Up to date training information for Aussie Rules / AFL Football.
This training activity uses a delayed start meaning it will be a slow to medium paced play at most, and then encourages players to build up with precision at they can only score once they get into the scoring zone.
There's plenty of ways to utilise this so here's the basic set up and then we'll go to work on it...
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2 absolute cracker prelim finals over the weekend with a combined winning margin of a measly 5pts!
We could very easily be looking at an Adelaide/Geelong GF but that's how close the top end of AFLW is, even if the drop off from about 5th down is a quite dramatic but in the end the end the men's comp played out in a very similar way.
In the Lions/Cats game we look at:
Geelong opting not to even up inside the forward 50, resulting i them not even being able to generate a winnable 1v1, let alone a free option to kick to.
Dakota Davidson's positioning when the ball is the Lions defensive 50.
Geelong wingers twice allowing Orla O'Dwyer to get loose off the contest with one them resulting in a goal.
In the Roos/Crows game we look at:
A prime example of perceived pressure and what that does to a player psychologically, which plays out physically and tactically.
North Melbourne not utilising a prime chance to get the ball to the outside and a quick inside 50 entry to their bag of tall forwards.
A great formation tactic used by the Roos on a forward 50 throw in that almost pays off.
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"...I've coached Senior Women for the last 5 years and tackling is one area I can't seem to nail in an organised drill. I can demonstrate the technique but wondered if there was anything structured I could use?..."
My quick initial response this:
"...Training tackling would fall under “specific skill craft” for mine and then would be trained as such via 1v1 for the most part and than we’re hoping that transfers to games but tackling is the most variable action in footy so it’s more about nailing the principles of tackling and then players can only really teach themselves the million different ways of doing that in games. This is a full post I think!..."
And here we are with a post containing videos and teaching points in regards to tackling and applying defensive pressure.
The 3 most common ways of tackling:
There's similar but different principles for each scenario.
In congestion the focus is on...
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About a month ago I posted a very short excerpt from a book I had just completed titled "How We Learn to Move" by skill acquisition specialist Rob Gray and now with some AFLW winding down I can finally start posting the numerous noted I took from it.
I'm sure you'll get plenty our of the notes on their own but if you don't have a decent background in this theory of movement, then I strongly suggest you get your hands on the actual book.
Here's part 3 of 97 book notes and over 4300 words in this series.
CHAPTER 6 – LEARNING AS SEARCH, THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION AND THE TIM TEBOW PROBLEM
Despite the increased focus on the role of variability in skillful movement that is not to deny there is not also considerable in-variance – things that are the same across executions made by the same performer and are similar between different performers.
Even though, in theory, there are endless number of movement solutions we could use, we all have certain coordination tendencies as we are attracted to certain solutions that are highly stable and struggle to execute others that are very unstable.
Tim Tebow was a great college player but he held the ball too low when dropping back to pass which took him .2sec longer to get his throw off which he could get away with slower college defenses, but not in the pro’s.
The movement solution we come up with, and the attractor landscape we create, is shaped by the constraints we face when practicing a skill.
Bifurcation refers to learning in which we switch to using a completely different coordination pattern that we’ve never done before by creating a new attractor.
Shift learning refers to a gradual shift towards a desired pattern, reflecting the fact that we are not completely restructuring our perceptual-motor landscape and making new attractors but instead just shifting and reorganising the ones we already have.
Coaches need to accept that in a complex system they cannot possibly know what the optimal movement solution for an individual athlete will be – they can only help them find it for themselves.
CHAPTER 7 – NEW WAYS OF COACHING 1: THE CONSTRAINTS-LED APPROACH (CLA)
Trying to give the pitcher the “correct” mechanics does not fit well with the business model of self organisation.
Research has shown that even highly skilled athletes are very poor at following detailed instructions about how to change or correct their technique.
How can an athlete possibly be expected to implement a 2.5% change in angle or a 5cm change in position when these aspects of my movement are varying by more than that already?
Another issue with trying to correct technique flaws via explicit instruction is that, even when you get the athlete to implement the change, it tends not to be very sticky.
Athletes change their movement solutions to a less effective one under pressure because of how they were taught in the first place, and by following those explicit instructions you did when you were young, it only adds more pressure to nail every single cue in an already high-pressure situation.
In baseball pitching, a common technical flaw is forearm fly-out and a great way to help this is to practice with a connection ball, which is a large rubber ball between held between the arm and the body, and when you pitch, the ball goes towards the plate when it flies out which means you’ve kept your arm in while rotating and released it at the right time.
There are 4 key principles to CLA and 1 or more of them are manipulated in practice in order to de-stabilise the existing movement solution/attractor, encourage exploration and self organisation, to amplify information and invite affordances and to provide transition feedback about the effectiveness of the search, and are present in small sided games.
Conditioned games, in conjunction with small sided games, manipulate task constraints by changing the rules.
A verbal instruction to a player is a type of task constraint (an informational one) that can and should be used.
A study on using analogies as coaching cues showed that using analogies to convey a motor skill’s key features does not require the performer to implement highly specific technical changes (which we are not very good at), avoids specific references to bodyparts which can lead to choking and allows for variability and individuality.
About a month ago I posted a very short excerpt from a book I had just completed titled "How We Learn to Move" by skill acquisition specialist Rob Gray and now with some AFLW winding down I can finally start posting the numerous noted I took from it.
I'm sure you'll get plenty our of the notes on their own but if you don't have a decent background in this theory of movement, then I strongly suggest you get your hands on the actual book.
Here's part 2 of 97 book notes and over 4300 words in this series.
CHAPTER 4 – FREEDOM THROUGH CONSTRAINTS?
The answer to the problem of too much choice/degrees of freedom is to take away some options.
A constraint is something that eliminates certain possibilities or options for action.
Everyone has different individual constraints, such as the player who can kick on both sides of the body that has the option of going left or right on a defender, where a 1-sided player has only 50% of these options – constraints change the movement solutions available to us.
Environmental constraints are properties of the world around us (gravity, wind, temperature, surface etc).
Task constraints are factors highly specific to the skill being performed such as training against no opposition vs playing against opposition – you now have far more constraints to work around as you perform the the same skill.
When we first learn a new movement skill, we constrain ourselves naturally through a process called freezing degrees of freedom, where we rigidly fix degrees of freedom by not using particular joints/muscles as we don’t know how to integrate them yet.
A coach can give instructional constraints (you’re the left winger so stay on the left part of the ground etc), that quickly serves to prevent all players swarming around the ball.
The method of amplification of errors is a constraint manipulation that takes a slight “flaw” in a movement pattern and making it much larger and louder to the perceptual system of the performer.
You can also add constraints through appropriate manipulation of the task constraint of equipment, such as junior football players playing games on smaller grounds, with less player numbers and a smaller footy.
Another way that constraints can be manipulated to create action opportunities for a performer is by changing their individual constraints through appropriate strength and conditioning training such as goal keepers with quicker movement times consistently waiting a bit longer before starting to block the shot, subsequently getting more information about where the shot was likely to go before trying to block (less guessing).
Constraints can also be manipulated to aid self organisation and skill acquisition by introducing variability and some essential noise as we’re not trying to develop 1 ideal technique, but to be adaptable and flexible so that we can use different movement solutions to achieve our goal in the face of ever-changing conditions.
Moving skillfully involves coming up with new solutions to new problems, not just by repeating the same old solution.
Think of constraints as informative boundaries that guide self organisation by pushing performers away from certain solutions and encouraging them to look for others while providing information for them about how they should change how they are moving.
CHAPTER 5 – WE PERCEIVE THE WORLD IN TERMS OF WHAT OUR BODY AFFORDS US
Our perception of the world changes depending on our ability to act within it.
Perception of our environment is not solely based on its physical properties, rather perception is embodied, where the information we detect about size, distance and speed of objects is scaled by our ability to act on these objects.
This embodied perception approach to perception argues that what we perceive is not a true representation of “what is out there” but rather what reflects our ability to act on objects in our environment.
Interesting studies have been done on people’s ability to judge the slope of a hill where the same hill walked up on your own vs with a 20kg back back are perceived way differently. If you’re young and strong then the added load may have you perceive the slope as maybe 20% harder but if you’re older and weaker, then it may be perceived as 80% harder.
Experienced athletes have a memory store of different plays and then they match the current situation to an old but similar one, which can give you a quick checklist of what’s worked in this situation before, what hasn’t and what your options are.
For a performer, gaps don’t look wide, opponents don’t look near and pitching throws don’t look fast. Instead, performers see pass-through-ability in a gap, tackle-ability of an opponent and hit-ability of a pitch.
Affordances have to be measured to the individual as they are unique to that individual.
When we pick up information of the world, we need to somehow incorporate our own action capabilities which is usually not much of a challenge such as searching your crowded basement looking for the fuse box and the main affordance your using is pass-through-ability in reference to thinking “Can I pass through the gap in those boxes?”, “Do I need to go sideways or do I need to rotate my body to do so?” The perception of what is possible is different between thin and bigger people because our perception is well calibrated our action capacity.
Relating our perception of the world and our action capabilities is an ongoing process and it must be because as we grow our dimensions change, we get fatigued and our movement changes.
In a rock climbing study they found that climbers with less grip strength simply looked for the route with the largest holds where climbers with greater grip strength had a far less predictable gaze pattern as they could view a wider range of possibilities that they could act on as no hold was unattainable for them.
Our perception is embodied – our physical capacity is shaping how we view the world and when it is not very large, we see only the limited, predictable opportunities for action but when it is large, it opens a whole new set of affordances for us. We see the world like this because it directly supports our ability to act in our environment.
Embodied perception supports action selection so when a pitch is more suited to my goal of hitting to my an area where I can run a base, then I perceive the affordance as hit-ability, which makes the ball look bigger and makes me more likely to select an action of swinging.
Embodied perception supports an action selection process that helps reduce our energy expenditure and keeps us from becoming overly fatigued.
The constraints of our environment shape our perception of it in terms of the task we are given (the direction we are asked to hit the ball), the environment we act in (whether we can choose between stairs and an escalator) and is embodied in terms of our individual constraints (the length of time we have dive to the corner of a soccer net to stop a goal kick).
About a month ago I posted a very short excerpt from a book I had just completed titled "How We Learn to Move" by skill acquisition specialist Rob Gray and now with some AFLW winding down I can finally start posting the numerous noted I took from it.
I'm sure you'll get plenty our of the notes on their own but if you don't have a decent background in this theory of movement, then I strongly suggest you get your hands on the actual book.
These posts coming in the next couple of weeks consist of 97 book notes over 4300 words so here we go.
PREFACE
When we acquire a new skill, we want to harness the natural inconsistency and variability in our bodies rather than treating it as “noise” and attempting to tame it through repetition.
CHAPTER 1 – THE MYTH OF THE “1” REPEATABLE TECHNIQUE
We don’t repeat our movements, but they are not completely random and variable either – they are shaped by the constraints of our environment, including our culture.
CHAPTER 2 – WE ARE BUILT TO PRODUCE AND DETECT VARIATION
Perceptual fading refers to the tendency for objects that are completely stabilised on the eye (like using a headrest) to completely disappear from consciousness even though it is still there, as our sensory system stops signalling our brain when nothing changes in the environment.
Adding too much noise will eventually make the signal less visible so you need to find the right amount of noise, especially when implementing differential learning.
Context conditioned-variability refers to movements of our body not occurring in a vacuum but in a set of changing internal and external factors, so we’ll never repeat the same movement twice
By possessing multiple, variable solutions to achieve the same goal is a fundamental feature found throughout nature – coined degeneracy – which occurs in a system when structurally dissimilar components can perform similar functions, being effectively interchangeable.
Having multiple solutions creates an advantageous state of redundancy, so that we are not reliant on a single solution.
CHAPTER 3 – THE BUSINESS OF PRODUCING MOVEMENTS AND WHY WE DON’T NEED A BOSS
The Central Executive (cerebral cortex in the brain) is the boss and gives the overall plan of action after receiving information from the sensory area of the brain. The manager (motor cortex) works on the specifics needed to carry out the plan. The assembly line workers (brain stem/spinal chord) do the work and execute the movements.
The perception department takes in cues from the environment, the cognition department analyses/interprets the cues and makes predictions, the decision making and planning department plan/program the movement to be executed and the motor control department executes the movement.
A generalised motor program is a representation of a particular motor action, stored in your memory, with specific values for each of the degrees of freedom you need when moving but results in task deconstruction which a poor technique for learning.
The business model used by a flock of birds is one of self organisation which refers to the order and structure in the company arising from the interactions between the lower-level components of the system, not from some rules or a plan given by a higher-level controller. Each bird organises themselves based on the information in front of them, without the need for a boss.
The perception-action loop is environment to perception to the performer to the action the back to the environment again.
In a self organisation system, the business plan comes from often unpredictable interactions between workers.
The advantages of solving the degrees of freedom problem via a self organisation business model is that if we can form temporary working groups of components that will interact and solve a specific movement problem, then new are much more readily adaptable to changing conditions so the birds can be successful in different directions, speeds, weather conditions etc.
The 2nd advantage is that the self organising system is more robust to errors made by one of its workers
We don’t need a boss as we can have order/organisation in a system like the human body without the requirement of a central executive controlling everything from above.
We continue on from the Crows total demolition of my up-and-coming Swans then move to the Melbourne/Geelong game.
The Cats, list-wise, underperformed a touch in the home-and-away season, losing to Essendon and Collingwood and only beating 1 team in the 8 (Sydney) coupled with mostly unconvincing wins against lesser opponents.
Forever it's been the big 4 - Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, North Melbourne - and now finally it looks like we have a 5th entrant into the upper echelon of AFLW.
Even the Dees almost pulled off the greatest comeback in all-of-footy history, the Cats were the dominant team for 3 quarters and simply took the game away from Melbourne in that time.
I posted last week they have established stars in every part of the ground and they used each and every single one of them to make it through to the Prelim this weekend, with the reward being Brisbane at home, where they wet down by just 2pts in round 4 last season.
From both of these games we look at:
Sydney giving up the exact same center bounce clearance from yesterday's video, 1min later in actual game time.
Sydney making the center bounce player and tactical adjustment, and winning the clearance for a rare deep 50 entry.
Shifting games we see Geelong's forward half team defensive formation, enabling them to have numbers in front and behind the ball for repeat inside 50's.
Shelley Heath just running her lane offensively from her defensive 50m line, then getting free and setting a block in her own goal square to provide Zanker an easy leading lane inside 50.
Nina Morrison's leg power is a thing of beauty.
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After a late season charge, the Swans run out of juice Saturday night and like we always knew, showed the gaping hole between the top 4 (now the top 5!) and the rest of the AFLW.
While still in only our 2nd season in existence, the loss of our ruck and main forward target hurts a developing team, as well as being a good 2 - 3 midfielders short of the top teams who can run at least 6 quality mids through there and not lose much in way of clearances etc.
The Crows are a professional outfit and just stopped any continuity the Swans wanted, whether that be through their kicking game or running the ball.
I've always said Danielle Ponter could be the best player in the league if she can move into the middle, which she did in a dominant display Saturday night, but the young/inexperienced Sydney midfield is a different kettle of fish compared to the hardened Brisbane outfit, so she could actually be the difference this weekend if she can go again.
This game spills into tomorrow's post as well but today we look at:
Chloe Molloy putting in 3 efforts, gaining 80 - 90m of territory and then a stoppage all while being heavily outnumbered, all at the same time without a single stat to show for it.
Adelaide showing precise center bounce clearance with the dominant ruck in the game, which will be a running theme for various reasons the longer the game goes on.
Ella Heads showing great adaptability - the actual definition of high skill - during her kick to deceive the opposition multiple times and keep her options open.
Paige Sheppard giving the ball up with 10secs to go in the 2nd quarter resulting in an Adelaide goal right on the half time siren, essentially snuffing out of being in any position to stay in the game, which would have required a monumental game shift anyway.
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I did one of these a while back which are training activities I have in my files simply sitting there as I accumulate them quicker than I post them so here's another 10 you can use on day 1 of pre-season!
ROV OFF COACHES BAG...
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Geelong have been inconsistent this year but their best is possibly good enough to make a Grand Final with a monster midfield (G.Prespakis, A.McDonald, Morrison), a solid back line (M.McDonald, Gunjaca, Webster) and a versatile forward line (Parry, Moloney, Scheer), with the last one injured and already ruled out for next week against the Demons.
From this game we look at:
Chloe Scheer simply kicking to where she wants the forward to run to, essentially making the decision for Moloney by simply kicking to the space for her advantage.
Geelong's stellar use of fast and sloe play forward handballing to get the extra territory needed to make the inside 50 kick and resultant mark.
Essendon wanting to relive a ball up at the top of Geelong's goal square where they had a +3 outnumber but failed miserably in their positioning around the contest and gave up a defensive 50 stoppage goal that really shouldn't have happened.
Geelong lasso free kick on the mid wing showing a clear number advantage pattern of play that is rarely seen or used in AFLW, even though it is available in every single game at some point. It might not result in a certain goal scoring opportunity but at least you can easily move the ball off the line with minimal opposition interference if you practice it enough and are familiar with the scenario.
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Gold Coast were in hot form going into this one on their home deck with a definitive win against finalist Essendon without their best player in the last round of the season to clinch a finals berth themselves.
They still had Whitford, Drennan and Single in the midfield, ruck dominance as the Swans have gone small since Morphett went down and 2 solid tall forwards in Bohanna and Dupuy but even as a Sydney supporter I didn't see this coming.
With a record-breaking 106 tackles and only a -1 in clearances with a - 43 in hit outs, it allows the Swans first use out of congestion and into their marking game where they were + 28.
Simply an unbelievable result for a young team only in their 2nd season, coming off the back of a demoralising win-less season i 2022.
They've already exceeded expectations by a wide margin but hey, while you're there you might as well try and go as far as you can and who knows what can happen.
From this game we look at:
Gold Coast not really organised at stoppage and Chloe Molloy sharking 1 of the Suns' 59 hit outs in Sydney's forward 50 and successfully snapping for goal.
Gold Coast being instructed at quarter time to go forward more and they set up accordingly at the center bounce to start the 2nd quarter to pretty good effect.
Sydney making the adjustment to the Suns center bounce structure by positioning more defensively and then being able to fill the space the Suns want to go forward in.
Sydney not pressing from the front defensively where they usually would and enabling the Suns to maintain forward ball movement.
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Brisbane are a bloody well-oiled unit and now they've shown a form of resilience and grit that they've never really had to before, after losing to the Saints in Melbourne and then beating the Demons comfortably in the last round of the season, to beating ladder leaders Adelaide on their home deck in the first week of the finals.
They had some mid-season mishap with 2 players being dropped for disciplinary reasons and were somewhat written off after round 1 when the Tigers beat then in Brisbane in round 1.
Like the other top 3 teams, they have superstars everywhere but also a nice blend of youngsters who have come in and picked right up where the experienced players now not at the club, left, and that's a testament to Craig Starcevich and his coaching staff.
Adelaide will be back though and they also just keep turning up and making preliminary finals at will but hopefully at the expense of my Sydney Swans this weekend!
The 4 clips from this game looks at:
Brisbane's overall game intelligence and just recognising simple formation cues that will result in an outnumber advantage.
A missed opportunity by Brisbane to come forward and press defensively at the kicker instead of getting caught in the middle and not impacting at all, allowing the kicker the time and space to get enough purchase on the kick to goal from long range.
Adelaide's 2 deepest forwards taking marks in the defensive half of the ground and slowing the down the game down but also knowing that there's no point looking forward of the ball because the deepest forwards are already in play, instead looking corridor for delayed run from behind options, which does open up and in 2 kicks they're on the opposite boundary 100m away from the original kick simply from looking and then kicking off the line.
Adelaide missing an opportunity to string at least 2 uncontested possessions together in their own forward half, more than likely resulting in a deep inside 50 to the fat side into space with only 4mins to go and down by just 4 points - it's decision making under pressure that wins finals games in those situations!
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We've got 4 last clips to finish off round 10, the final round of the season 2023.
We look at:
St Kilda's Grace Kelly using great overlap run and even though the Saints to utilise it, they are still able to transition the ball from defensive 50 to deep forward 50, mark and goal. If you're process driven then she should have been used in either of those 2 instances she was available.
Next we see Carlton have a 'mare in the back 50 where the kicker A) doesn't take the time to explore the field in more detail, taking the first an closest option she could find (the first option isn't the best option, the BEST option is the best option!) and B) she doesn't drive with her legs to get momentum through the ball, it loops up a bit and is cut off directly out from goal. Find your highest % option!
Moving to the Collingwood/Richmond game, Livingstone is ALWAYS the hang back/loose defender in the Pies back line which also means she has to be instructing everyone else around her so she needs to make sure that happens but also that her positioning is to take away the most dangerous option, whether that be opposition marking or leading space. It also doesn't help that Brennan's direct defender gave her the fat side to lead into where their was no help defense, plenty of space to lead and kick to and that's what happened.
Lastly you know what you'll get with the Hosking twins and that's a couple of brick walls that won't no for an answer and who will compete until the bitter end. In this case we have Sarah initially being worked under the ball by her direct defender but doesn't let that slide, pushing herself back into the contest, getting a flat hand to the ball to her open advantage then kicking the ball of the air for a goal. If you aren't a competitor then you simply don't get that goal and it kick started a dominant Tigers final quarter.
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I've posted numerous clips of players/teams pressing in defensively from the front of the ball carrier/receiver, something Collingwood used to great effect to win the men's premiership this past season.
In AFLW, Geelong probably do more of it than any other team ans Sydney have introduced it a little bit this season as well but this comes from Hawthorn in their very last game of the year.
The point of pressing up hard defensively is to disrupt the forward handball game of the opposition and in doing so, hopefully turning the ball over as close to your goal as possible, rather then simply run beside them, give them free territory (which I've also highlighted a bunch of times this season) and then if you still manage to get an intercept, it's 50+ meters (1 - 2 kicks in AFLW) further down field then it could, and should have been.
This has to be a team tactic and everyone needs to all-in on it because of 1 player fails to press up, then you can't get the dominoes pressure effect and the opposition will then eventually receive the ball in space but most of your defenders are all now past the ball.
Anyway that's the 2nd clip in this video and it was an unbelievable effort for the Hawks to turn the ball over where they did considering all the time and space the Cats had in the lead up.
The first video, albeit a bit hard to see, shows the Hawks getting a 3v2 outnumber but fail to make it obvious enough for the ball carrier to find with poor spacing and pattern recognition by all 3 Hawks players really.
The Eagles got a bit of a healthy kick from their coaching change and in turn, have played with far more dare and intent in their last 3 games, giving them something to take into 204 that wasn't there before.
In this clip they handball out of congestion and get the ball into open space with supporting numbers, where normally they might get the initial handball out of congestion but then just kick it to clear the area, essentially shifting the pressure from the kicker to someone else up the field, and then that pressures comes right back on them when it comes 5secs later!
In this scenario they clearly try and use a handball chain to move the ball which was some of the best transition football they've shown in recent years but then they just don't commit enough to it for long enough in this instance, and fail to use the extra handball that was there and could have resulted in a ball landing 20m from their goal, but instead they kick it long to a free Adelaide defender only just inside forward 50, so a valuable but very teachable lesson for them right there.
Moving to the Carlton/St Kilda game, we look at the very first center ball up and how the Carlton midfielder just doesn't keep her space off the ruck tap, and not being able to take the ball cleanly off the tap, losing the ball and resulting in a saints inside 50.
Lastly we look at the sheer athleticism of Bre Moody and how if Carlton can really nail how to use all of her gifts at various times, it will make them a far greater proposition on a weekly basis.
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In the end the Dogs had a crack but just haven't had their cattle available in 2023, playing 2 - 3 train on players for a good portion of the year and and 4 scoring shots from just 22 inside 50's is the tale of their season really but with the blooding on plenty of youngsters this season and all of the returning players from injury + top end draft picks in 2024, could see a pretty quick turnaround for the Dogs in the next couple of seasons.
So we have 4 clips today looking at:
The Dogs finding a mark, getting control but then not exploring enough of the ground to find their 100% option, kicking to a 1v2 with their 1 being all of 158cms!
Next we see Gabby Newton who's been thrown back in the last part of the season with their injuries, more than likely seeing the space where her opposition forward wanted the ball to be kicked to but still not reading it quick enough to switch sides and seal that space off.
With Newton being thrown back they've now got a shortage up forward with Rocky Cranston being their main target at 171cms but not a key position payer by any stretch, and its like all the Bulldogs forwards are waiting for someone to present either up at the ball carrier, or down the line, but no one does and they end up having to kick to a a 1v4 on the edge of their forward 50 and losing possession off the back of it.
Lastly we look at probably the best transition of the season with North Melbourne perfectly using lane running from defensive 50 to forward 50, clearly showing how once you get 1 more lane then the opposition, then you can pretty much move the ball any way you want as you have the outnumber for as long as you keep running.
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With a finals spot on the line and missing their best player in Rowbottom, the Suns got it done against Essendon on Friday night, setting up an elimination finals against my Sydney Swans this coming Saturday night.
I wasn't sure if they could replace what Rowbottom does and that Maddy Prespakis would take over in congestion but Lucy Single tagged her to death, especially in the 2nd half.
You don't see it often in AFLW yet, but Gold Coast have made internal growth with Single and Whitford becoming bonafide midfielders, Dupuy becoming one of the great contested marks in the comp and the speed/run of D'arcy out of defense set them up as a destination target for free agents going forward.
The Bombers ended up playing 3 teams in the final 8, going 1-2 in them with their only win against Geelong in an almost unwatchable affair down in my hometown of Warrnambool, but I still thought they get the win Friday night off the back of Rowbottom not playing,
We've 5 clips from this game looking at:
Essendon not taking the 100% option and instead opting fora 50/50 that misses the target, ending in a ground ball situation and a resultant turnover, instead of a deep inside 50 and potential scoring opportunity.
Gold Coast's Daisy Davies not continuing to run towards the goal as the ball transitions forward and stays connected to the play and is eventually used as a hit up option at center half forward resulting in a 50m penalty and goal.
The extremely zippy Niamh McLaughlin pressing too aggressively in her own forward 50, getting stepped and giving Essendon and easy overlap off a bouncing loose-ish ball that could easily have been held up right there with better decelerating and pressing technique.
The Suns are a lot of better at balancing out their inside and outside game but fall in old habits here, with too many players getting too far into multiple contests and simply allowing the same 4 - 5 Essendon players to pressure about 8 different Gold Coast players.
Essendon lacking leadership and communication down back without Brooke Brown and failing to man up after a kick out of defensive 50 that comes straight back at them resulting an uncontested mark from a high ball 20m out from goal.
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Whenever I have conversations around AFLW it usually gets to the question of "how can we increase scoring?", and my answer is always, and Sydney coach Scott Gowans agrees, is to increase player numbers to 18-a-side.
I'm not a million $ sure this would even improve scoring but it definitely would improve the ability to transition the ball from deep in defensive 50 to deep forward 50.
In the clip below, and in many clips I've highlighted this season and in season's gone by, shows exactly how this could help that dramatically.
In the clip I'm talking about the Bulldogs forwards being too deep but this is somewhat caused by the 16-a-side rules we currently play by.
I'm probably not alone in thinking that once Hartwig takes that mark, we'd like her to have the affordance of being able to turn and burn and kick to someone in the forward 50, instead of having to mark, go back behind her mark and then stop and prop for 7 - 8secs before she do anything at all while everyone else catches up.
Here's specifically how 18-a-side could help in 2024.
1 - TEAMS WILL ALWAYS TRY AND DEFEND WITH MORE NUMBERS THAN THE OFFENSE WILL ATTACK WITH
When a team is defending in the defensive 50, they'll always defend with more numbers then the offensive team in the quest to limit scoring opportunities for the opposition and this will never change in invasion sports.
Unfortunately everything has a cost and the cost here is that if you do manage to win the ball back, then you're trying to transition with less players then the opposition and you run into a wall of opposition or simply run out of teammates to utilise but you;re still not in a scoring position.
Hartwig could have played on immediately but then would have kicked into a vacant forward 50 (which we see in a lot of AFLW games), or to the loose opposition defender (in this case Erika O'Shea) who simply repels the ball back North Melbourne's way.
You could say to not defend with so many numbers but coaches will never let that happen and you can say to use the ball better in transition but Hartwig does exactly what she had to do in that situation and you still just end up having to kick long to a contest anyway.
2 - THE DEEPEST FORWARD IS ALWAYS TOO HIGH
Hartwig is the deepest forward ad she has lead up to receive the ball at the half way mark of the ground, a good 90m from goal. Going back to the first point, you'll more than likely defend with your 5 defender's, 4 midfielders and 2 wingers in your defensive 50 = 11 players in total.
Just outside the defensive 50, you'll have 3 forwards and then 1 forward back behind them (Hartwig).
If you can find a mark then great but at some point you'll get that mark, run out of players between you and the goal, and then you'll need to halt your transition offense until your teammates can catch up, at which point the defense already has an outnumber in front of you and you simply cannot hold the ball long enough for your team to get even numbers there before the umpire calls play on.
An extra 2 forwards would give you at least 1 extra player in the original link - 11 players in d50, 4 as the next kick, then you've still got 3 between those players and the goal and you'll be able to transition far closer to goal then we usually see.
3 - TEAMS WON'T BE INCLINED TO DEFEND SO HIGH
At the moment teams are able to play a real compact forward half game once they get it in their forward 50 because all the opposition players are pulled up the ground to within about 60m of their goal and they simply don't need to defend any further away from their own goal then that and with the outnumber on that last line, they'll often win the ball and pump it straight back inside 50 until they score and the play can break up a bit.
With 2 more players, teams can still play an aggressive high press but with an extra player or 2 to worry about, it's not a free hit for those defenders who may now be even numbered or at least only a +1 where a 4v3 is a far easier to win the ball back for the outnumbered team then a 2v1 or 3v2.
4 - TEAMS CAN BE MORE CONFIDENT OF CHANGING ANGLES AND USING AS MUCH GROUND AS POSSIBLE
Let's get mathematical and hopefully I've got it right!
IKON Park is 157m long and 127m wide = 19,939 sq meters or 623 sq meters per player with 16-a-side.
For 18-a-side that's decreases to 553 sq meters per player and the decreased ground coverage demands allows for teams to develop formations that cover more ground space and thus spreads the defense far greater then it allows now, thus more pockets space are afforded to the offensive team.
In the men's game further kicking distances allows teams to spread their players over more ground space, not allowing teams to apply ultra-aggressive forward half defensive schemes, and if they do, then it is at a potential cost of getting scored against over the back.
More players, and therefore teams being able to cover more of the available ground space at one time, could do the same thing for the women's game.
5 - LESS PLAYER LOADING
The running the women's do in AFLW is amazing, especially the wingers.
I've highlighted this in my clips where wingers are marking the ball on the last line of defense running the fat side corridor as well as running into goals running the same fat side corridor on offense.
I'm not sure how sustainable this is for those wing players but an extra forward and defender they could link with on that fat side would definitely be a safer option from a player welfare point of view.
I can just see a barrage of overuse injuries to these players as the game speeds up.
I noted a lot more clips then usual this weekend so we finish off with a 22min video this week but full of great coaching tidbits.
First we look at Carlton employing a tagger for Maddy Prespakis which didn't work for a variety of reasons, as this clip shows.
We also look at Carlton during a fast play on transition offense and all the options the ball carrier has available that are all unidentified in real time over ignored and is a reason for their scoring woes in the first half of this game.
Another team on the ropes is Richmond who are limping to the line and we see a fast-ish play from defensive 50 result in a long kick down the line to a 1v7 but then we also see some great individual and team forward craft going inside forward 50.
We've got our usual clip of Geelong not connecting midfield to forward and just running away from the ball carrier and putting the kick out of distance to reach them.
The Sydney clip is a great look at what dominoes can look like on the ground and how drawing just 1 defender can set of a chain of drawing the others and then the multitude of player options you have available if you know they're there. A sign of high skill is once you identify a free option then how long can you keep them free until they can be used in the best way possible.
Adelaide won a thriller against North Melbourne who cannot beat a top 4 team who isn't them, with the Crows having a pseudo-Melbourne lane formation at the stoppage that resulted in a goal but North Melbourne defending the wrong spots around the contest at the same time.
In the Hawks/Power game we see how high work rate can quickly result in turning the tables on player outnumber advantages, how at this level of football the simple act of handballing on the wrong hand results in a certain deep inside 50 opportunity being turned over between the arcs and another poor midfield-forward connection clip from Port, but it was half-way good if that makes sense!
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You've probably read all the headlines about it but I suggest taking 43mins to listen to entire piece so you can get full context around what you've read.
Garry Lyon (GL) – "It’s a Sunday believe it or not..."
Simon Goodwin (SG) – "We want to address things we don’t feel comfortable with..."
This being recorded on a Sunday indicates that Melbourne felt the need to get right out in front of this entire situation and they also released a letter from Pert to the supporter base around the same time. After being relatively silent on the things to date, this indicates that they are now ready to address them but then question begs - why take so long to do so?
SG – "No we don’t have a cultural problem, we’ve got some isolated incidents that we’re gonna deal with to help drive our culture forward..."
Sports Scientist Adam Virgile refers to culture as "mastering accountability by consistently doing all the right things when no one is looking", and based on that, isolated incidents would certainly come under the umbrella of culture.
SG – "Culture sits above everything we do in our footy club...alignment in behavior is critical but it doesn’t mean it’s gonna be perfect...you don’t get into a position where, finishing top 4 without having a high performing culture...we’ve got some imperfections that we need to sort out...we are putting ourselves consistently in positions for success at our footy club and that’s something we should be really proud of..."
It sounds like a little bit like they are separating culture and success, even if just slightly, but one cannot deviate at all from the other and always comes back to alignment and not letting one gravitate too far from the other, if at all.
SG – "I know where it started in terms of a rumor from down in the Mornington Peninsula and that then led to an allegation, an allegation that was fully investigated and found to have nothing in it - it went from a rumor to an allegation to a fact and it’s gotta stop..."
Gary Pert – "The 1 or 2 people where the rumor started from all said we didn't refer to drugs, we were referring to the fact that Simon was down at the Mornington Peninsular with some of our senior players (they were all staying down there on a training camp)..."
The Goodwin rumor mill covered the first good portion of the interview and fair enough too, if this happened years ago and nothing was ever proven whatsoever, with a major case of Chinese Whispers, then address this once and for all and hopefully the naysayers report the truth from now on but this could have been done way back when the investigation was completed and is actually not a part of the recent Melbourne FC issue by any stretch.
GP – "Scenario planning was performed during the investigation in case we did have a problem with a senior leader within the club, and that’s good governance, but there was no requirement for it (lack of evidence etc)..."
Just another situation of mainstream media going for clicks - does my absolute head in and really the juicier the headline, the less I'm inclined to actually read it.
SG – "What Clayton needs to be really clear on, is that we now have some minimum standards of behaviors that we want him to adhere to..."
GP - "It’s been constant challenge over a long period of time..."
I'm surprised with the language that NOW we have some minimum standards of behaviors - were they not in place before? Was culture more something they just believed was being followed but no actual individual/shared frameworks put in place?
GP – "What were dealing with now is with isolated behavioral issues where individual's are being held to account and when you have a cultural issues it's about do you have the leaders, leadership programs, standards, disciplines and accountability and we have all those programs in place...our culture is the best I’ve seen in 40 years of footy..."
Programs are great and are the bare minimum but as Garry points out...
GL – "I’m not buying it, to both of you...I hear what you’re saying bit it’s not playing out like that, the way we played in the back half of the season, the discipline, the blues – it doesn’t add up to a 40 year best standard of culture..."
..and he's bang on. Maybe they could ask the supporter base what they believe elite culture looks like to them, and incorporate some of that in to what they're trying to do going forward because then there's at least 1 part of the club not in alignment, which is what we've already said is crucial.
GP – "Particular behaviors are all being lumped in when they’re completely unrelated and it’s just a cop out to say individual behavior is a result of Gawn, Viney, Petracca, Neal Bulleen etc, when we lump it into the culture we’re saying these guys are failing but it lets the individual’s off the hook who aren’t living the standards..."
Pert already said that player 1 is judged the same as player 42 and are all held to the same standards yet he now says that we can't lump all players into cultural issues, in the most part run by these very same leaders so although they're not to blame for individual behavior, they do need to help somewhat accountable in the standards being allowed as the standards you walk past are the standards you allow and you condone what you don't confront.
GL – "Maybe it’s only a 2 – 4% of cultural strength that hasn’t been able to get this footy to where they need to be..."
GP – "We’ve left ourselves open to that because we haven’t won finals over the last 2 yrs..."
GL – "Isolated or not there are behavioral issues..."
GP – "Did we lose those games because of a lack of leadership or culture? No and in finals it’s not about who the best team is, it’s the best team on the day...do you win those things (McClelland Trophy) without actually having strong leaders and cultures, aligned from the board through the player leadership?...)
Connections made, or not made, through elite culture may not show up until 3mins left in a final, but they'll show up and they've had multiple on and off-field connection issues and could be a big reason why they've failed in finals recently.
GL – "What we stand for right now is good enough up to a point, and up to a point is been great but it’s hasn't gotten us where it’s needed to be..."
Culture usually precedes positive results so maybe the success of 2021 was too far ahead of the cultural change they were able to generate in that 1 season alone and thus hasn't been sustainable.
Culture is also layered so what worked at 1 stage of your team's development won't necessarily work once you've reached the upper echelon so it may need to be tinkered with or maybe a decent makeover as culture drives long term success, especially if you look at what Sydney and Geelong have done over the last 25 years.
GP – "If/when players misbehave it’s because they don’t understand or they’re not clear, or that we don't hold them accountable, - then we’ve got a cultural issue...our players fully understand they’re stepping out of our standards and disciplines and have felt the accountability from our football department and leadership group..."
I mentioned individual and team frameworks above and if these are in place, then everyone is clear of what the expectations are.
If Melbourne haven't put these things "in writing" then you can't really turn around and blame individual behavior as you haven't covered yourself as a club either.
SG – "Culture is ongoing so we got keep making sure we work on it all the time and it could be the difference between the next premiership at the Melbourne football club.."
GP – "A firmer, clearer tough love approached, based on expert advice is maybe more appropriate for Clayton right now..."
This fine but Oliver also stated he doesn't really know whey his personal issues have been brought up in public again so whatever the approach is, it has to be agreed upon by both parties and again, put "in writing.
GL – "How can you drive that standard if one can't quite get there (Oliver)?
This is pretty much what will determine how Melbourne come out of this in the short and long term. It sounds like Oliver has been provided more leeway then the others for whatever reason but maybe that's the problem for whatever is happening now with him and some of the others. They cannot let his undeniable talent and performance output affect their approach to him from now on,which they probably have up to now. Like Pert said, he's judged and held accountable exactly like everyone else.
SG – "This gives the leaders an opportunity to really establish, we want to be really clear what we stand for but I don’t want to sit here and convince you, talk to you - I want to show you
GL – " And that starts when?..."
SG – "It started right now and that’s why we’re sitting here today, we want to open ourselves up, be really clear on where we’re at – we need to show you by taking you on this journey with us..."
Like all football clubs, they're saying all the right things but Goodwin said, they need to show us but now they also need to be careful not to over-correct and manufacture positive cultural stories, they'll happen naturally if you do the work culturally you say you'll do and if that means it's as simple as no more off-field blunders and better mid to forward connection on the field, then that's all it'll need to be for them to win another premiership, as the talent is there.
Strong culture also requires those at the top to be able to identify their own weaknesses and get assistance in the areas they need to and for Goodwin that's offensively. 117 inside 50's for just 16 goals in 2 finals games is not the makeup of a premiership team, especially when the grand final resulted in 25 goals total - they're losing 5 - 6 goals.
A mastery of culture will ensure Goodwin improves the team offensively either through his own coaching chops or by bringing an assistant coach in to take the reigns but they haven't to date and if the coach/club can't push for excellence from sheer ego, then how can you expect the players to as well?
GP – "This is the exact same players that after 2020 said enough’s enough and we’re gonna hold ourselves and the other players accountable and build a new culture and program...
GP – "Culture’s not an end point it’s a daily thing to keep in alignment so this is a different group (v 2021), with different dynamics and different challenges but you’re backing in the leaders and the program..."
Melbourne is an interesting case-study as they had beyond poor culture for a multitude of reasons pre-Goodwin, and what he did initially was enough to make a huge impact on the Demons on-field performance but as mentioned above, what worked last year or the year before, will rarely work again and you need to keep adding, keep pivoting and as Hardick said, cook the sausages a thousand times,which in this case is the playing group which has essentially stayed the same throughout his tenure.
GP - "Have we got ahead of ourselves? I don’t even know what that means..."
GL – "Yes you do, you know what getting ahead of yourself means..."
GP – "Does that mean that we have become complacent?..."
GL - "What drives you when you've have had the ultimate success? Am I getting out of bed this early, am I gonna run that extra?..."
GP – "The indication we see if that happens is if our work rate and standards of discipline drop off, but our results from pre-season 2022 were far in excess of 2021, the opposite (of complacency)..."
SG – "We won 10 straight after winning a flag and you don’t do that if you’re complacent and if you’re getting ahead of yourself but we haven’t been able to get done when it mattered..."
Again there seems to be extraordinary amount of focus on on-field success but if solid culture precedes success, then they're balance of focus is a bit out of whack and now they're possibly needing to do an over-correction to get that back to even in a short period of time.
Take Hawthorn for example - they clearly won a Grand Final "ahead of time" in 2008, long before they're culture and behaviors caught up to that level of success, then when they got the balance right, they won 3 on the trot.
SG – "I'm angry and frustrated to think that we have a player (Joel Smith) in round 23, on the eve of finals, not doing everything possible to help the success of our footy team and I can only imagine that’s permeating through our supporters. I haven’t spoken to Joel..."
Sam Edmund – "Why is that?..."
SG – "I have a level of angry/frustration towards it because of everything we’ve just been spoken about..."
We've made our back to ego again here over cultural mastery, with Goodwin putting his own feelings and agenda ahead of his player, taking this exceptionally personally.
Sure it was a completely deadshit moment but the greatest culture in 40 years does not leave any player unsupported in any way.
At local footy culture is bloody hard to build from turnover from within clubs and is often manufactured from other cultural aspects taken from other clubs which sounds great but is often not even aligned with the deep values of your club and values is probably a better place to start and all recruits are made by abide by them regardless of their ability and that's how long term change - culture - is achieved.
