Strategy The Slingshot

[nahnah]

I am no master tactician nor do i have a keen eye for these things but it seems to me that we play this slingshot brand of football at times, does anyone else agree? What I am noticing is we are baiting the long high ball into our backline where players like Howe, Langdon, Shaz and Dunn have a field day picking it off. Then once the interception is made the half backs like Murray, Crisp and Maynard + various mids get the ball streaming forward with the other mids and medium sized forwards sprinting to the goal square and it is leading to a lot of goals from the goal square after we have run it the full length of the field off an interception. I like it.

 

[Chrispiesssss]

I am no master tactician nor do i have a keen eye for these things but it seems to me that we play this slingshot brand of football at times, does anyone else agree? What I am noticing is we are baiting the long high ball into our backline where players like Howe, Langdon, Shaz and Dunn have a field day picking it off. Then once the interception is made the half backs like Murray, Crisp and Maynard + various mids get the ball streaming forward with the other mids and medium sized forwards sprinting to the goal square and it is leading to a lot of goals from the goal square after we have run it the full length of the field off an interception. I like it.

I defiantly see aspects of what you’re saying. Especially because we are the leading intercept team in the comp.
Our kicking has dramatically improved and we are willing to take the game on more. I would love to know how many play on’s we have from marks. Prior to today’s match, we averaged the most tackles Inside 50.

We seem to bait in the high kicks. Kick it with precision and play on. We only average 9 marks inside 50, which means our pressure and “perceived pressure” are playing major part in our scoring.

 

[Kreme Pie]

I think I've noticed we're not bombing the ball into forward 50 as much this year. Although r1 vs Hawks we did.

I agreee that we seem to be streaming forward and hitting targets better with lower and more precise kicking. Not to mention our set shots seem to have improved as well.

 

[wicksy]

I am no master tactician nor do i have a keen eye for these things but it seems to me that we play this slingshot brand of football at times, does anyone else agree? What I am noticing is we are baiting the long high ball into our backline where players like Howe, Langdon, Shaz and Dunn have a field day picking it off. Then once the interception is made the half backs like Murray, Crisp and Maynard + various mids get the ball streaming forward with the other mids and medium sized forwards sprinting to the goal square and it is leading to a lot of goals from the goal square after we have run it the full length of the field off an interception. I like it.

Remember when we used to have 6-7 goals per game kicked against us from the opposition goal square?
It seems we've worked out how to prevent that and at the same time, do it ourselves.
It's beautiful to watch.

We've gone from a dull, boring, crab like team with no skills to a run and gun, highly skilled power house in the space of 3 games. Trying to keep a lid on it but it's bubbling.

 

[Soups]

I see a lot of Dogs 2016 about us personally. They could chain handball out of just about any contest when they got their hands on it. That’s what we are doing really well at the moment. The other thing we are doing is covering the spread brilliantly. We run as hard as I have ever seen us.

It’s probably not quite a slingshot it’s just more gut running that’s getting rewarded. We are creating a two/three on one that we are able to run down to our forward half.

 

[Vankri]

It's great to be able to have these conversations again as we're getting a lot more recognisable and consistent with our brand of football.

I personally attended my first game live this season yesterday so I was waiting to be at ground before judging set ups, but I don't think we're playing the slingshot the way Sydney use to play it and the way the Dogs adapted it a few years ago. That takes extra men behind the ball and a more congested style of play than we are currently playing.

To me we structure up thinking defence first, we zone if the opposition gets a kick in but after that we run really hard to cover each man on the ground (everyone instructs the next player on which person to man up on). Because we try to cover all options it ends up forcing the long bomb as you say and we then used the strength of our intercept defending (#1 in the competition) to rebound.

The use of the extra man seems to go to the midfield with players like Aish and Brown coming closer to the contest vs playing true 'outside' wing roles. We like stoppages so we're happy to keep the pressure up and force them with that extra man at the contest.

Offensively we now have different avenues and what's worked in the past two weeks is that we've chosen the right one to use at the right time. Last year everyone could see that we were predominantly trying to slice through opposition zones by switching the play by foot and trying to find short kick options. Now the introduction of new players and new roles (you can't underestimate how much Murray changes our setup), along with a mindset change means that we're happy to rebound and take the game on but predominantly do it by hand in our D50 and aim for long kicks in the pockets by foot.

The other big difference with last year is the way we use our forwards, last year we were playing low numbers there and using them to push back into the contest. This has changed: Varcoe is clearly instructed to stay at the tall men's feet and get the ground ball, WHE is a clear target forward and doesn't go as far back as he used to and we try to stretch the length of the ground a lot more by leaving players further forward and keep the opposition defenders in check.

Interestingly this style of play is inspired by Richmond's style of last year with a few of our own adaptations, but considering we're coming up against them Sunday it'll be a great test and comparison, vs Essendon who were a lot more like us last year with their rebound and overpossession in the back half.

 

[toughy]

It's great to be able to have these conversations again as we're getting a lot more recognisable and consistent with our brand of football.

I personally attended my first game live this season yesterday so I was waiting to be at ground to before judging set ups, but I don't think we're playing the slingshot the way Sydney use to play it and the way the Dogs adapted it a few years ago. That takes extra men behind the ball and a more congested style of play than we are currently playing.

To me we structure up thinking defence first, we zone if we the opposition gets a kick in but after that we run really hard to cover each man on the ground (everyone instructs the next player on which person to man up on). Because we try to cover all options it ends up forcing the long bomb as you say and we then used the strength of our intercept defending (#1 in the competition) to rebound. The use of the extra man seems to go to the midfield with players like Aish and Brown coming closer to the contest vs playing true 'outside' wing roles.

Offensively we now have different avenues and what's worked in the past two weeks is that we've chosen to right one to use at the right time. Last year everyone could see that we were predominantly trying to slice through opposition zones by switching the play by foot and trying to find short kick options. Now the introduction of new players and new roles (you can't underestimate how much Murray changes our setup), along with a mindset change means that we're happy to rebound and take the game on but predominantly do it by hand in our D50 and aim for long kicks in the pockets by foot.

The other big difference with last year is the way we use our forwards, last year we were playing low numbers there and using them to push back into the contest. This has changed: Varcoe is clearly instructed to stay at the tall men's feet and get the ground ball, WHE is a clear target forwards and doesn't go as far back as he used to and we try to stretch the length of the ground a lot more by leaving players further forward and keep the opposition defenders in check.

Interesting a lot of this style of play is inspired by Richmond's style of last year with a few of our own adaptations to it, but considering we're coming up against them Sunday it'll be a great test and comparison, vs Essendon who were a lot more like us last year with their rebound and overpossession in the back half.

Agree with the Richmond comparison our main point of difference is cox in our structure, it's the most I've enjoyed watching us play for years hope we can keep it up.