The two major problems of 2012

[Ed D]

It was basically an irrelevant game.

WCE fell over the line against an injury riddled Carlton in a home final and were belted by Geelong a week later, so their forward press was not that impressive come finals.

If we want to win premierships, maybe the forward press is not going to get us there again????

It certainly didn't help us beat Geelong last year. As I said earlier, sides with good kicking skills worked out how to beat the press. Those 2 sides Hawthorn and Geelong will be formidable this year as well. So I can't see Nathan Buckley sittting down and saying MIcky Malthouse's forward press is exactly what we need.

I don't remember Hawthorn beating the press. They got thrashed 1 game and lost the other when the side was falling away. Geelong won 3 out of 3 and I don't think any of those games the Pies played to their defensive best either, but Geelong were simply the better team at the end of the year for a number of reasons.

No doubt Buckley will be changing the game style but I wouldn't be writing off forward pressure and saying opposition teams have cracked it when the only side to beat us was Geelong.

 

[kevind]

I don't remember Hawthorn beating the press. They got thrashed 1 game and lost the other when the side was falling away. Geelong won 3 out of 3 and I don't think any of those games the Pies played to their defensive best either, but Geelong were simply the better team at the end of the year for a number of reasons.

No doubt Buckley will be changing the game style but I wouldn't be writing off forward pressure and saying opposition teams have cracked it when the only side to beat us was Geelong.

I am not writing it off. I was responding to the poster who claims it was a myth that the press had been cracked. Geelong did it 3 times, twice producing greater than 6 goal wins.

If you read my post, I stated that only opposition teams with high skill levels by foot cracked it. Not all sides.

The Pies did not play to their defensive best in those 3 Cats games because Geelong did not allow us to. They gave away their kamikazee handball style, that played right into the hands of the 'press' and replaced it with more kicking.

As for Hawthorn. They has us on toast in the Preliminary Final and really should have won the game. The game changed in the last quarter when we gave away the press to play man on man. So I believe MM was also perhaps thinking that it was not all that effective against the Hawks. The H&A game against Hawthorn is irrelevant, they had half their side out in that game.

Every side will demand strong forward pressure. I just doubt that Nathan Buckley will employ it the same way MM did with the specific positioning of players as occurred with the press. Reason I believe that, is that the best team in the AFL, Geelong, are not prone to succumb to it anymore because they adjusted their style successfully.

 

[Ed D]

I've read your posts, I just guess it comes down to how you see it. I also guess time will tell but in all 3 games against Geelong whether it was due to them or not, the Pies looked flat or were really struggling to get players on the ground which pretty much means the press can't work.

I wouldn't call the mid year Hawks game irrelevant either, it was when the Pies were at their peak and the Hawks team wasn't much different to the one we met in the finals. Late in the year Collingwood was a shell of itself and still won.

Anyway, it's all history. Personally I think that it was more due to the Pies not being able to play the style that was so successful due to the state of the playing list rather than opposition sides cracking it.

In saying all that the Pies can't fall for what happened to Hawthorn in 2010, where they tried to play a style of game that won them the premiership 2 years before and were found out. Like everything it'll need to be tweaked.