The Purple Maze

[VolgaBoatman]

I thought the execution of the Zone (or purple Maze) wasn't great last night, which was one reason for the very easy goals the bulldogs kicked last night. They got through and behind the zone pretty easily.

Do people think we should be persisting with it, or going back to a more "traditional" defense - eg man on man, with extra men in defense when the bulldogs are attacking.

 

[longsuffreosupp]

I dont think we should be following the trend. By the time we master it, some other team will have thought of the new tactic to win games.

 

[estibador]

In between his senile ramblings on On The Couch tonight Malthouse actually made a good point about trying to copy the latest premiership team's tactics - all you do is end up constantly changing your tactics every year and never mastering them.

The one constant in all premiership teams regardless of their tactics, he said, was they all had dominant midfields. It's a simple game really, win the clearances consistently and you go a long way towards winning the game.

I'm not really a huge fan of us implementing the zone. We don't seem particularly well drilled or disciplined at it and we end up giving away far too many easy goals. And by the time we master it a couple of years down the track it will most likely be made obsolete by some new tactics anyway.

I've got no problem with the midfield/half forward line pushing back to set up a zone but this tendency for defenders to leave their men to try zone leaves us far too vulnerable. Nothing pisses me off more than seeing 2 opposition players walk the ball up to their goal line for an easy uncontested goal because they've slipped out the back of the zone.

 

[Rob]

I think it's a wank. We're not good enough to be able to handle falling back in time when we (inevitably) turnover the ball, and probably won't be for at least a couple of years.

We also don't have Buddy and Roughead marking everything inside 50, as well as a decent midfield pumping it in.

And why copy Hawthorn's tactics? They riparsed a flag and weren't even the best team last year.

 

[The Night Shift]

I like the name though.. The Purple Maze. If only we could develop a kick arse match and premiership winning tactic to go with it.....

 

[dominguez]

And by the time we master it a couple of years down the track it will most likely be made obsolete by some new tactics anyway.

Or some new rules Esti.

 

[VolgaBoatman]

I like the name though.. The Purple Maze. If only we could develop a kick arse match and premiership winning tactic to go with it.....

I claim complete credit to the fact that I heard Gerard Healy use it in the broadcast.

 

[Alfonz]

It was clear at the ground we had no idea how to implement a zone properly. Just because everybody else does it, doesn't mean we should too. All the Bulldogs had to do was transfer the ball across the ground with a few quick kicks, and our zone completely broke down.

Against the Eagles it was apparent we had a problem ... even though they are pretty ordinary they were still able to have players waltz into goal with nobody on them about 3-4 times. Also cost us the game vs Richmond. It was inevitable this would happen much more against a team like the Bulldogs.

Crawford said that if only one player doesn't stick in their spot properly, then the zone starts to break down. We have so many dumb footballers in our team that I wouldn't trust half of them to know where to go.

Unfortunately, due to our shocking skills, other teams using a zone will be very effective against us because we don't have the precision required to pinpoint targets. Nor do we have much pace to break the lines. I can see us getting plenty of beltings this year.

 

[Nodgey]

Good thread. I am disappointed that we've jumped onto this rolling zone rubbish as our new game plan.

We should have spent our pre-season working on ideas to counter the zone, rather than implementing it. I would have thought Barry Mitchell would be useful in this regard.

With a lot of youngsters coming into our squad, I reckon we should be teaching them the basics of hard, honest, accountable footy rather than floating about trying to guard space.

Frikkin Hawthorn have ruined the bloody game for everyone. Firstly with this unaccountable zone rubbish, secondly with their deliberate infringements after disposal of the footy resulting in this new 50m penalty rule, followed thirdly by the deliberate behind resulting in more rule changes.

Sheesh. If Geelong hadn't have choked in the GF none of this would have happened.

 

[Belnakor]

The thing about the zone is that in all other sports, as soon as teams started implementing it, in the end almost all teams have to implement it. AFL will be no different, jsut like the defensive flood is now part of the modern game and won't be stamped out.

 

[Belnakor]

Frikkin Hawthorn have ruined the bloody game for everyone. Firstly with this unaccountable zone rubbish, secondly with their deliberate infringements after disposal of the footy resulting in this new 50m penalty rule, followed thirdly by the deliberate behind resulting in more rule changes.

And the umps haven't even fixed my pet hate about Hawthorn- moving to the side of the mark so people can't kick sideways. They do this all the time, and most of the time they look to be CLEARLY over the mark, but Umps let them go.

 

[Memories]

The thing about the zone is that in all other sports, as soon as teams started implementing it, in the end almost all teams have to implement it. AFL will be no different, jsut like the defensive flood is now part of the modern game and won't be stamped out.

I disagree, the aussie rules ground is too big to effectively implement a zone as in BasketBALL or Soocker. The reason some teams are getting away with it at the moment is because the big kickers of the game are going extinct in favour of these fairy runners. Heath Black was good at it but he is gone, someone like Stuart Dew is also good at breaking it with his kicks. Anyone who can kick flat and 50m should be drafted basically.

Geelong and Hawks break zones easily because they also hand ball and shephard at stoppages. Everytime the hawks and cats play it isn't some snooze fest on the score board because their defensive zones are useless when you have highly skilled players that have quick hands.

Zones work well on shit teams with poor disposal and poor decision making. Why we are trying to implement it I have no idea as it is useless against the top teams, Harvey should do man on man on defense and be done with it. Make everyone a tagger (on defense), and ensure our backline never loses sight of their player even when they are attacking. We also play half our games at Subi which make zone playing even more ridiculous.

Playing zone football when we are a turnover side just compounds the issues. Better to be a few players down in your forward line and have your backmen ready to defend those cheap goals (what was it, 16? 18 goals?) the dogs got.

 

[Clay Davis]

and the umps haven't even fixed my pet hate about hawthorn- moving to the side of the mark so people can't kick sideways. They do this all the time, and most of the time they look to be clearly over the mark, but umps let them go.

YES. Completely agree.

 

[Clay Davis]

Zones work well on shit teams with poor disposal and poor decision making. Why we are trying to implement it I have no idea as it is useless against the top teams, Harvey should do man on man on defense and be done with it. Make everyone a tagger (on defense), and ensure our backline never loses sight of their player even when they are attacking. We also play half our games at Subi which make zone playing even more ridiculous.

Playing zone football when we are a turnover side just compounds the issues. Better to be a few players down in your forward line and have your backmen ready to defend those cheap goals (what was it, 16? 18 goals?) the dogs got.

You just have to see the turnaround. Manning up and having a solid defence, we were in close touch with all the top three last year. Last weekend we were smashed.

Harvey's dicking around with tactics too much.

 

[Sman-21]

So if we are doing the zone coz hawks did it and won the premiership, shouldnt that also mean we keep our gun forwards up forward.
Franklin role can be played by Pav
Roughead role Taz, murphy, kiwi, Kep.
Williams role Balla, headland or mayne.

Why did we only copy half the gameplan then do the complete opposite of there forward line by moving all our forwards down back and into midfield.

Then they have Croad an hodge running the show down back we should have Mcpharlin an hayden doing that.
No point copying the zone an not copying the rest of there setup/gameplan.

Need to keep the game simple players need to be going out there an doing what comes pretty natural.
The guys look like they had no idea where they were sposed to go what to do next etc.

Just go hard 1 on 1 give every player the goal of beating there opponent and have set plays down forward where guys lead to areas to create space for actual forward target.
We are out our best when we go 1 on 1.
Applying plenty of pressure an no time an space for opponents.
Its also simple to understand and comes natural to a footballer.

 

[dugrene]

You just have to see the turnaround. Manning up and having a solid defence, we were in close touch with all the top three last year. Last weekend we were smashed.

Harvey's dicking around with tactics too much.

Wasn't that CC's forte ?
Harvey was suppose to be a 'keep it simple stupid' type of coach.

I watched closely the nods, winks, hand movements, all sought of body language when the we kicked our first behind and got prepared for the kick in. When the Dogs ripped it out our forward line without a blink I thought hopefully this wont happen again.

Well it did. Often.
Kicking lots of behinds gave them more opportunity's to make us look stupid.

 

[E Shed]

Wasn't that CC's forte ?
Harvey was suppose to be a 'keep it simple stupid' type of coach.

I watched closely the nods, winks, hand movements, all sought of body language when the we kicked our first behind and got prepared for the kick in. When the Dogs ripped it out our forward line without a blink I thought hopefully this wont happen again.

Well it did. Often.
Kicking lots of behinds gave them more opportunity's to make us look stupid.

There was a period in the 3rd quarter where they found it very difficult to clear, we just kept kicking point and then intercepting their kickouts. We actually dominated most of the 3rd Q.

 

[Belnakor]

Zones work well on shit teams with poor disposal and poor decision making. Why we are trying to implement it I have no idea as it is useless against the top teams, Harvey should do man on man on defense and be done with it. Make everyone a tagger (on defense), and ensure our backline never loses sight of their player even when they are attacking. We also play half our games at Subi which make zone playing even more ridiculous.

we don't really have the cattle to play man on man.

 

[Ogrebait]

We don't have the cattle to implement the plans Harvey is attempting to instil.

As others have mentioned, the size of Subiaco makes it too physically draining to implement a full zone every 2nd week. And our players are not skilled enough to maintain a rolling zone.

So what game plan is suitable?

Rd 6 2005 v Melbourne, CC let the players off the leash - they responded magnificently and it was beautiful to watch. Unfortunately with the departures of Farmer, Bell , J.Longmuir, Black, J.Carr, Medhurst, etc. we now don't have the talent to run over teams in an attacking free for all.

I believe our best 22 (injury free) is still decent and can match it against most teams in the competition. Even last year at Subi we held our own against Geelong, playing one on one, accountable football. But now with the blooding of so many young players, we just won't be able to match the stronger teams' physicality.

At the end of 2006 we played our best football. A simplified game plan (for Connolly) with numbers behind the ball, running forward from half-back (many moves set up by Black) and kicking to an OPEN forward line that often had Farmer and Murphy one out and Pavlich running back into space.

I would like us to revert back to this style - perhaps grooming Suban to take over Black's role.

 

[Chops_a_must]

Yeah, basically the game plan at the back end of 06 was one hand pass to a 'designated kicker' running straight and kicking one out to Pavlich or Murphy quickly, with everyone piss bolting to the fall of the ball 30-40 out from goal. Exemplified by that Derby I'm pretty sure where Hase won it.

Simple tactics that forwards love. Problem became teams triple teaming Pav, and the slightest indecision kills it.

We've just never worked hard enough in either direction, or had the brains to do it since.

 

[DCFCFAN84]

I would prefer us to have a Zone in the back 50 and then have midfielders push back as the other team attacks. Similar to what Adelaide was using in 05/06 when they came just short of a premiership.

 

[Frigate]

The Doggies are a good side that should finish top 4. We are pushing in a new direction and some things will not work however they are worth trying.

I can't help but think that if either of those 2 goals at the start of the fourth went in then the game would have been a lot closer. They dropped their heads and never recovered. We would not have won but maybe kept it around the 4 goal mark which would have been an acceptable result.

One of the reasons we seemed to turn over the footy was the lack of movement. So many players just stagnent holding their ground when we had the footy (you would not have been able to see this on the TV). Very few long leads, very little creation upfield. Then picking out a short option which allowed the interceptions to happen. Then at times when we did have free men the erratic kicking would be turned over on our counter attack, and they would already have the numbers to basically walk it into the 50m.

 

[VolgaBoatman]

It's probably too late to completely change the game-plan. Perhaps just "tweak" with a bit more accountability and pressure, especially on the opposition players when they have the ball. I'm all for total pressure on the ball carriers, as that is the best way to achieve a turn-over.

Of course all teams have trained to beat the zone this year and the more skilfull teams will be pretty good at getting through the traffic with quick fast handballing and precision kicking.

What it really says, is that you need your players with the best skills and vision with the ball. Not actually that big a change really from what it was previously.

 

[Memories]

we don't really have the cattle to play man on man.

Well that is the fear isn't it, that if our players our much worse than their opponents that we will be beaten all over the ground in different spots. But we have players that would beat their own opponents easily anyhow.

I think players grow more having to deal with just one opponent than a zone though. If a player gets beat by someone else they go "well geez, I need to improve". With a zone no one is really accountable, you can always take the "well I wasn't supposed to be covering THIS guy really, my player is over there".

If we are looking for improvement in players across the board play man on man outside the Defensive50, see massive improvement in players and possibly get beaten harshly a few times. You get a team full of Mundys and Michael Johnsons when you force them to play unaccountable football, Harvey should learn from that.