What changes will we see under Buckley? Tactically and to the 22

[Quicky]

With Buckley at the helm we enter a new era of this great club.

I ask the question, what changes will we see both tactically and to the best 22?

We have already seen a glimpse of some of the values Buckley holds dearly with our recruiting of Elliot and Yagmoor.

Quality characters, brilliant users of the footy and players willing to do the little defensive things well.

Is this a window into what we will see under Buckley?

What changes will we see?

 

[Quicky]

Re: What changes will we see under Buckley tactically and to the 22?

Here are some of my thoughts.

I think in the early parts of the season we will see Wellingham in the magoos. We will see Beams take his position in the middle and Macaffer will take Beams role up forward.

Macaffer is an absolute must up forward next year. We desperately need his overhead ability, defensive pressure, neat skills and work rate.

Wellinghams best footy came after he nearly got the arse. I think he needs a rocket! He needs to earn his position through the twos and I think we will see an invigorated player.

Under Malthouse we minimised risk by moving the ball along the boundary line.It wasn't that we were'nt given the liberty of moving the ball through the corridor but that we didn't take the option. Early training sessions suggests this isn't going to change much.

However, I think there will be a greater emphasis on good decision making and the reward of the risk of moving the ball centrally when it is the right option.

The only criticism I recall Buckley making of the Malthouse era was the reluctance to blood young players during the season. I think we will see more players utilised during the season. One as a player management tool and also for development. I expect players such as Rounds, Thomas, Young, Seedsman among others to be the beneficiaries of this.

Of course I could be totally wrong!

What are your thoughts about this new era we enter?

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Can't see many changes.....rounds seedsman young Thomas etc would be getting plenty of game time in 2012 regardless.

Agree we need Maccaffer back....I think Buckley will concentrate on the forward pressure that won us a flag in 2010 and the caff is central to that.

We will revert to two traditional rucks but again that's not a Buckley thing....it's a personnel thing.

I do expect however a bit more pressure on some of our more wayward players to perform.....welling ham and beams in particular. They won't want to stray off field or slack off on he training track or they'll be in the seconds in no time. I reckon he'll keep a tight reign on fasolo too, more basic footy and less attitude.

And dids will spend a lot of 2012 in th VFL.

 

[Knightmare]

Good thread.

I don't think the game plan will change so much. Certainly will evolve. But don't expect a major overhaul.

The main change I see is a big focus on winning the contested footy. In all his interviews he has made mention that, that is the big focus.

The other thing to look out for, while it hasn't been mentioned. I wouldn't be surprised to see more long kicks and a real effort to evolve offensively.

 

[Optimax]

Very few, even preseason repors suggest we are still using the boundary.

Also Malthouse didn't play youth, and a lot of youth? Seriously since when?

 

[Quicky]

Very few, even preseason repors suggest we are still using the boundary.

I've seen it mentioned in training reports that we are still utilising a boundary line game plan. Perhaps I am mistaken.

Also Malthouse didn't play youth, and a lot of youth? Seriously since when?

It was a comment of Buckleys from an interview last year speaking specifically about 2011.

 

[sr36]

I suspect/hope that we will see a few less wild bombs forward and a bit more effort to pinpoint forward fifty entries.

The move it forward as quickly as possible and then use frantic defensive pressure to hold it in tactic worked beautifully for the best part of two years. But came unstuck against Hawthorn and Geelong at the business end, because they were too skillful/composed for us to force the defensive pressure inspired turnover goals.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

We didn't lose to hawthorn all year.

 

[ipswichpies]

Quicky
If I may call you that I read somewhere else that Yagmoor is training the house down with the boys and is making a great impression upon the powers that be with his kicking and it was not beyond belief that if he carries on how he has started he is a chance to play 1sts this coming season.
I don,t know about it myself as I am not in Arizona but maybe someone could
ask the Sheriff as he is in a position to know what is going on there.

Ps I will be happy if any of the boys we have picked in various drafts play in the seniors.

 

[The Magnificent Seven]

I don,t know about it myself as I am not in Arizona but maybe someone could
ask the Sheriff as he is in a position to know what is going on there.

Ps I will be happy if any of the boys we have picked in various drafts play in the seniors.

I'm not on match committee

Yagmoor is a bloody good kid, and training the house down. 'Nuff said.

 

[ipswichpies]

I'm not on match committee

Yagmoor is a bloody good kid, and training the house down. 'Nuff said.

thanks for that mate that is what I heard about "Yaggz" and that is good to know,thank you for describing the trip in detail I am really enjoying them,good on you.

 

[Ed D]

A similar thread a few weeks ago:
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=885098

Personally I don't think much needs to be changed. We'll become a bit more attacking, but for 2012 things will be pretty similar IMO. Things need to keep evolving but that's tweaking things here and there.

 

[Swooop]

Great thread Quicky.

I've got no idea what changes we'll see, but will like everyone else, be fascinated to see what changes there are to game plan and personnel that are more in favour with Bucks and less in favour.

Players I'll be especially interested to see how Bucks rates compared to MM, will be players like Toovey, Macaffer, Goldsack, Wellingham, Krakouer, Didak, Simon Buckley and Beams.

 

[daics_35]

Didak will not play in the reserves next year, Buckley loves him and after having a pre season Didak will be back. I think Toovey will spend a fair bit of time in the reserves and will be replaced by Clarke. I also think Blair will play less games in the seniors than he did this year. As for the gameplan, I dont mind playing the boundry style but I want to see the us go down the middle when we have the chance to, under Mick it was all boundry line football.

 

[Heritier 09]

agree. dids will go mighty close to all australian. of all our players he seems to benefit most from a full preseason.
i remember bucks saying he thought we could control the ball a little more, that he loved rolling zone, but relying solely on pressure and opposition mistakes left no control for us. I think the focus will be on contested possession, and maintaining possession.

Such a good list, i think the time to maximise the talent of these blokes and use the corridor a lot more is now.

Personnel wise, always hard to say, but the 22 will be fairly different to this years granny IMO, there are always changes as form and fitness fluctuate.

 

[mattys123]

I think the 2 main changes we will see under Bucks are a more short kicking style of possession compared to that under Malthouse, and also a larger injection of youth then we saw over the past few seasons.

Bucks basically created the accurate kicking test at the draft combine, so we know he has a focus on that for the future, and that will slot somewhere into the gameplan. I can't see us absolutely going short all the time, ala the Hawks, but we will look to pin point short targets more often IMO.

And Bucks has stated publicly that one of the things he would have changed over the past 2 seasons was the amount of young players that were introduced to the side, and the manner and length of which they were played.

All the coaches say that if you stand still, the league will go past you, so whatever Buckley changes, it will at least be trying something slightly new, and something slightly innovative as well.

2012 will be the most interesting year from a tactical point of view since the early 00's for this football club IMO.

 

[the distributer]

I don't see any great changes being made, the game plan will stay pretty much the same IMO, i would like to see Cloke spend a bit more time at FF personally.

 

[76woodenspooners]

One thing I think we'll see from Buckley is less patience for out of form players. MM would always talk up the 'competition for spots' and 'horses for courses' but when it came to the selection table there was usually very little change unless forced by injury.

I think Bucks will be more trigger happy with sending players off to the 2nds who aren't performing. For example, I don't think Dids would have got much game time in 2011 if Bucks had been senior coach.

 

[HeavyPop]

Why would the gameplan stay the same? It was bought undone last season and we need to keep up with the competition. I don't think there will be drastic changes, but there need to be some.

 

[sr36]

We didn't lose to hawthorn all year.

I know that, but in that Preliminary Final, I reckon our game plan faltered - particularly the blind bombs forward. It was sheer will and self belief that got us over the line.

 

[Scodog10]

1. Increased emphasis on skills. We hit targets up with monotonous regularity in early 2011, but come finals time that really fell away. My assumption would be that there'll be more of an emphasis on pressurized skill execution at training.

2. More precision going inside attacking 50. At stages we just bombed away in the hope that a contest would be forced and we could lock it in. Come the conclusion of the season teams had found more effective ways to rebound the ball from defense (notably Geelong). Which inturn lead to greater scores against on the counter attack.

3. Role specific coaches. We first had line coaches and then line development coaches. I think the next line of natural progression is role specific coaches. I personally think that with Buck's emphasis on perfectionism he will be the first to implement a contested ball coach, a contested marking coach and a tackling coach. There will eventually be a plateau in this sort of development because you don't want to get to the point of too many chiefs and not enough indians, but I believe Bucks will move toward it soon.

 

[the distributer]

there Was nothing wrong with the game plan, we lost 2 games FFs, injurys and underdone players got us in the end.

 

[the mighty T]

agree. dids will go mighty close to all australian. of all our players he seems to benefit most from a full preseason.

Didak will not play in the reserves next year, Buckley loves him and after having a pre season Didak will be back.

not to be cynical here but theres nothing at all to suggest either of these statements is true. Dids was incredibly fortunate to be in the side come the tail end of this season and there were players who i certainly had ahead of him. This playing favorites bs has never helped us in the past and if dids isnt best 22 then so be it. Hope he can get back to his best but im not going to be upset if/when he gets overtaken by younger blokes

Promoting the young guys will be a big thing this season. Benny J, Taz, Dids, Jolly, Luke Ball to a lesser extent are all heading towards the twilight of their careers. Tom young i think is one with a big future that i think could take the place of BJ by the end of the season. Josh Thomas is one thats been mentioned a lot on this board, and while ive liked some of his performances, im not as convinced. I really hope Bucks decides to use Luke Rounds a bit more this season in that tagging role.

As others, i think that we'll go back to the traditional 2 rucks setup, with the early part of the season Wood doing more of the ruckwork and Jolly playing more forward. Personally i'd start with the two rucks, let Wood go at it hard for 2.5-3 quarters having Jolly in while wood rests, sub out wood and then inject jolly in for the latter stages of the game. I think this would give us a lot more unpredictability going forward and allow us to preserve Jolly a bit more for later stages in the season/finals.

 

[kevind]

I am not expecting too many changes. MM's plan to play to our strengths and eliminate the weaknesses by playing a boundary line game will still remain. I think Bucks may tweak this by making it a little less predictable with incresed use of the centre corridor.

Contested ball will be a big focus and I think Bucks may favour players with good kicking skills.

Can't agree with this theory of spotting up short kicks inside 50's theory. Sides with the greater number of effective long kicks, I believe, is still the best indicator for winning. Particularly in finals, good sides just don't allow free players to get easy kicks inside 50. That type of game plan failed Hawthorn this year in a final in which they should have beaten us quite easily.

I will be interested in how Didak goes this year. I reckon he has lost a yard of pace and may be on the slippery dip.

 

[76woodenspooners]

there Was nothing wrong with the game plan, we lost 2 games FFs, injurys and underdone players got us in the end.

Two reasons why the game plan needs to change:

(1) We actually lost 3 games last season, all to the Premiership team. We had a crack at Geelong three times and we couldn't figure out how to beat them at all. That's going to need to be redressed in 2012 somehow.

(2) The other 15 teams found us to be unbeatable last season. Next year they're all going to adapt and have a mighty crack at changing that. That includes two teams who now have an insiders knowledge of Collingwood's 2011 gameplan and personnel.