I wouldn't underestimate how much the drop-off in performance from Tuohy and Bews (affected by age and injury respectively) has unsettled things. It's left our backline lacking in pace and vulnerable against mobile forward lines when the ball hits the deck - Friday night being a case in point. With our small defenders in Tuohy and Bews both fit and firing, we'd suddenly be in a much better position to win it at ground level and wouldn't look so devoid of run and penetration off half back. I'm very interested to see how well Mullin can step into this role throughout next year and beyond.
What's up with the backline this year?
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dazbroncos
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Have you seen the midfiled inconsistecy?
Not giving the Backs a pass at all - there have been some howlers, injuries and form drop off - but they need MF help too.
GO Catters
Not giving the Backs a pass at all - there have been some howlers, injuries and form drop off - but they need MF help too.
GO Catters
So many factors at play. And many of them really well articulated already in this thread.
One thing is for sure...the players themselves appear to be asking each other just this question as the goals against keep raining on down. I'm not sure I've ever seen a bunch of Geelong backs more out of sync with each other in how they play and how they communicate with each other. And I've been watching the boys for over 40 years now.
The recriminations are coming thick and fast after plenty of the goals conceded in recent weeks. I guess I'm glad it shows that they care. But to me it also underlines the reality that they are just as bemused as many of us supporters at how pear-shaped it has all become in D50 this year. The amount of easy goals we're offering up is just insane for a team that still wants to consider itself a contender.
One thing is for sure...the players themselves appear to be asking each other just this question as the goals against keep raining on down. I'm not sure I've ever seen a bunch of Geelong backs more out of sync with each other in how they play and how they communicate with each other. And I've been watching the boys for over 40 years now.
The recriminations are coming thick and fast after plenty of the goals conceded in recent weeks. I guess I'm glad it shows that they care. But to me it also underlines the reality that they are just as bemused as many of us supporters at how pear-shaped it has all become in D50 this year. The amount of easy goals we're offering up is just insane for a team that still wants to consider itself a contender.
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The worst instance was when Stewart was deliberately zoning off Howe and as soon as he marked it he spun around to look for someone else to blame.
You can have team structures and how you set the backline up, all well and good. But when you leave your man alone and he gets the ball, that's on you.
You know the back line is in trouble if Sav can get a game there.
Totally agree. It was a poor look for him and for the team. And certainly didn't scream of his 'elite leadership' in that moment.
Sttew
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Agree, although there were times when without his intercepts we'd have been truly smashed. That's all he's good for .
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It's not "your man" when you zone off him to do your regular job; at that stage it's somebody else's job to look after him.
That's how defence teams work.
Sttew
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Don't want him in the black and teal?
Let me introduce you to this concept called "The Malcolm Blight Era"
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I believe the opposite to be true and by playing him we are more likely to get a better deal than having him running around in the Magoos.
The rabbi
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What's up with the backline this year?
The Midfield.
The rabbi
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It doesn't help the defenders cause when you cannot win the ball in the midefield.
cats_09
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What about this stat though which CE provided on page 1 of the thread:
So if last year we conceded the least inside 50s and this year it's the second least inside 50s, then surely the defensive unit has to start to take responsibility for their at times unaccountability & lapses
Not sure it's as simple as "it's the midfield's fault" for this years issues in defence
As in it’s confirmed the back line this year is playing like s**t.
I feel sure it's not as simple as this all being the midfield's fault. Having said that, one of the factors that is potentially underplayed in any straightforward statistical analysis is the 'quality' of the I50's conceded this season. While we might have only moved down from #1 to #2 on the 'I50's conceded' chart, it looks to me as if many of the entries we are conceding are far speedier and slicker than we saw last year. This type of I50 is far harder to defend, as evidenced by the number of goals we're copping where defensive players are simply not in the same postcode as their supposed opponents when the ball comes in.
It also seems apparent that a number of these 'quality' entries are being generated where the opposition just exits our F50 with consummate ease and then transitions the ball all the way to the goals at the other end. So for all the failings of the midfield, it seems like the forward pressure has just been nowhere near the heights of late 2022. And I believe that is also proving incredibly costly in terms of conceding scores for us this season.
Unsurprisingly then, the issues the backline is having as a unit appear to be unhealthily exacerbated this year by a profound midfield weakness and a glaring deficiency in F50 retention. Which all makes for a rather unedifying mess in so many ways, right across the field.
cats_09
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I don't think there's an easy answer as to what's up with the backline line this year where it's as simple as being the fault solely of the midfield or that of the defensive unit themselves. But rather it's influenced by how our season has played out (on & off field), and the defensive side of things is what seems most noticeable when things aren't going right
When we were at our best last year, the zone defence worked across the whole field with pressure starting in our forward line & the players rolling back to take the open space & cover opposition players - it allowed someone like Stewart to be at his intercepting best as he could zone off knowing he had teammates applying the pressure up the field but then you'd see a guy like SDK who would also drop back to cover Stewart's opponent when he was in intercept mode
It seemed a lot of that also came down to the continuity with the selected team each week - yes we had injuries last year, but it didn't seem to be as bad or with the regularity of this season, and from that was the chemistry built across not just each line individually but the team as a collective. It's something we haven't necessarily had the chance to develop this season with the forced changes that have been an almost weekly occurrence
Last week against Collingwood we tried playing more of that zone type defence which is what we often used last season, but we definitely got caught out more than a few times on Friday night compared with what we saw last year - that was from players standing off opponents, forwards & midfielders not pushing back as quickly or as hard as they did last year and defenders being caught in no man's land... Could see that leading to visible frustration within the defensive unit
I know some praised Ratugolea for his match against Collingwood, but sitting top deck with a view of the whole ground, I'm not sure our structure last week actually did him many favours, and if anyone had the time to analyse the match, you'd find passages that mirrored his efforts against Sydney that were focused on by commentators during that match. On Friday night there were times when he was playing in front of his opponent & lost him if the ball went over the top, or could we him in two minds when zoning as to whether he goes the ball carrier or the open player
Then there's Bobby Hill - I watched him for about the last 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter to see who was apparently playing on him and it was bloody hard to tell. There was a couple of stoppages on the Collingwood side of the wing, and Hill seemed to try standing beside Duncan who seemed like he couldn't care less & instead was keeping his distance. Ratugolea was then the closest defender kinda picking him up when in their forward 50, and after we cleared the ball towards our 50m arc it seemed to be Guthrie on him. Now, when I say it seemed to be Guthrie but there was like half the centre square between them for most of the passage, and even when Collingwood regained possession, I would be surprised if Guthrie closed that gap to less than 15m. It was really hard to say who was meant to be picking up Hill as no one wanted to go near him
I don't think the defensive structure we played Friday night suited the team we had on the field, and the chemistry or lack there of chemistry, and that the coaches have to take responsibility for that. With the constant changes we've seen to the team this year, maybe we should be looking to go with basic structures, such as more of a man defence compared with the outright zone
catempire
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I don’t think there’s any denying this. Just look at the individual performances and none of our defensive unit have had as good a season as they did in 2022.
The midfield has also been worse than 2022 and I’m sure that’s a factor, it just doesn’t leave the defenders as blameless.
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
The Thread title has the answer UPfield. The amount of pressure our defence is under because of the state of our midfield is inexorable
This is where it gets difficult, though. Changing this up at such a late stage in the season is just fraught with issues. You train a system for an entire preseason, seek to play it for the entire year, and then alter it with just a couple of weeks to go? That's probably not likely to end well. So I think you're much more likely to see tweaks to the embedded system in preference to wholesale alterations to the defensive method.
Not saying I'm particularly delighted about that. But I think that is probably pretty much the way it is.
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In the end, it just seems like all the elements have collapsed on one another. The forwards lose their mojo on the pressure front, the strength of the midfield evaporates, and the defence subsequently falls under sustained and increased pressure. Across the paddock, the players no longer feel comfortable and assured in playing their roles, and the level of confidence in the system, your own ability, and the overall competence of the team incrementally diminishes. All of this is underlined in how few players have even replicated their 2022 form, let alone ratcheted up their output in 2023.
And before you know it, your proactive, bold and assertive group slowly but inexorably devolves towards being a reactive, 'safe' and timid unit. And your opposition senses the uncertainty and moves in to strike, emboldened by the shifting ground they now see that you're occupying. In the end, then, it's not really that hard to see what's happened to the carefree and synergistic approach to footy that characterised the latter stages of our 2022 season. Much harder, though, to recapture that model and mindset, at this late stage and with so much of what set you apart already seemingly lost along the way.
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
Most of that synergy last year was on the back of relatively no significant long term injuries. That is so different this year.
Minus CGuthrie, Stanley, JHenry, Rohan, Blicavs (Selwood)is a lot of best and fairest talent that is simply irreplaceable.
The absentees have been with us all year.
Has there been a single game where we had 20 of last year's GF 22 on the ground together? Maybe rd 1. And we looked nice for a half in that game.
I'm not disputing that injuries have taken a massive toll. And that incessant absence of key players (coupled with an apparent lack of baseline fitness) led to glaring deficiencies opening up right across the ground from the earliest weeks of the season. Then it's all continued to steadily unravel from there.
And, as you say, the presence of a certain #14 would have absolutely made some sort of difference as well, no doubt.
We seriously need to move on from Kolojashnij. Not saying he’s the sole issue but fair dinkum he’s had a good go…
