The gameplan - our Plan A - is pretty bloody effective and exciting when the players are doing it properly.

Those who complain about not having a plan B - please tell me why players who can't perform the gameplan they practice all the time should be able to, without notice, play a different style.

And what style would that be? The chip around the boundary line crap that Coll play?

We got back into the game yesterday by playing Plan A.

At about 2.30...

if i had to be harsh...pies still kicked 22 points...game plan still needs some work

The game plan is fine, what needs work is our level of experience, our decision making and our execution by foot.

Also, a forwardline that contains players that can actually play in the forwardline.

All in good time.

Having a Plan B in football is having two crap Plan A's. It's an admission of failure.

The gameplan - our Plan A - is pretty bloody effective and exciting when the players are doing it properly.

Those who complain about not having a plan B - please tell me why players who can't perform the gameplan they practice all the time should be able to, without notice, play a different style.

And what style would that be? The chip around the boundary line crap that Coll play?

We got back into the game yesterday by playing Plan A.

At about 2.30...

I agree but

Its not what Collingwood play at all

Its what Michael Malthouse requires his team to play

Make no mistake about the coaching ability of Malthouse

He is one of a few coaches that gets the best out of most of his players

There is one reason Malthouse has not had premiership success at Collingwood

He hasnt had the best team in any of the seasons he has been coach as without it you need some luck

Hawthorn beating Geelong for example

Who cares about Collingwood anywway because as soon as Buckley takes over they will lose momentum

Buckley is in for a real shock when he thinks when he speaks everyone will listen

Melbourne will have highs and lows through to the seasons end

Another preseason and some games under the belts of our youngsters will bring about decreasing the gap

between the highs and the lows

We might even make finals next year but dont kid yourself that we are flag ready yet

Its the follwing year i expect to make the biggest gains and thats where our game plan will become more effective

We are getting better on and off the field and thats what is pleasing me most at this stage of the rebuild

We have some terribly bad luck with Injuries to Jurrah, Tapscott, Blease, Fitzpatrick, Gawn, Pettard, Bail etc

Meeson although i think he is finished has not had any chance to give it one last shot

We changed the game plan after the first 2 goals yesterday by throwing Morton loose behind the ball.

Seemed that this plan B worked OK.

Having a Plan B in football is having two crap Plan A's. It's an admission of failure.

Don't agree with that at all. Every club if in the right position needs a plan B. We are not in that position as it has been pointed out. Take Essendon for instance, plan A is all out attack and its clear they don't have a plan B but desperately need one. When we perfect plan A we are going to need a B,C and D but until then things need to be less complicated

Plan A looked Bloody Good Yesterday.

The Key to it looks to be Flash. When he can Run, the Team runs.

Thus the team must allow him space, and negate Flash Taggers. B)

Having a Plan B in football is having two crap Plan A's. It's an admission of failure.

I don't think people actually understand what Plan B is.

Plan B is not changing your match ups, throwing a loose man behind the ball, or dropping players. A plan B for Melbourne is playing the wings instead of the corridors, it's moving the ball slowly with long kicks instead of with a chain of handballs and so forth.

Even when we are 6 goals down, we still don't retreat to a different style, and we won't, and that's the right thing to do.

Fundamentally, we are about moving the ball quickly by hand through the middle of the ground. Sometimes we do that with an extra man down back, sometimes we do it with 4 talls up forward, sometimes with 4 smalls, but nothing ever changes the fundamental rules of how we play.

Teams that wildly and chaotically change styles from quarter to quarter and game to game never succeed, which is why very few teams actually have these so called Plan B's. Because if your Plan A fails so badly that you need a Plan B, you're screwed either way.

if i had to be harsh...pies still kicked 22 points...game plan still needs some work

You know why they kicked 22 points? Our game plan was to push them wide so we could go through the corridor. It's harder to kick goals from the boundary.

Plan A looked Bloody Good Yesterday.

The Key to it looks to be Flash. When he can Run, the Team runs.

Thus the team must allow him space, and negate Flash Taggers. B)

The key isn't Flash, well not on his own IMO, but the key is to break the lines, with dash, creative handball & movement, linking up mentally and running in numbers. And the occasional long kick over the line when available.

Being fluid like liquid swirling up the hill when in aggressive mood, & flowing quickly back to settle in place whilst defending.

The key isn't Flash, well not on his own IMO, but the key is to break the lines, with dash, creative handball & movement, linking up mentally and running in numbers. And the occasional long kick over the line when available.

Being fluid like liquid swirling up the hill when in aggressive mood, & flowing quickly back to settle in place whilst defending.

Yes But the Key to all that Fluid Motion is the rapid acceleration of one A Davey. Notice the week before. He got well held, we couldn't mount continuous runs.

I don't believe he is the only factor, but when the "Flash" is being creative we are always a chance to win.

This "Plan B" stuff is rubbish.

You have the one gameplan and you have various

ways of slightly tweaking that gameplan to overcome the opposition's attempts to counteract your gameplan.

You don't have a second, drastically different gameplan.

That would defeat the purpose of training until implementing the gameplan becomes second nature.

It would cause confusion and inconsistency, players switching between the 2, when what you want is a singular gameplan practiced to the point where players implement it intuitively.

This "Plan B" stuff is rubbish.

You have the one gameplan and you have various

ways of slightly tweaking that gameplan to overcome the opposition's attempts to counteract your gameplan.

You don't have a second, drastically different gameplan.

That would defeat the purpose of training until implementing the gameplan becomes second nature.

It would cause confusion and inconsistency, players switching between the 2, when what you want is a singular gameplan practiced to the point where players implement it intuitively.

I agree with that. I think there was tweak which was the moving men behind the ball early in the 1st quarter. The plan was to slow the play and stop the bleeding which worked very well. We then attacked for the rest of the day, including at one stage going with 7 forwards.

Also guys just realised how lucky we were with Maxwell getting injured. That was a big benefit for us.

We seem to move the ball quickly & efficiently after quarter time, but struggled to find a forward. For a team that moves the ball so quickly, I can't understand why we don't leave 2 forwards in our 50 metre arc at all times. This way, we will always have a target to kick to.

At the moment we have ALL players around the ball & when we get it, there is no one to kick it to. Instead, we have every player from both teams running towards our forward at 100kph when we take possession of the ball.

Because then the goals, like the one Morton kicked before the end of the quarter, wouldn't happen.

rpfc is right. Being 2 goals down in the opening 2 minutes does not call for a radical change in approach.

That's why I was disappointed to see a loose man in defence appear at the 2 minute mark. At that stage of the game, I didn't feel that the loose man would help us at all, and would free up someone in Collingwood's defence.

Once we'd settled that man disappeared (came back late in the fourth quarter when we were up by a goal, but that's a different kettle of fish).

The argument that we have to be able to mitigate damage by going defensive is wrong. If we're down 4-5 goals, the best way to make that up is to remain aggressive.

E25 and Jaded are right.

Plan B is a nonsense concocted by fans who think a gameplan can be changed at a whim and/or that small tactical changes are a new 'gameplan.'

Morton behind the ball isn't a gameplan.

People saying we should abandon our rushing handball, play on through the corridor with risk are those that want to change the gameplan.

And they are kidding themselves.

it is not nonsense for starters and i for one am not saying that a Plan B is a radical new game plan change, but every club has plan b and C and so on in place to combat game day tactics, except maybe for WCE who seem to only have one method and do not change it.

it is not nonsense for starters and i for one am not saying that a Plan B is a radical new game plan change, but every club has plan b and C and so on in place to combat game day tactics, except maybe for WCE who seem to only have one method and do not change it.

Don't confuse 'plan B' with 'flexibility'.

The best teams nowadays are capable of adapting to conditions and opponents when necessary, but that doesn't entail a complete shift away from the desired gameplan to something markedly different.

E25 and Jaded are right.

Plan B is a nonsense concocted by fans who think a gameplan can be changed at a whim and/or that small tactical changes are a new 'gameplan.'

Morton behind the ball isn't a gameplan.

People saying we should abandon our rushing handball, play on through the corridor with risk are those that want to change the gameplan.

And they are kidding themselves.

I can see what your saying and your right in the fact that small tactical changes don't indicate different game plans.

There are times though when plan A is not going to work and alterations are needed. Call it what you like, plan A.1 or plan B. Changes will be made and as we become more competant we will be able to implement greater changes

Don't confuse 'plan B' with 'flexibility'.

The best teams nowadays are capable of adapting to conditions and opponents when necessary, but that doesn't entail a complete shift away from the desired gameplan to something markedly different.

Spot on Titan,

The think that leaves me cold is when the ball goes into our backline and all the forwards flood over the centre leaving no one in our forward half let alone our forward 50.

All season I have watched the Dees get the turnover and then have no one to deliver the ball to, It happened constantly on Monday.

Surely we can afford one or god forbid two playes in our forward zone!

Geelong always have a couple of forwards in their half of the ground why not us?