Strategy We have the need....the need for speed (and endurance)

[captain cotch 9]

I have heard it a few times in the last couple of weeks and I think it is a good topic to discuss.
Since the 2014 draft we have drafted players that have exceptional speed and elite endurance.

In the off season of 2014 we drafted
Butler, Castagna, Lambert, Menadue & Drummond

2015-Rioli, Markov, Broad, Moore & Chol
2016-Bolton, Graham, Garthwaite
2017-Higgins, CCJ, Balta, Naish & Miller

This is our 1 wood IMO. Our ability to outlast the opposition for longer in games is why we can blow teams out of the water.

An elite athlete, he ranked top two for speed and agility at the NAB AFL Combine, with his physical attributes evident in his ability to leap above opponents in the ruck.
Above is the description of Ben Miller. A player taken at pick 63 in the draft.

Basically we rank speed and endurance combined as a high priority.

 

[Roachy8]

Certainly appears like we targeted the quick endurance footballer - happy with that.
Remember a few years ago how frustrating it was to watch us be competitive - get a marginal lead but then try and hold on to the ball for most of the last quarter to protect the lead rather than kicking away.

Much rather have the positive approach to surge late - even though occasionally we might drop a game or two by being too attacking.

 

[Concatenate]

Dimma has mentioned a few times as part of his post 2016 epiphany that they focussed on developing a game plan that played to the strengths of the players we drafted

 

[Dr Tigris]

I have heard it a few times in the last couple of weeks and I think it is a good topic to discuss.
Since the 2014 draft we have drafted players that have exceptional speed and elite endurance.

In the off season of 2014 we drafted
Butler, Castagna, Lambert, Menadue & Drummond

2015-Rioli, Markov, Broad, Moore & Chol
2016-Bolton, Graham, Garthwaite
2017-Higgins, CCJ, Balta, Naish & Miller

This is our 1 wood IMO. Our ability to outlast the opposition for longer in games is why we can blow teams out of the water.

An elite athlete, he ranked top two for speed and agility at the NAB AFL Combine, with his physical attributes evident in his ability to leap above opponents in the ruck.
Above is the description of Ben Miller. A player taken at pick 63 in the draft.

Basically we rank speed and endurance combined as a high priority.

This is really important. Some of the comments on here from people who know the inside of the club and in Y&B make it very clear that we identified this combo of speed and endurance as undervalued years ago and we have loaded up when no other club has. This means that in the last quarter we can out repeat sprint other teams. It means that our training is at a higher tempo/intensity than other teams because so many of our players are naturally fast and have great repeat sprint ability. Our game plan relies on shutting down the oppo with speed, and then attacking with overlapping waves of runners. That we have so many great runners means that we grind teams down without killing ourselves. We play our game and they can't deal with it.

But we also make sure that the players are talented. So when we have a few guys of similar talent to pick from we choose the runner, with a decent attitude (not sure if there is a correlation). We slowly build up a list that can do our game plan and no other club has that running capability, so they can't properly imitate us. Simples.