The impact of 6-6-6

Oct 12, 2007
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Since this is the biggest tactical change this year, the impacts of which won't truly be seen until teams have a chance to see what happens and adjust, I thought it might be worth having a dedicated thread to discuss the impacts on the game, who it suits and what we can do to take advantage.

My immediate thoughts after round 1 is that slow teams and teams that aren't willing to run hard and work hard and smart defensively will get murdered on the outside. We all anticipated how important the run and carry to offense would be but not many mentioned the importance of defensive running.

It makes our off season changes look genius and calls into serious question the likes of Nth Melbourne adding both Polec and Hall.

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SFA impact on the weekend to supposedly improving goal scoring. Supposedly the scoring was down 3 goals per side on average to previous decades opening round, I heard on SEN this morning.

I reckon the one in the goal square had an impact a couple of times as it was one on one after a quick clearance from the centre bounce.

Re the other 8 rule changes.
I didn't notice any effect of 1) hands in the back adjustment, 2) kicking for goal after the siren, 3) umpire contact and 4) 50m penalty infringements - the players seemed to know what to do as opposed to JLT games and the umpires weren't so technical on it, but I didn't see any players playing on straight away.

The others that I did notice
Runners.
Sticking up lots of signs means everyone now knows when there is 4 minutes to go and 2 minutes to go and 1 minute to go in a quarter. Suggests they wil put the countdown clock up on the scoreboard then.

9m rule deep in defence.
If defenders mark the ball or get a free withing 9m of the goal line, the mark is set in line with the top of the goal square. I like it because different grounds have different space behind the boundary line and fence and at least we don't have some umpires moving the player on the mark back some 2m and others 6m or 7m.

Setting the player back 10 metres from kick in and allowing players running through the goal square.
Means more stoppages are going to happen 70m from goal unless a mark is taken or the ball gets out the back. Will see less scoring as players don't try 15-30m precise kick to get thru the zone, which plenty of times was a stuff up and a turnover goal resulted.

Ruck - grabbing the ball and no prior opportunity.
Best rule change of the lot. Means when a s**t bounce or a player gets in front from a throw in, he will have the courage to grab the ball and move it. No better example than our first goal when Lycett grabbed it out of ruck because he was 2 or 3 steps ahead of Weideman, gave a little handball to Boak, Lycett moves in to block Boak's tag Harmes and Boak runs onto a clear shot on goal from 45m out.

No rule change and Lycett probably tries to palm the ball down to Boak and it may have not gone as smoothly.
 
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Jan 20, 2015
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Ruck - grabbing the ball and no prior opportunity.
Best rule change of the lot. Means when a s**t bounce or a player gets in front from a throw in, he will have the courage to grab the ball and move it. No better example than our first goal when Lycett grabbed it out of ruck because he was 2 or 3 steps ahead of Weideman, gave a little handball to Boak, Lycett moves in to block Boak's tag Harmes and Boak runs onto a clear shot on goal from 45m out.

No rule change and Lycett probably tries to palm the ball down to Boak and it may have not gone as smoothly.

And when weideman was brave enough to take it out of the ruck and handball it straight to drew, who gave it off to butters for his second goal. Worked in our favour again.
 

Kiss from a Rozee

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The game looks vastly more open now, but we still managed to hold Melbourne in our forward half for most of the second quarter and shut them out of scoring in the last quarter which is definitely very pleasing. I do think that increased fitness and composure will go a long way to increasing scoring much more in later games as it was a very panicky game and the players were cooked about 1 minute into the last quarter.

What the rule changes have done is massively push teams to take high scoring strategies, you've seen it very clearly with both us and Fremantle who have done 180s in terms of defensive mindset versus offensive mindset. The reason being that the rules will help you score rather than help you prevent scores so it makes 100% sense to try and take advantage of that.

Other teams have probably gone a little more defensive out of fear, but overall I'm certain we'll see scoring go much higher over the course of the year than in previous years.
 

El_Scorcho

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The biggest change I noticed was from the kick ins. Every behind now means that the side bringing the ball out can get the ball 80 odd metres from the goal with 1 kick, so instead of seeing slow and precise ball movement out, we're seeing long balls to contests on the wings. It totally breaks down any attempt to lay seige to teams inside your attacking 50.

We seem to have read the changes and the impact they'll have quite well based on a 1 game sample size.

I really like the changes overall, they've opened up the game well.
 
Does the goal square have any significance now?
Yes.

The umpires are setting the mark or free with the top of the GS for the defenders if they get the mark/free within 9m of the goal line.

Take a mark next to the goal post or elsewhere within the goal square and you still get to have a kick from the centre of the GS. as per El_Scorcho

6-6-6 also means 1 forward and defender have to be start in the GS. If Charlie is in god mode like he was against the Hawks 2017 and St Kilda in 2018, you stick 5 forwards on the arc and give him at least 40m free space to be 1 on 1 because no defender is going to zone off 20-30m to help stop Charlie and leave his forward up near the arc with the 6-6-6 before the ball is bounced.
 
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Oct 12, 2007
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The Hills
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SFA impact on the weekend to supposedly improving goal scoring. Supposedly the scoring was down 3 goals per side on average to previous decades opening round, I heard on SEN this morning.

I reckon the one in the goal square had an impact a couple of times as it was one on one after a quick clearance from the centre bounce.

Re the other 8 rule changes.
I didn't notice any effect of 1) hands in the back adjustment, 2) kicking for goal after the siren, 3) umpire contact and 4) 50m penalty infringements - the players seemed to know what to do as opposed to JLT games and the umpires weren't so technical on it, but I didn't see any players playing on straight away.

The others that I did notice
Runners.
Sticking up lots of signs means everyone now knows when there is 4 minutes to go and 2 minutes to go and 1 minute to go in a quarter. Suggests they wil put the countdown clock up on the scoreboard then.

9m rule deep in defence.
If defenders mark the ball or get a free withing 9m of the goal line, the mark is set in line with the top of the goal square. I like it because different grounds have different space behind the boundary line and fence and at least we don't have some umpires moving the player on the mark back some 2m and others 6m or 7m.

Setting the player back 10 metres from kick in and allowing players running through the goal square.
Means more stoppages are going to happen 70m from goal unless a mark is taken or the ball gets out the back. Will see less scoring as players don't try 15-30m precise kick to get thru the zone, which plenty of times was a stuff up and a turnover goal resulted.

Ruck - grabbing the ball and no prior opportunity.
Best rule change of the lot. Means when a s**t bounce or a player gets in front from a throw in, he will have the courage to grab the ball and move it. No better example than our first goal when Lycett grabbed it out of ruck because he was 2 or 3 steps ahead of Weideman, gave a little handball to Boak, Lycett moves in to block Boak's tag Harmes and Boak runs onto a clear shot on goal from 45m out.

No rule change and Lycett probably tries to palm the ball down to Boak and it may have not gone as smoothly.
Less goals overall due to the kick ins and last line marks IMO. The ball gets trapped in the forward 50 less.

This means less scrappy pressure goals but I still feel like there were more free flowing end to end goals and goals from clearance.

So even though there were less goals it seemed a better game to watch.

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Less goals overall due to the kick ins and last line marks IMO. The ball gets trapped in the forward 50 less.

This means less scrappy pressure goals but I still feel like there were more free flowing end to end goals and goals from clearance.

So even though there were less goals it seemed a better game to watch.

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How can you say less goals due to last line marks without having any metrics? I didn't notice any amazing amount of extra goal keeper type marks. It was all pretty normal to me.
 
Oct 12, 2007
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How can you say less goals due to last line marks without having any metrics? I didn't notice any amazing amount of extra goal keeper type marks. It was all pretty normal to me.
Yeah I cant back up any of those observations with metrics.

Just how it felt at the game and watching other games.

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Here's an interesting stat for you. Meters gained measures how far a team moves the ball forward in a match.

Meters gained differential:

1. Fremantle +1197m
2. GWS +916m
3. Brisbane +847m
4. Richmond +661m
5. Western Bulldogs +466m
6. Hawthorn +376m
7. Port Adelaide +105m
8. Geelong +19m
9. St Kilda +4m


No surprises there, and probably reflective of the territory domination of each team against their opponent. Those who win the meters gained differential, win the contest.

Here's where it gets interesting.

Meters gained total:

1. Richmond 6864m
2. Fremantle 6842m
3. Western Bulldogs 6641m
4. Hawthorn 6410m
5. Brisbane 6238m

6. Carlton 6203m
7. St Kilda 6183m
8. GWS 6180m

9. Gold Coast 6179m
10. Adelaide 6034m
11. Sydney 5975m
12. Port Adelaide 5959m
13. Melbourne 5854m
14. Geelong 5694m
15. Collingwood 5675m
16. North Melbourne 5645m
17. West Coast 5391m
18. Essendon 5264m

The thing is...only three teams had an average of over 6000m last year - Richmond (6088m), Melbourne (6072m) and GWS (6024m). So if we look at it from last season to this season:

Richmond 6088m to 6864m (+766m)
Fremantle 5373m to 6842m (+1469m)
Western Bulldogs 5414m to 6641m (+1227m)
Hawthorn 5436m to 6410m (+974m)
Brisbane 5499m to 6238m (+739m)

Carlton 4923m to 6203m (+1280m)
St Kilda 5462m to 6183m (+721m)
GWS 6024m to 6180m (+156m)

Gold Coast 5414m to 6179m (+765m)
Adelaide 5944m to 6034m (+90m)
Sydney 5691m to 5975m (+284m)
Port Adelaide 5722m to 5959m (+237m)
Melbourne 6072m to 5854m (-218m)
Geelong 5802m to 5694m (-108m)
Collingwood 5812m to 5675m (-137m)
North Melbourne 5496m to 5645m (+149m)
West Coast 5795m to 5391m (-404m)
Essendon 5704m to 5264m (-440m)

We can see that most teams have increased their territory gain by quite a margin. West Coast, Collingwood and Melbourne have a bit of an excuse due to playing in prelim finals as to why they have gone backwards, especially considering the strength of their opponent on the weekend. North Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney have no such excuse...and Essendon is just deplorable.

What does this all mean? It means that we shouldn't read into what games look like right at this moment, because there's some excessive running happening right now. It's amazing that Richmond could play on the exact same ground as Geelong and generate over 1000m more.

Let's see what happens this week...I have a feeling a massive correction is going to take place with teams like Fremantle, Western Bulldogs, Richmond, Carlton and Brisbane. Their meters gained stats show how open their respective games where and how little their opposition bothered to defend them.
 
THE OPENING round of this year's competition made unwanted AFL history, with eight scores below 70 points and only three of at least 100. It was the second time since the League was renamed the AFL in 1990 that there were just three triple-digit tallies in round one, but that previous occasion in 1991 featured only four games. The season that most recently resembled this past weekend was in 2014, when there were five 100-plus scores and seven sub-70s.

The average score per team of 78.7 points was the lowest since 1965 (53.75 points), owing in part to teams' inaccuracy, although there were also fewer scoring shots per game this year (45.1) than last (48.8).
 
Who are the other sides that have two decent rucks? If we'd have had only one of Lycett or Ryder, the ability (after quarter time) to win clearances over a tiring single ruck would have gone and most likely a different result to the game.

Depends how you define decent but I reckon Gawn and Preuss are 2 decent rucks. If other sides keep bashing into Gawn and targeting him they will have to play Preuss.

Collingwood have Grundy and Cox.

Gold Coast have 2 maybe even 3 I reckon. Witts who touched up Ryder last year, Wright - despite his dumb shot on goal yesterday and Tom Nicholls who is coming back from a couple of knee injuries and looked good in the trial game that I saw at Metricon between Sun and Lions in late February.

WCE have Nick Nat and Vardy, if Nick Nat's knee comes up ok and should be back round 8. They recruited Hickey from St Kilda to cover Lycett and he played with Vardy but Hickey wouldn't be in the best 30 ruckmen in the AFL.

Brisbane have Stefan Martin and Archie Smith who are different - the older big dinosaur type and the young athletic young kid, who has bulked up the last couple of years.
 
Watched almost every game this weekend and hardly noticed any difference. The biggest change has been no prior opportunity taking the ball out of the ruck. Grundy, Lycett and a few others really seemed to be proactive in taking advantage of this, especially when the opposition had an undersized part timer rucking.
 
Mar 1, 2014
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I like the thinking behind the 6-6-6 rule.

The intent is to stop the ultra defensive tactics used in the past. I vividly recall the game against the Brisbane Lions at AO last year when both Coaches resorted to similar tactics with the net result that there were long periods where every player was on the same side of the centre. It was ugly, congested, indirect football. I came away thinking, if that is the future I will not be attending many more AFL games.

Hopefully 6-6-6 will bring back more of the running long kicking game.

It is early days yet but it will be interesting to see which Coaches adapt and which of them don't.
 
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Slow players will struggle.

I disagree. I think the openness at centre stoppages opens it up for old school slow inside mid types a bit more.

But lets face it, outside of centre bounces, the game is pretty much exactly the same as it was. Our game was more open not because of the new rules, but because Melbourne weren't prepared to run and their zone was off.
 
Mar 1, 2014
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I disagree. I think the openness at centre stoppages opens it up for old school slow inside mid types a bit more.

But lets face it, outside of centre bounces, the game is pretty much exactly the same as it was. Our game was more open not because of the new rules, but because Melbourne weren't prepared to run and their zone was off.


The difference is not really noticeable until you look back at a couple of last years replays and see the congestion which really originated from the time the ball was bounced. Often there was not one single player inside the fifty at the bounce and that is how it stayed. How often did we kick to a vacant fifty metre zone? How much of the change is due to the 6-6-6 and how much is due to a revised game plan is debatable but I have no doubt that the last couple of games have been a better spectacle. Maybe that has something to do with winning?

As I type I am sitting here watching the third quarter of last week's game and I have not seen us chip the ball backward once as we were doing last year. I wonder how much of that is down to the new rules and how much is down to moving Bassett out of the defensive Coach's role? I suspect it has more to do with the latter. Suddenly we have runners running past looking for the hand ball rather than standing flat footed waiting for the ball. Hopefully we keep playing like that.

On the subject of the 6-6-6 the link below has an interesting situation, if a free is awarded for a ruck infringement at the centre bounce the players are required to return to their 6-6-6 positions before the kick is taken. Apparently the WCE and Geelong players had not been told this or if they were they may not have been aware a free had been given for a ruck infringement. I guess that is what the JLT was all about.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/af...h/news-story/f231f03296654bc8783fcf3cdf058dfe
 
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The biggest impact will be from centre bounce late in close games. The team holding the lead can't put numbers back or clog up the back of the square meaning both teams will need to be quite aggressive from the centre bounce.
 
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