my dad keeps asking me to explain the strategy/benefit of the "zone" at the oppositions kick-in ..

ie .. watching the players stand by themselves waving their hands ..while the opposition spot up two (or more) players in a row (training drill style)

after watching the bulldogs clear it to the wing time and time again so easily .. i'm at a loss


is the sole plan that the opposition will kick a clanger straight into our hands ? (tho the odds are we'd miss the goal anyways ! .. as displayed by wiggo, houlihan, stevens etc today)


i suggested he email dpagan for the true reasoning .. but i thought i'd get some info from the ever-knowledgable TC'ers ..


so .. to summarise .. zone defence .. whats the theory behind that ?


.. go blues ..

It has been happening for a long time; a point for us means a scoring opportunity for the opposition.

Do we even practice it at training?

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

The idea is that each player is protecting a zone in the forward line. A common zone is each of the forwards protecting the area around their literal position, with the ruckman and designated mids/wings pushing down towards the top of the centre square area.

The idea is to not allow there to be much space at all for opposition to run into, particularly straight down the middle. This opens up the possibility for an initial short pass, since forwards are guarding their zone rather than their man, but the flipside is the short pass will often be to a pocket, and more than not means the next kick, which more often than not is a long one, is to a contest.

There are strategies to break the zone, particuarly switching after the first kick, as everyone begins gravitating towards the side of the ground that the initial kickout has gone.

Not only does our zone get broken up pretty easy, we also have trouble breaking other teams' zones. Watch how many times we kick to a contest with our second kick.

Also, you can't go man-on-man these days.

If you try to, the opposition will all huddle at the top of the 50, and then break in to open space whilst getting screens from their team mates.

This leads to easy uncontested possession all the way to the opposition forward 50.

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I AM DISENFRANCHISED

The huddle is a kick-out strategy, but if teams are defending with a zone, it won't really work unless the opposition decide to go man-on-man instead of a zone.