So far this week we've looked at a study of how team cohesion shapes how you can use the ball and how that pertains to scoring and then a quick look at some quarters of football from round 1 and what types of kicks were used and who they were kicking to.
Even though it was a very small sample size of the full round, just 2 quarters out of 36 quarters every round, it still gives a decent snapshot of ball usage from AFL teams.
My selection process was pretty basic choosing Melbourne because they're the best team overall and the Swans because I barrack for them and their ball movement from end to end is number 1 in the league.
Melbourne and the Bulldogs registered 122 kicks in total between them with Sydney and GWS mirroring them for 121 total kicks with the most obvious stat being that 55% of those kicks were closed play kicks in both games, meaning they came in game situations after a mark, a free kick, or a kick out where the kicker has no pressure and as much time as they need/want until the umpire calls play on.
The "kicks to" side of the table tells a more telling story of the type of football played that quarter with Melbourne/WB kicking to an open teammate the most followed by to an even numbered contest and for territory/to space and a leading teammate just below that.
The game was tight in close but once the ball was taken out of congestion then both teams were able to transition the ball relatively freely, and keeping the ball in motion finding teammates in space to play on immediately with the bigger MCG ground dimensions helping out there.
In the Syd/GWS game the "kicks to" was a bit different with kicking to even numbered contest, to a stationary teammate followed by a teammate under no pressure and a leading teammate just below them.
The game was hot for a fair portion of the game and even when the Swans were able to kick a way a bit in the back end of the 3rd and the front end of the 4th quarters, the game was still very much contested which is what you'd expect from a team that focuses heavily on contested possession like GWS, and a team whose only weakness in past years has been contested possession in the Swans.
So what can us local/amateur footy clubs take out of this?
For me it is to find a mark as soon as you can which means you get to control the game, control the ball and have the opportunity to perform closed skill kicks under limited pressure and with the extra time you have to perform these kicks, the more time you have to find a suitable option to move the ball to.
Putting your focus on handballing out of congestion over hack/dump kicks, and to find someone in some space to be able to outlet under zero or some pressure will result in a lot more marks being taken then blast kicks out of packs in a kick and hope situation.
What I found interesting but not surprising watching the Swans intently for the last 12 months is finding stationary targets to kick to which again are easier targets to hit than moving one's, so in training you'll need to use scenario's around this skill as players will need to learn how to find space that the kicker has easy access to, with the man on the mark stand rule making this easier than it's ever been.
If you can get as little as 2 - 3 short chip kicks that gain some territory in an end-to-end passage of play, and use the right players in the right area's of the ground, it's probably the difference between a deep inside 50 to 4+ of your forwards and a shallow entry to 2 - 3 of your forwards and an opposition outnumber on top of that.
Eager to hear your thoughts on this.
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