tactics to win the game it just didnt come off for them, doesnt mean that they didnt do everything right.

 

[Lockyer24]

They sat players up all along our boundary attacking side all night, we were just too slow/stupid to be quick, play on and switch it as much as possible up through the middle or on the fat side. We did get better as the game went on though.

Neil Craig is a good tactician, always has been.