Strategy While we’ve been tearing our hair out - has Don completely changed the gameplan?

[beartoo]

I personally don’t see much of a change other than tighter/exciting contests in the last few minutes. The 666 rule has hardly changed the game, but more so the coaches are being tighter in their defensive strategies. The better teams are still scoring like most other years a la Cats and Pies.

I think we have been focusing more in our defense this year, no doubt. Our fine-tuning over the recent weeks is a style that is suited for Finals footy. Really looking forward to the next month if we can continue to advance our game style further or whether we regress under the might of the better upcoming teams.

I haven't checked stats, but my impression is that there are a lot more low-scoring games this year. One goal to two at half time a few weeks ago.

 

[Geoffa32]

Did anyone listen to Sportsday SA with Hart?

I only heard half way through but they played a grab of Riley, assuming Riley Knight saying we changed the way we played to less complicate it with less instructions.

Blight was asking a lot of questions of Hart.

Hart said as part of their normal review after North they decided to get back to basics and concentrate on some core stuff which must include contested footy and the rest would follow, there were less instructions and they allowed the players to just play more on instinct. The leadership group was also involved.

Sounded like we tried to over complicate the gameplan which culminated in that North debacle.

Good to see our coaches acknowledged it and made changes rather than digging their heels in.

You could see in the last ten minutes when the game was there to be won the players were sticking to a plan whilst North were just picking it off. I felt the players knew what to do, but being good boys stuck to the coaches plan.

Whereas some natural flair and chaos ball would have won the game.

That was the point I gave up on Pyke.



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[John Who]

I haven't checked stats, but my impression is that there are a lot more low-scoring games this year. One goal to two at half time a few weeks ago.

No doubt scores have been different relative to last few years. There is certainly more 1v1 all around the ground. However, the defence can still be congested after the ball is bounced, and this is more to do with coaching strategies than the 666 rule.

 

[DJ75]

First of all this was a great pick up from the OP Good work PeterJ. I hadn't considered this earlier, but it is spot on - we have significantly changed our game plan. I love that we had the courage to do so.

I'm also pleased to see that Pyke has become harder on the playing group. The Jenkins dropping is a significant move. I just hope he has the courage to maintain the course and doesn't revert to type. I do wonder if we would have had the courage to play ROB if Jacobs wasn't injured...doubtful.

I do have one lingering concern from the showdown.

In the last quarter we seemed to go with the old 'good job everyone, games over, take it easy now' approach. We have a **** habit of doing this and need some real hard-nosed, foot on throat players.
During Port's run on I was very critical of our midfield setup. We didn't man up, didn't play defensive side and let them run around unchecked. Our guys were far too slow to read the change in play and lock down. We just kept going through the motions. Thankfully Sloane stepped up and helped us settle down. I'm hopeful our coaching staff are reviewing our set up in the last quarter and we don't let it happen again. We can't have patches where we get smashed like that.

So just wanted to draw attention to my previous post.

Anyone still not concerned about this? Any chance our mids would get close to Neale in the first half? It's been an issue over many years now.

 

[Tex200]

So just wanted to draw attention to my previous post.

Anyone still not concerned about this? Any chance our mids would get close to Neale in the first half? It's been an issue over many years now.

Think we’ve been working at not getting sucked into the contest and having better numbers outside. Neale works close in and so predictably got big numbers.

I didn’t think he hurt us as much as our lack of defensive pressure by our forwards. All day they waltzed out with the ball turning our I50’s into theirs in seconds.

Really poor defensive games from Murphy, Betts and whichever mids were responsible for helping out at ground level

 

[Scorpus]

So just wanted to draw attention to my previous post.

Anyone still not concerned about this? Any chance our mids would get close to Neale in the first half? It's been an issue over many years now.

I've been concerned about our midfield structures for years.

We still have the ability to get cut through like butter from stoppages, which means that despite having what could end up as even clearance numbers, the opposition's clearances are far more effective because they run and kick accurately, while we are pressured and have to hack kick.

The only solution we've seem to come up with is to put extras around the ball which hurts us massively in other areas. Every time we revert to putting an extra around the ball against this type of dynamic midfield, we struggle

 

[DJ75]

Think we’ve been working at not getting sucked into the contest and having better numbers outside. Neale works close in and so predictably got big numbers.

I didn’t think he hurt us as much as our lack of defensive pressure by our forwards. All day they waltzed out with the ball turning our I50’s into theirs in seconds.

Really poor defensive games from Murphy, Betts and whichever mids were responsible for helping out at ground level

I think Neale hurt us significantly, hence the run with role in the second half.

My concern is that our mids don't have a single defensive thought. They all play as though we are dominating the clearances all game every game. It's good when we are, but we seem to fail to read the game situation and lock down. If Neale has multiple clearances in a row, we need to think to put body pressure on and shut him down for a few minutes. Instead we just keep on repeating the same mistakes.

It's very frustrating and something our mids need to get better at (I'm still scarred by the prelim final loss to Hawthorn. If you watch the last few minutes, Hawthorn get all the vital clearances when we just needed to lock it down - mainly because Dangerfield refused to pay any attention to his opponent and ran to the offensive side of the contest every time).

Whether it is coaching or player awareness, we need to fix it up asap.

 

[mattymac]

7-2 since round 5 after being 1-3.

And both those losses we were up to our eyeballs in against quality sides.

Fair turn around that.

 

[Mike Smyth]

Unfortunately I still don't think Don has a game plan to win a GF. The space and run will dry up in September. 23 tackles in a half of football is really concerning.

 

[Cap]

Unfortunately I still don't think Don has a game plan to win a GF. The space and run will dry up in September. 23 tackles in a half of football is really concerning.

What are you talking about, the game plan is clearly not all about run and carry, it's clearly changed to a more contested game plan.


And the tackling whilst worrying hasn't been a trend and reflected how poorly we converted our dominance in the 1st

 

[Tex200]

Unfortunately I still don't think Don has a game plan to win a GF. The space and run will dry up in September. 23 tackles in a half of football is really concerning.

Maybe not. We won’t know until Sept. We will play finals though so it will certainly be tested.

Think the last 2 weeks we’ve evolved again - feels like we have been able to shift through styles at different stages.

Lock the game down, play some territory, and when we see a break turn on some fast scoring footy.

Interesting times

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

What are you talking about, the game plan is clearly not all about run and carry, it's clearly changed to a more contested game plan.


And the tackling whilst worrying hasn't been a trend and reflected how poorly we converted our dominance in the 1st

The Crows contested possession differential, while positive (+5.5/game) is still only the 7th best in the comp. Geelong are top (+15.8), followed by GWS (+12.8), Port (+7.5) and Collingwood (+6.9).

 

[AFC979810]

Maybe not. We won’t know until Sept. We will play finals though so it will certainly be tested.

Think the last 2 weeks we’ve evolved again - feels like we have been able to shift through styles at different stages.

Lock the game down, play some territory, and when we see a break turn on some fast scoring footy.

Interesting times

Don't always agree with ya mate, but your thoughts in this thread are spot on.

Our biggest concern IMO is that we just lack that X-Factor. We need one more high energy live wire player up forward.

 

[Tex200]

The Crows contested possession differential, while positive (+5.5/game) is still only the 7th best in the comp. Geelong are top (+15.8), followed by GWS (+12.8), Port (+7.5) and Collingwood (+6.9).

Be interested to see that figure from about R5. 9 games since we’ve been pretty good.

 

[mattymac]

Be interested to see that figure from about R5. 9 games since we’ve been pretty good.

Yeah this. Don said we were -20 or more against both Geelong and North so since he's rejigged the gameplan things must be somewhat better to still be +5

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Be interested to see that figure from about R5. 9 games since we’ve been pretty good.

+11.8 since R5. There's only been 4 games where we've lost the contested possession count.

R3 vs Geelong (-33)
R4 vs North Melbourne (-17)
R10 vs West Coast (-2)
R11 vs Melbourne (-15)

 

[glengowan]

Don't always agree with ya mate, but your thoughts in this thread are spot on.

Our biggest concern IMO is that we just lack that X-Factor. We need one more high energy live wire player up forward.

Where is McAdam at? No reason he couldn’t do a Liam Ryan/Willie Rioli for us given his talent. Is he injured?

I tend to agree re X-factor needed. I like Greenwood in the fwd line - but still not that real pace when the ball hits the ground.

 

[Tex200]

+11.8 since R5. There's only been 4 games where we've lost the contested possession count.

R3 vs Geelong (-33)
R4 vs North Melbourne (-17)
R10 vs West Coast (-2)
R11 vs Melbourne (-15)

Thanks - that’s a better number.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Thanks - that’s a better number.

It probably also highlights the importance of contested possessions to our game plan. In 3 of our 5 losses we lost contested possessions.

The loss to Hawthorn was the only game that we emphatically won contested possessions, but still lost the game. That probably says more about how different Hawthorn's game style is than anything else.

 

[arrowman]

Maybe not. We won’t know until Sept. We will play finals though so it will certainly be tested.

Think the last 2 weeks we’ve evolved again - feels like we have been able to shift through styles at different stages.

Lock the game down, play some territory, and when we see a break turn on some fast scoring footy.

Interesting times

Indeed, well put. There's stuff going on, for sure. Even last night, for all the frustration of when we were dominating and not able to put it on the scoreboard, I felt there was a lot of change / improvement in the way our forward line and F50 entries worked.

 

[Bovo]

A couple of things I have noticed. We are really happy to play a scrappy style that encourages our strong inside mids to win the ball. I also note we have this two handed tap thing that pretty much ensures the ball has to be won from the ground...which we seem to be good at. I am still concerned about our outside mid efficiency aaa the link up between inside and outside seems to be a tad disconnected

 

[mattymac]

+11.8 since R5. There's only been 4 games where we've lost the contested possession count.

R3 vs Geelong (-33)
R4 vs North Melbourne (-17)
R10 vs West Coast (-2)
R11 vs Melbourne (-15)

Interesting. Yeah Oliver in particular was smashing us until we put Gibbs on him. Matt Crouch's absence severely noted.

Not sure why we play up there tbh. Good for the fans but we never play well.

 

[mattymac]

It probably also highlights the importance of contested possessions to our game plan. In 3 of our 5 losses we lost contested possessions.

The loss to Hawthorn was the only game that we emphatically won contested possessions, but still lost the game. That probably says more about how different Hawthorn's game style is than anything else.

Contested possession became our gameplan

 

[Tex200]

A couple of things I have noticed. We are really happy to play a scrappy style that encourages our strong inside mids to win the ball. I also note we have this two handed tap thing that pretty much ensures the ball has to be won from the ground...which we seem to be good at. I am still concerned about our outside mid efficiency aaa the link up between inside and outside seems to be a tad disconnected

Yeah look I think the problem with this style is the fact it’s scrappy by its very nature.

Nothing looks particularly connected or aesthetically pleasing. It’s really just weight of ball thrashing against a defensive wall until finally there’s a way through.

You may not catch a break for an entire quarter, then suddenly you break through for 3-4 in a row.

It’s attritional and very frustrating to watch

 

[mattymac]

Yeah look I think the problem with this style is the fact it’s scrappy by its very nature.

Nothing looks particularly connected or aesthetically pleasing. It’s really just weight of ball thrashing against a defensive wall until finally there’s a way through.

You may not catch a break for an entire quarter, then suddenly you break through for 3-4 in a row.

It’s attritional and very frustrating to watch

This will be the gameplan that gives me a heart condition. But the 4 points is what it's all about and I think this style might do well in finals.