AFLW GRAND FINAL - NORTH MELBOURNE v BRISBANE PART 1/2

Season 10 is done and dusted and it was a whitewash really with the dominance of North Melbourne.

The Roos went 12-0 with a % of 321.5 in the regular season and then backed that up in the finals going 3-0 with a % of 262.

Dare we add that they were missing 2 of their starting 18 in Mia King and Nicole Bresnehan not being available through injury.

It's hard to see them not winning 3 on the trot or more at this point as they'll just keep adding top free agents where needed until the AFLW payment structure is changed.

The Lions were the 2nd best team in it this year but it just shows the chasm between North and the 2nd best - in their 2 games this year it was cumulative score of 121 - 48.

North Melbourne's depth is immense and it was THE difference in this game as I alluded to in this tweet:

 https://x.com/AFLTraining/status/1994919992870264849?s=20

All that being said it's not like Brisbane were never in it - they were +5 for inside 50's even though they were -13 for clearance so they were able to move the ball through the North defense but watching the game you could clearly see that major issues with their method of going inside forward 50.

Today we look at:

• Brisbane Forward Press Defense
• North Melbourne Forward Press Defense
• North Melbourne Going Inside Forward 50
• North Melbourne Creating/Utilising the Outnumber Advantage
• Brisbane Going Back to the Numbers in Defensive Half
• Brisbane Forward Half Intercept

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PLAYING STYLES OF AFL TEAMS IN 2025 PART 3

                                         

After the shit show that was AFL-media in 2025 and the just-passed trade period, if it's real game analysis you're after then you should be following these guys:

Ricky Mangidis, James Ives, Cody Atkinson, Emlyn Breese and One Percenters

There's a few others that popped up through the course of the year but for the sake of this post, I'll keep at this lot as this information mostly comes from them with some other bits from other sources like Fox Footy etc.

What you'll see is little tid-bits I've chosen from most AFL teams that describes how they play, why they play like that and the results they get from doing so posted prior and during the 2025 AFL season.

For community coaches, you might recognise a team's traits in your own team's and then gather some ideas on how to make it more effective for your own team.

NORTH MELBOURNE

• In 1 game they started defending directly in front the ball but very also skinny so the opposition were easily able to get to the outside of them and go around them. The change was to defend with the same set up but in a far wider formation which forced the opposition to kick to the crowd straight in front of them or to extra wide that is more easily covered and defended.
• Again on defense, when the ball is on 1 side then cut off the corridor and force the opposition to chip-kick along the boundary line until you can recover and then spoil one out of bounds for a reset

PORT ADELIADE

• Fast transition offense means you're also susceptible to rapid counter-attack on turnover
• The big 3 in the middle (Butters, Rozee, JHF) all work best forward of center which leaves too much defensive work to Drew unless they start using defensive wingers

RICHMOND

• Went long down the line but couldn’t do anything at contest and resulted in a high turnover rate

ST KILDA

• They choke the corridor to force a slowdown in how the opposition can use the ball where they conceded the 2^nd most marks by choice
• They often had a +1 on the defensive side at stoppage
• They used superior numbers/structure to force turnovers in their defensive half
• Marshall loves to grab and kick out of the ruck (their best clearance player) but that was more a hinderance with the Saints being 17^th for scores from stoppage
• They win on control/marks, not chaos/groundballs
• They play a safety-first approach where they control the ball for so long it allows them to dictate tempo which also gives the opposition far less possession time which is an excellent theory if you are outmatched on talent but still wanting to win - the negative is that it leads to a low-event game and then you’re more susceptible to variance deciding the result

SYDNEY

• Combine control with chaos by gaining territory with short kicks/uncontested marks from the defensive half before looking for inboard kicks to beat the 1st layer of opposition defense and/or open space in/near the corridor
• Happy to take time to find the right option = 2^nd slowest ball movement team and 5^th most possessions per possession chain
• Once through the defense then it's off to the races
• 2^nd for bounces that creates player overloads
• Liked to station a midfielder (Parker, JJ, Adams, Chad) at half forward to negate opposition rebounders and force front half turnovers
• Brisbane changed lanes 56 times in the 2023 Grand Final v Syd 29 and almost all of the Swans' losses came from teams being able to change lanes laterally with high numbers of uncontested marks (Brisbane GF 150, Saints 123, Port 122, Bris 115, Freo 100, Rich 108, Dogs 98)
• Defend high so can easily cut off chaos balls out of forward 50 but could be too across the ground (3 talls+ruck) to cover the ground laterally when the opposition control their ball movement

WEST COAST

• Under McQualter, they want to become a territory team, apply high pressure to force turnovers with the end result being forward half footy
• The higher the groundball gets number, the higher the chaos style

WESTERN BULLDOGS

• Everything is still built on clearance strength and moving the ball outside by hand

AFLW FINALS GAME ANALYSIS - NORTH MELBOURNE/MELBOURNE + BRISBANE/CARLTON

The 2 best teams have made the AFLW Grand Final and the 3rd meeting of these 3 in the GF in a row!

Melbourne gave North plenty to think about in their game, with the fast start actually producing some slight kinks in the Roos armour - most notably being a bit shaky when faced with 1v1's in the defensive 50.

The Hore knock was a huge blow for the Dees who Ilve said were 1 midfielder short all season with Purcell out with injury and ot showed as Hore had to play the majority of the game forward and even though Pearce dominated the taps (23-12 win), they didn't convert that into clearance (14 - 21 loss).

And as elite teams do, they just overwhelm you over the course of the entire game and a 2.4 to 0.0 last quarter was a testament to that. 

The Blues were well in their game until the 3rd quarter where the Lions piled on 6.1 to 1.0 behind 6-2 center clearances and 13v4 inside forward 50's.

The Blues averaged 49 marks per game but were held to 38 in this one with potentially half of those in the last quarter when the game was done for.

Brisbane's speed of player and ball movement unsettled the Blues backline who prefer slower entries so they can intercept and go back the other way immediately but the Lions cut off all the exits when the Blues could actually intercept, forcing them to the boundary with dinky 20m lateral kicks.

Both losing teams can take a lot of this season as far as confidence and what they can achieve but also need to learn the lessons from these losses as well - which I'm sure they will with 2 very good coaches at the helm.

In the GF I'm tipping the Roos by 17pts.

Today we look at:

• Melbourne Going Inside Forward 50
• Melbourne Using Numbers Around the Ball
• North Melbourne Stoppage Goal
• Brisbane Not Using the Open Handball Option
• Brisbane at Center Bounce Clearance

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PLAYING STYLES OF AFL TEAMS IN 2025 PART 2

                                          

Before the commencement of the 2025 AFL season, a bunch of Twitter football stats accounts posted reviews of each team based-on the season previous which I did link to in this particular post back in February.

After the shit show that was AFL-media in 2025 and the just-passed trade period, if it's real game analysis you're after then you should be following these guys:

Ricky Mangidis, James Ives, Cody Atkinson, Emlyn Breese and One Percenters

There's a few others that popped up through the course of the year but for the sake of this post, I'll keep at this lot as this information mostly comes from them with some other bits from other sources like Fox Footy etc.

What you'll see is little tid-bits I've chosen from most AFL teams that describes how they play, why they play like that and the results they get from doing so posted prior and during the 2025 AFL season.

For community coaches, you might recognise a team's traits in your own team's and then gather some idea's on how to make it more effective for your own team.

FREMANTLE

• Defend with the ball
• No team needed more possessions to go from defensive 50 to forward 50 and by the time they made it there the opposition had all their defenders in there

GEELONG

• More ruck contests than any other side – very stoppage heavy and now rely on the post-clearance game v actual clearances by taking a player out of stoppage and dropping them a kick behind play, using stoppages to establish structure around the ground
• Dempsey starts on the wing but then at a mid 50 stoppage a half forward (Mannagh/Miers) comes up to take his man. Even if Geelong lose the clearance they are covered with their spare defender + the half forward covering the opposition wing. If Geelong can win the ball back quickly then Dempsey leaks out towards goal on his own

GOLD COAST

• In 2024 their poor mid-forward connection comes from not having a true link at half forward
• Were 16th for kick:handball ratio in 2024
• Had the highest % of long kicks in 20241
• Were 8^th for forward 50 retention in 2024
• Rowell averaged 3.1m from pre-clearance possession to disposal in 2024 (41^st) v 5.7m 9 (4^th) in 2025 which collapses the opposition into the contest leading to cleaner exits + number advantages on the outside. This also resulted in higher quality inside 50’s in 2025 where they were 18^th for retention in 2024 v 1st in 2025 + 2^nd for kick length going inside forward 50 in 2024 v 18th in 2025

GWS

• At stoppage their fast high half forwards sit just outside the contest available for handball receives or to disrupt the opposition doing the same
• Finn Callaghan v Colingwood had 11 carries over 5m from handball receives or groundball - 4 more than any other Collingwood player and almost all in the corridor - for 186m gained alone

HAWTHORN

• Flooded corridor to deny opposition space in the central zone with half forwards pushing up high but also wide, preventing the opposition from handball receives on the boundary side of the mark and limiting overlap opportunities. This forced the opposition to funnel the ball into contested areas in the corridor where they created kill zones via numbers/superiorities at ground level to force turnover’s and spread rapidly. With turnovers occurring closer to the middle of the ground than the wing they were much harder to stop
• Forcing wide is great defensively but it makes equally as hard for you offensively v forcing them corridor to your numbers is great for you offensively
• High half forward’s stay wide allowing the Hawks to circumvent opposition corridor defensive schemes
• All their defenders are 3^rd tall types who can compete in the air and at ground level, that can intercept and get involved in transition offense
• Love feeding back out of contest with tacklers overloading the opposition ball carrier
• On kick out they position 14 players on 1 side of the ground and if the defense fails to react then they have great numbers there but if the defense does react/shift to counter it then they'd have 1 - 2 of their quickest players sprinting into space on the weak side that just opened up from the defense shifting 

AFLW FINALS GAME ANALYSIS - HAWTHORN v CARLTON

                            

As I start off in the video, I tipped the Blues to win but not quite like that but the Hawks almost seemed like a bottom 8 team just waiting for the season to end except they won 12 games and were in a preliminary final.

The Blues on the other hand are manufacturing momentum with their play and are a genuine 50-50 up in Brisbane this week.

Unfortunately I think the Lions will bring the heat and experience and the bubble might burst for the Blues but they've shown their game is sustainable and their age demo is excellent to go again for another 2 - 3 years barring injury etc.

Going up against West Coast and Hawthorn,the Blues have encountered 2 finals opponents who have been very poor in converting inside 50's to scores - especially against other top 8 teams.

The Hawks finished 6th for total inside 50's at 449 and West Coast 9th with 414 but total goals for Hawks were 11th with 63 and the Eagles also 9th with 68.

The Lions totaled 528 inside 50's and accumulated 98 goals so as good as Carlton's defense has been it's about to get twice as tougher I reckon and the Lions WILL have a plan for Cordner so they won't be able to transition from defensive to forward 50 like that have in the last month.

Today we look at:

• Carlton Not Biting Off Corridor
• Baba Poise
• Carlton Biting Off Corridor
• Hawthorn Forwards Tagging Cordner
• Carlton Stoppage Goal

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AFLW FINALS GAME ANALYSIS - MELBOURNE v ADELAIDE

This was probably a top 5 all-time game in AFLW history.

The Adelaide 2nd quarter was immense and was only topped by the leader of forward craft in AFLW - Kate Hore.

I have to mention Tahlia Gillard who has been a mainstay top defender in the last few years but this year has gone into the elite category for mine. She used to lead the league in spoils but s now marking in defensive 50 and initiating transition offense for the Dees.

The Crows were able to generate a pretty high number of inside 50's (46) but were held to 7 goals of which 5 came in the aforementioned 2nd quarter.

The Crows just never seemed to be in the top 4 teams this year on form or ladder position and this is probably where they are at the moment.

With a new coach on the horizon, they might need to take a step back, trade some players with currency, get some high end draft picks and work towards their next premiership-contending team although I do like the looks of Prowse (22), Goodwin (21) and Rasheed (18) so aye it's a slight juggling of players shifting positions to allow them to really flourish.

The Dees have the enviable task of North Melbourne this week who they haven't played since round 3 last year in a 50pt loss and it might be the same again.

They're going to need 3+ goals from Hore to be in the hunt which then means they can't have her around the ball and they're a midfielder short in there anyway let alone against the Roos. 

The Roos pose soooo many problems - Do you tag Garner and/or Riddell in the midfield? Do you tag O'Shea and/or Kearney off half back? Do you have 3 talls to handle Shierlaw, Randall and King defensively? Can you make Birch/Ferguson accountable for a player in your own forward half?

I'd love to be a fly on the wall on the coaches meeting of North opposition at this time of the year and it's a case of what are you willing to give up, to get, and does that allow you to play a game that can win?

Absolute nightmare!

Today we look at:

• Melbourne Not Going Off the Line
• Gould Double Lead
• Melbourne Going into Forward 50 on Fast Play

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AFLW FINALS GAME ANALYSIS - MELBOURNE/BRISBANE + ADELAIDE/ST KILDA

                               

Again no major upsets here with the Lions and Crows both getting up to advance.

Brisbane's back line stood up keeping the trio of Hore, Harris and Zanker to just 2 goals although the loss of Zanker really let them get the ascendancy there.

The Dees have always been a midfielder short after Purcell went down, then having to use Hore in the middle which takes away her league-leading forward craft - robbing Peter to pay Paul.

With Zanker unavailable this week then it will again leave either Allen or Biddell free to intercept and that's why I'll be tipping the Crows.

Speaking of the Crows this went the way we thought it probably would with the Saints giving up 67 and 72 points in the last 2 games of the regular season and then 60 in this one - it's hard to think they beat Carlton just 4 weeks ago while keeping them to 36 points.

Today we look at:

• Brisbane at Center Bounce Clearance
• Conway Wing Run
• Melbourne Fat Side Line
• Conway Losing Goal Side
• Brisbane Transition Defense
• Adelaide Off-Ball Defense into Offense

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AFLW FINALS GAME ANALYSIS - NORTH MELBOURNE/HAWTHORN + CARLTON/WEST COAST

It's fair to say there wasn't any real surprises at the results from the weekend except for maybe how teams won.

North weren't at their best but the Hawks were playing VERY defensive and thus scored a measly 3 behinds and will take a huge turnaround for them to not go out in straight sets next week, as I alluded to last week.

I'm not on the we-need-more-scoring bandwagon, I know the reasons why it's difficult, but just 3 behinds from 28 inside 50's in a final is definitely alarming.

The Blues had 1 of the quarters of the year with 6 goals in the wet to game to bed v the Eagles  with only 6 other teams achieving a 6-goal quarter for the entire season - Sydney and Adelaide both in round 2 (Crows managed 7!) , North Melbourne twice in the same game in round 3, Melbourne and St Kilda in round 7 and Port Adelaide in round 12 - but none of those were in the wet in a final!

The Eagles are a season and half off really competing with the top tier teams but it's evident they have the cattle so we'll just time do its thing here.

Today we look at:

• Hawthorn Defensive Mistake
• North in Slow Play
• Another Hawthorn Defensive Mistake
• Roberts Pushing Forward
• Eagles Handballing Instead of Kicking
• Eagles Receiving Handball on Their Wrong Side
• Guerin Blitz x 3
• West Coast at Center Bounce Clearance

For full access to this game analysis, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

THE COACHES BLUEPRINT FOR 2026 - SAMPLE SESSION

Last week I challenged all coaches to sit down and find ways to turn their training drills (boring/zero learning) into training activities (high player engagement and involvement/high learning) in this post.

STEP #1 - SESSION THEME

Without a theme you're not really going to nail any real sustainable outcomes that carry into game day so you really need to start with this. The theme for this specific session is offense.

STEP #2 - THEME INTENTIONS

To break that down even further we also want to introduce some intentions around our them that will be the backbone of the entire session. For this session let's focus on communication, moving the ball into and through space and maintaining possession and control of play when in possession.

Players need to be made aware of these prior to the session via the group chat or at least in the coaches address at the start of the session but the earlier the better so players can clarify anything they need to before training.

STEP #3 - TRAINING ACTIVITY SELECTION

As you have themed the session then you've got to stick with it and avoid dual-themeing as much as you can, especially in this pre-xmas phase which also means keep your themes/intentions pretty simple for now.

STEP #4 - FEEDBACK

Contraints are used in training activities to shape the actions you wan to see but feedback is also a constraint because the players will play to what the coaches instruct them to/direct them towards. When you have a theme with clear intentions then that gives the players specific information to act on and the coaches specific information to coach towards. This means that during an offense-themed session, keep your feedback to the offense side of things, don't go ranting off about defensive principles and stoppage tactics.

After your movement warm up then try this:

TRAINING ACTIVITY #1...

For full access to these training activities, register for a level 3 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

PLAYING STYLES OF AFL TEAMS IN 2025

                                               

Before the commencement of the 2o25 AFL season, a bunch of Twitter football stats accounts posted reviews of each team based-on the season previous which I did link to in this particular post back in February.

After the shit show that was AFL-media in 2025 and the just-passed trade period, if it's real game analysis you're after then you should be following these guys:

Ricky Mangidis, James Ives, Cody Atkinson, Emlyn Breese and One Percenters

There's a few others that popped up through the course of the year but for the sake of this post, I'll keep at this lot as this information mostly comes from them with some other bits from other sources like Fox Footy etc.

What you'll see is little tid-bits I've chosen from most AFL teams that describes how they play, why they play like that and the results they get from doing so posted prior and during the 2025 AFL season.

For community coaches, you might recognise a team's traits in your own team's and then gather some idea's on how to make it more effective for your won team.

ADELAIDE

• Were 14th for clearances in 2024 (5th in 2025) so were having to defend and initiate their offense from deep in defense so then used a sling-shot style in an attempt to get the opposition on the move and to lose them in transition.
• They were/are very compact on defense but very expansive on offense. 

BRISBANE

• The stat to show the amount of control or chaos a team likes to use is the average marks per game divided by the average  groundball hard ball gets where the league average was 3.1(more groundballs than marks). Brisbane average 20 marks more than groundballs yet are still 2nd in groundball gets differential.
• 1st for kicks.
• Their medium forwards come up closer to the cntest then spread rapidly when the Lions win possession pulling the defense out of shape and allows for more handball out of congestion
• They use quick release kicks (released in 3secs or less) to find uncontested marks

CARLTON

• In 2024 they sacrificed a number at stoppage for an extra defender to generate more scores from turnover
• They were 3rd last for inside 50's from defensive 50
• Had the lowest score generated from defensive 50 so in their 2025 practice game they brought everyone up to run and carry through the mid 50 while disconnecting 1 of their tall forwards to maintain a longer/deeper target over the back
• Often just needed 1 more handball through the mid 50 in 2025
• In 2025 they moved the ball the fastest from an uncontested mark but then were 5th slowest from a contested mark. The first stats throws the game into chaos yet they don't maintain possession through play switches or 45 degree kicks as they had the 5th least uncontested marks per game
• They take the 3rd most contested marks and win the aerial 50-50's better than most but then concede any advantage they gain by going so slow off the back of it.
• They play transition footy the wrong way around where they kick to long and shallow inside 50's off of uncontested marks then go painfully slow after opening the ground up with contested marks

COLLINGWOOD 

• They create pressure around the opposition ball carrier to force poor quality disposals and thus create interceptions then attack from those intercepts very quickly
• Offensively they like slow play kicking to/along the boundary
• On kick outs the skinny wing or high half forward stays boundary side and then is the first Pies player to rip through directly to goal
• Skinny wing/midfielders may also be at the front of the contest doing their angled run in and make up the 2^nd wave of runners when the ball is won
• On Collingwood in close games, football is a game of skill and while there is variance game-to-game in how well skills are executed, you can control enough to tip the scales in your favor. Fly identified and drilled into them the effects of chaos/control in close game scenarios and how much variance to let into the game. When chasing a late lead they play as open/expansive as possible and as time is the enemy, congestion/stoppages are avoided at all costs, even if it means letting the ball spill out from them or the opposition as they're more likely to win a loose ball back then a contested ball. When defending a lead they reduce variance by restricting the amount of football that can actually happen so now with time again being the enemy but of a different kind, they search for congestion, stoppages and the boundary, often giving up 1^st possession to pounce on the opposition that does get it and continue to slow the game down via stoppages or free kicks for holding the ball on the opposition
• Love to use speed and numbers - speed to get past a defender before they’re set then numbers to be predictable to each other. What looks like reckless/aggressive corridor play is actually controlled chaos as they have speed and numbers through there when they do
• On offense they prefer slow and wide so they can reorganise their defense behind the ball and play a forward half game and/or free up Moore as the spare interceptor. They are the best at holding shape around the ball and refuse to compromise even if they concede contested possession inside so they can apply frantic pressure when they do lose the contest and counter punch on turnovers and then once they win territory they don’t give it back. They kick down the line more than anyone but they also score next after a kick down the line more than anyone.

AFLW ROUND 12 GAME ANALYSIS

                               

North are North and the Hawks are in very weird position having played them last week (for a loss), this week in a 1st final and then even potentially in the Grand Final.

I'll start with the answer in that you can only beat North Melbourne once so then the question is do the Hawks want to beat them before the Granny, if they get that far?

They'll be planning and playing to win every game as normal but this must be the first time ever that 2 teams play each other 3 times in 5 weeks, if it works out so.

That being said, injuries are going to kill the Hawks chances with Bates 2 - 4 weeks away and Wales TBC which would be a miracle if that resulted in a return for this week or next week - I'm predicting  a straight set exits for the Hawks unfortunately if things go the way I think they will.

This puts the Demons on the path to a Granny with home ground advantage through the finals, yet I'll tip the Lions this week as they showed a level the Dees didn't have last weekend.

I'll also tip the Blues at home and Adelaide against another injury depleted team in the Saints.

Today we look at:

• North Melbourne at Center Bounce
• North Melbourne Forward of the Stand Player Handball
• Rare North Melbourne Defensive Mistake
• Poor Melbourne Team Defense
• Collingwood Transition Offense
• Brisbane Forward Press Defense
• Bulldogs Outnumber Advantage Fail
• Kenny Leading Patterns

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WEST COAST v CARLTON AFLW GAME ANALYSIS

We've got some finals silliness going on where 2 games from round 12 will be ran back in week 1 of the finals - of which West Coast and Carlton is one (North/Hawks the other).

West Coast are young as a whole but also have adequate experience in the form of Swanston 76 games, Smith 74, Gibson 71, Hooker 66 and even relatively younger players in Lewis 62 and Thomas 53 but also have a forward line of Riggs, Dalgleish and Painter on 10 games each.

They're probably a year or 2 away from truly contending but to go from 6 wins for season 2020/21/22/23 and then 4 and 6 wins respectively in 2024/25 shows the Daisy effect has been huge.

The Blues have also been a big improver this year increasing their scoring from 266 in 2024 to 554 in 2025, their scores against from 532 to 474 and their % of 50 to 116.9.

They totaled 83 scoring shots last year and surpassed that round 5 this year on their way to 164,shoeing the remarkable offensive improvement from the Blues this year.

Via the eye test they have also expanded their use of the ground from the skinny side only to the entire ground which every team should be trying to do (but a few refuse too!)

I had the Blues by 4 goals on the weekend and they did just that and I'll roll with that again in next weekend's game.

Today we look at:

• West Coast Needing 1 More Handball
• Carlton Width
• Lewis Running the Wrong Way Actually Helping the Eagles
• West Coast Team Defensive Breakdowns
• Fitzpatrick Run

For full access to this game analysis, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.