Wahooti Fandango
Brownlow Medallist
- Mar 10, 2007
- 20,224
- 7,816
- AFL Club
- Essendon
- Other Teams
- Queensland Reds, Melbourne Rebels
The need for speed
Rohan Connolly | March 29, 2008
ONE round of football, it goes without saying, is far too early to be drawing a line through the fortunes of specific teams in 2008.
Geelong, a hot favourite to go back-to-back premierships, could yet fall by the wayside over the next few months.
Melbourne, a rabble against Hawthorn last Sunday, might still easily make something of its season.
But there's already one conclusion about this year, and perhaps the several following it, which seems incontrovertible.
That the footy we watch is going to be quick.
Bloody quick.
In a game which can veer from fad to fad, speed is becoming a constant premium, AFL football's "new black".
Everyone's doing it, everyone's talking about it.
Not just leg speed, but speed of ball movement, speed of decisionmaking.
And the ante continues to be upped.
North Melbourne champion Glenn Archer watched his old team take on Essendon last Monday for the first time as a retired player.
He was shocked.
"It took only five minutes for me to realise how lucky I was not to be playing," he wrote in his newspaper column.
"How quick was it? It was lightning, much quicker than last year.
"I couldn't imagine myself chasing (Essendon's) Courtenay Dempsey, Alwyn Davey or Bachar Houli, who seems to run 40 kilometres a game.
Talk about realising your age in the click of a finger."
In terms of pure leg speed, the Bombers might well now be the quickest team in the league, despite the fact that two of their fastest runners, Jason Winderlich and Andrew Lovett, are yet to appear in the line-up.
But it's the competition benchmark, Geelong, whose speed of ball movement has made it not only the zippiest, but best, side in the AFL.
The Cats already had the requisite depth of talent, physical strength and skill when the 2007 season began a year ago.
The missing piece of the puzzle that took the Cats from 10th to a runaway premiership win was a game plan that required them to move the ball on as quickly as possible at all costs.
The carefully placed opposition defensive zones, which seemingly had become so critical to success, were rendered impotent.
Those defensive fl oods which had reduced the game at times to a crawl became redundant.
There was insuffi cient time for opposition midfields to drift back and block the holes, leaving the Geelong forwards to fi nd hectares of space.
The Cats' model is one which opponents now are shamelessly attempting to ape.
New Essendon coach Matthew Knights has made little secret of his desire to have the Bombers rebounding at rapid speed from defence, with Dempsey and Jay Nash the key facilitators of that plan.
But Essendon's focus on leg speed also appears an attempt to take the Geelong template to another level again.
The Bombers have an army of quick runners.
Alwyn Davey, Leroy Jetta, Dempsey, Winderlich, Lovett and Nash.
Even power forwards like Courtney Johns and Jay Neagle are quick off the mark.
And key defenders Dustin Fletcher and Paddy Ryder have tremendous closing speed.
Essendon high performance manager John Quinn has worked relentlessly with players over the past few years on the mechanics of their running styles to improve their speed.
Houli is perhaps the most notable improver.
But pace can also, Quinn says, be as much about strength and psychology, to be able to translate raw pace into competitive speed.
"Increasing power and stuff in the gym can certainly allow them to run faster," he says.
Speed in modern football, however, is also about skill and decision-making.
Sydney's close-in, contested brand of football, which won it a famous flag in 2005, is already being seen as having gone the way of the dinosaur.
It was an impression that was strengthened by the Swans' loss to St Kilda last Saturday in a game in which the two sides could manage only six goals each.
Sydney has attempted to improve its run this season not only with the recruitment of Martin Mattner from Adelaide, but, as coach Paul Roos confirmed after the game against St Kilda, with more emphasis on execution and thought processes.
"If you look at Geelong, they move the ball skilfully with hands and feet, and they're very good decision-makers," he said. "If your skills are good, you look quicker, because the ball's not going to come back the other way.
"I really think a big focus now is that you can't play a lot guys who can't kick the footy well, and that's something we've tried to address with our recruiting. We think (draftees) Patrick Veszpremi, Brett Meredith and Craig Bird are also really good decision-makers.
"You look at the benchmark team — Geelong are good decision-makers, and execute very well under pressure, and that's what we've got to get back up to.
"There's a few (players) we're still worried about in terms of that. We'll just keep sifting through the list and turning them over to try to address that."
While it's easy to credit Geelong with having inspired the latest shift back to fast, exciting football, the Western Bulldogs of 2006 deserve their slice of credit.
Rodney Eade's side became testimony to the line about necessity being the mother of invention. With a shortage of power forwards, the Bulldogs put their faith in a running game and quick ball movement to the undersized likes of Brad Johnson and Matthew Robbins.
With room to move, that pair shared 120 goals between them and the Bulldogs finished the year as the AFL's third-highest scoring team, and sixth on the ladder.
It's no coincidence that, come last year, the likes of North Melbourne had abandoned a defensive, cautious game which consigned it to 14th spot in 2006 and adopted a far quicker brand of football; Collingwood, coached by the notoriously defence-minded Mick Malthouse, went in as the AFL's highest-scoring team; and Hawthorn by and large had given away its propensity to flood and instead pursued the fast game.
Now even teams like the ultra-defensive and stodgy Adelaide are joining the party. Crows coach Neil Craig stated repeatedly over the pre-season his intent to have his side play quicker, more open and higher-scoring football. Their losing score last week of 18.15 (123) was the third-highest score of the round.
Sadly for the Bulldogs, their rivals have cottoned on, minimising the Bulldogs' advantage and exposing their vulnerability in the areas of of height and strength. It's a shift not lost on their coach.
"I think it was a more defensive game in, say, 2004-05, more about stopping the opposition scoring, but certainly all teams in the last couple of seasons have begun moving the ball more quickly," Eade says.
"Defensive measures have improved so much that if you do try to slow it down, it can really get you into trouble."
Another AFL coach, who preferred not to be named, was a big critic of the chess-like possession football that was the norm not so long ago. He calls the current thirst for speed a victory not just for those clubs that embrace the speed trend most effectively, but for the game as a whole.
"It's basically all about teams trying to win, rather than trying not to lose," he said.
To the delight of most of us.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/ne...1206207414277.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Rohan Connolly | March 29, 2008
ONE round of football, it goes without saying, is far too early to be drawing a line through the fortunes of specific teams in 2008.
Geelong, a hot favourite to go back-to-back premierships, could yet fall by the wayside over the next few months.
Melbourne, a rabble against Hawthorn last Sunday, might still easily make something of its season.
But there's already one conclusion about this year, and perhaps the several following it, which seems incontrovertible.
That the footy we watch is going to be quick.
Bloody quick.
In a game which can veer from fad to fad, speed is becoming a constant premium, AFL football's "new black".
Everyone's doing it, everyone's talking about it.
Not just leg speed, but speed of ball movement, speed of decisionmaking.
And the ante continues to be upped.
North Melbourne champion Glenn Archer watched his old team take on Essendon last Monday for the first time as a retired player.
He was shocked.
"It took only five minutes for me to realise how lucky I was not to be playing," he wrote in his newspaper column.
"How quick was it? It was lightning, much quicker than last year.
"I couldn't imagine myself chasing (Essendon's) Courtenay Dempsey, Alwyn Davey or Bachar Houli, who seems to run 40 kilometres a game.
Talk about realising your age in the click of a finger."
In terms of pure leg speed, the Bombers might well now be the quickest team in the league, despite the fact that two of their fastest runners, Jason Winderlich and Andrew Lovett, are yet to appear in the line-up.
But it's the competition benchmark, Geelong, whose speed of ball movement has made it not only the zippiest, but best, side in the AFL.
The Cats already had the requisite depth of talent, physical strength and skill when the 2007 season began a year ago.
The missing piece of the puzzle that took the Cats from 10th to a runaway premiership win was a game plan that required them to move the ball on as quickly as possible at all costs.
The carefully placed opposition defensive zones, which seemingly had become so critical to success, were rendered impotent.
Those defensive fl oods which had reduced the game at times to a crawl became redundant.
There was insuffi cient time for opposition midfields to drift back and block the holes, leaving the Geelong forwards to fi nd hectares of space.
The Cats' model is one which opponents now are shamelessly attempting to ape.
New Essendon coach Matthew Knights has made little secret of his desire to have the Bombers rebounding at rapid speed from defence, with Dempsey and Jay Nash the key facilitators of that plan.
But Essendon's focus on leg speed also appears an attempt to take the Geelong template to another level again.
The Bombers have an army of quick runners.
Alwyn Davey, Leroy Jetta, Dempsey, Winderlich, Lovett and Nash.
Even power forwards like Courtney Johns and Jay Neagle are quick off the mark.
And key defenders Dustin Fletcher and Paddy Ryder have tremendous closing speed.
Essendon high performance manager John Quinn has worked relentlessly with players over the past few years on the mechanics of their running styles to improve their speed.
Houli is perhaps the most notable improver.
But pace can also, Quinn says, be as much about strength and psychology, to be able to translate raw pace into competitive speed.
"Increasing power and stuff in the gym can certainly allow them to run faster," he says.
Speed in modern football, however, is also about skill and decision-making.
Sydney's close-in, contested brand of football, which won it a famous flag in 2005, is already being seen as having gone the way of the dinosaur.
It was an impression that was strengthened by the Swans' loss to St Kilda last Saturday in a game in which the two sides could manage only six goals each.
Sydney has attempted to improve its run this season not only with the recruitment of Martin Mattner from Adelaide, but, as coach Paul Roos confirmed after the game against St Kilda, with more emphasis on execution and thought processes.
"If you look at Geelong, they move the ball skilfully with hands and feet, and they're very good decision-makers," he said. "If your skills are good, you look quicker, because the ball's not going to come back the other way.
"I really think a big focus now is that you can't play a lot guys who can't kick the footy well, and that's something we've tried to address with our recruiting. We think (draftees) Patrick Veszpremi, Brett Meredith and Craig Bird are also really good decision-makers.
"You look at the benchmark team — Geelong are good decision-makers, and execute very well under pressure, and that's what we've got to get back up to.
"There's a few (players) we're still worried about in terms of that. We'll just keep sifting through the list and turning them over to try to address that."
While it's easy to credit Geelong with having inspired the latest shift back to fast, exciting football, the Western Bulldogs of 2006 deserve their slice of credit.
Rodney Eade's side became testimony to the line about necessity being the mother of invention. With a shortage of power forwards, the Bulldogs put their faith in a running game and quick ball movement to the undersized likes of Brad Johnson and Matthew Robbins.
With room to move, that pair shared 120 goals between them and the Bulldogs finished the year as the AFL's third-highest scoring team, and sixth on the ladder.
It's no coincidence that, come last year, the likes of North Melbourne had abandoned a defensive, cautious game which consigned it to 14th spot in 2006 and adopted a far quicker brand of football; Collingwood, coached by the notoriously defence-minded Mick Malthouse, went in as the AFL's highest-scoring team; and Hawthorn by and large had given away its propensity to flood and instead pursued the fast game.
Now even teams like the ultra-defensive and stodgy Adelaide are joining the party. Crows coach Neil Craig stated repeatedly over the pre-season his intent to have his side play quicker, more open and higher-scoring football. Their losing score last week of 18.15 (123) was the third-highest score of the round.
Sadly for the Bulldogs, their rivals have cottoned on, minimising the Bulldogs' advantage and exposing their vulnerability in the areas of of height and strength. It's a shift not lost on their coach.
"I think it was a more defensive game in, say, 2004-05, more about stopping the opposition scoring, but certainly all teams in the last couple of seasons have begun moving the ball more quickly," Eade says.
"Defensive measures have improved so much that if you do try to slow it down, it can really get you into trouble."
Another AFL coach, who preferred not to be named, was a big critic of the chess-like possession football that was the norm not so long ago. He calls the current thirst for speed a victory not just for those clubs that embrace the speed trend most effectively, but for the game as a whole.
"It's basically all about teams trying to win, rather than trying not to lose," he said.
To the delight of most of us.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/ne...1206207414277.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
