TACTICAL INSIGHTS FROM AFLW ROUND 3 PART 5

PLAYER LOCATIONING

"Every players first action should be to see their location and what's going on around them"

- Fergus Connolly Game Changer

This should occur at every stoppage regardless whether your team has the ball or not and how can you follow a game model or game plan if you don't where you are or where anyone else is?

You can't.

To emphasise this point I read an article over at frontiers.org that said an increased frequency of left and right head rotation pre-possession increases the likelihood of possession performance thus the importance of knowing where everyone else is in relation to you and the ball.

Here's today video:

A few mishaps from 2 Geelong players here (I swear I'm not picking on them!).

Hear's how they set up as the ball gets kicked in their back 50:

There is a contest for the ball under the blue sign where the Adelaide forward and Geelong defender have followed that purple arrow also along the green sign to get there.

There is a 2nd Geelong defender making her way over there with another following her player in from the center square and another with her player right on the right side edge of the image.

The first mistake made was by the initial Geelong defender who failed to stay between her player and the ball and over ran the contest by plenty, allowing the Adelaide forward to double back onto the ball.

So now you can see how far out of the play the initial defender is but another defender is there to assist so we're all good there.

Where this breaks down even more is the Geelong defender in the red box who has failed twice here:

1 - Not locating her teammate in a position to apply enough pressure to a kick from the boundary to more than likely cause a miss

and;

2 - Losing sight of her opposition player who has identifies far more quickly what's happening and who has darted back towards goal as she can see her defender committing to the ball carrier.

The end result is an easy handball over the top and what could have been a pressured shot from the boundary results in a certain goal in an unmanned goal square.

A game model puts these intricate "rules" in place so that all players know what's expected of them in certain situations.

In this case the Geelong defender forces the harder shot at goal and trusts that another teammate will apply pressure so she can stay back being the last line of defense.

This trust will also be reciprocated by the original Geelong defender next time who will know to slow down and stay goal side of her opposition forward which caused this situation in the first place.