We won the flag in 2021 playing a ruthless contested territory game. We were unstoppable, we crushed teams in the middle, locked it in our forward half, and squeezed the life out of games.

In 2022, we were flying again until injuries hit.

Now in 2024 everyone's gone back to a faster, outside "run and carry" style. And instead of sticking to our DNA, we’ve tried to pivot.

Problem is... we’re just keeping up. By the time we’ve coached and built a list to play this new style, the game will evolve again.

So why don’t we go back to what worked? Win the contest, own territory, and put the foot on the throat. Smash the suitcase out of teams like we used to.

I genuinely don’t get it, what is the real goal here? If we are just keeping up then I have serious concerns on Goodwin. If there is a master plan here that we are building to that is going to dominate like we did in 2021 then please give me some good news!

Even if we went back to our old game style (we shouldn't) it relied on Viney, Oliver, Trac and Gawn destroying everyone else at clearance and Lever and May being a defensive brick wall. Without those guys being in AA form it doesn't work.

The game changed because the rule changes that came in after 2020 made ball movement significantly easier. Sydney were the first to take the initiative in 2021 and drastically changed how they play, Geelong and Collingwood followed suit the next year and then the rest of the comp caught up. We tried to revert back to our 21-23 gamestyle in the back half of last year and it didn't work at all.

I don't think it's possible to compete at the pointy end anymore unless you can move the ball properly and get quality shots at goal. Just look at the best players in the comp right now. They are all guys who can use the footy.

48 minutes ago, Hatchman said:

We won the flag in 2021 playing a ruthless contested territory game. We were unstoppable, we crushed teams in the middle, locked it in our forward half, and squeezed the life out of games.

In 2022, we were flying again until injuries hit.

Now in 2024 everyone's gone back to a faster, outside "run and carry" style. And instead of sticking to our DNA, we’ve tried to pivot.

Problem is... we’re just keeping up. By the time we’ve coached and built a list to play this new style, the game will evolve again.

So why don’t we go back to what worked? Win the contest, own territory, and put the foot on the throat. Smash the suitcase out of teams like we used to.

I genuinely don’t get it, what is the real goal here? If we are just keeping up then I have serious concerns on Goodwin. If there is a master plan here that we are building to that is going to dominate like we did in 2021 then please give me some good news!

I've often thought this myself. I am a firm believer that defence wins flags. Hard contested footy will never be out of date in my view. But yes, there has certainly been a dropoff in the form of s ome key players.

51 minutes ago, Hatchman said:

We won the flag in 2021 playing a ruthless contested territory game. We were unstoppable, we crushed teams in the middle, locked it in our forward half, and squeezed the life out of games.

In 2022, we were flying again until injuries hit.

Now in 2024 everyone's gone back to a faster, outside "run and carry" style. And instead of sticking to our DNA, we’ve tried to pivot.

Problem is... we’re just keeping up. By the time we’ve coached and built a list to play this new style, the game will evolve again.

So why don’t we go back to what worked? Win the contest, own territory, and put the foot on the throat. Smash the suitcase out of teams like we used to.

I genuinely don’t get it, what is the real goal here? If we are just keeping up then I have serious concerns on Goodwin. If there is a master plan here that we are building to that is going to dominate like we did in 2021 then please give me some good news!

I think that the injury toll and exhaustion to the team, evident in the fails of 22 and 23 as injuries took their toll, means that the " contested territory" game is not a sustainable strategy. plus our lack of dominant tall forwards means we were working hard but unable to register scores that reflect this dominance.

We don’t have the leg speed to defend modern gameplay, across the board.

It’s far too easy to open up our zones, isolate and expose our mids and run away from our backs.

It was good while it lasted and I agree that defense will be the next evolution, it just won’t work for us with this group

2023 was the last year we could have gotten away with it (and to be fair we may have won it all had injuries and poor kicking not got in the way)

Even then we saw how Collingwood was able to rip through our zone and get easy shots on goal in that QF

Contest and defence will never go out of footy but all statistical indicators are pointing towards ball movement and scoring off turnover being king

If you don’t have players who can play this transition game and finish their work, you’re going to struggle to score consistently (us and Carlton are exhibit A in that regard)

Maybe it will revert back in the future but players are getting more skilful and fit all the time, so I think the trend is here to stay for a while

We can’t play the contested territory game because it's no longer winning premierships and we can't play the new fast run & carry game because we don't have the players. So we can't go back and we can't go forwards. We're stuck.

Edited July 30, 2025Jul 30 by lorn

In my view...

Irrespective of talent the club has sustained way to many body blows over the last several years, most of which were self infliceted. This has completely eroded the confidence, unity, trust and commitment that existed in 2021.

Sadly this it feels like this erosion started almost immediately after the jubiliation of the premiership (or it had already started but it hadn't created sizable cracks just yet).

It worked in 2021 because our players were in AA form

Four years later of brutal contested footy, recovery ain't what she used to be!

Great skills limit turnovers as we move the ball, and take advantage of those caused by our defence on their attacks. Currently we have few truly skilled players, as the grunt get and force forward creating a rolling mail of contests is now a thing of he past. Teams can cut through, and the best midfielders today can get the ball and distribute it with speed and skill.

Our revival will come with more skill, and im not sure how many grunt and go players we can carry. This means the extended contracts to our current midfield went from looking like good business to foolish. The value of these players in trade will also incredibly diminish.

It is up to them to evolve their games and deliver the new skills required for the game plan..

Game styles are dictated by the rules.

The AFL have been tweaking the rules over the past 5-10 years to encourage fast and high scoring play. As a result, coaches have had a lot of options taken away from them, and have had to shift their game style and recruit accordingly. Numerous coaches in interviews over the years have spoken about how the 6-6-6 rule disarms them. For young teams, it has made defending increasingly harder and led to bigger blow outs. Deliberate out of bounds, deliberate behinds, stand rule etc are all rules that disarm them and make defending harder. The new kick-out rules were designed to get the ball further into play, quicker, and make defending harder. Good teams often concede on kick-ins and try to win it back at half back these days - think teams like Geelong, Brisbane, Collingwood that all intercept and then rebound with a rocket through a combo of foot speed and efficient kicking.

As a result of the more recent rules changes, n the past 3-4 years coaches have abandoned contested styles and moved to scoring more from rebound, hence quick ball movement.

We are trending the right way and are actually one of the fastest ball moving teams this season. Our problem is while the players move the ball quickly, they don't structure properly and don't have the foot skills to hit harder kicks that poor structure causes. Bombing it quickly is moving quickly, but not effectively. When we've played well this year, it's looked slick and we've hit Melksham, Fritsch, and others on a lead. When we don't play well and fold under pressure, it's quick mindless bombs to nothing, and we get torched on the rebound.

Our list needs a revamp, as the core is ageing and was built through the Roos era to be contested and defensive, not focused on skill and offense. We've started that revamp with some talented kids such as Kozzie, Langford, Lindsey, Windsor, McVee etc, but we're a way off the best teams to be consistently competitive due to the age and skill profile of our list.

IMO it's more of a personnel issue than a game style issue at present.