Simmo's Game Plan

[Trouto]

I have been thinking that the game plan Simmo has been pushing for might actually be a really good plan in the making. Now I know that most supporters on this board will be pretty disappointed with 2017, but if you take a look at the games all year, one thing really stands out to me.
I think i am correct in saying that in every game apart from 2, we have been in the mix or even in front at 3/4 time. If i recall past years, I cannot remember a single year where we have been so competitive in so many games. Even 2005 and 2006 there were a few blow-outs against us, its typical for most teams to have unexplained losses every year.
I might be overly optimistic, but if its a style that we can perfect in the off season, there might be some really good times awaiting us in 2018 (until other teams catch on and copy us...).

 

[Brave Sir Robin]

You could make the same argument for why Ross Lyon is a fantastic coach, because he is apparently so good at nearly getting teams to a flag.

That argument lacks rigour for me. Every plan has a limit on what it can do and it might be that we've seen the best of what this plan can do already.

Looking at our best performances this year I would think the coaching staff have realised we play better when we put more men around the footy at the expense of guarding space.

 

[Trouto]

You could make the same argument for why Ross Lyon is a fantastic coach, because he is apparently so good at nearly getting teams to a flag.

That argument lacks rigour for me. Every plan has a limit on what it can do and it might be that we've seen the best of what this plan can do already.

Looking at our best performances this year I would think the coaching staff have realised we play better when we put more men around the footy at the expense of guarding space.

yeah i am totaly on the fence about it. i want to trust in the coaching staff, but i see the immediate results so i think 'maybe not...'
i guess 2018 will be "make or break" for Simmo if he stays with the current plan.

 

[Lolbert]

The game plan falls down in a few areas for me and it's hard to execute with poor skills (poor handballs have killed us), inability to stick tackles and seemingly a real lack of defensive pressure. Corralling is fine if you force a kick to a contest to which we generally hold an advantage but we seem to corral to space which allows the opposition to pass the ball to an free man.

We've also massively dropped off in our ability to keep the ball in our forward 50. Kickouts tend to go 15-20m to a free man and then the ball is moved around us, turning into an opportunity for the opposition. We used to dominate this!

 

[Beutbrute]

I found it interesting when Daniel Kerr was talking on EaglesBackchat a couple of weeks ago that he thought our current game plan is really suited to finals footy. Here's hoping.

 

[mick06]

I found it interesting when Daniel Kerr was talking on EaglesBackchat a couple of weeks ago that he thought our current game plan is really suited to finals footy. Here's hoping.

Its reliant on slow dirty ball into opposition front half. Its a sound theory thinking finals are more pressurised with less skill and slick ball movement. Im not sold on it though. In a contact sport the last thing i would be training into my players is to sit off and corral especially when you have a soft underbelly as it gives soft players an excuse to be softer!
Weve knocked off geelong and adelaide with our two most intense and hard defensive efforts of the season. Id be using that as my basis for a finals plan.

 

[Here2tellyouwhy]

The game plan used to be kick it to Butts. Then he got injured so they went to plan B, kick it to JK.

Problem is opposition teams just double and triple team JK where as with Butts this tactic never worked.

We've been recruiting HBFers for the last few years knowing that one day the great man Butler would retire. We just haven't nailed a replacement yet and our game plan is much worse off because of it.

 

[Chris_6678]

Its reliant on slow dirty ball into opposition front half. Its a sound theory thinking finals are more pressurised with less skill and slick ball movement. Im not sold on it though. In a contact sport the last thing i would be training into my players is to sit off and corral especially when you have a soft underbelly as it gives soft players an excuse to be softer!
Weve knocked off geelong and adelaide with our two most intense and hard defensive efforts of the season. Id be using that as my basis for a finals plan.

I like to think they have 4 more games with that intensity in the tank considering we only played like that twice for the whole year.

 

[ZergMinion]

I want to see how the gameplan works at Burswood before I commit.

Also we'll need to have a better outing on the MCG next year (or even better, this year).

There's a lot to like about how we keep getting into winning positions, and equally there's a lot to hate about how we keep throwing it away. Also I have a problem with how the lesser/rebuilding teams look like worldbeaters at times during the games we play against them. A gameplan where you can't crush the crap teams is very unsatisfying.

 

[Wadsworth]

There’s a couple of separate issues you’ve raised here. 1) Our late game fadeouts and whether that makes things seem worse than they are, and 2) Our gameplan and whether that can actually be successful. I don't think our late game performance is a function of the actual gameplan though, so I'll cover them separately.

Our poor performance in last quarters (and some 3rd quarters) has been really frustrating, and I do believe it leaves us feeling worse about our prospects than perhaps we should. It’s very easy to forget that we have actually played some really good footy for patches against almost all opposition. We’re not just flat trackers. People on here have quoted the different permutations – If we’d won some of the games we led late into the 3rd quarter, we could easily be in the top couple on the ladder. Of course, “If” really doesn’t cut it for sporting results.

I’ve seen a number of studies previously in relation to US sports where there seems to be a strong element of ‘reversion to the mean’ for close games. In American football, teams that score from turnovers have a strong tendency to revert to league average. In basketball, close wins and losses have a strong tendency to even out over time.

While we tend to gravitate to a narrative about ‘big game players’, this is often just a form of confirmation bias when larger sample sizes are objectively considered. So on that basis, there is a strong chance that we see an improvement next year.

Like most of you, I’ve watched games and it feels that we have a real systematic issue. I find it hard to believe that we’ve just been unlucky based on random events this year. Whether it’s an issue of our fitness regime or our mental strength, it feels like we have real issues. But more objective analysis probably suggests that there’s a lot of ‘noise’ in the actual results. We see it all the time that we come out of nowhere to make a grand final in 2015. The Bulldogs last year. A team like Richmond can come from out of the top 8 to the top 4. It’s such an even competition, with no real standout teams that a lot can turnaround very quickly. So as bad as we’ve felt this year, we’re probably not as mediocre as it may feel.

 

[Wadsworth]

What I’ve observed this year about our gameplan is that it’s the antithesis of the old ‘bomb it long into the 50’.

We seem to have adopted a high-risk high-reward type approach where we’re not too concerned about controlling possession, but when we have possession we want to make sure our forward 50 entries are efficient entries. I’ve seen a lot of times where we choose to bring it inboard and attack up the middle of the ground from the half back flank. We tend to avoid just kicking it down the line. Now at times that can be very frustrating as we turn the ball over, but it also means that the payoff for success is much greater. There have been plenty of games where the inside 50 count or the possession count has been unfavourable to us, but we’ve been right in the game.

Consider what our strength is. Intercept marks in the defensive 50. As long as we have pressure through the midfield (not necessarily causing a turnover in the midfield) and don’t allow fast break footy, our defenders are very well equipped to intercept the opposition’s forward 50 entries.

Conversely, when we have the footy, it has been so frustrating over the years watching us dominate play for 10-15 minutes, locking the ball in our forward half, but kicking it back into the crowded forward 50.

Perhaps with our numbers back in our defensive 50 (to protect against a potential turnover), we have been drilled to hold the ball back on our half backline until we can break through the corridor for a quick forward 50 entry.

So my view is that our gameplan has been entirely based on Quality over Quantity. And provided we can address the late game bed-shitting, I’m quite happy with that gameplan despite the inevitable frustrating turnovers that come from taking a risk.

 

[Eaglespur]

Is Shep the most handsome man on our list?

 

[ZergMinion]

Is Shep the most handsome man on our list?

He'd be lucky to make the top 15.

 

[Dark Sharks]

He has a game plan??

 

[avishka5]

Is Shep the most handsome man on our list?

No. It's Jack Darling.

 

[Eaglespur]

No. It's Jack Darling.

Awesome, people say we look the same.

 

[ghost82]

when we tackle efficiently and don't just corral defensively we actually look ok, i think thats a mindset issue rather than the actual game plan. when we go forward we are highly efficient so the quality is fine just a lack of quantity. the biggest gripe i have on the game plan is it seems to rely on us having a dominant ruckman, our players expect us to win and dont seem to set up well to shark opposition taps which puts us on the back foot straight away making us rely on defensive efforts, the odd time we do win the tap we look ok coming out of the ruck contest, i think simmo thinks we still have cox and nicnat in the ruck and hasnt successfully adjusted the game plan to cope with that loss of quality, at least temporarily in nicnats case. the only other thing i wonder about with the ruck plan is how much lycett absence has affected it. preseason simmo probably expected him back holding the number one spot so maybe they just didnt have time to come up with a good alternative.

 

[avishka5]

Awesome, people say we look the same.

Damn, my phone autocorrected Tom Barrass into Jack Darling for some reason.

 

[Trouto]

Hmm, couple of good points here. I like to believe that with practice, we can perfect the game plan. it might need some tweaking to handle the last quarter, i.e. when players are at their most tired and pressure is at its highest. there might be a shitting-the-bed factor, or it might be a lack of confidence in the methodology and players reverting back to what they know, which breaks down the plan's structure (which in hindsight, is the description of shitting-the-bed). Could just be that the players are tired and cannot execute the full on running plays. We rely alot on fast break turnovers to score. Lordy, we have to, its not like we can rely on set shots (apart from JK).

 

[wraglesweb]

Our game plan sucks we don't score !!!

 

[Double the Fist]

Hmm, couple of good points here. I like to believe that with practice, we can perfect the game plan. it might need some tweaking to handle the last quarter, i.e. when players are at their most tired and pressure is at its highest. there might be a shitting-the-bed factor, or it might be a lack of confidence in the methodology and players reverting back to what they know, which breaks down the plan's structure (which in hindsight, is the description of shitting-the-bed). Could just be that the players are tired and cannot execute the full on running plays. We rely alot on fast break turnovers to score. Lordy, we have to, its not like we can rely on set shots (apart from JK).

We are also the oldest list and I think the age of our list really contributes to last quater fade outs, if a few older guys conk out then more is left to the younger ones who fatigue faster and I reckon with a younger team we can reduce our fade outs and win more games.
One positive I think. I still get frustrated to hell with watching the current plan in action.

I also think Shep is very handsome but doesn't have a great game plan. Jack Darling is like Shep, not as handsome but who's game plan is far superior.

 

[QS]

Is Shep the most handsome man on our list?

Yes. Anyone who disagrees does not deserve Shepptember.

 

[JackieMoon33]

Our game plan can't be good, because our midfield has been nothing short of terrible, so by the time the last quarter rolls around, our backs are stuffed from providing all the drive and likewise our forwards for trying to run with the players our midfielders are too slow to go with.


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[southcoast]

And yet - if we had won the GC, Melb games (both 3 pt losses) and two of the Richmond (11pt loss), GWS or Collingwood games (both 8 pt losses) we would be sitting in first spot. These thoughts really perplex me - underneath I know we played badly this year but - what if................

What does this mean?
1. Nic Nat and Scott Lycett out all year really hurt.
2. Priddis fell off the cliff this year (but the MC didn't see it or didn't believe it)
3. Too many players had a year to forget.

So, in short, pull things together next year, make some good recruiting decisions (need to replace the loss of experience in the guts/midfield) and we will be contenders again.

I guess this means I think Simmos game plan is sound just need a few dice to fall our way (to borrow a theme from another thread)

 

[avishka5]

And yet - if we had won the GC, Melb games (both 3 pt losses) and two of the Richmond (11pt loss), GWS or Collingwood games (both 8 pt losses) we would be sitting in first spot. These thoughts really perplex me - underneath I know we played badly this year but - what if................

What does this mean?
1. Nic Nat and Scott Lycett out all year really hurt.
2. Priddis fell off the cliff this year (but the MC didn't see it or didn't believe it)
3. Too many players had a year to forget.

So, in short, pull things together next year, make some good recruiting decisions (need to replace the loss of experience in the guts/midfield) and we will be contenders again.

I guess this means I think Simmos game plan is sound just need a few dice to fall our way (to borrow a theme from another thread)

People forget how vital Gaff and Shuey are to our success. Along with priddis, they were huge in our 2015 and our late season revival last year.

Shuey and gaff have been playing injured and have been inconsistent and cooked at the same time. Im hoping the bye can do some good for them. If we can get those two to their best alsong with redden, sheed and mtchell we might have a slim chance advancing past the semis.