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.
No comments:
Post a Comment