Tuesday, March 31, 2026

ROUND 3 GAME ANALYSIS - STK/BRIS + ESS/NM + CAR/MELB

                                 

The Lions are somewhat up against it after playing 23 games or more per season and going deep into finals for 5yrs now but it's come at the best time so I've no doubt they'll stay afloat during this injury-ridden time period and then be fine come the back end of the season.

The Saints season has not started like they wanted and although I'm not too up in arms about their off-season investments, they've already lost to 2 teams who are fighting for similar ladder positions come the season's end (Collingwood/Melbourne) + an undermanned Brisbane team at Marvel meaning they're going to have to win some major upsets going forward.

The less said about Essendon/North Melbourne/Carlton the better and I like the Demons this year but they're a play-in team at best although almost a must-watch team now with Kozzie Pickett about to have a NAS-type season.

Today we look at:

  • Brisbane Getting Length
  • Brisbane Multiple Options that Draws the Defense
  • Brisbane Hit Up Lead + Length
  • Essendon Outnumber Advantage Fail
  • Cripps Stoppage Goal
For full access to this game analysis post, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

Sunday, March 29, 2026

ROUND 3 GAME ANALYSIS - GEE/ADE + COLL/GWS


Not that anyone wants to be peaking in round 3 but there's a lot of teams with high expectations just getting by at the moment.

Geelong have been flogged by Gold Coast, had a huge come from behind victory over Freo and this past weekend just got over an offensive-allergic Adelaide but they're also blooding youngsters like O'Sullivan, Dempsey, Wiltshire, Neale, Edwards, Humphries, Bruhn and Clarke.

Adeliade have not got the memo for playing AFL footy in 2026, reaching scores of 93, 88 and 60 from an inside 50 count of -32 over the season. It's too slow and they're really missing Dan Curtin who can win 1v1's through the middle of the ground at 197cms but they need to really shift their philosophy around ball movement. For what it's worth I had them sliding this season anyway.

The Pies are boring at the moment but winning is winning and defense will keep you in almost every game you play but you need both sides cause they're not the come-from-behind types they used to be, no matter how much the TV commentators tell us they are. How they can defend teams like the Suns and Dogs to half their score while scoring above their own average remains to be seen.

GWS have been fighting the injury battle for months already and although I like their kids, they still are too thin through the midfield which can't be hidden with key defenders and forwards out of the team. If there's a great time for around 4 bye, then it's now for the Giants.

Today we look at:

  • Adeliade on Kick Out
  • Adeliade Outnumber Advantage Fail
  • Pendles Kick to Advantage
  • Collingwood High Defensive Press
  • Weird Nick Daicos Run
  • Pies Forward Press Defense
  • Colingwood at Center Bounce Clearance
  • Pies Teasong Distance
For full access to this game analysis post, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

Thursday, March 26, 2026

WHAT'S MISSING FROM THE HAMSTRING EPIDEMIC DISCUSSION?

                                            

Over the first 3 rounds, AFL footy has undertaken very noticeable changes in how the game isa currently being played.

Whether this will hold is not entirely clear but the rules have been altered to do so at some level and a good amount of player damage has already been done with an extremely high risk of secondary occurrences of hamstring injuries after the initial one - poor Callum Ah Chee is on his 3rd since Xmas already! (cue the image from Useless AFL Stats!)

The talk of the game dramatically speeding up, the early start to the season and players not having enough pre-season training time are all a big part of this discussion and will be part of the solution - if the AFL wants one.  

For a multi-faceted sport like Aussie Rules, it needs to be looked at through a multi-faceted lens.

I like to use the 4 co-actives of performance to do this:

  • Tactical
  • Physical
  • Technical
  • Psychological

Tactically, we can clearly see the shift in play with a lot less stoppages and more continuous play.

This tactical shift can have an effect on the physical co-active as with more high-speed running comes more fatigue - low/medium speed running won't really shift fatigue markers in elite athletes.

The next flow-on effect is to the technical co-active as with fatigue comes sub-optimal movement patterns and players can overreach from less-then-stella positions.

But what about the psychological co-active?

Why has this not been mentioned at all?

It's definitely a black hole in daily media reporting as it's not visible and cannot be tracked by Champion Data and alike.

Enter Cognitive Overload.

Cognitive Overload occurs when a players' working memory gets overflowed by information from the environment which occurs in high pressure situations with great consequences.

In 2026 the game is far more open with tackles, clearances, ruck contests, ball up/throw ins, repeat stoppages all down with disposals, meters gained, marks all up.

More open play = More information to process = Less time to decide and execute in

Less stops in play = Less in-game rest = More high-speed running under relative fatigue

Cognitive Overload is definitely playing a part in this as well and couple that with dual tasking (performing multiple tasks at once) and attention can be pulled in too many directions, adding to this cognitive overload even more.

The simplest way I can describe cognitive overload in terms is through practice games and/or round 1.

Practive games are the hardest games from a physical standpoint as it's usually your first bout of continuous contact and has far closer game-simulated running then any training game can have.

You can do all the running you want but it doesn't compare you for the contact and 3 - 4 decent tackles can take the stuffing right out of you. 

Round 1 is different all together and although you've had the contact in the practice games, what you haven't had is the extreme level of arousal and this another major component to cognitive overload and is why it seems you haven't even trained once 7 - 10mins into the 1st quarter of the 1st game.

Even AFL teams struggle with this as players are always saying practice games aren't even close to the real stuff, much like training game-sim isn't even close to the practice games.

There's a lot of focus on running loads and the like and I don't know if they do already but if they don't, then AFL teams should try looking at interaction load and how many at the ball, near the ball and far away from the ball decisions are made by players and try simulating that at training along with the running demands they already know about.

Soccer has some software around this sort of thing I believe, and I'd be surprised if something similar wasn't being used in the AFL to some degree.

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

WESTERN BULLDOGS TEAM DEFENSE


The Dogs had 1 weird season in 2025.

Despite scoring the most points in the league and the 8th best defense, they still couldn't make finals, going 2-9 against the other top 9 teams.

Unless you're a bottom 6 team playing the top 6 - 8 teams maybe 4 - 5 times a year, then not beating any of them won't allow you to ever make finals and you'll forever be stuck in the middle.

In 2025 they beat 3-borderline finals teams by 11pts or less (Carlton by 8, Sydney by 11, Melbourne by 6) while losing to 6 top 8 t4eams by 15pts or less (Colingwood by 6, Gold Coast by 14, Geelong by 14, Adelaide by 11, Brisbane by 10 and Fremantle by 15).

Going into 2026 it was all about what their defense would look like and can they beat the top teams.

After not bringing anyone in specifically to shore up the backline, it didn't look promising from the outset until we saw them in action.

It's not like they need to drastically do anything defensively as they were OK last year but they needed to find a way to be better against the better teams during transition defense.

So far in 2026 they're averaging only 5pts more than last year and allowing 3 more points against but have a 3-0 record and already having beat probable top 8 teams in Brisbane, GWS and Adelaide with 2 of those being away games.

They won 8 games by 72pts or more last year and with an improved defense I shudder to think what those scores will be in 2026! 

I made a quick 5min video detailing what the Bulldogs are doing which is nothing ground-breaking but it works for their playing group rather than the players having to fit the system and requires excellent discipline in spacing.

From a local football point of view, there are many times where you'll be outgunned in 1v1's in your forward 50 and something like this could help you tremendously such is its simplicity.

The main points are:

  • Pressure at the Source
  • Delay the Opposition
  • Crowd the Corridor
  • Stay Connected
For full access to this coaching article, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

ROUND 1 GAME ANALYSIS - NM/PA + STK/MELB


I thought I posted this last week but hence, I was incorrect so here it is!

From these 2 games we look at:

  • Port Forward Not Reading the Game Cues
  • North Outnumber Advantage Fail
  • Saints Getting Width But Can't Fully Utilise the Corridor
  • St Kilda Forward 50 Throw In Goal
  • Melbourne at Center Bounce Clearance x 2

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

Monday, March 23, 2026

ROUND 2 GAME ANALYSIS WEST COAST v NORTH MELBOURNE


North will be North won't they?

Given, potentially, the bottom 5 teams in their 1st 6 games, the AFL set them up to start with momentum and then see what they can do with it.

Losing on just the 2nd game to the Eagles certainly put a stop to that, at least for the time being. 

The Eagles have been slowly revving their game style up to that of Andrew McQualter and even though the results haven't been there, their KPI's to how they want to play definitely have.

Pressure, ground balls, forward surge and territory is their blueprint - taking a huge leap out of the Richmond playbook through their premiership years, and now it seems some of their draft picks seem to be coming along for the ride.

West Coast still might finish 2nd bottom this year, and they'll be better than their record actually suggests I reckon, but North must be very disappointed to allow a 60pt turnaround in this game - and so they should be.

The dominated hit outs 54 - 27 but only marginally won clearance 46 -37 and once it turned into a chaos game, then North will be North.

Today we look at:

  • North Kick Out Fail
  • North Not Even Looking to Go Forward
  • North Missing the Essy Open Options
For full access, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

Sunday, March 22, 2026

ROUND 2 HAWTHORN v SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS


She was a fast start to this one with an 11 goal 1st quarter with Sydney getting the game to look like they wanted it to, scoring 3.1 from turnover and another 3.0 from clearances (8-5).

After that though the Hawks made all the adjustments that mattered and just took it away from the Swans ending with +64 possessions, +43 marks and their back 6 having 46 intercept possessions showing out very poor efforts going forward.

Today we look at:

  • Hawks Not Pressing Forward Defensively
  • Sydney Inside 50 Boundary Throw In
  • Sydney Cutting Off Hawthorn Width
  • Sydney Outnumber Fail
  • Sydney Kick Out
For full access to this game analysis, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

Monday, March 16, 2026

ROUND 2 GAME ANALYSIS - WB v GWS + SYD v BRIS

                     

The Dogs look outstanding with a better defense but their offense is also better than last year which is a truly frightening prospect.

The Giants are going to be inconsistent this year with the outs they have the young replacements they have in instead, at least until some of those injured players get back anyway but the Dogs under the lid could be the hardest trip in the AFL this season.

The Swans were looking as good as the Dogs until the news of Gulden's surgery and 3 - 4 month recovery time came through although our revamped game time and development of some players from the injury-riddled part of last year has me thinking we can handle his loss better the 2nd time around.

Injuries are the theme today it seems as we come to the Lions, missing 7 - 8 of their Grand Final team from last season in the early part of the season and no one's depth can withstand that and they've played the 2 best teams so far in the 1st 2 rounds so they'll be fine I suspect.

Today we look at:

  • GWS Half Forwards 
  • Dogs Transition Offense x 2
  • McInerney Defensive Mid Duties
  • Sydney at Center Bounce Clearance
For full access to this game analysis post, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

Sunday, March 15, 2026

ROUND 2 GAME ANALYSIS - THE MOST IMPORTANT SPACE IN FOOTBALL TODAY

AFL in 2026 has come with a bunch of rule changes but also with a shift in how teams are moving the ball on offense.

Yes, the stand rule allows for play tempo to be maintained but teams are already on the run anyway, they're now just more confident continuing to go fast and not hold the ball up. 

The biggest change for mine has been the use of handball through the center of the ground that some teams were doing previously (GWS/Hawks especially with their high half forwards) but it is widespread now and in a variety of ways.

Last week I highlighted how Sydney were using space through the center of the ground and I doubled-down on watching for it this round and it was pretty clear at times.

Like most tactics/strategies, once you see it you canlt stop seeing it!

Today we look at the following teams and how they are using the most important space in football today:

  • Western Bulldogs
  • Sydney Swans
  • Gold Coast Suns

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

Monday, March 9, 2026

DESIGNING TRAINING ACTIVITIES STEP BY STEP

Coach AFL just put this up on their Facebook page today - a training activity (we've got to move on from drills that are predetermined and based on routine - language matters!).

They've been dormant for some time but have fired back up of the back of the Coaching Forum but it should never stop delivering to community coaches.

Here's the training activity:

The Positive's:

  • All players are involved all the time - no cones, no lines, no standing and watching 
  • It contains information that represents the game - direction, ball, teammate, space/time constraints
  • Low complexity - the offense will have at least 1 clear free player to kick to at any given time, whether that's the other player in the middle area, the end line player or a player in the next half

The Negative's

  • There is no regression or progression to the activity
  • It provides a hard rule of having both players in the middle area at 1 end having to touch the ball before it can go to the other half which doesn't open up more options, it limits them, and that goes against what happens in games.

Pretty much every training activity I see, and that includes a lot of them I saw at the Coaching Forum miss maybe the most vital part of designing training activities - affordances.

Affordances are opportunities for action.

You receive the ball and there's 1 player covered and 1 wide open - the affordance for action is to play to the open player...but what if defensive pressure is closing in on me? That affordance for action is not as strong as it would be if there wasn't any defensive pressure.

In front of me is space, space that I can run and carry through and get away from that defensive pressure.

I now have 2 affordances for action - kick or run and carry.

What training must focus on is on players being able to recognise these affordances in game-like situations and it's that decision making process that carries over into games.

If you're coaching from the sidelines and telling players to kick the ball as soon as they get it, they will never see the affordance of an open player or space to run and carry through, really putting the onus of player development squarely on you, the coach.

The hard and fast rule of both players having to touch the ball takes away affordances the initial player might have which is to keep playing forward once they receive, rather than looking sideways or backwards to make sure everyone gets a possession. 

A better way is to add a scoring system around this so if each player can touch the ball before transitioning then award 2pts for every transition v 1pt for a transition where they don't.

This keeps both options, and most importantly all affordances, open to be used as the ball carrier sees fit. 

Here's what I would do with this to make it a more complete training activity by building this out.

First, I need to settle on my intention and that can be the coaching focuses on the original image - first give, adjusting and protecting the ball.

I've never been sold on first give/first option as it's only the 1st option, it's not always the best option.

I'd possibly shift to a draw the defender towards you and then give and possibly keep it at that to really narrow the focus.

Alternatively, you can run at the defender if they are sagging off and make them focus on you, freeing up your teammate as well.

Going back to my Coaching Forum report from last week, let's use the concept and sill framework from Austin Stubbs.

The concept is drawing the defender and how to do that initially (wait for them, run at them, deceive) and the skill is the handball to your teammate (which hand to use, footwork, execution, outcome) 

This might translate to only handball when the defender is within 2m of you and then seeing how they go about achieving that - you don't want to give the answers if they can learn them themselves which has greater learning retention then simply being told.

What might end up happening is a that the ball simply moves in a clockwise fashion as the defender will possibly always be a step behind being so disadvantaged. 

To break this pattern up add a defender to the half-way line where they can go from side to side but must remain on the line - the ball will now have to be moved diagonally at some point.

My next step would be to bring those end players into the activity and bring in another defender so it will now be a 3v2 in each half and you can make a handball count before the ball can be passed to the opposite end

Again, I'm still staying with my original intention and the cues around it - don't go away from them, keep the focus narrow.

Another aspect you can add in is that 1 player from 1 half can run and carry the ball into the other half to again open up the affordance of run and carry if it's there, and once they pass off then they simply return to their original half.

I don't do laps - unorganised coaches send players on laps.

To make organisation easy during the session think about how can build out your first training activity into something else in minimal time.

In this case we can add kicking into this by simply extending the playing area and shuffling a few players around.

Let's keep the 3v2 in each half but then add back in the end line player but also some neutral wingers.

The end line player can cover the width of the end lines to receive and the wings can cover the entire length lines to receive.

Each end is now essentially a 5v2 which is a low complex way to start.

As we've moved to kicking then the intention has to change but it doesn't need to be turned upside down as the same concept as before can be used with different cues.

In a possession game you want to move the defenders which is done by moving the ball.

With the stand rule back in effect you really want to make that defender have to stand, so you now take them out of the game until you've kicked the ball - this could be your intention: make the defense stand the mark.

Once you've forced them to that then moving the ball will be pretty easy as there's only 1 defender to cover 4 players.

Pretty quickly I'd suggest adding another defender to each end and possibly extending the area again as we still want kicking success.

A rule might use here is that only middle players can transition the ball to the other end, either to the middle and outside players or only the middle players.

Each layer slowly increases the complexity of the training activity which keeps your players on high alert, engaged and solving problem after problem and using the variability of repetition without repetition to do so.

Finally you can take the half-way line out and play 10v6 end to end full field.

Double finally you can then add more defenders in but if offense is your intention, then keep it a +1 or 2 on offense.  

Sunday, March 8, 2026

GWS v HAW + BRIS v WB + STK v COLL GAME ANALYSIS

New Year, New Football.

The pace of the game has definitely sped up for the time being although I suspect by rounds 5 - 6 coaches will have gone to work to slow it back down in an attempt to gain more control of different game variables.

In the meantime though, let's enjoy the show.

GWS completely stifled anything the Hawks wanted to do on Saturday afternoon, and with some clearance dominance (rare for GWS), we were able to witness what their team defense can actually look like when they're not defending from deep in their defensive 50...and their mid 50 trapping was very, very good.

The Dogs looked like they would continue the trend of not being able to front up against the big teams and even with Brisbane being +46 in disposals, +13 inside 50's, +6 in clearance and +47 in marks, what certainly looked like a Brisbane win by the stats, was turned away by the Dogs' back 6 when they really needed it with Lobb, O'Donnell, Khamis, Freijah, Jaques and Budarick managing 24 between them.

After the breakneck speed of the 1st 4 games, last night's boundary-fest was not the greatest watch. Both teams defend with the ball via low-risk ball options with a whopping 239 total marks between both teams - 223 uncontested!

The Pies have a system that allows for creativity via the Diacos Brothers and De Goey but when the Saints needed some flair in the last quarter, they couldn't make the shift but that's a staple of Ross Lyon-coached teams.

Today we look at:

  • GWS Team Defense x 2
  • Brisbane Kick Out x 4
  • Dogs Creating and Utilising the outnumber Advantage
  • St Kilda Corridor Fail

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

Thursday, March 5, 2026

SYDNEY v CARLTON GAME ANALYSIS

"It was the worst of times, it was the best of times" - Charles Dickens 1859 Paraphrase

Quarters 1 and 2 was an absolute mess for the Swans last night with 6 - 7 fumbles no one should ever make and the following stats v Carlton:

Disposals -108, Contested Possession -40, Uncontested Possession -61

That would have blown out a little bit more after the Blues skipped out to a 22 point lead after the 1st 2 goals of the 3rd quarter. 

Enter McInerney, Heeney and Gulden with those stats for the 3rd quarter reading

Disposals +72, Contested Possession +40, Uncontested Possession +36 and the score +61!

21 clips from this game in 3 videos with the themes being Carlton getting overcommitting and getting stuck at contest, Sydney creating length to provide space in front of the immediate play to transition forward via handball and/or run and the huge difference in running power between both team's personal.

As normal the full analysis is part of a level 1 membership ($9/month) but I will post 2 of these videos from below to show what contest looks like in 2026 and it's a huge shift:

VIDEO #1 

  • Sydney Kick Out
  • Sheldrick Not Continuing the Handball Chain
  • Carlton Kick Out
  • Wicks Not Continuing the Handball Chain 
  • Gulden at Center Bounce Clearance
  • Sydney 666 Connection
  • Gulden Overlap

VIDEO #2

  • Carlton at Center Bounce + Chaos Play
  • Sydney Creating Space to Transition with Speed
  • Gulden Overlap Creates the +1
  • Carlton Going Corridor Without Being Set Up for It
  • Speed v Size at Center Bounce + Length
  • Off The Ball Running

VIDEO #3

  • Carlton Collapse In at Contest
  • Carlton Collapse In at Center Bounce
  • Carlton Lose a 3v1 then a 2v1
  • Heeney at Center Bounce Clearance
  • Curnow Losing Focus of Attention
  • Lloyd Wing Run
  • Carlton's Huge Problem at Center Bounce
  • Gulden as a High Half Forward
For full access to this game analysis, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

Wednesday, March 4, 2026

AFL VICTORIA COACHING FORUM 2026 PART 2

 


SKILL ACQUISITION TRAINING/DRILL DESIGN - AUSTIN STUBBS / MARC SOPHOULIS

I've posted about various modules I've done of Austin's before so when I saw him on the Saturday and told me he was on the next day I made sure I was there - he's been an analyst at various clubs in the AFL/VFL system and now doing his own thing.

Marc is at Collingwood VFL but is a high-performance tennis coach by trade with Austin and him having done this in a tandem for a while and it showed in their delivery.

This was again focusing on using CLA to drive how to you design your training activities which I've also written about extensively, so it was right up my alley.

My favourite nugget from this was Austin's framework of concept and skill where you need to be able to label both and if you can't then the training activity is probably not representative enough of the game and won't contain enough game information to transfer to games. 

I'll touch on that in the 4th training activity presented below.

Austin went in to how when he was at Essendon and they tried emulating the Richmond chaos handball/surge game and this was what they used day 1 to introduce it:


2 DEFENDERS IN

A transitional handball activity with the constraints of time and space being progressively decreased for the offense as more defenders come in:


INSIDE TO OUTSIDE DIAMOND

A congested-driven activity that requires the offense to move the ball quickly and cleanly to the outside players to get the number advantage with the number players in such a tight area constraining time and space a lot for the offense, yet the defense needs to also adjust to having more players to cover as the outside players join the fray:


INSIDE TO OUTSIDE OPEN PLAY

Over a bigger area, this deliberately and specifically positions players from both teams to start with and then it's perceive and act for every player from there. I'll just add that if you only train in tight spaces where there isn't time to think and act, but simply to act then players will find it hard to perceive, think and act when they have the time to do so:


FORWARD PRESS DEFENSE LINE

Let's go back to the concept and skill framework from earlier.

In this training activity the concept is forward press defense and the skill is closing space effectively.

Going deeper on the concept, the why is to create a turnover as close to your goals as possible also recognising the triggers of when to use it which is usually once the first defender presses then the rest trade up an opposition player as well. Other triggers are the opposition receiving the ball facing our goals, a high/loopy handball receive or a fumble/loose ball.

The skill of forward press defense is how effective you are at closing space and then directing the player to an angle that will disadvantage them.

We're talking powerful acceleration into small/tiny steps to decelerate + angling the ball carrier towards the boundary line or another teammate coming into assist

What concepts you want to train up is the easy part but you really need to go to work on the skills required to carry it out repeatedly in the heat of battle.


In the end it weas a big but fruitful weekend and it should be mandatary for coaches and parents (especially dad's) to attend these typers of things in my opinion to increase the barrier to coaching which is THE number 1 reason for kids dropping out of football at any age and the sooner clubs realise this, the better.

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

AFL VICTORIA COACHING FORUM 2026 PART 1

This past weekend I attended the 2026 AFL Victoria Coaching Forum with countless other local men's, women's and junior coaches from all over at the MCG.

Should you attend in future?

Yes.

Sitting still is essentially going backwards.

I did a lot of the practical session's so and I didn't take any notes - this is all from memory so it's bit scattered but here's what I took from it.

 

COACHING GAMEDAY - WOMEN'S (SHAE SLOANE - HEAD OF WOMEN'S FOOTBALL MELBOURNE AFLW)

I only got the back end of this one as I was late getting there but she was covering the different aspects you need to address in the lead up to, and on. gameday.

This included what you want to do at contest and then on offense and defense.

The simplicity of it all might have surprised a few with the "line to goal" positioning mantra used on both phases of play to ensure they go the long way to goal on defense and that we go the quickest way to goal on offense.

Yes, it's predictable to them but it's also predictable to us (Geelong in the 2000's hitting the hot spot 300 times a game yet couldn't be stopped!) and makes perfect sense with Melbourne's past marking power inside forward 50 (Zanker, Harris, Hore).

Things to cover on offense include line to goal, best position (draw defender/cut to teammate), take grass, leading patterns, knowing what to do if you see a spare for either team, kick to advantage.

Things to cover on defense include line to goal, best position, 1st to move/transition focus, patterns (corrections), footwork, spacing.

On gameday you'd have 2 - 3 points of focus for contest, offense and defense depending on that game's KPI's:

Contest x narrow focus, 1st give, support/come back to the ball

Offense x attack line to goal, deep entries, roles in blitz/forward half play

Defense x defend line to goal, 1st to move/happy feet, roles in counterpressing.

I can add to this as the slides come through later but I'd most local footy clubs focus far too little or far too much on this part and simply need to find the balance of information v under/overload to keep retention as high as it can be.

 

WOMEN'S SPORT'S PANEL - SHAE SLOANE, DIASY PEARCE, MON CONTI

Shae has been there and done that in women's sport having played high level volleyball and AFLW and now high up in AFLW administration.

Mon Conti has also excelled at football and basketball, often with both season's overlapping and playing both sports at the top level at that the same time so how she navigated that was interesting to hear - especially lying to her basketball coaches that she was also playing footy!

Daisy is 1 of 1 and she could literally talk AT me all day but she's as human as the rest of us, going into detail of how she was unsure of her relationship with a player last year and the worry it caused her and then how she dealt with it.

Her perspective on all things football, and especially women's, is like no other person in football at the moment that has the platform like she does and there should be more of it.

 

LIVE LIFE WHOLE - MEG DICKINSON

Live Life Whole is an online platform by women for women involved in sport that has gathered specialist form many areas of women's health and have popped them all in 1 space.

I've written about some of these issues before and with a lot of men coaching women's teams, this at least gets them thinking about more than just football when relating to their players.   

This online platform needs to me made available to female players of all ages so coaches get to work doing so!

 

PREP TO PLAY - BROOKE PATTERSON

We've all had some experience with the Prep to Play protocol since it came to local footy clubs in the last 7 - 8 years and it's a constant work in progress to streamline the program to improve user-ability and to target what you need to in an ultra-specific way.

What's gone a bit sideways with PTP is that teams have used the same protocol for years on end when in fact there's level to PTP and you're meant to work through them and build your resiliency and robustness to the game of football.

Not that I want to start racing as soon as we start but one of my gripes with PTP is that is can be slow and engaged with not a lot of engagement from the players which can also mean it's not going to have its desired effect but seeing Brooke show how we can get it down in 10mins in a ramping intensity format has me back on board and I'll be adding the components I was missing straight back in for training tonight.

 

SKILL ACQUISITION - SHAE SLOANE

This was a practical session straight up at 9am Sunday morning and was highlighting the use of constraints in skill development 9sound familiar?).

She, and other AFL Vic Game Developers, all mentioned things I've written about over the years like repetition without repetition, differential learning, variable practice, challenge point, game representation and incorporating a constraint-led approach to training and had us try it out ourselves as well as showing some ways they do it at Melbourne.

It was great to see this stuff finally making its way from the AFL down to community level but that was only about 40 coaches out of the 1000's in Victoria alone but you got to start somewhere.

I saw ads for Game Developers a while back and now that I know what it actually is, I have asked for more information on becoming one. 

In small groups we had to move through various stations and develop a training activity with the equipment at each station where we had 1 station of nothing but 3 tennis balls but when you know the principles behind CLA, then you can do this far easily then if you don't.

During your warm-up you want to incorporate some form of quick reaction/decision making straight away and get away from partner handball with slow/low intent handballs and 10min chats about the weekend.

For quick reaction it might be as simple as 3 kicks each in a race with the other partners to ramp up intent.

For low complex decision making it can be as simple as this by incorporate repetition without repetition by having the defender give the ball to the kicker in as many different ways as possible (roll, up in the air etc) and/or the kicker having to do something with the ball before they kick like pass it around their backs, under 1 leg etc:


RUCKS AND TALLS (STOPPAGE SET UPS/SYSTEMS + ROTATIONS/TIMINGS) - DARREN FLANIGAN

This was fun as Darren is old school Geelong ruck from the 90's and 90's and is as throwback to those days.

I only did half of this but 1 thing I took away was how to use your body at contest whether you're a big or small and that's to give them a shove 1st to knock them off balance but nothing silly, step across and in front of them with the leg closest to them, then use your closest elbow to hold them out as they try and come back to you and the ball:


 

KICKING MASTERCLASS - JOSHUA BOURKE (BD SPORTS)

Jodh was an innovator in the women's space, setting up kicking masterclass for female footballers as far back as 2014.

A high energy speaker, he was very engaging and had plenty of little gems on teaching kicking such as young girls initially trying to kick from their quad only (that can lead to overuse injuries as well as poor kicking distance/accuracy) and talked a bit about using basic leg swings to groove the action you want them to use as well as using a traffic light analogy: 

I would like to see a lot of what he said combined with more external focus though v internal focus.

 

DEVELOPING GAME PLAN + OFFENSIVE STRATEGY - JACKSON KORNBERG (FRANKSTON DOLHINS VFL)

This was a very well-done presentation with just enough information to cover a lot of area's without getting bogged down into too many specifics.

Once again it was the simplicity that stood out but to be clear - it's probably highly technical when a coach lays it out for themselves but by the time it gets to the what the players get to see, it has been streamlined to an inch of its life with only the necessities remaining for ease of consumption and retention.

I liked he connected stats they use as KPI's to their game style, suggesting that your brand is crucial to sustainability and if your stats are maintaining or increasing, then you're on the right track.

He also posted a pre-xmas slide from a season or 3 back that shows how they introduce concepts from session 1 onwards.

Week 1 - Fundamentals

Session 1 x Hands in Tight + Session 2 x Kicking Club + Session 3 x Kicking Club

Week 2 - Flow

Session 1 Face Up/Fight Forward + Session 2 x Outnumber Game + Session 3 x Fight for the Outside

Week 3 Smash

Session 1 x Charge/Go Forward + Session 2 x Recover Back + Session 3 x Close Out/Deny

Week 4 Smoke and Flow

Session 1 x Outnumber Game + Session 2 x Recover Back/Own 1.5 + Session 3 x Intro to Transition

Week 5 Transition

Session 1 x Fight Forward/Transition + Session 2 x Fight Forward/Transition + Session 3 x Fight Forward/Transition

2 training activities he has on his slides were:

DIAMOND KICK

Go for 1min sets, not 3 - 5mins as I say in the video with the focus points being footwork for the outside players, use 1st option and don't force something inside that's not on

SEARCH AND DESTROY

Focus points being to face up and fight forward for the offense and to press forward and spare the deepest opposition for the defense.