smithy wrote:
They force turnovers in the midfield and score from stoppages better than anyone. I'd love to see a heat map for their whole squad for that Ess game, seems to me that their plan isn't so much about those smalls applying pressure/ forcing turnovers in the forward line but doing it in the center of the ground, they achieve this by outnumbering and outmaneuvering opposition through the middle. Overwhelming opposition mids by playing less talls. They decided to experiment a logical new structure with less talls (mostly by accident through injury), talls especially tall fwds and rucks to a lesser extent are almost redundant atm, the complete opposite plan of the way our list has gone, we need to find a way to utilize our talls; that is our advantage over them... maybe our only one.
Marking talls will never be outdated. Richmond have a good intercepting backman in Rance. If someone like Franklin is on song, they will leak more goals.
If you can win clearances and have clean inside fifty entries, a reasonable goal to behind ratio from your marking forwards, you will win games. We haven't had that for a long time (probaby since Fev).
You can have all the mids in the world swarming forward but if the ball goes the other way and the tall forwards can mark it, you're cooked.
The ball traveling through the air will always win out over a runner. The secret as you pointed out is not to turn it over in the midfield (especially when your mob is running towards your own goal).
We still have an inexperienced midfield group and they may get flogged at the clearances early in the season. Our backline is pretty quick and not over tall so we may hold up OK.
Raw emotion and the home crowd may prove the difference. One thing is for sure, the joint will be jumping, especially if we can stay with them. I think the AFL will be pretty chuffed that these two sides are going to clash in the finals in the next few years.
Can't wait for round one. It seems like such a long time since they played.