Janus
Advocatus Diaboli
- Sep 9, 2007
- 23,350
- 57,117
- AFL Club
- Port Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bulls
Hi, I'm Mike Whitney, and today if anyone can explain to me why Port Adelaide has failed to fire a shot for consecutive seasons...I'll give them 50 bucks.
A lot of people blame the game plan, the coaches, the skills. And while that's part of it, watching AFL 360 last night, coupled with the Inside documentary...it's crystallized exactly what we need to take the next step. Ford Fairlane has touched on this a bit, but there's more to it than just "we went too defensive" I feel.
Jordan Lewis said last night, when Mark Robinson was talking about how the speed of the Bulldogs cut Hawthorn up in the semi final: "They're not fast. Their ball movement is fast." Then both he and Reiwoldt started talking about how the Dogs were the masters at dropping the ball in a tackle, which allowed them to keep moving the ball forward and reduce the amount of stoppages they had - which for mine is a tactic based around the fact that their ruck stocks are garbage. Riewoldt then said that he doesn't agree with the idea that there should be one way to play football, which is what is happening: this year, the sides playing in the preliminary final are the top four sides for contested possession.
Make no mistake - I'm not saying contested possession numbers are key. They are a symptom of what the real issue is. Any one want to take a guess how you inflate contested possession numbers? It's simple: you stack players around the ball in a rolling maul and drop the ball when tackled in the direction of a teammate. Then when you get the chance, you whip the ball out to your defensive players behind the play and attack down the opposite wing. Which, if you think about it, has been the MO for beating us since 2015.
The issue we have is that we don't drop the ball in a tackle. Which inflates our stoppage numbers, rather than our contested possession numbers. And that comes from the fact that our list balance is out of whack - in those tight situations, we need another threat that can shovel the ball out to a teammate. Not to inflate those contested possession numbers - which quite frankly are crap - but to spread the defense because they are having to cover the possibility of us winning the contested ball as well as getting a clean take away. We don't drop the ball because we don't trust that a teammate will be there to pick it up.
This is why it was only in 2007, when Geelong recruited Selwood - an elite inside mid - that they fully unlocked the potential of their side. Suddenly, sides had to cover multiple threat outlets - Ablett, Bartel, Corey, Selwood. All four of them had no issues with getting the hard ball, which meant that they opened up space in which their teammates could operate.
Sydney has three players who are in the top ten for contested possessions per game over the year - Kennedy (1), Parker (7) and Hannebery (10). We have two - Wines (8) and Gray (9). The issue is that the Swans have two more players - Mitchell (22) and Jack (54) before we even get to our next mid in Boak (56). Our next best is Jackson Trengove (75). And when your make-shift ruck is your fourth best contested possession winner....you're going to have a bad time.
To put that in perspective, the following teams have four or more players listed before our top four:
Sydney
GWS (Congilio 18, Ward 24, Shiel 43, Griffen 65)
Geelong (Dangerfield 5, Selwood 11, Menegola 35, Caddy 64)
Western Bulldogs (Bontempelli 30, Liberatore 34, Dahlhaus 36, Wallis 43, Macrae 66, Picken 75)
Adelaide (Sloane 14, M. Crouch 26, B.Crouch 32, Thompson 33, Lyons 46)
North Melbourne (Cunnington 21, Swallow 25, Zeibell 40, Wells 49)
That's 6 of the 8 sides that made the finals. And when you consider that the Bulldogs destroyed both West Coast and Hawthorn, you can see why recruiting another elite contested mid is so important for the modern game.
We don't need key forwards with early picks. We don't need rucks. Those types we draft late, or next year. We need another midfielder - two midfielders - who can win the contested ball, that will support Wines, Gray and Boak and settle around that 20-30 mark in the league. Only then will the congestion around stoppages dissipate because sides will be forced to cover outlets like we do instead of just creating a rolling maul around the ball to stifle our run.
That's why guys like Hartlett and Broadbent are on the chopping block. If you're not going to put your body on the line and be the midfielder we need, we'll find someone who will.
A lot of people blame the game plan, the coaches, the skills. And while that's part of it, watching AFL 360 last night, coupled with the Inside documentary...it's crystallized exactly what we need to take the next step. Ford Fairlane has touched on this a bit, but there's more to it than just "we went too defensive" I feel.
Jordan Lewis said last night, when Mark Robinson was talking about how the speed of the Bulldogs cut Hawthorn up in the semi final: "They're not fast. Their ball movement is fast." Then both he and Reiwoldt started talking about how the Dogs were the masters at dropping the ball in a tackle, which allowed them to keep moving the ball forward and reduce the amount of stoppages they had - which for mine is a tactic based around the fact that their ruck stocks are garbage. Riewoldt then said that he doesn't agree with the idea that there should be one way to play football, which is what is happening: this year, the sides playing in the preliminary final are the top four sides for contested possession.
Make no mistake - I'm not saying contested possession numbers are key. They are a symptom of what the real issue is. Any one want to take a guess how you inflate contested possession numbers? It's simple: you stack players around the ball in a rolling maul and drop the ball when tackled in the direction of a teammate. Then when you get the chance, you whip the ball out to your defensive players behind the play and attack down the opposite wing. Which, if you think about it, has been the MO for beating us since 2015.
The issue we have is that we don't drop the ball in a tackle. Which inflates our stoppage numbers, rather than our contested possession numbers. And that comes from the fact that our list balance is out of whack - in those tight situations, we need another threat that can shovel the ball out to a teammate. Not to inflate those contested possession numbers - which quite frankly are crap - but to spread the defense because they are having to cover the possibility of us winning the contested ball as well as getting a clean take away. We don't drop the ball because we don't trust that a teammate will be there to pick it up.
This is why it was only in 2007, when Geelong recruited Selwood - an elite inside mid - that they fully unlocked the potential of their side. Suddenly, sides had to cover multiple threat outlets - Ablett, Bartel, Corey, Selwood. All four of them had no issues with getting the hard ball, which meant that they opened up space in which their teammates could operate.
Sydney has three players who are in the top ten for contested possessions per game over the year - Kennedy (1), Parker (7) and Hannebery (10). We have two - Wines (8) and Gray (9). The issue is that the Swans have two more players - Mitchell (22) and Jack (54) before we even get to our next mid in Boak (56). Our next best is Jackson Trengove (75). And when your make-shift ruck is your fourth best contested possession winner....you're going to have a bad time.
To put that in perspective, the following teams have four or more players listed before our top four:
Sydney
GWS (Congilio 18, Ward 24, Shiel 43, Griffen 65)
Geelong (Dangerfield 5, Selwood 11, Menegola 35, Caddy 64)
Western Bulldogs (Bontempelli 30, Liberatore 34, Dahlhaus 36, Wallis 43, Macrae 66, Picken 75)
Adelaide (Sloane 14, M. Crouch 26, B.Crouch 32, Thompson 33, Lyons 46)
North Melbourne (Cunnington 21, Swallow 25, Zeibell 40, Wells 49)
That's 6 of the 8 sides that made the finals. And when you consider that the Bulldogs destroyed both West Coast and Hawthorn, you can see why recruiting another elite contested mid is so important for the modern game.
We don't need key forwards with early picks. We don't need rucks. Those types we draft late, or next year. We need another midfielder - two midfielders - who can win the contested ball, that will support Wines, Gray and Boak and settle around that 20-30 mark in the league. Only then will the congestion around stoppages dissipate because sides will be forced to cover outlets like we do instead of just creating a rolling maul around the ball to stifle our run.
That's why guys like Hartlett and Broadbent are on the chopping block. If you're not going to put your body on the line and be the midfielder we need, we'll find someone who will.