Geelong are the worst clearance team in the competition

[deanox 9,922]

I think it is part of our problem, a lack of vision. We chased Bailey to get a Port Adelaide game plan just as they were fading, we went for Watts to get a Reiwoldt style forward and now everyone wants the Cloke type, we chased Neeld to get a Collingwood game style just as Hawthorn were becoming the ideal team...

...Compare this to Port who got Hinkley to instill belief in the existing list. They might not win another game this year, but he has brought heart to that club...

2 good comments it'd like to discuss HP.

RE the first bit, I think you are shot on chasing game styles, and I think that has hurt us. There was a significant shift from the full run and carry style of 6 years ago to the forward press of the Collingwood style. That Collingwood style relied heavily on being able to win stoppages, being the fittest and best drilled team and also, one of keys it was a low risk low reward approach. By kicking around the boundary it adopted an "if we can't have it neither will you" approach.

The advent of the forward press changed the game completely. All new tactics current rely on the ability to understand and implement one. If a team can't do it they will lose. Geelong have come along and worked out a fantastic counter which was described really well by above. But to do this, Geelong need to be able to run hard enough to defend correctly. They also need to be able to attack on other ways, as the opposition isn't always set up in their attaching structure to exploit.

I don't think our current plan is the Collingwood plan from 5 years ago. Our highlights have been fast movements and fast breaks behind the opposition. We are (or were) leading the competition for playing on after marks/free kicks, which doesn't correspond to the Collingwood plan. There are aspects of it in our plan but that is not its entity. I think one of the reasons our players are struggling is because lack of fitness combined with being one of the last playing list to adopt and understand modern defensive football tactics means we had a long way to go to understand the fundamentals prior to getting the fancy bit. Even geelongs plan is built on those fundamentals, despite it being completely different.

In a way it would be like playing footy now but not understanding flooding, our pushing back. Imagine if all out players insisted on standing in their set positions ala mid 90s instead of pushing up the ground? It would look bizarre and we'd get belted. That's an easier to see version.

The second point is really interesting because I think it is amazingly relevant to where we are. I don't think Neeld will last, and I'm not convinced he can turn it around even if given time, however the performance of the two playing groups is worth contrasting.

They belted us round 1. Both teams had horrible seasons last year, we arguably have better KPPs they have a better mids. Both playing groups went into round one with confidence absolutely sky high, certain they had done the right with and were on the right track.

I don't know why we were belted round one. I'm not sure anyone could ever tell you. Better quality mids? Better execution? Old wounds? Lack of mental toughness, confidence and self belief caused by lack of cohesion and bonding due to such a new playing group? Who knows.

What happened subsequently was that the team lost all belief. We stick at it for a quarter against essendon, a team with massive self belief and a team that had just been galvanised together and had a point to prove but weight of numbers is against us, heads start to drop, the team cohesion fractures and we get flogged again.

At this point we are the opposite to PA, and it is probably nothing to do with the coach. While they may be factors, it isn't the game, the recruiting, the fitness, the injuries or anything else that is our big problem now, it is the complete absence of confidence.

What do other teams have that we don't that affects on field confidence and effort? On field leaders. Gut runners who grab team mates by the jumper and drag them along. This lack of onfield, midfield leaders is one of the main reasons we haven't been able to turn it around.

Neelds job should be to teach them defensive structures and our game plan. At the moment he is trying to coach morale into a shell shocked, confidence stricken group. In our current condition I don't think the incumbent is up to out. In fact in these circumstances I don't think the incumbent could get us out regardless of who he was.

PA had the benefit of that outrageous win first up which sent the confidence sky high and got them on a roll. I'm not exonerating Neeld but I think we should consider that it may not be his doing and that part off this is circumstances out of his direct control. We, as a club, need to fix it, and that may cost some people their jobs, including Neeld, but I think Neeld had brought heart and hope to the playing last before round one that we haven't been able to regain.

[rjay 24,928]

The stats can be misleading, Geelong's conversion to goal from centre clearances is way above average and this was also the case with WC last season. WC this season with NikNat out suffered in this area.

Anyone who thinks Geelong are deliberately losing clearances is well off the mark, it's just when they do they have a plan in place and it's a good well executed plan.

Look at the game as a whole and then see where they are scoring from and it will be a mix.

[autocol 448]

Geelong's conversion is good, I believe, because they only want one kind of centre clearance - the decisive one where the player breaks free and delivers a quality attacking ball, not just a Beamer-bomb.

Geelong play clearances with a setup designed to take a decisive possession, if they can't secure it, they're happy to let the other team make a pressured forward fifty entry, which they're confident of being able to intercept and counter-attack. You'll often see Selwood or Johnson hit the congestion at a full sprint heading forward, hoping to have the ball land in their lap. If they get it, they're gone and a quality attacking thrust is built. If they miss, they don't care, so long as the opposition's clearance is well-pressured so that the attacking ball isn't a clean pass.