Shut up, Blighty

[just maybe]

Blight: Only weak flood

10apr05

ADELAIDE'S dual premiership coach Malcolm Blight says only teams which don't have the manpower to play the game the way it's supposed to be played employ flooding.

Struggling teams Adelaide, Hawthorn, Richmond and the Western Bulldogs have all used the controversial flooding tactic to varying success in the opening two AFL rounds, and Blight says it is no coincidence they are bottom teams.

In a startling admission, Blight also said on Perth radio station 6PR the negative flooding tactic was a reason why he was not coaching today.

Blight, who won flags with Adelaide in 1997 and '98 after losing three Grand Finals with Geelong, said flooding gave the AFL's young a "bad education" and did not prepare them adequately for finals.

"I think (flooding) is a problem," said Blight, who admitted he was "still disappointed" over his sacking as St Kilda coach in 2001 after making a blunt assessment of the club's culture.

"I don't think that if you're actually good enough you do it – I reckon the dud sides (who do it) will eventually fall over, and so say all of us.

"The thing that I don't like about it – and perhaps why I'm still not coaching, because I don't agree with it in principle – is that the kids in these teams that are flooding are getting 20 possessions between wing and half-back just chipping the ball around.

"And I just know that when you get to September and big games come, that'll tighten up. There will be more one-on-one, and those kids are not getting taught an education.

"I think the game is about a contest. We've all done it – putting an extra player or two back (behind the play) when someone got a run-on.

"But when you put 15 blokes back ... and the other day when Shane Crawford got that ball (against Richmond) and had to kick for touch like rugby union, that's not our game.

"And hopefully all those dud sides will believe that they're dud sides and stop doing it."

He said it also denegrates the standard of the game as it drains players' energy levels running back to flood.

"There are so many fluctuations in form at the start of the year (because) blokes get sick of running up and down the ground," Blight said.

"They're sprinting 100 metres at a time, they're running hard, so by the time the get back (to flood) their skills drop off so the skill of the game drops off."

He said it was no coincidence that Brisbane and Port Adelaide are the benchmarks of the AFL, because they are good enough to create a contest and win them.

"Leigh Matthews does it because he's got some great forwards," said Blight, considered Adelaide's "Messiah" and now commentating AFL for Channel 10.

"Warren Tredrea didn't play super-well in the Grand Final, but he actually played very well for the position.

"(Port) rarely get beaten, do they? They bring a contest into it, and those better sides will come to the top."

Blight predicted that sides that flood will wear themselves out.

"In round seven or eight, those sides that are down the bottom and have won one or two games, they won't believe (flooding works) anymore, so they'll drop off that hard running back (to flood)," he said.

"This has happened for the past five years now, but somewhere down the track it will sort itself out."

Look, all kudos to Blight for getting us the premierships, but I've always thought he's a first-grade knob and this just continues to confirm it.

Either the man is a blind idiot or he barely watches the game anymore, because in all his frothing and gushing over Brisbane and Port, he seems to fail to notice that they both use the flood, Mark Williams has done so quite regularly when in trouble, and it was on very early in the game last week.

And of course there's Sydney, who use that tactic more than anyone else.

In fact, most of the teams use the flood regularly, some more than others.

If you're going to commentate, Blighty, it pays to actually know what you're talking about and not claim only the bottom four sides do it.

 

[PrideofSA]

Sounds like he has a good point.

 

[Awesome_Wells]

Look, all kudos to Blight for getting us the premierships, but I've always thought he's a first-grade knob and this just continues to confirm it.

no i think you believe hes a knob just cos he left the crows.

If you're going to commentate, Blighty, it pays to actually know what you're talking about.

i know it was annoying him complaining about flooding but i reckon he knows a lot more about footy than you do.

 

[- PC -]

He was interviewed on 6pr sports **actually this reads like his interview...near word for word**and his comments when heard make more sense. He was saying coaches are so scared of losing by big margins because the media look for any angle to attack and undermine a coach, so what happens is a defensive loss is easier to take than a belting.

He also decried the lack of contests, basically saying if you have a one on one contest, back your man to take the mark. Instead of holding the ball and looking for a loose man..who may never get loose.. His idea to stop the flood is basic. Kick the Fking thing in and let the best mark win. Do the Crows and other teams do the old ''end to end'' at practice? I know it was fun at training to see everyone try and outmark and then us slow little blokes would be waiting for the crumbs...now doesnt that sound like a good idea?

 

[just maybe]

no i think you believe hes a knob just cos he left the crows.

Well you don't know me at all, so actually you'd be wrong and you should shut up and not make stupid assumptions.

I've always thought he was a knob. He was a good coach, but I never liked his attitude as Crows coach, I thought he loved himself way too much. He's always going to be special because he got us the premierships, but as a person I thought he was more than a bit self-loving and a fair tosser.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

I agree with Blighty!!

 

[Crow-mosone]

Look, all kudos to Blight for getting us the premierships, but I've always thought he's a first-grade knob and this just continues to confirm it.

Either the man is a blind idiot or he barely watches the game anymore, because in all his frothing and gushing over Brisbane and Port, he seems to fail to notice that they both use the flood, Mark Williams has done so quite regularly when in trouble, and it was on very early in the game last week.

And of course there's Sydney, who use that tactic more than anyone else.

In fact, most of the teams use the flood regularly, some more than others.

If you're going to commentate, Blighty, it pays to actually know what you're talking about and not claim only the bottom four sides do it.

knob, blind idiot, know what you're talking about?
Re-reading your post I wonder if you even have the slightest appreciation of the irony here.

 

[just maybe]

There was no irony. I heard him on the Bris v Sydney game last night, he wouldnt shut up about it.

 

[johnnypanther]

I guess Port Power is a dud team then - over the last 4 years that i've seen them play they employ the flood more than most - and i thought Adelaide especially under Ayres rarely used it