Listening on SEN tonight with Viney they where interviewing Brisbane lions assistance coach Adrian Fletcher.

They where saying that because quite a few teams have new coaches that there would be new game plans to go with it .

They asked Adrian what he thought of Melbournes new gameplan his reply was .

Its become obvious that the Melbourne players have been instructed to kick it long into their forward line at all costs .

This is where Mitch Clark is a crucial part of that game plan , but he said that it was a predictable game plan and that the other teams will employ a flood in front of their forwards to counteract it .

Then it would be up to the Melbourne players to keep it in their forward and hopefully kick goals but he said it would be interesting to see how Melbourne go with this tactic from the opposition .

Yes.....interesting times ahead.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that what we've seen is really just the bare bones of the gameplan. I don't think "bomb it long, and win contests" is the entire design of the gameplan, and we'll see more complexity throughout the year.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that what we've seen is really just the bare bones of the gameplan. I don't think "bomb it long, and win contests" is the entire design of the gameplan, and we'll see more complexity throughout the year.

I think we'll see more bomb it long, at the start of our season as we have more Bigger bodies in the team but less footskill. This will help our initial transition into a see hard ball get hard ball side. As we settle I reckon we'll slowly bring in the more skilled player, one at a time slowly bringing up the footskill level as these players become harder & stronger.

Eventually I hope we'll end up being a highly skilled but tough Unit.

I think we have only seen 4 games so will not have fully seen the gameplan/gameplans yet. We will get a better idea once the season starts properly I feel.

I think we'll see more bomb it long, at the start of our season as we have more Bigger bodies in the team but less footskill. This will help our initial transition into a see hard ball get hard ball side. As we settle I reckon we'll slowly bring in the more skilled player, one at a time slowly bringing up the footskill level as these players become harder & stronger.

Eventually I hope we'll end up being a highly skilled but tough Unit.

Agreed. The team is still learning the gameplan. Neeld is probably just getting them to master the basics and progress naturally. I think the difference between how we play at the beginning of the season to how we play at the end will be polarizing.

Listening on SEN tonight with Viney they where interviewing Brisbane lions assistance coach Adrian Fletcher.

They where saying that because quite a few teams have new coaches that there would be new game plans to go with it .

They asked Adrian what he thought of Melbournes new gameplan his reply was .

Its become obvious that the Melbourne players have been instructed to kick it long into their forward line at all costs .

This is where Mitch Clark is a crucial part of that game plan , but he said that it was a predictable game plan and that the other teams will employ a flood in front of their forwards to counteract it .

Then it would be up to the Melbourne players to keep it in their forward and hopefully kick goals but he said it would be interesting to see how Melbourne go with this tactic from the opposition .

For Fletcher to make a statement like that off the back of a few practice games is quite naive of him. Especially when he really only witnessed the two half game in shyte conditions at Metricon.

I don't think that this is the entirety of the gameplan, only the bit that we've been working on during the pre-season. Neeld is on record as saying that we already know how to attack and that he is going to teach us to defend. What we've been seeing is a lot of very defensive play all over the ground. We've been playing presses and contested ball scenarios. However, if you look at the Brisbane game again, you will see that in the second half he gave the players permission to use some attacking plays as well, and it was enough to win the night. I didn't bother watching the Hawthorn and PA games, so I don't know if the theme continued, although from the sounds of the coverage it did.

Personally, I look at that second half against Brisbane and see that there are more tricks in his bag than he's been letting on. We made some blistering attacks off the fast switch that resulted in goals. What we haven't seen is precise passing to a leading forward, but I hold out hope that we will see this appearing somewhere in the next month or so as we really don't have the crumbing options to sustain the high bomb into the forward line as a primary attack.

Each teams gameplan can be simplified to that extent when you boil it down. It just comes down to how well the gameplan is executed which comes down to the talent, fitness & discipline of the players. What is Collingwood's, Hawthorn's or Geelong's gameplan? They're all pretty simple but they've won the last 5 flags.

He hasn't even sent the team out onto the field for a real AFL game yet, so it's probably a little early to be speculating about Nield's gameplan... let's give it a few rounds before we start to question its effectiveness.

I'll have a look at it in the H & A with best available 22 and let you know. By mid season we might get an inkling.

Can I just say one thing: 'kicking long into the forward line' is not a Gameplan.

It may be involved in the Gameplan but it would be a small part of the whole.

I am less worried about 'kicking long' than I am about how we move the footy out of our backline, and how our midfielders defend when they do not have the ball.

I'd say there's more to the game plan than just kick it long and hope all will be okay. My thoughts are if that's how the Lions have interpretted the game plan, their comments say more about their lack of coaching insight than anything.

Can I just say one thing: 'kicking long into the forward line' is not a Gameplan.

It may be involved in the Gameplan but it would be a small part of the whole.

I am less worried about 'kicking long' than I am about how we move the footy out of our backline, and how our midfielders defend when they do not have the ball.

Exactly. A gameplan is a strategy - "kick it long" is a tactic.

Actually i would go as far as saying after listening to the broadcast that the lions assistance coach was bordering on showing disrespect for the new coaching team and the ability for the melbourne players to carry out a gameplan that will test the beat the opposition , what's new .

Watch Mark Neelds speech at the commencement dinner, he makes it pretty clear that they were trialing things in the NAB Cup...

Actually i would go as far as saying after listening to the broadcast that the lions assistance coach was bordering on showing disrespect for the new coaching team and the ability for the melbourne players to carry out a gameplan that will test the beat the opposition , what's new .

Agreed.

Pretty sure I read an MFC season preview in either the Age or Herald Sun where Jade Rawlings explained it will take some time for the players to adjust to the complex systems they are looking to implement.

If those systems consist purely of "kicking it long into their forward line at all costs" then I'd be slightly worried about the mental capacity of our playing group.

Very naive comment from Fletcher.

Neeld's a teacher. I'm sure he understands that concepts need to be built around a scaffold. He will be working step by step using the players' prior knowledge and underestanding in order to achieve an outcome. You can't just fill young heads with information and expect them to get it - you've got to move them forward step by step and allow them to learn from their mistakes. I'm sure the players are getting very clear feedback along every step of the journey. It will take time and there will be failures and disappointments along the way but in the end the process will bear fruit. We're only in first term; let's wait and see what the end of year report has to say.

But aren't Collingwood's, Geelong's and Hawthorn's game plans well known?

I heard the interview and from what we have all seen so far I would have to agree with Fletcher with our bomb it long tactic so far, relying heavily on Clark and defending from contests etc. But hes a moron if he thinks that's all of our bag of tricks right there!! He did go on to say it would be interesting to see if we continue that when teams start flooding back IIRC. Im sure Neeld is building the basics and the attack will come after that. Small steps Adrian! I just hope we improve our footskills to execute the proposed gameplan, whatever it may be. I can see a lot of low scores coming up for us for a while.

It will be interesting to see how we go if Clark gets an injury or even worse Clark & Jamar at the same time. Actually it wont be interesting, it will be shizers!

I recall in the 1993 Ashes series, Shane Warne was carted all over the ground in the one day games prior to the Test series starting. But he later said he deliberately never bowled a wrong 'un in any warm up game or during those One Day games. I'd like to think that we've not shown our full bag of tricks during the NAB series.

(And it was that Ashes series which probably brought me back to having an interest in test cricket).

No one has mentioned the Collingwood game. There was plenty to get excited about in the way the team played in that game. That is probably as good as we could hope to get this year and if we play like that I for one will be very excited. It was a perfect blend of kicking out from defence along the boundary but then switching and attacking quickly once we were clear and then direct passes into leads in the forward line. I expect having seen that once that we will see it again.

I was worried about the combination of Neeld and Craig coming from such defensive dower gameplans and everything I heard about the preseason sounded like they were training to kick it around the boundaries, contest stoppages and kick it long into the forward line but that Collingwood game gives me hope.

The tank is on!

Those compo picks have Neeld foxing with a lame duck gameplan!

Ever seen a coach sacked in his first season?

The perfect time to play for picks.

Of course, I jest...

But if we are bottom 4 at any stage, just wait for the media to come out in force with accusations.

^{Using the boundary, defending space, long kicks to the forward-line when appropriate, and a strong forward press are definitely parts of how we want to play. My theory is that because the players are trialling a very new defensive game-plan they've lost control of other aspects the coaching group requires. Whenever you do something new that is being drilled into you ad nauseum it always takes a while to find the right balance. In time it becomes second nature. At the moment the players aren't spreading well, not playing on quickly enough, not creating options, and not maintaining possession, which is why our uncontested possession rate is terrible. They'll be working hard on getting the balance right. Once they improve this aspect of their play they'll start dominating some games of footy.}

^{It will happen.}

No one has mentioned the Collingwood game. There was plenty to get excited about in the way the team played in that game.

That's why no-one discusses it here ;-)