Have a look at Nathan Buckley's article on the game plans of the AFL clubs:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,%255E20864,00.htmlObviously it doesn't attempt to be very detailed, but there are some interesting things in it.
Quote:
CARLTON: The Blues are mainly a one-on-one team. They prefer a contest all over the field. They are happy to back defenders one-on-one with the support of the midfield in open play. Andrew Carrazzo is a key in their game plan as he has the ability to draw the opposition's loose player up the ground.
Quote:
WEST COAST: The Eagles' tactics are arguably the most transparent, simple and effective. They will always impose their desire of one-on-one football on the opposition. If the other team has a loose player the Eagles will send his opponent with him, sometimes resulting in an eight or nine-man forward line. This ensures no easy rebound for the opposition and a contest forward of every midfield stoppage.
WESTERN BULLDOGS: The Bulldogs love to run and create and enjoy the opportunity to have a loose player behind the ball. It helps them set up their fast and skilful method of play. If you man their loose player up you give them more space through the midfield which they love.
The observations about the Eagles are particularly relevant for us.
There was a lot of criticism when we manned up the loose defenders against the Saints resulting in our F50 being clogged. But as Buckley notes, this is the way that the Eagles play it too. That resulted in a lot of criticism when Worsfold persisted with that plan against the Swans in the first final in Perth last year. The Swans were able to leave their forward-line open as a result. During the GF, there was an increased use of handball to break up the flooding.
Though this aspect of our game plan is identical to the Eagles, that doesn't mean that we model ourselves on them in all respects of course. Their strength is in their midfield - they have a dominant ruckman, and a few elite midfielders with support from experienced midfielders who can run all day. We are weak in the ruck and have few elite to good midfielders. On the other hand, our strength is in our key positions and running talls, especially up forward. Naturally enough, a direct game into the forward line suits us better than sharing the ball around by hand and foot. And of course the Eagles are a much better team than we are - that's obvious but needs to be said to avoid someone making this observation as if it invalidates any comparison between our game plans (which in my opinion it doesn't).
But just as the Eagles' preparedness to pick up loose defenders faced a test against the Swans, we will face our Waterloo against the Bulldogs. As Buckley points out, the Bulldogs will be happy if we do, as it will result in less congestion in the middle. That will give them greater latitude to run and their skills by foot will enable them to pick out leading targets in the forward line.
The standard tactic against the Bulldogs now seems to be to allow them numbers inside 50, but corral them as they come out of defence with the ball and man up their teammates running beside and ahead of them. Congesting the room ahead of them results in their ball-carriers being unable to run far into the midfield, and they are confronted by contests ahead of them. That results in confusion and hesitation, and they turn it over.
It'll be interesting to see whether we play to our game plan or adjust to attack the Bulldogs' gameplan.
