Cleaning the Grimes

[DeeSpencer 26,630]

One of the most important things to do to beat Richmond in the last few years is to work out how to score against their defensive zone. It used to be Rance and then became Grimes who would almost always be the deepest defender and would read the play to drop back a good kick behind to stop teams getting out the back. They'd then rely on Broad, Astbury, Vlastuin etc to compete on the wings/half back. With excellent pressure up the ground they'd force long kicks to Grimes often standing by himself for easy marks or letting him come forward and have easy one on one wins due to better positioning.

The Hawks did a great job of combating this when they played a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd present a few examples of how they worked him around.

1. Burgoyne was playing full forward and he positioned himself perfectly to play off Grimes and get used in the play. In this first instance from a stoppage just back of the wing he pushes up and wide away from Grimes whilst the rest of the Hawks forwards and up the ground and towards the corridor. Grimes attempts to stay deep a good kick from the play as he likes to be. Wingard takes the short kick and Burgoyne can then run the ball and kick long away from Grimes - with an assist from a hard charging Scully - to Gunston who draws a free and goals.

 

2. From a centre bounce that is hacked forward Burgoyne comes up to get involved in play, but as soon as he gets the ball he thinks Grimes will be back where he left him and looks boundary side. The Tigers defender makes a good spoil and surprisingly the Hawks actually had a good lead from the square as Grimes was caught in no mans land, but more often than not the smart play of instinctively ignoring the long bomb will be the right move.

3. In this next example after the Tigers win a centre clearance but turn it over the Hawks forwards push hard to the wing. The Hawks rebound breaks the lines so the Tigers defenders then leave their opponents to press up much like our defenders do. Burgoyne realises this and this time instead of coming up he drops back away from Grimes in to clear space (see second image), then it's an easy kick to the pocket for a shot on goal.

The other thing the Hawks did very well was both Burgoyne and later in the quarter Gunston drag Grimes up to forward line stoppages leaving other Tigers as the deeper defenders. That helped create goals because other defenders were unable to intercept mark or clean spoil and the Hawks beat out Stack in a one on one and forced a holding the ball from him.

Adjusting our game plan to take away Grimes' influence and beat the Tigers zone will be crucial to winning. I'd suggest Melksham with a dose of Fritsch as the right match ups. Clever forwards who can get to the right spaces and then use the ball once they get it. The other forwards need to be aware of how to position around the match ups and how to take advantage of how the Tigers play.

[Lord Nev 13,512]

This is great @DeeSpencer! So much work has gone into this, it's a pleasure to read.

Worries me a bit if we're pinning our hopes on two out of form players like Melksham and Fritsch, but guess we need to hope they can turn it around. What's your thoughts on us picking 2 tall forwards for a change this week, especially given Astbury is out?

Also, anyone know how to tag @SimonGoodwin in this post?

 

[whatwhat say what 23,736]

hawks' 45 degree kicking to position was superb

when they elect to move the ball away from the line towards goal you can see how super well-drilled they are by clarkson

i thought - other than the keepings off - that the cats did well against us was holding possession until they'd got to the point that they wanted to a) switch or b) run the ball through our (occasionally parlous) zone

having watched the replay of the cats-dees again, i'm once more reminded of tigers-pies and the way two teams defensive zones actually worked really well to negate the other's offensive forays

dees-tigers could be a similarly interesting game to watch from a tactical perspective, albeit a frustrating one from a fan's perspective, if it follows suit accordingly

[Engorged Onion 10,224]

magnificent work @DeeSpencer

[Engorged Onion 10,224]

3 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

This is great @DeeSpencer! So much work has gone into this, it's a pleasure to read.

Worries me a bit if we're pinning our hopes on two out of form players like Melksham and Fritsch, but guess we need to hope they can turn it around. What's your thoughts on us picking 2 tall forwards for a change this week, especially given Astbury is out?

Also, anyone know how to tag @SimonGoodwin in this post?

 

100% @Lord Nev

[DubDee 26,512]

Don't listen to him Goody, just bang it in long and see what happens!  ?

[DeeSpencer 26,630]

4 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

This is great @DeeSpencer! So much work has gone into this, it's a pleasure to read.

Worries me a bit if we're pinning our hopes on two out of form players like Melksham and Fritsch, but guess we need to hope they can turn it around. What's your thoughts on us picking 2 tall forwards for a change this week, especially given Astbury is out?

Also, anyone know how to tag @SimonGoodwin in this post?

 

I think McDonald is likely to play CHF on whoever the Tigers bring in and Hannan/Hunt/Fritsch/Melk etc will be as much chance of beating Broad and Vlastuin as any of our leftover talls.

So I'd stay small and mobile and attempt to spread the Tigers out and work them over like the Hawks did.

Fritsch is dropping marks and missing goals but he's getting his hands to the ball, I'm not too worried about his form for now. He's getting to the right spots.

Melksham has often played his best footy when given a significant defensive role or responsibility. I'd start him at full forward and tell him his job is to hit that half forward spot as Burgoyne did twice in the first quarter and more through the rest of the game. It's all about coordinating with team mates so they know if Grimes drops a kick behind then Melksham will be up in that pocket of space.

[3183 Dee 2,916]

19 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

One of the most important things to do to beat Richmond in the last few years is to work out how to score against their defensive zone. It used to be Rance and then became Grimes who would almost always be the deepest defender and would read the play to drop back a good kick behind to stop teams getting out the back. They'd then rely on Broad, Astbury, Vlastuin etc to compete on the wings/half back. With excellent pressure up the ground they'd force long kicks to Grimes often standing by himself for easy marks or letting him come forward and have easy one on one wins due to better positioning.

The Hawks did a great job of combating this when they played a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd present a few examples of how they worked him around.

1. Burgoyne was playing full forward and he positioned himself perfectly to play off Grimes and get used in the play. In this first instance from a stoppage just back of the wing he pushes up and wide away from Grimes whilst the rest of the Hawks forwards and up the ground and towards the corridor. Grimes attempts to stay deep a good kick from the play as he likes to be. Wingard takes the short kick and Burgoyne can then run the ball and kick long away from Grimes - with an assist from a hard charging Scully - to Gunston who draws a free and goals.

 

2. From a centre bounce that is hacked forward Burgoyne comes up to get involved in play, but as soon as he gets the ball he thinks Grimes will be back where he left him and looks boundary side. The Tigers defender makes a good spoil and surprisingly the Hawks actually had a good lead from the square as Grimes was caught in no mans land, but more often than not the smart play of instinctively ignoring the long bomb will be the right move.

3. In this next example after the Tigers win a centre clearance but turn it over the Hawks forwards push hard to the wing. The Hawks rebound breaks the lines so the Tigers defenders then leave their opponents to press up much like our defenders do. Burgoyne realises this and this time instead of coming up he drops back away from Grimes in to clear space (see second image), then it's an easy kick to the pocket for a shot on goal.

The other thing the Hawks did very well was both Burgoyne and later in the quarter Gunston drag Grimes up to forward line stoppages leaving other Tigers as the deeper defenders. That helped create goals because other defenders were unable to intercept mark or clean spoil and the Hawks beat out Stack in a one on one and forced a holding the ball from him.

Adjusting our game plan to take away Grimes' influence and beat the Tigers zone will be crucial to winning. I'd suggest Melksham with a dose of Fritsch as the right match ups. Clever forwards who can get to the right spaces and then use the ball once they get it. The other forwards need to be aware of how to position around the match ups and how to take advantage of how the Tigers play.

When can you start?!

[John Demonic 5,987]

3 minutes ago, 3183 Dee said:

When can you start?!

Plot Twist: DeeSpencer is Adem Yze's online pseudonym

[drysdale demon 4,837]

29 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Also, anyone know how to tag @SimonGoodwin in this post?

Its called a phone, call him and tell him Deespencer knows how to beat the Tigers, he could probably do with a good laugh.

[Lord Nev 13,512]

Just now, drysdale demon said:

Its called a phone, call him and tell him Deespencer knows how to beat the Tigers, he could probably do with a good laugh.

He could watch any of our replays of the last 18 months for that. Thanks for your contribution as always.

 

[drysdale demon 4,837]

1 minute ago, Lord Nev said:

Thanks for your contribution as always.

Glad I can help.

[ProperDee 1,698]

Simply play Petracca one out in the square with instructions to the FP’s to give him room. 

[rjay 25,404]

Has anyone seen 'Sat' & 'drysdale demon' in the same room?

[dazzledavey36 56,140]

I believe Goody tried this last year with Jordan Lewis playing deep on Grimes?

Unfortunately the rest didn't take care of itself.

[poita 3,936]

37 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I believe Goody tried this last year with Jordan Lewis playing deep on Grimes?

Unfortunately the rest didn't take care of itself.

The Richmond game last year was the one occasion in the past 18 months in which Goodwin tried a few different things, eg McDonald back, Hibberd running with Martin, etc. It didn't work on that occasion, but it was disappointing that he never went back to these ideas at any stage.

[Mazer Rackham 14,971]

Well how about this: Grimes won't get his hands on it much if we use randomness to our advantage. How about we randomly bomb it inside 50 as much as we can? He can't be everywhere! Not even our guys can know where it's going. Goody's masterstroke.

[spirit of norm smith 16,674]

great work DeeSpencer.  Agree. 
 

Yes you have to make Richmond’s defenders accountable. Yes Grimes. But also 

HOULI

SHORT 

VLASTIN

are all dangerous and rebound the footy. 
 

Top 1 issues v Tigers. 
 

1- contain Dusty Martin. 
2- stop rebounding defenders who start their attacks 

3- hit your targets. Any skill errors are punished in counter attacks. We have worries here !

[Sir Why You Little 37,394]

Outstanding work. 

[Lucifers Hero 40,673]

19 hours ago, drysdale demon said:

Its called a phone, call him and tell him Deespencer knows how to beat the Tigers, he could probably do with a good laugh.

Fair go.  @DeeSpencerput in a huge amount of work, was descriptive, constructive and not critical and all you can do is make pithy, cheap one liners. 

That post is a good reminder why I had you on 'ignore'.  I don't know what possessed me to 'unlock' that post.  Won't happen again.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Lucifer's Hero

[DeeSpencer 26,630]

5 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I believe Goody tried this last year with Jordan Lewis playing deep on Grimes?

Unfortunately the rest didn't take care of itself.

Yep Lewis did a good job manning up Grimes and drew a couple of sneaky free kicks. The next step is to have a forward capable of getting away from him and team mates smart enough to know where he’ll be.

At least on paper we can pick a team that can run with Richmond now - for shorter quarters anyway. We didn’t stand a chance last year.