Autopsy Round 9: Hawks beat up on the Blues

[Judd2Sewell]

I have re-watched the first half in detail to see what the difference was. I'll post a video sometime this week in the strategy thread but to summarise, in the first quarter we were very disorganised around stoppages. We also had a couple of defensive lapses etc. But we certainly had been more positive with the ball movement, we just didn't have a lot of the ball to show it until later in the quarter. In the second quarter, our stoppages were much better organised and it created better opportunities for repeat forward fifty entries, intercepts and ball movement.

I'm interested to know your thoughts on why we seemed to be outnumbered constantly around the ball (though maybe it only just seemed that way), why they had so much space in transition, and most importantly how they were able to get players out the back, or outnumber us in their forward line during that first quarter.

 

[Brishawk]

I'm interested to know your thoughts on why we seemed to be outnumbered constantly around the ball (though maybe it only just seemed that way), why they had so much space in transition, and most importantly how they were able to get players out the back, or outnumber us in their forward line during that first quarter.

I'll comment on how the first goal happened and maybe that will provide a clue.

Scene: Stoppage on our half forward flank from a boundary throw in.
1. We are heavily outnumbered at the stoppage with no real organisation. It is 3 hawks v 5 blues in front of the ruckman.
2. Ceglar trips in the ruck contest leaving Pitts free to grab the ball and the superior numbers allow them to have a clean kick forward.
3. Smith had been our back marker but had come across to prevent Carlton running the ball down the wing. This means he can't track back with the ball so it is up to other mids.
4. The kick misses the target but Casboult is good enough to win it and hand pass it to a running Betts.
5. Betts had pushed to the stoppage and charged forward once the ball was won by Carlton. Hardwick gave him too much latitude and didn't push back hard enough meaning Betts passes him on the way towards Casboult.
6. Had the handball being slightly worse or Hardwick pushed hard backwards, the play probably breaks down as we had another defender pushing up who almost gets to the contest. So we lose an extra in defence and don't stop the ball in this part of the passage of play.
7. Betts kick is rushed but Frawley has slipped over and Mackay marks uncontested.
8. Mackay wheels around and kicks long to an unmarked player out the back.
9. on Review, Sicily, Day and Shiels have all pushed back deep into defence but Sicily guards no one (ball watching) and Shiels and Day both think Mackay is going to kick short and so go to the one player leaving two behind our last defender, one of which marks the ball. So in real time it looks like they got two out the back but we had equal numbers we just didn't use them effectively.

So in short, terrible structure at the stoppage, a little lax chase by Hardwick, and disorganisation on the last line with players pushing back left us exposed in the end. 3 places in the play we could of stopped it if we were better organised and that was really the story. It was more about what we were not doing than any great play by Carlton.

The second goal was a long kick into the fifty which Frost gathers and then is tackled. If I'm critical, Sicily was focused on Martin (player watching) after conceding a goal while ball watching and didn't come cross and spoil it towards the boundary. So a lack of confidence after the first goal could have led to the second goal.

In real time the quarter felt horrific but on review we had a lot in our control that we didn't do that allowed Carlton to look like millionaires.

 

[TheFourPillars]

So I will just add this to the discussion. There are teams that play different structures / numbers around the ball. Some prefer to have greater numbers at the coal face while others prefer to have more numbers behind the ball. This may change if one team starts dominating the ball and getting clean possession. Especially if those lead to scoring. The numbers then are equalized to stop the onslaught.

One might ask why the hell do teams do this? The teams that have numbers behind the ball rely on team pressure to cause a turnover or hack kick forward where they have the numbers and can counter attack catching the other team out. So what might happen in game is they adjust the structure for the period of dominance, stabilise and try again with the out number. This requires you to be well organized defensively especially at a stoppage

 

[Davo23]

So I will just add this to the discussion. There are teams that play different structures / numbers around the ball. Some prefer to have greater numbers at the coal face while others prefer to have more numbers behind the ball. This may change if one team starts dominating the ball and getting clean possession. Especially if those lead to scoring. The numbers then are equalized to stop the onslaught.

One might ask why the hell do teams do this? The teams that have numbers behind the ball rely on team pressure to cause a turnover or hack kick forward where they have the numbers and can counter attack catching the other team out. So what might happen in game is they adjust the structure for the period of dominance, stabilise and try again with the out number. This requires you to be well organized defensively especially at a stoppage

Thanks for the great explanation, TFP.

You seem to be one that actually can see what is happening out there.
I just see a heap of bodies hitting the middle!