Blue Vain wrote:
Unfortunately we currently play a one dimensional game style that leaves our defence exposed. I posted a while ago (6 weeks?) that we were in the 8 or contending yet we had conceded the second most points.
Teague likes to stretch the ground and to retain forwards deep which creates space but it also makes us predictable and exploitable when the opposition win it back. We play an almost exclusive front half game but you need more than that to prevent the opposition settling in to a defensive system.
Perhaps the training restrictions this year have prevented the ability to diversify but we need to mix it up and get offensive run from our back half as well. Some posters have bemoaned our lack of run from defence. Well, that's the reason why. We don't compress the ground enough in defence so when we bring the ball out, it's either chip kicks or Hail Marys to the contest.
18th in the AFL for uncontested possessions and 17th for handballs.
Ask yourself how many goals we've got out the back this year. Very few. Some times you need to get players up the ground, compress the defence and bring the ball out with run. It's great that Teague has a preferred system to play the game but we need more next season.
Good points BlueVain.
Also, with regard to defence - in the games I went to I noticed that as the ball rebounded, our defenders...
- were frequently caught out of position
- Didn't run hard enough
They just didn't seemed 'mentally switched on' about what the opposition were doing once they broke our lines.
Our centre clearances would also fall apart completely for periods which was a big factor in all those 4-5 goal opposition sequences.
Anyway, some tidy-up on stats...
Our Goal-efficiency climbed off the bottom only in the last round due to the bottom 3 teams having 'worse-even-than-Carlton' shockers in the final round:
North 4 goals from 43 Inside 50s (18.6% for year)
Adelaide 4 fm 34 (18.9%)
Sydney 9 fm 47 (19.1%)
Carlton 10 fm 37 (19.4%)
Also the final 'Quarters Won' count had a log jam for 4th with several teams catching up to Carlton:
42- Port, Gee
40 - Brisbane
39 - Carlton, St.Kilda, Richmond, Bulldogs
...just look at the company we keep - All playing finals.
Our contested possessions were 5th but, as Blue Vain pointed out, the 18th rank for Uncontested and 17th for handballs dragged the total down so that we were also
18th for TOTAL Disposals.Inside 50s stayed 4th and that just leads us back to the crap goal-efficiency figure and all the discussion here as to how they were Wasted with our shit forward setup and lousy delivery from mids.