BRISBANE v MELBOURNE + GOLD COAST v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS

                              

Nothing to take from the Sydney/Freo game this week as the Dockers took pretty much everything away from the Swans over the weekend and apart from some individual brilliance from McLean and Blakey, we don't have the chance to steal that at the end like we did.

Instead I have some clips from Brisbane/Melbourne, with Brisbane looking very Sydney-like in their forward half formation, Brisbane's width beating Melbourne's width and how simply calling for the ball in a demanding fashion can distract the opposition and open up pockets of space in highly advantageous positions for you.

There's also some Collingwood vision with today's video showing Nick Daicos at center bounce formation as we've been keeping tabs on fora while now + Daicos immediately turning towards and searching corridor out of the defensive 50 boundary line to attack through.

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JOE MAZZULLA (BOSTON CELTICS) COACHING SLOW PLAY

                           

Principles of team sports transcends multiple sports and is why coaches look at other sports to see how they apply them and how they could do the same to their benefit.

Newly-crowned NBA Champs the Boston Celtics' head coach Joe Mazzulla met with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola just before the NBA Finals who Mazzulla labelled "the best coach at any level, in any sport."

AFL coaches are regularly taking off-season trips overseas to get an inside look at other sports and how they are coached, trained and managed.

I saw this clip of Mazzulla coaching his Celtics in the conference semi-finals v Cleveland and he talks about what we call slow play in Aussie Rules Football where says (paraphrasing)"

"Play fast when we have the number advantage but if it’s not even then wait 3secs so we can get to our spacing...you can't play fast when it’s even numbers as you need to give everyone else time to manipulate space/time"

Coaching junior footy this year and seeing A LOT of junior footy prior to that, slow play is a pretty much existent and is barely coached and then you see this in senior grades of football when all they've been taught is to go fast, all the time.

We were doing kick outs at training prior to finding this video and I was pretty much saying the same thing to the kicker - walk to the goal square line and wait - wait for your teammates to start moving to see if any of them can become open enough to kick to and we're a probable chance of maintaining possession. Someone who provides an easy kick from you, and an easy mark for them, as we can always go long to a contest when that doesn't eventuate.

Mazzulla's comments do differ slightly from football because if we have a dominant marking option then we would like to get them in 1v0's/1v1's but we also still want other numbers around them to be able to contest the ball on the ground, hold defensive structure behind the ball etc so the rebound from the opposition doesn't just bypass our players caught in the middle of transition. 

Sydney are the kings of slow play and have been for a while now and it's all geared to get set up how they want in front and behind the ball, what I simply coin "6/6/6", to stay connected through all 3 lines, and to have the option of utilising as many of our 18 players on the ground at all times.

Here are some videos showing it in action.

#1 - FORWARD HALF SLOW PLAY...

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GWS v SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS PART 2

                         

In part 2 of this game analysis we look at:

• Sydney's high 6/6/6 press resulting in a goal from a Swans defender from just inside our own forward 50
• Sydney's full ground running power that creates 3 concurrent plays of overlap play resulting in a goal from 20m out
• 2 coming forward to defend plays with 1 during a GWS slow play and another creating a 5v1 GWS advantage fast play, yet both resulting in turnovers.

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GWS v SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS PART 1

                          

The mighty Swans were finally able to win a 1st quarter, albeit 16 - 13, just prior to a 10 - 0 goal run in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

The score runs that Sydney have been going on of late are pretty frightening really, meaning no lead is safe against us but you also need to hold your lead until the last quarter at least, to have a good chance of keeping it until the final siren.

Except if you're Richmond!

There's 2 parts to this game so today we look at:

• Sydney defending with teasing distance through the middle of the ground then pouncing on the turnover with their 6/6/6 formation 
• Sydney forwards starting with a very high press formation then getting length immediately off a kick out turned into a fast play
• Sydney leaving their direct opponent to front another opposition player in defensive 50 during transition
• Kickout to Heeney play that we've seen before

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NORTH MELBOURNE v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS PART 2

                           

Continuing on from yesterday, the 2nd half of this game analysis shows the altered center bounce formation used by Collingwood, strongly dictated by score.

It also shows more examples of Collingwood playing with reckless abandon but it's all planned to go to certain area's of the ground and they simply set up their players to get number advantages there.

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NORTH MELBOURNE v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS

                                   

This game absolutely had it all!

The fast start to the huge underdog.

The seemingly game-winning lead half way through the 3rd quarter.

The question of will the Pies comeback happen yet again but when will it start?

The comeback in question happening right in front of us.

The Pies hitting the front.

The Roos hitting the front.

The Pies hitting the front.

The umpires!!

I couldn't have imagined watching it real time.

Being a Collingwood game I watched them closely and here what I found.

Looking at their center bounce clearances there were 38 in total of which Nick Daicos attended 34 of them.

We've seen in the last month or so that the Pies have had ND start in the opposition sweeper spot, then running through the circle towards the opposite goal which does 2 things:

• Drags the opposition sweeper out of that spot
• Opens up the space at the front of the center bounce contest allowing for many different exits through the corridor

We've seen a lot of different varieties of clearances already.

In this game ND only performed that role 3 times and the rest of the team only 3 other times as well (brother Josh), a shift from what they've been doing with pretty great success.

We'll see in the couple of videos what they tried instead and why.

There's also showing how the score can somewhat dictate how Collingwood play which looks out of controlled, but it really isn't, as we've seen it plenty of times before in other videos I've posted.

I'll also link to a post on twitter by Ricky Mangidis who does an excellent deep dive on North Melbourne mainly every eek but also highlights other bits pieces from other teams and this week he looked at what both teams did, being a game of 2 halves essentially, so a bit more on Collingwood there too (definitely worth a follow and/or membership for coaches/players)...

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ADELAIDE v SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS PART 2

                            

Part 2 today takes a quick look at:

• Ball Up Formation
• Kick Out Tactic Used Often in the Past
• Half Back Coming into Center Bounces
• Designated Hit Up Forward
• Boundary Throw In Formation
• Defensive/Fat Side Wing
• Papley Stoppage Goal

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SYDNEY v ADELAIDE GAME ANALYSIS PART 1

                          

Adelaide really put it to the Swans for 90% of the first half over the weekend, but with Sydney's ridiculous 2nd halves this year (averaging 167%!!), the 4 point margin never looked enough to me.

I took 15 different clips from this game with a lot of them focusing on the Swans staying connected through all 3 lines and is THE major reason we can get number to all contests anywhere on the ground which is half the battle of AFL football.

In part 1 we look at:

• Adams using high forwards at the contest to become a temporary forward
• Mid-wing boundary throw in formation which is probably more Adelaide-based then Sydney, going off the formation I posted v Richmond last week
• Gulden using slow play to allow our 3 lines to regain connection
• Up and back defensive running
• Coming forward to defend
• Forward 50 boundary throw in formation
• Kick out play

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ADE/RICH + HAW/GWS + ESS/CAR GAME ANALYSIS

                       

Had the week my playing and coaching footy this past weekend so I was able to watch more games a lot more closely then normal.

On footy weeks I make sure to catch Sydney and Collingwood games live or on replay then if something else looks interesting to me then I'll give that a look as well but I'm out all day Saturday and a big portion of the afternoon Sunday so there's not a lot of extra time to catch much else, especially if Sydney/Collingwood aren't one of the prime time live TV games. 

In the Adelaide/Richmond game I noticed an interesting full ground and team formation from Richmond, along the lines of an earlier formation I pointed out way back in the Richmond/Sydney game which seems an absolute lifetime ago now.

In the Hawks/GWS game there was another instance of the kicker being the most free option on the ground and again it shows how using that tiny tactic can keep your whole 18 connected for longer.

In the Essendon/Carlton game we saw how when the forwards get up relatively high to contest, then it allows the fat side winger to then become the forward target running in towards goal p- something we see in the AFLW quite regularly having 2 players less to use in the chain prior. 

There was also an instance of Carlton not coming forward to ball carrier, something they used a lot of in their back the brink phase n 2023 to great success that allowed a relatively non-pressured goal.

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COLLINGWOOD v MELBOURNE GAME ANALYSIS

                                 

There were some very interesting pieces of vision from this game despite Melbourne barley giving a wimper and made way worse by the Petracca injury.

As has been the theme the last little while, I'm still keeping a very keen eye on Collingwood center bounce clearances where this week they again used the same tactic they've been utilising to great affect but it also seemed like the Demons were aware of this and at least made multiple attempts at doing something about - unlike Collingwod's recent opposition.

There are also some other Collingwood staple tactics used in kick outs and getting the ball to ground right where they want it + we get an even better look at how the player who just kicked the ball then becomes the most free player on the ground and if they can be utilised again, then major overlap can occur for great advantage.

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SYDNEY v GEELONG GAME ANALYSIS

                        

The might Swans are absolutely flying and I'm here for all of it after witnessing the 2022 Grand Final in person!

In the 6 clips from this game we look at:

• The Sydney wing, Gulden, getting depth and width for shot on goal
• 2 clips showing the Swans pressing up extremely hard towards the ball carrier and forcing intercepts/turnovers both times
• Sydney identifying, processing and positively utilising a +1 outnumber advantage
• A great example of why the player who just kicks the ball is usually the most open player on the ground immediately proceeding it + Sydney mids filling the space between the backs and forwards so all 3 lines can stay connected

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AFL KICKING STUDY - 17% PROFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT IN 4 WEEKS

I'm not sure if I've referenced this study in the past but I came across it again over the weekend and it's definitely worth a look from all coaches.

Here are my notes and some diagrams to help you set this up yourself.

• Small sided same (6v5) v traditional training (cone/no opposition)
• SSG used varied shaped areas x approximately 272m2/player approx + changing constraints (rules/tempo etc)
• Each ssg ran for 4 x 3mins, 1min rest in the last 20mins of each training session, 2/week x 4 weeks
• Enhanced kick proficiency x 17% but also improved adaptability, players performed more longer kicks over 20 – 40m, made quicker decisions (more kicks within 1sec of taking possession) and applied more pressure to the opposition when they were executing a skill
• Players were also more likely to take the game on by decreasing the amount of times a skill was executed from a stationary position
• Kick proficiency assessed in small sided games is 97% successful in identifying players as novice or sub-elite
• Skill adaptability refers to having the ability to perceive/interpret their environment (ball/teammates/opposition/space) and then act on those perceptions (mark then stop/run and/or run/kick to open/marked teammate for possession/territory)
• SSG area size was 3000m2/55mx55m approx
• Week 1 was pre-testing and week 6 was post-testing.
• Week 2 was played inside the forward 50m area playing across the ground

                                           

• Week 3 was played in a rectangle area requiring players to mark the ball in a circle to score

                                           

• Week 4 was again played inside the forward 50m area requiring players to kick as soon as they took possession used 6v6 instead of 6v5
• Week 5 was played in squared area with slow/fast play responses to coaches whistle
• Variables assessed in the pre/post testing were non/dominant side kicking
• Kick proficiency rated 1 – 5
• Handball proficiency rated positive/neutral/negative
• Kick distance x 0 – 20m/20 - 40m/40m+ (there were more 20 – 40m then any other)
• Time before skill execution x less then 1sec/1 – 2secs/2 – 4secs/4+secs (a significant increase in less then 1sec kicks/a decrease in more then 4secs kicks)
• Pressure x opposition within 3m or not
• Execution movement x yes/no (saw an increase in on the run possessions)
• Receiving player movement x leading and covered/leading and open/stationary and covered/stationary and open
• Coaches and players both strongly agreed small sided games were more specific to match play, enhanced skill proficiency more, increased adaptability, physically/psychologically more challenging, enhanced tactical awareness and enjoyable = greater overall buy in

2 PRESSURE EFFORT TRAINING ACTIVITY

                                      

This is a great activity to use to emphasise high work rate for repeated efforts, especially for midfielders but also for half forward and back flankers who now are required to get up and back during games.

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WESTERN BULLDOGS v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS

                              

The Bulldogs are in super-form, and after they were in a great position beat ladder leaders Sydney until injuries set in, they were able to get the job done against the Pies, albeit also heavily injured themselves.

Collingwood started off like a house on fire with Nick Daicos ripping the Dogs midfield a new one our of center clearance with 6 on his own in the first quarter, v the individual game record of 12 and that's the focus of 3 out of the 4 clips from this game.

The other video shows Collingwood manufacturing corridor from a very slow play and right next to the point post in their defensive 50.

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