In praise of the hugely underappreciated art of defensive footy in the AFL

Yet Paul Roos himself said that the emphasis on defence was only a stage (and the first one at that) in getting his team to the place where he wanted it to be i.e. his view of the "right" way to play the game.

Yet Paul Roos himself said that the emphasis on defence was only a stage (and the first one at that) in getting his team to the place where he wanted it to be i.e. his view of the "right" way to play the game.

Not sure if that was the right emphasis WJ. More like a case of "we need to teach them defence before we can focus on offence". Bailey was almost the opposite.

So not necessarily the right way to play but the logical way to approach it with a young list. Keep in mind young players grow up never learning defence in the junior leagues. They have to learn it when they get to the AFL..

Roos uses the defensive style as a means to an end and has been successful in the past by utilising it to wear down the opposition. The result achieves wins that are often ugly in terms of aesthetics but from where we've been I'm happy to cop the ugly wins if it leads to success somewhere down the track.

We should stack the team with SouthAfricans.

They can be both defensive ond offensive in the same sentence.

Do you mean last week?

Would have nice to stack the game up yesterday after we were 5 goals up....

We should stack the team with SouthAfricans.

They can be both defensive ond offensive in the same sentence.

brilliant.