Chicken's paddock because Pagan's paddock is outdated

Just thought I would put up an alternative 'game' plan that might suit our team structure a bit better than the current pagan's paddock which isnt working - given that "people will feel more confident knowing that some of the posters on this site have all the answers to our Recruiting/Matchplay/Whiteboard Placement/Tactics/Personnel Deployment/Training/Coaching")

One of the criticisms of modern day drafting, and indeed many of the players on our list is that they are atheletes first, and footballers second. The way that I see things is that these players need game time to develop properly - and when I say game time I mean a lot of it (even kouta needed it). These players also need a bit of faith shown to them by the coach - ie a coach who is prepared to leave them on the ground even if they are struggling a bit, to not drop them every second week.

There's a lot of talk about team structure and the shortfalls of our list atm - what we do seem to have an abundance of though is tall fast-ish running athelete types - walker, waite, prendergast, bannister, russell and setanta.

Basically what I would like to do (though its not going to happen obviously) is to run these guys as 'soft taggers' on the oppositions second string midfield (ie outside the top 2 players in any midfield). The players will be under explicit instructions to run with these guys when the opponents have the ball and to niggle (bump, distract). On a turn over though all running players MUST sprint forward to provide the link marking options in the midfield. When possession they are to take on their opponents (ie push forward with the ball) and to either handball off to a another midfielder that is free to pinpoint a pass or to bomb it long to the goal square themselves (or as close to as possible). If the ball goes to ground then the 1st option is to just soccer it forward (as opposed to picking it up).

Quite simple really - however there are a few things that also come with it
1. Provided that the soft taggers remain with their opposition player (ie within 2-3metres) whenever we dont have the ball they will remain on the field ALL game, every game (minimum 6 week period) - regardless of form, the number of possessions they accumulate or what their opponents might accumulate. If the soft tags leave their opponents then they get benched (regardless of whether the opponent actually obtained possession). If the opponent is doing too much damage, then the soft tag may be rotated but NOT benched. The exception to this, is if we actually have possession of the ball and it gets turned over whilst players are pushing forward (ie they are caught out).
2. The 1st option of ALL rebounds out of defensive 50 must be to look for these midfielders. The only exception is if there is a very obviously free player downfield. In effect these guys become out primary midfielders and the sprint forward is the creation of a midfield paddock). Other players may present but they are dummy options.
3. The 'handball' option for primary midfielders are those with good disposal (stevens, houlahan, lappin, campo, kouta). These disposal midfielders are now effectively secondary midfield options.

What this achieves
1. It gives the atheletes a LOT of game time (to build skills, understanding of the gameby being brought to the ball) and the opportunity to develop without having to worry about making mistakes (ie it is designed specifically to build confidence).
2. Reduces the reliance on the established footballers (stevens, kouta etc) AND opens up opportunities for them in the long run. Its a very common feature of most football teams to look for the seasoned pro through the midfield (bulldogs usage of west, johnson, smith etc through the midfield being the obvious example). The consequence of this though is that it actually stunts development on players that need to get the ball (to build that confidence, to feel part of the group) and it makes it a lot easier for opposition coaches to plan (ie shutdown west et al and u most likely win the game). Its quite common for opponents to migrate towards a buckley, west, mccleod etc because they are more likely to get the ball than no name in his 20th game. The game plan actually makes a concious effort to draw the ball away from the 'established' players which in time frees them up more from tagging and the 'migration effect'.

Predicatability - the game plan (kicking through the midfield through the 'primary' talls) tself is extremely simple and as such should NOT be the primary gameplan against all oponents and at all times (aside from having the players on ground all the time). Rather it should be 'switched' on and off for extended periods of the game (ie 2nd and 4th quarters only). By reducing the predicatability it makes it harder for opposition coaches to 'pick up' something is on (ie a specific gameplan) and hence any reactionary measure taken is likely to be delayed.

Risk/Reward - Its a high risk game plan. If the players cant move the ball forward through the primaries (it gets turned over, not enough ground is gained from soccering forward), then we will be hurt on the rebound and quite badly. Compounding this risk, is that the primaries will remain on the field at all times provided the soft tags are maintained (2-3 meter distance). The rewards however can be great. Primarily it is the rapid development of the players that need it the most (the weaker footballers) - it teaches these guys discipline, and understanding of the game (by being brought to the ball) and instils confidence (being first options in counter attacks) - in effect it serves to improve depth and list quality as well as making it a lot harder for opposition coaches to match up on.

Anyway, flame away - otherwise feel free to discuss the actual merits of the proposal

Cue CC

Interesting.... However in oreder for this to work there needs to be one massive ingredient.... DISCIPLINE .... with no discipline this doesn't work just as no game plan works.

But very interesting and in essence it may be something that could be used with some of our fringe type players.. Maybe ...

Some thought you put into this by the way .

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Chicko,

If we can't deliver by hand or foot then no game plan is useful. While your idea about stacking our midfield with runners is good, those runners cannot hit a target, and there's no-one to win a centre-clearance.

Our disposal is so poor that we'd be smashed on the rebound particularly if the job of the players is to go hard forward...

I'm too tired to analyse the thing fully but there are some preliminary ideas

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- Igor Stravinsky

One sure way to improve an athletes nous is to ask him to tag a gun.A gun will lead him to the ball every time.If the athlete has any nous it will sink in where to run to improve his chances of getting a kick...
So yeah Chick,.i sorta agree.

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CC
1. I agree about the importance of disposal. However, disposal can vary greatly depending on confidence and familiarity with conditions. For the 'footballers' who have pretty much learnt to dispose under pressure this tends to be better than the atheletes (who experience this at training ie optimal conditions). In order to really improve though the atheletes need to get a lot of possies and get used to having to dispose under pressure. The more u do it the better u get - I dont think u can disagree with me there. The other aspect of disposal (confidence) is vastly underrated - whilst they we wont develop pinpoint disposal overnight, we are a LOT better than we have been showing recently - the only difference is confidence (remember wiggins running and delivering 2 pinpoint passes a couple weeks back?)
2. One thing I forgot to post was some clearer details on team structure - I've listed 6 tall atheletes though realistically I'd probably only ever run 4-5 on the ground at one time (bannister to miss for mine). The actual starting positions of these players wouldnt be in the guts but rather distributed further out - they will then move into the midfield after ball ups. They dont actually become primary targets until the ball is being rebounded from defensive 50.
As examples of starting positions I would have
walker/russell - wings
setanta - starting forward pocket then into moves to follow ruck (with french dropping back)
prendergast - ruck/ruckrover (kouta as the other and blackwell/stevens in the centre)
waite - HFF
If its a 4 man rotation, walker/russell can take a half each (off the bench), or alternatively it could be rotated so that each player gets 3 full quarters/game (6 man rotation for 4 possies on field).
The actual midfield rotation doesnt change that much with the probable exception of scotland and one other to the bench (ie footballing midfields warm the bench and provide fresh rotation as opposed to atheletes) - In that respect, our center clearance work wont degrade that much - and there is every chance that these atheletes will pick up one or two things from kouta (the prototype athelete turned footballer).
3. Poor disposal and being hurt on the rebound - as I said its all risk vs reward. I would fully expect us to be hurt on the rebound with players pushing forward so hard (particularly if they misread the play which WILL happen on ocassion). That is why I stated that irrespective of how many touches the opposition gets, provided the atheletes stick to the core rules they will not get punished. Its all about building confidence and instilling faith in the players on the list with the greatest upside. Damage however is limited in that they wont be going head to head against the very top midfielders (stevens, kouta, campo etc have these jobs). Along the way, we might get the odd thrashing and I could live with that as it is to a very strict plan the potential upside is huge.


Tractorboy - agree. Discipline is paramount though its a very different discipline to what is expected in the normal footy sense. For mine, its a lot easier for an athelete follow someone around the ground than to make the 'play' so to speak. Its a specific task that they can perform so the disciipline required is easier - particularly as they are not going to be judged on how many touches they get, or how their opponents perform - the goal is for them to learn by association (being brought into the play), pick up the speed of the game, to teach them to create play (sprint forward to create the midfield link option) and to develop other skills along the way (through basic absorption of being on field). There is also a side element here - I specifically stated that the soft tags must niggle their opponents - be it constant bumping, trash talk, pushing etc - the goal here is to gradually build in aggression

If they stray from their direct opponent then they are benched regardless of whether their opponent gets the ball - its a very strict in that sense.

The other area of discipline, which is going to be harder to instill is to make the other players look for the atheletes on the rebound as first option. Difficult if only because you would be asking top level players to sacrifice the easy possessions for the long term improvement of the team

4th chicken no one seems to have worked out yet that you only need to kick 4 goals every 1/4 to win 90 % of games. The good sides do this in 5-10 minute burst and spend the rest of the time trying to limit the damage and setting up scoring chances. Every time we get the ball we charge forward and play on at all cost ( like a rabbit when a gun has gone off). We take an uncontested mark on the HF or wing and instead of weighing up the options we kick to the first Navy blue jumper we see regardless of how many opposition players are around them. I think at times we would be better served just to settle things down a little . The stuff your suggesting here is not all that different to what we play at the moment with players running up and down the lines. We get hurt when the ball turns over because we are all charging forward trying to create an option.
We have played 3 -4 good quarters of footy this year and that was when we went in with a 5-6 man forward structure . It gives you more options to kick to and you have a better chance of holding the ball in the forward line when you have numbers there. The opposition has worked out that we are going in with a 3 man forward set up and often put 1-2 players back to fill in the hole. It easy do defend and when they get the ball the rest of the mid feild is charging forward to create an option that there are opposition players loose everywhere. Its dumb footy when you have a poorly skilled side like ours it might work if you have the talent but we dont.

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