Standing off

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

In the last quarter Melbourne finally got a little bit of a run on, they were only two or three goals down with around ten minutes to go and yet when Adelaide had the ball in their defence Melbourne refused to apply any kind of pressure and allow Adelaide players to get cheap kicks to loose players.

Where is the logic in this?

Amazingly, despite only kicking one goal in a half of football, Melbourne were still in the game and yet they didn't do anything that would actually see them win. The mind boggles. Football is supposed to be attacking and most importantly entertaining, that was neither.

God help us against Geelong because if Melbourne play in the same style as they did today they will lose by 150+ points because Geelong don't waste time chipping the ball around in their back half like Adelaide did.

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

I, and I suspect most of the football world, blame the crows for that. Against the Cats we'd do what we always do. Score 8-10 goals, play about 10-20 minutes of good footy, and then go on to concede about 18 goals to them.

[Gorgoroth 12,954]

Would also help if we decided to keep a player or two in our forward line

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

Would also help if we decided to keep a player or two in our forward line

That's just crazy talk.

Forwards? In a forward line? Providing options down field? Get out of here!

[CarnTheDees 52]

I, and I suspect most of the football world, blame the crows for that.

Really? Seems like a very easy cop out to me.

There were two sides out there playing flooding, defensive, zoning football. The difference was that they held the lead all game and hence had no need to risk a turnover. And since we refused to man them up they were happy to chip it around. The one time that we did close them all down once they started signalling to 'slow it down' they got two clear possessions then had to kick to a contest and it ended up in a throw in on our members half forward flank. But then we let the foot off again and they whittled the game away.

[e25 5]

In soccer terms it was like they were playing for a nil all raw.

Or rather, it was like Middlesborough playing Chelsea - try to get a score early then shut up shop, hoping you can prevent the other team from scoring for the remainder of the match.

[Gorgoroth 12,954]

I know, if we had a forward line of equal numbers to their backs we might not have to handball 8000 times in the centre of the ground, turn it over and watch them kick to their forwards in their forward line.

[1858 285]

I have to agree with the OP.

Our players (not just in defence) are playing pre-meditated football to the extreme where it is actually paralysing our players and keeping them flat footed. Especially up forward when we have a defender under pressure we are holding off either too long or too far back, either way we don't give ourselves any hope of tackling and we do indeed let opposition players out of trouble unecessarily. Holding off is a tactic, where used correctly can be advantageous but we are not applying it properly and it is killing us.

[Cards13 9,117]

Adelaide play Soccer and it is horrible to see. But we do not pressure any teams enough when they start the chip around the back. As mentioned on "on the couch", If you watched Saints vs port you would have seen the Saints in a zone as Port tried to come out of the backline but the Saints would have the nearest player to where a mark was taken sprint as hard as he could to apply pressure to the bloke with the ball then the next line of players to sprint up to take there next zone position. We just lolly gag and job around and hang off allowing teams to eventually easily move the ball around us!

[olgreydingo 51]

Dont under estimate the kids in our back line. Yeh I've heard that there is a bet going around that G Ablett will get more of the ball than points we kick. We have nothing to loose, but everything to gain, respect. Go D's just giv'en hell.

[71 Molloy 266]

In soccer terms it was like they were playing for a nil all draw.

It's called parking the bus.

[Guest petjud]

In soccer terms it was like they were playing for a nil all raw.

Or rather, it was like Middlesborough playing Chelsea - try to get a score early then shut up shop, hoping you can prevent the other team from scoring for the remainder of the match.

As a soccer watcher, that is a good analogy, that is Adelaide's game at the moment, because in Bock, Rutten, McLeod and Johncock you have an excellent defence

DB does send them out with a plan, and it may not work, I am sure he didn't instruct them to go handball crazy in the middle and I am sure he didn't tell them to start chipping it around in the backline like they did against Richmond and lost the momentum.

He realised the zone was not working at half time against Adelaide and changed it to man to man and the players stuck to it, they also stuck to the zone but it was the turnovers that killed us, that is when we had the ball.

DB will have a defensive plan and I am sure it will work when the play is normal ie from a Geelong kick in or from the centre bounces or throwins.........but if there is a better team than Gellong at killing you from turnovers I would like to see it.......

Dont't forget we watched a Grand Final where the turnovers by Hawthorn were kept to a minimum and Geelong then had difficulty bringing it into the 50 and hitting targets

If we can keep the turnover rate down we may also keep the score down

[deanox 9,922]

It was great to see the man on man work in the second half, because I have felt that we have lacked that for a while. I also think that if we decide to go man on man, we should bring the loose player (probably Davey) up the ground to man up on the spare opposition defender, which forces them to kick to a contest straight away, not give them time to find a contest that suits them or find a man who breaks away.

I also agree with cards13, when playing the zone we dont run hard enough to apply the pressure. If you are zonging and notice a man loose away from the zone you should run to him to cut the option off. allowing uncontested possessions, even in the back half, allows a team to move the ball around until they can spot an option up field which breaks the zone down.

The zone should be used as a way to force a turnover, and thus attack, not as a way to slow the game down.