Although I, like all demon fanatics, am ecstatic about our win on Saturday, the fact we only played effectively one half is a huge concern. The question is why? Watching the replay now a couple of times, in the first and last quarters the run on game was apparent, and accurate kicking into the forward line was effective, as was our ability to hold the ball into the forward half through continuous pressure. None of these were effective in the middle quarters. What was though was close checking defending down back - I don't think it was an accident that GWS kicked so inaccurately. 

How do we avoid this happening again? Perhaps it is as simple as analysing the differences and eliminating the negatives, although it is still a mystery to me. I'm sure those on here more familiar with football tactics than I am could expand on this. I would be very interested in the various theories.  

 

Edited March 27, 201610 yr by Dees2014

I think our forward line was too congested with tall/similar players. There was no space for effective leads, and our ball movement was slow going in which didn't help. We hardly took a mark in our forward 50 despite all those entries in the first three qtrs due to this.

In the last quarter, Roos just left Watts and Hogan as the two talls, Garlett and VB to support, and all of a sudden we had a functioning forward line. I have a feeling starting with 4 talls in the forward 50 won't happen again next week.

That wasn't "off" - we have got plenty of recent experience with "off"...

Those two quarters were impotent - full of dumb forward play, entries, and movement. We had about 27 I50s in those two quarters...

GWS spent a number of tickets slingshotting from their halfback during that time too. Games ebb and flow and it certainly did flow for us in the last.

I would read nothing more than impotence into those two quarters.

 

Edited March 27, 201610 yr by rpfc

4 minutes ago, rpfc said:

That wasn't "off" - we have got plenty of recent experience with "off"...

Those two quarters were impotent - full of dumb forward play, entries, and movement. We had about 27 I50s in those two quarters...

GWS spent a number of tickets slingshotting from their halfback during that time too. Games ebb and flow and it certainly did flow for us in the last.

I would read nothing more than impotence into those two quarters.

 

How do we prevent it happening again?

On the radio they said GWS went man-on-man in the 2nd quarter and we got bottled up with static movement and only contested targets... Which took us a half to adapt to, before finding a way forward effectively in the last. 

Feels like the team have a bit to learn about applying their game style as they deal with opposition attempts to shut it down. 

That they worked their way through it, without getting discouraged, is the most promising aspect of the win.

45 minutes ago, Dees2014 said:

How do we prevent it happening again?

Good teams will do that to other teams.

Unless we think that we should be kicking 5 or 6 goals a qtr against one of the best midfields in the game.

Or do we really think that?

Other than that, try having a forward line that has a 2nd forward worthy of being called a 2nd forward. Hogan, ____, and Watts are our best 3 tall options down there at the minute.

I'd reckon there's an element of trying to control the tempo of the game, especially with still quite a few young players out there.

Just haven't got the hang of it yet. Definitely needs to be learned. Especially the part where we make sure we are still dangerous even when pushing defensively.

Doesn't explain the whole mid-game malaise on saturday - obviously things got a bit tangled up there.

Good teams regularly turn it on for 1 qtr and win. Let's hope we are becoming one of those teams.

Agree with rpfc, that wasn't us switching off. 

We were still winning out of the middle and winning contests, we just couldn't score. 

Years gone by switching off we wouldn't be winning anything. 

 

It was just a cluster [censored] in our forward line, not all teams will play like that, as Leon Cameron said if it keeps coming in like that something has to give. 

I think a lot of it is between the ears.During the NAB games and yesterday there has been that Jeckyll and Hyde character to our team.When things aren't going our way the skills seem to drop off and when things are going our way those skills sharpen up.

It seemed to me that GWS went man on man in the second quarter, our coaching box didn't respond, nor did our 'on field leaders'. In the third GWS stayed with what was working and again we didn't respond. I haven't checked the stats but it seemed to me goals against us were scored on the rebound from our turnovers. I would much prefer to see us making attacking mistakes than possession/defensive mistakes when we have the ball.

I hope our slow response to the change in the game that GWS brought to the second quarter is more about a young team still jelling together than a problem in the coaching box.

1 hour ago, Deestroy All said:

Agree with rpfc, that wasn't us switching off. 

We were still winning out of the middle and winning contests, we just couldn't score. 

Years gone by switching off we wouldn't be winning anything. 

 

It was just a cluster [censored] in our forward line, not all teams will play like that, as Leon Cameron said if it keeps coming in like that something has to give. 

It seemed to be a pattern following on from the nab challenge games. We would be winning contested possessions and centre clearances all day but the opposition would have a run on and get ahead. Then we would steam role them.

modern footy runs in ebbs and flows. Both teams get run ons. If you lead in key stats your run ons will be more damaging.

We are conserving energy.

I hope this is the season when this game plan clicks sometime through the season then we start Dominating games, as the game plan becomes second nature these defensive shutdowns become easier for us to get through. 

The opposition

So youre saying we turn on for half a game?

I wiIll take that over the dark days when we switched on for maybe 2 minutes a game if we were lucky, Going full games without stringing one meaningful passage of play together.  Losing by 10-15 goals every week.

The improvement has been off the charts, and is only going to get a lot better.

Edited March 28, 201610 yr by Petraccattack