COLLINGWOOD v WEST COAST GAME ANALYSIS

Not much was expected from this game over the weekend but the provided a very good showing of themselves, even if the Pies were trying a short kicking game that worked into the Eagles hands as far as pressuring was concerned.

As always though it's all in the consistency of effort and execution for the Eagles who, based on this performance, should be well and truly in the game in the last quarter in next week's game v GWS at home.

The Eagles even made about half of these clips which I reckon is a first for them!

From this game we look at:

• Center Bounce Going Back to the Corresponding Game Last Year
• West Coast Drive Legs to Create Overlap
• West Coast Forward Press Defense x 2
• Senior Eagle Players Letting Them Down at Contest
• West Coast Losing Nick Daicos in Transition
• Collingwood Defensive Formation Setting Up Their Offense
• West Coast Outnumber Fail

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SYDNEY v WESTERN BULLDOGS GAME ANALYSIS

The Swans are finally back in form but it's come too late and even winning every game left for the rest of the season, we still fall a game short of the 8 at best!

That being said hopefully we can take some scalps on the way home and take something out of 2025.

An absolute belter of a game, we look at:

• Sydney Forward Half Team Formation
• Better Kickers = Better Kicks!
• Bont Run
• Heeney Stoppage Goal 1
• Papley Designated Hit Up Forward
• Sydney Center Bounce Clearance
• Heeney Stoppage Goal 2
• Sydney Fat Line 

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS PART 11 CHATPGT VERSION!

                                                               

I broadened my technical horizon's during the week and with how long the Cognition in Elite Footballers series went, thought I'd see what ChatGPT would do to it and mucked around with it for the first time.

It's still very detailed but an obvious shorter and abbreviated version was spat out and here's what it looked like.

**Three-Stage Cognition Model for Decision-Making in Dynamic Sport Situations**

*Perception-Action Cycle*

Each play (\~few seconds) involves:

1. Stage 1: Situation Assessment
2. Stage 2: Action Selection & Execution
3. Stage 3: Outcome Assessment

 

All stages interact in a cascading, parallel, and feedback-rich manner.

 

Stage 1: Situation Assessment

 

Purpose: Continuously assess the current play situation using perceptual inputs and learned schemas.

 

Cognitive Processes: Visual orientation & attention: Driven by eye movements, head/body orientation, guided by:

* Ball, player positions, postural cues, open spaces

 

Pattern recognition: Recognizing structural play patterns (relative motion more important than absolute)

 

Anticipation:

* Predict immediate future based on postural cues/contextual priors

* Influenced by opponent tendencies & structural configurations

 

Working Memory (WM):

* Temporary storage for situational representations

* Influences attentional focus and informs Stage 2

 

Modulators:

Executive control (top-down strategies)

 

Skill level: Experts show:

* More relevant fixations

* Better cue integration

* Contextual flexibility

 

Creativity linked to:

* Broader attention

* Strategic visual exploration

 

Stage 2: Action Selection & Execution

 

Purpose: Select and perform the most appropriate action (pass, shoot, dribble, tackle, etc.).

 

Cognitive Mechanisms: Procedural Long-Term Memory (LTM)

* Matches current situation with stored action-situation pairings

*Motor representation competition:

* Neural populations (fronto-parietal networks) represent competing action options

* Basal ganglia act as a selection gate

* Affordance competition: Fast decision if match is strong; slow under uncertainty

 

Executive Functions:

* Mental shifting, inhibitory control, WM updating

* Modulate automatic selection with conscious strategies (e.g., tactics)

 

Response Modality:

* Automatic (experts): One strong match leads to near-immediate execution

* Flexible (creative): Multiple competing options require more feedback from Stage 1

 

Determinants of Decision:

* Pattern match accuracy

* Motor competence (available action repertoire)

* Risk-reward evaluation (confidence, recent outcomes, strategy)

* Time pressure (automaticity increases under speed demands)

 

Stage 3: Outcome Assessment & Feedback Learning

 

Purpose: Evaluate the success of the executed action to adjust future perception and action strategies.

 

Learning Mechanisms: Reward prediction error:

* Dopaminergic signals track the mismatch between expected and actual outcomes

* Drives learning through neural plasticity

 

Feedback effects:

* Modifies orienting behaviour (Stage 1)

* Changes action selection tendencies (Stage 2)

* Adjusts confidence/metacognition

 

Metacognitive monitoring:

* Confidence in decisions dynamically modulated by feedback

* Influences risk-taking and future executive involvement

 

Key Cross-Stage Themes

 

Function               →              Role               →               Interacts With                          

Working Memory → Temporary store of play info; carries Stage 1 to Stage 2 →Executive control, attentional focus

Executive Functions → Bias automatic action selection, enable flexibility → Visual search, risk modulation

Creativity → Novel & adaptive responses → Linked to visual exploration, executive control

Anticipation → Predict upcoming events to act sooner →  Relies on postural cues, contextual priors

Learning → Reinforces or inhibits behaviors based on outcomes  → Modifies attention, response tendencies

 

Skill Differences

Factor        →        Skilled Players        →        Lesser Skilled Players                

Visual Search → Shorter, more targeted fixations → Longer, ball-focused

Pattern Recognition  → Recognize abstract structures → Focus on superficial features

Anticipation → Use multiple cues adaptively → Rely heavily on context, less flexible

Working Memory Use → Efficient; delegate to LTM → Heavier WM load

Executive Control → Stronger; more adaptive → Weaker under pressure

Feedback Integration → More nuanced → Less consistent

Applications

 

Training:

* Develop visual search strategies

* Promote flexible response training over rigid automations

* Include contextual cues for anticipation

 

Talent ID:

* Use executive function & pattern recognition testing

Coaching:

* Encourage situational feedback loops

* Promote team-level knowledge of opponents' tendencies

COLLINGWOOD v ST KILDA GAME ANALYSIS

                             

Today we finish off round 15 with the 2nd part of the Collingwood/St Kilda game where we look at:

• Saints Not Going Corridor Option
• Lipinski Lane Running
• Nick Daicos at Center Bounce
• Collingwood Going Corridor Rebounding from Defensive 50
• Collingwood Layered Defense but Saints Handle It

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SYDNEY/PORT ADELIADE+ COLLINGWOOD/ST KILDA GAME ANALYSIS

In part 2 of 3 this week we finish off the Sydney/Port game and start on the Collingwood/St Kilda game, specifically discussing:

• Another Gulden kick 
• Forwards always stay active and look for gaps
• Heeney pushing forward
• Collingwood at center bounce
• Saints not using numbers in transition
• Clean v Not Clean

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GEELONG/BRISBANE + PORT ADELAIDE/SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS

 

Actually got the chance to watch a fair bit of footy this weekend as opposed to the past few resulting in 18 clips to go through over 3 posts this week.

Today we look at Geelong v Brisbane then some of Port v Sydney, specifically:

• The Cats being too aggressive with their ball movement against a more aggressive Brisbane defense
• Keep your wing width at contest
• Brisbane kick out
• Sydney forward press defense
• Gulden kick
• Campbell Lane Run

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS PART 10

The 10th and final installment in this series again looks at stage 3 in cognition of elite footballers.

If you have read this series deeply enough then you should have come across so many pointers on how players become elite and you should now be able to devise training plans in accordance with the content from these posts.

Today we look at attentional reorienting, perceptual learning and metacognition to finish off with.

• Outcome assessment has other effects on cognitive process than modification of automatic action tendencies such as those related to attentional/perceptual processes in stage 1 as well as executive control over response processes in stage 2
• Dopamine feedback mechanisms also influence orientation behavior in stage 1
• Given the close coupling between exploratory behavior/attentional focus, these behavioral modifications imply changes in attentional processes such as a stronger tendency to monitor a specific spatial direction if something unexpected just occurred from there however the outcome assessment also has effects on perceptual processes related to pattern recognition/anticipation
• Recognisation/prediction of play depends on accumulated experience from infinite individual situations and every time you perceive an outcome, a small modification is made with the long term result being the difference between skilled/lesser skilled players in terms of pattern recognition/anticipation
• Executive control processes at stage 2 are also influenced by outcome assessment, specifically the risk taking aspect of response selection which is largely dependent on confidence levels at the time which are closely related to metacognition processes, defined as the ability to monitor the accuracy of your own cognitive/behavioral functions
• Confidence levels for given abilities are dynamically modified by individual experiences where outcome assessment can provide necessary feedback to continuously modify (positively/negatively) the player’s confidence and thereby the tendencies to select particular actions

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TRAINING - DIFFERENTIAL LEARNING

Back in late January I started a series of posts of the different training activities I've been using with my senior women's team and within that came something called differential learning.

No 2 kicks are ever the same in a game of footy with the multitude of constraints the game is played under such as time, space, pressure, weather, action capabilities, confidence, game model, score etc.

This makes the search for the 1 and perfect technique fruitless as you'll rarely get the opportunity to use it + it can make you far less adaptable in regards to all the other kicks you'll need to perform in a game.

If you want to know exactly what adaptability looks like then look no further then this:

Differential learning involves practicing the same basic skill through as many slight variations as you can that builds the bandwidth of player skill acquisition, the very thing they need in games with so many different variations of the same skill required during games.

Skill deconstruction - where you breakdown single elements of a fine motor skill, miss the mark as they are usually broken down in isolation in the hope that it'll will be added back to the full movement once games come around, but that is not what is supported by research. 

When I perform we pair up about 20m apart forming 2 lines.

I then demonstrate the kick to be performed and then the players simply repeat it each then I show the next one for 15 kicks.

We started every pre-season session with this but with the colder weather I have't done as much of it so we're standing in the cold just getting colder but it still gets a run every 2- 3 weeks or so.

The outcome of the kick isn't of huge importance either but your most adaptable players will be more "successful" then your lesser adaptable players.

All kicks are performed on your dominant side so any left/right in the title means left direction/right direction, stand on left leg then right leg etc.

A kick performed for "left and right" = 2 kicks too.

There's over 110 kicks right there and you're only limited by your imagination!

A few years ago I ran this with my son and a football friend of his kicking into a cricket net with high and low sections, with/without partner pressure, small ball/big ball, receiving stationary/on the run and a bunch of other constraints and have a spreadsheet with over 1300 different kicks on it so you should never repeat a kick.

This is perfect for youth players (would be perfect as a kick randomiser phone app!!) who go for kicks of the footy on their own - do their 15 differential learning kicks against the cricket nets then head onto the ground to kick goals from all over the shop.

Here are the kicks we've used so far this season...

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GAME INTELLIGENCE LEVEL 1 PART 2

Just over a week ago I posted part 1 of the Game Intelligence Challenge Level 1.

I actually have 3 levels of these that I made up that increase in the level of game understanding and pattern recognition required but once again, there can easily be many different answers to the same problem as football is so chaotic with many different philosophies around it.

Part 1 looked at position specific questions and now in part 2 we go around the ground and look at general play interactions.

 

LEVEL 1 – AROUND THE GROUND

 

L1-15: What does the GWS ball carrier need to do here for this handball to give their team the advantage?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw3htIkc6fw

 

L1-16: What are the main teaching points of ground ball technique?

 

L1-17: Can you explain the concept of slow play, its advantages and when it is best used?

 

L1-18: Can you explain the concept of fast play, its advantages and when it is best used?

 

L1-19: Can you spot the number advantage in this play?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNgi8Gd2iPA

 

L1-20: Can you spot the number advantage in this play?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B1c542Ky2c

 

L1–21: What is the best option for the Essendon ball carrier in this situation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3eYxftfN1Q

 

L1–22: What is the best option for the Saints ball carrier in this situation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozm0QHHfC5k

 

L1-23: What is the best option for the Bulldogs ball carrier in this situation? Red are the opposition!

                                  

L1-24: The Hawks are going to the right of the image, and have dropped the mark. A Richmond defender is coming at them so what is their most important job in this situation?

                                             

 

Again send your answers to aussierulestraining@gmail.com or DM if you're on X or Facebook.

COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS PART 9

                                                             

In part 9 (and the 2nd last post in this marathon series!) we take a look at the finer details of stage 3, specifically the assessment outcome, feedback-based learning and behavioral learning and reinforcement.

• When action has been executed you, perceive the outcome which completes the perception-action cycle by modifying cognitive neural settings for future situations
• This is where stage 3 provides a critical learning element where the outcome is perceived as successful or unsuccessful relative to intention of action and the assessment is subjective in not necessarily equivalent to the objective costs/benefits for the team, but related to the individual's goals/level of self interest which may/may not overlap with the team
• The learning impact of the assessment is coupled with the player’s expectations for the outcome, an inherent aspect of the action produced in stage 2 where an action with low expectation of success will lead to a stronger behavioral feedback if successful than an action expected to be carried out well every time and vice versa
• This relates to the theory of reward of prediction error which states that the difference between predicted/received rewards is the central mechanism for behavioral learning and at the neurophysiological level
• Prediction errors are indexed through up and down regulation of activity in dopaminergic neurons which signal the amount of deviation from the predicted outcome which can affect cognitive processes related to action selection corresponding to plastic changes in the balance between excitation/inhibition of specific response in stage 2.
• This dopaminergic behaviur also feeds back to the orientation movements at stage 1 that immediately preceded the action and reinforces this behavior either positively or negatively where the assessment of the action outcome makes the player either more or less likely to try that again in the future
• There’s some overlap in mesolimbic dopaminergic activity between monetary and social (sport-related) rewards indicating that the general neural mechanisms of reward learning also apply to sports
• There’s also an interaction with egoism personality scores where the activation of the middle front gyrus when scoring indirectly via a pass v by a direct shot correlated with this personality measure

MELBOURNE v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS PART 2/2

                                 

In part 2 of the King's Birthday clash we look at:

• How attacking do you want to be?
• Dees going back to bad habits
• The numbers game again
• Dees literally going into default mode the longer the game goes on

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MELBOURNE v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS PART 1/2

Super effort from the Dees yesterday whop were able to win crucial stats like inside 50's (+9), clearances (+10 and +9 in center bounce clearance) and scoring shots (+4) but watching the game, the Pies hurt them with uncontested possession (+67) and marks (+43) which forced the Dees into their usual down-the-line game, the one they're trying to move on from!

To beat them while they're down the expected score was also 75 - 65.9 in Melbourne's favor.

In today's video we  look at:

• Collingwood's pressing team defense
• Melbourne's attempted pressing defense
• Collingwood lane running on transition offense
• The numbers game part 1

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GAME INTELLIGENCE CHALLENGE

 

• Test and Enhance Your Knowledge of the Game
• Get Help with Identifying Patterns of Play
• Learn at the Edges of your Current Ability to Stretch, but not Overwhelm
• Expand Your Search and Exploration Area
• No Right or Wrong Answers
• Suitable for Coaches and Players of All Levels

Welcome to the Aussie Rules Training Game Intelligence Challenge.

“You cannot teach skills without knowledge...skills are an accumulation of knowledge” - Daisy Christodoulou (Director of Education, No More Marking)

What this challenge will focus on is the building your game intelligence through improving your knowledge-of-the game which is the ability to identify patterns of play before, and while, they are occurring, as well as being aware of what you’re affordances (opportunities for action) are, in a given situation.

“Self-regulating players can think for themselves and can solve game situations through their communication with the game environment and their decision-making as well how they interact with the game” – David Garcia, Coach Educator

By developing your knowledge-of-the-game you can dramatically improve your knowledge-in-the-game, which means a decrease in your decision making time, giving you more time to physically act, resulting in you being involved in more game interactions, and then having more impact when you’re in them.

“Understand how small events can have significant consequences and amplify the chaos on and off the field” – Fergus Connolly, Elite Performance Coach

There are 3 levels to the Game Intelligence Challenge with each level fielding question/scenarios relating to the backline, wing/ruck positions, the midfield, the forward line and around the ground interactions.

Today I will start posting questions from level 1 of which there are 24!

I have my own answers to each question but there are no right or wrong answers – your answers will be based off what YOU see in front of you, what YOU have been exposed to in your playing/coaching experiences and the playing/coaching philosophy YOU have towards footy right now.

“Your real job as a coach is to create more leaders, not more followers”

There will be answers you have that I don’t have and vice-versa, and that’s what a growth mindset is all about – being open to new knowledge that might go against what you currently believe, but being open to differing opinions and beliefs.

As a way to scaffold the content, a proven way to effectively deliver learning material, the challenge will be delivered 1 level at a time.

There is no “marking” of anything, making this a safe zone for thoughts and exploration, especially if some of this is new to you. You’ll give me your answer and then I’ll provide feedback based on that, with the aim to guide you towards a potentially more effective solution if I have one!

Above all this is aimed at being a challenging, but fun, activity which is where we can enter a flow state, which is the optimal state for higher level learning.

 

LEVEL 1 – BACK LINE 

L1-1: As a defender, how can you position yourself against your opposition forward and why?

L1-2: You're working the ball out of defence in open play, what's your #1 goal?

 

LEVEL 1 – WING

L1-3: Explain what the skinny wing is and what are their roles?

L1-4: Explain what the fat wing is and what are their roles?

 

LEVEL 1 – RUCK

L1-5: What is the most important role of the ruck player?

L1-6: What could the ruck player be doing when not in the immediate play?

 

LEVEL 1 – MIDFIELD

L1-7: What are some team-based offensive tactics you can use at a stoppage?

L1-8: What are some team-based defensive tactics you can use at a stoppage?

L1-9: How can you individually create an advantage at stoppage?

L1-10: How can your team collectively create an advantage at stoppage?

L1-11: What are the sweeper’s biggest roles/responsibilities? 

 

LEVEL 1 – FORWARD LINE

L1-12: What can forwards do individually when not in the immediate play?

L1-13: What can forwards do collectively when not in the immediate play?

L1-14: How could connection have been better between the Collingwood ball carrier and the players ahead of them here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_54aQfoq80&feature=youtu.be

 

Send your answers to aussierulestraining@gmail.com or DM if you're on X or Facebook.

COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS PART 8

In part 8 of this monster study, we stay in stage 2 and look at the part executive functions play in elite footballers.

• Executive functions is where action selection is non-conscious where its outcome can be influenced by conscious intentions and other cognitive control processes adding flexibility to an already automatically driven behavior which is important for dynamic/complex sports
• Conscious control leaves room for coordination between players in the form of strategies/tactics from coaches but there is trade off between flexibility offered by cognitive control and the speed gained by automatic reactions.
• Core executive functions belong to 3 main categories x mental shifting, information updating and inhibitory control
• Information updating is closely related to working memory as described in stage 1
• Higher-level executive functions combine several core processes for the handling of complex tasks (planning reasoning, creative problem solving) and there is some evidence that executive functions are important in sports as athletes tend to outperform non-athletes on tests of inhibition/problem solving and athletes from strategic sports score higher on response conflict tasks than non-strategic athletes
• Executive control functions are relevant to stage 2 processes such as orienting behavior but as mentioned in stage 1, it’s not directly addressed in literature
• Executive functions are typically investigated by standard cognitive tests such as trail making (mental shifting), stop signal and stroop tasks (response inhibition) and design fluency (higher level executive processes) where skilled players score better than average on these tests and those executive scores correlate to performance
• In skilled v lesser skilled v non athletes, both skilled groups scored higher than non athletes and high skilled far higher than lower skilled + there was a high correlation between design fluency scores and goal/assist stats 2 season’s later
• High level executive functions are related to the ability to adaptively read the game
• Creativity is another flexible action selection which are solutions that are novel and appropriate across different situational contexts and is related to a higher degree of visual exploration as seen with flexible response generation in stage 2, which is related to more elaborate information gathering processes in stage 1 which tend to activate a single response option
• High correlation between tests of executive function/visual functions pointing to a connection of the 2 in cognitive domains of sport
• Creativity is also related to training/game playing policies in different clubs and could result from both conscious choices of playing attitude as well as automatic, over-learned processes established by training regimes emphasising response flexibility
• Executive functions are highly relevant for skilled performance due to response flexibility with performance on higher level executive tests related to match performance + creativity is important to response flexibility and is related to elaborate exploration in stage 1

COLLINGWOOD v HAWTHORN GAME ANALYSIS

The Pies are absolutely rolling right now and seem to have a leg out in front of everyone else v the Hawks struggling to reclaim their electric form from the 2nd half of last season.

The Pies organisation was once again on show Friday night, strangling any ball movement tendencies the Hawks wanted to utilise and then destroying them on turnover inside forward 50.

Today we look at:

• Hawthorn Kick Out 
• Collingwood Team Connection
• Collingwood Pressure
• Nick Daicos Run
• Collingwood Team Connection + Checkers Unchecked
• Sydney Forwards

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