RookiePick
Brownlow Medallist
- Aug 13, 2014
- 26,545
- 47,323
- AFL Club
- West Coast
That's a great, considered post Dylan82. The statistics and the eye test show that at present we are not simply being beaten but that our whole process of how we move the ball has been broken down and leaves us horribly exposed on the counter.
You really clarified how the opposition seem to be constantly outnumbering us through the middle, on our HFF and hurting us on the transition with seemingly endless numbers of free players. I think it is also a really good call that the coaching group really did try to "pull some levers" against Geelong but we actually played even further into their hands with what we tried to execute. Watching our blokes running away from the contest to try and generate a spare created some painfully funny moments.
I think a lot of us have been identifying the excess of talls hindering an effective response to this dissection of our game plan. Given the prevalence of our games played under lights, in slippery conditions has compounded our problem by hindering our ability to regain control with kick/mark as we managed to do in several games last season. We have really struggled to generate possession chains that are threatening enough to result in the opposition having to change up their structures in response.
Something that always sticks with me about footy - When you move, the picture changes. An over riding feature of our play the last fortnight is how static we have been. This is reflective of our system being broken down and uncertainty taking hold but if we are prepared to run hard, shepherd and play hard contested footy for periods we can force the opposition to respond structurally and get the game back on our terms where kick mark can cause serious damage.
One thing I did see as extremely promising late in the game at Geelong was a clear directive to start trying to run the ball out of the back line. Duggan made several hard runs with the ball. I think this will be a really important part of manipulating the way the numbers respond up field and we should have put some good work into this tactic and what running patterns need to be happening to generate options to move the ball through half forward and i50.
We've been worked out but I think we can get back on course pretty rapidly once we find a few levers that work for us in 2019. We still have an awful lot of quality across the field and class is permanent IMO.
You really clarified how the opposition seem to be constantly outnumbering us through the middle, on our HFF and hurting us on the transition with seemingly endless numbers of free players. I think it is also a really good call that the coaching group really did try to "pull some levers" against Geelong but we actually played even further into their hands with what we tried to execute. Watching our blokes running away from the contest to try and generate a spare created some painfully funny moments.
I think a lot of us have been identifying the excess of talls hindering an effective response to this dissection of our game plan. Given the prevalence of our games played under lights, in slippery conditions has compounded our problem by hindering our ability to regain control with kick/mark as we managed to do in several games last season. We have really struggled to generate possession chains that are threatening enough to result in the opposition having to change up their structures in response.
Something that always sticks with me about footy - When you move, the picture changes. An over riding feature of our play the last fortnight is how static we have been. This is reflective of our system being broken down and uncertainty taking hold but if we are prepared to run hard, shepherd and play hard contested footy for periods we can force the opposition to respond structurally and get the game back on our terms where kick mark can cause serious damage.
One thing I did see as extremely promising late in the game at Geelong was a clear directive to start trying to run the ball out of the back line. Duggan made several hard runs with the ball. I think this will be a really important part of manipulating the way the numbers respond up field and we should have put some good work into this tactic and what running patterns need to be happening to generate options to move the ball through half forward and i50.
We've been worked out but I think we can get back on course pretty rapidly once we find a few levers that work for us in 2019. We still have an awful lot of quality across the field and class is permanent IMO.