Earlier in the day, in a senior team boosting 11 regular reserves players playing the near top team and getting crushed then upon entering the sheds after the final siren and seeing my Swannies were getting beaten by Gold Coast, I was ready to give footy away!
Thank god for Saturday night as it brought my love f footy back pretty quickly.
A usual I was watching On The Couch on Fox Footy Monday night and they showed the vision of the final play in the Cats/Demons game but I wanted to just focus on the initial part of the play from the Geelong backline.
At this point of the game the Dees were still in front with the ball in the forward 50 and surely a win was the only result that could have occurred from here...
I cut the vision to only show this passage of play where the following things happened:
- Angus Brayshaw releases a handball to nobody where he really should have just taken that ball to the ground for stoppage of some description
- In the secondary contest there are 6 Melbourne v 3 Geelong players, of which 2 are on the ground
- A couple more Geelong players move in closer to the vicinity of the contest but still keep their distance from the "fire", knowing a stoppage is the end of the game
- While all this is going on, 3 Melbourne players creep into the "fire" as described in the vision, leaving Geelong players on their own and in space
- With all those Melbourne players out of the contest from previous efforts, still Neal-Bullen tries to soccer the ball out of the pack to no one in particular, again instead of creating a stoppage
- It's not until all those Melbourne players have tried and failed that Gary Ablett Jr, picks the ball up in 1 clean swoop, and makes a split second decision not to simply kick for territory, but to handball laterally to Tom Stewart who kick it to Daniel Menzel and Melbourne don't touch the ball again.
OK so plenty of things gone a bit sideways there but I want to focus on that scrappy piece of play just up to when Ablett got possession of the ball.
Why did all those Melbourne players go in at once?
Why didn't all those Geelong players go in considering they were behind on the scoreboard, 20secs let to play and the ball in Melbourne's forward line who seem desperate to score again?
How many times have you seen in your own games, multiple players from your team fight for the 1 ball only to see it spill out into the opposition's hands and off they scoot?
Why does everyone go for 1 ball.
At the local/amateur level it is a fair bit of lack of "game knowledge" but I also think that trust is rarely looked at as one of the most important traits to have as an individual player and as a team.
In Paul Roos' book "Here It Is", when he took over at the Swans they started with 2 simple rules - get the ball or make the tackle.
The trickle down effect here is that if I can trust Jonno to do either of those things, then I can be just like those Geelong players - I can stay out and become a free man if my man decides he doesn't trust is teammate, and heads in to assist.
If my opposing player doesn't go in then that's fine - it's either a stoppage and I still have an arm on my opposing player.
It looks as though that the Melbourne players just didn't have 100% trust in 1 single player at that point of time to do what needed to be done.
Maybe the "rule" was for Brayshaw, a gun don't doubt me, was meant to keep possession of the ball and once he let it out, then all his teammates had to react to the unexpected and that is why it looked like total chaos.
If you watch the vision without knowing the score though, you'd have thought that Melbourne for trying to come from behind and win.
Getting back to local/amateur level footy, this type of trust has to be instilled in your team from day 1 because with players with all types of abilities, experience and game knowledge, without something bringing all those traits, as well as motivations etc together, you can essentially have 22 players all playing for different reasons and doing different.
Instilling trust in your players also builds responsibility because if I'm in the fire, then I know that the other 17 players on the ground are relying on me to get the ball or make the tackle, and they will react off whatever of those things occurs.
Making this a team rule is also crucial and it HAS to be pushed by your better players who can tend to take as "I'll do it" attitude but that doesn't provide the opportunity for other players do follow this, if they never get in the fire.
A high level of trust is also required when the opposition have the ball with multiple teammates around you.
A quick decision needs to be made about who will pressure the ball carrier and will peel off to other opposition players who may be in play.
There's really nothing worse then 3 players trying to tackle 1 player, only to see the ball pop over their heads to a free opposition player who runs off unopposed.
I suppose your rule here is to corral under pressure or make the tackle with teammates trusting you to fulfill either of those efforts, and again they can stay out to get a loose ball or man up other opposition around the contest.
On the flip side, what if the player doesn't make the tackle, corral the player or get the ball?
Then they simply run off with it with no is not ideal, but once you put a process in place, you've got to repeat it until perfect and this is simply another case of this, and in the long run, this high level organisation will put you in a far better position over a season then in single parts of a game.
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