GAME/TRAINING SCENARIOS - UTILISING THE OUTNUMBER ADVANTAGE

In my opinion the biggest gap in local/amateur football by far is the ability to create, identify and utilise outnumber advantages.

We're not trained to identify/utilise them so of course we don't so this in obviously a coaching issue, not a player issue.

Shameless plug alert - I have a entire 20 page chapter on this in the Coaching Modern Football series you can pick up from the register page but for now you'll have to use this tiny snippet.

Previous Game Moment - we exit a stoppage inside defensive 50 and find an outlet on the half back flank

Game Moment - we mark and take some time to allow us to regain formation in front of the ball after a high press game moment on defense.

Game Video...

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS PART 4

                                                                

So far we've covered the basics of stage 1, 2 and 3 in regards to cognition on footballers and now we double, even triple, down on detail so the future posts in this series  have the potential to be quite long!

Stage 1 - Assessment of the Current Play Situation

Visual Orientation and Attention

• Visual + relevant visual stimuli surrounding players in all directions via eye movements, head turns and whole body movements
• Orientation behavior is linked to attentional functions which guide exploratory movements to ensure that the most relevant information is focused on and perceived
• Visual attention is typically directed on the ball, opposition/teammate positions, open/closed spaces on the field or postural clues for anticipating the actions of others which guides the player’s orientation behavior but are weighted by events that occur during the visual exploration meaning the relation between orientation behavior/attention is highly interactive
• Conscious intentions such as specific instructions may also influence orienting behavior by way of executive control processes
• Skilled players search the visual surroundings for more relevant informatioin, flexibly adapting to current play situations + make shorter/more fixations when the ball was far away to perceive the general pattern of play but when the ball is close they made fewer fixations of long duration and focuses on postural cues of the possession player to predict the next movement v lesser skilled players who simply look at the ball in both situations
• Individual differences in creativity are related to visual search strategies x making short fixations of informative locations and a reflection of broader attentional focus
• Individual differences in working memory can also be relevant for visual orientation behavior but does not differ from groups with different working memory capacity as measured by object tracking
• Superior perceptual abilities leads to better anticipation accompanied by employing distinct visual search strategies
• Both players will fixate on the ball and the player in possession of it which aligns with a reliance on postural cues but experts do this far less indicating superior integration of other sources of information
• When provided with contextual priors via opposition action tendencies, experts spend far more time watching other elements in their visual field than the possession player v novices
• When the main action is far away, skilled players focus less on the possession player and more on other surrounding subjects
• Elite players incorporate multiple sources of information when anticipating and can adjust their strategy depending on the quality of available information
• Most visual research is lab-based which does not always match up with real-life sport
• Game specific data shows that head turn frequency is related to faster processing time
• Central midfielders/defenders scan more and forwards the least
• Less scanning under tight opposition pressure/close to opposition goal
• Probability of successful passing increases with scan frequency but not large but it still has a positive role in elite performance
• The amount of visual exploratory activities in relation to the penultimate pass predicted the adequacy of the subsequent pass by the player
• Midfielders make more visual exploration activities then defenders/forwards
• Eye movement patterns vary  with attacking/defensive phases as well as situational complexity with longer fixations when they were a high number of areas of interest (ball, teammate, opposition) were present in the visual field suggesting longer processing time is required when more information is available
• Scan times are way shorter then during lab testing, questioning study validity
• Visual orientation behavior/related attentional processes vary systematically with the play situation as well as individual player characteristics like creativity
• Skilled players focus their attention on the most informative aspects of the situation which can vary in several ways
• Most studies focus on players with the ball, not away from the ball

COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS STUDY PART 3

                                                              

• Stage 3 occurs after the action has been carried out and the player perceives the outcome which is directly coupled to the player’s intention for action and implies an assessment of its level of success
• The assessment activates the brain’s reward systems and makes the player either more or less likely to repeat the same action in similar future situations
• Degree of behavioral modification depends on the difference between the expected and actual outcome of the action so large discrepancies will lead to more changes
• Feedback is implemented via modifications of the cognitive/neural settings that are involved in stages 1 and 2 such as leading changes in the orienting behavior at stage 1 or different response tendencies at stage 2
• Stage 3 feeds back into new cycles of perception/action providing opportunities for learning, and modifies the perceptual processing, decision making and motor execution in future play situations

With the general descriptions of each stage laid out, the next posts of this series will go into great detail on each of them where it gets pretty deep and full on but you don't learn if you're not challenged to thinking deeper!

FREMANTLE v SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS

I've somehow edited these clips in reverse order of the game but today we look at:

• The next to last play we've all seen already
• Luke Ryan getting drawn to the ball, not impacting at all, and leaving his direct opposition open behind him
• 85m Bice defensive run 
• Freo having their own crack at a kick out set play
• Hayward from high defensive press to leading out of the goal square forward run

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS STUDY PART 2

                                                             

• Stage 2 evaluates the current relevant response options in order to select/execute a particular action with response options being heavily narrowed down by the situation assessment from stage 1 which activates only a few responses in the player's procedural long term memory
• Response options are simultaneously activated in specific neural populations within motor-related areas of the brain and compete for action selection with the activation of them not being purely cerebral but also muscle actions/preliminary movements such as a defensive player on the ball with the options being to pass back to the goal keeper, direct a long pass ahead or to make a shorter pass to a supporting defensive player
• The speed of the game demands selection/execution of actions largely occurring at an automatic/non-conscious level with the activation of specific response options depending on previous learning/training
• Response actions are also influenced by recent events in the game such as a successful encounter with an opposition player or a missed shot on goal
• Action selection is determined by an implicit evaluation of the potential risk/benefits related to each potential action including the probability of carrying the action out as intended
• The evaluation is implicit as it depends on excitatory/inhibitory activity (formed by previous learning) in neural networks representing the competing responses rather than a conscious deliberation of choice options
• Risk taking levels depends on personal characteristics such as current confidence levels as well as the overall game situation
• The action selection process is non-conscious where executive functions can influence the outcome such as representing team strategy and other conscious intentions
• The automacity of the response selection varies both between situations/individuals where a player may be trained to systematically carry out a specific action in a particular situation but can also be trained/personally inclined to act in a more flexible/creative manner
• A largely automatic response mode corresponds to a strong activation of just 1 response in stage 2 whereas a more flexible response mode entails significant competition between several response options and typically more feedback interaction with the information gathering processes of stage 1
• The outcome of stage 2 is the full execution of a particular action within the action, implying an expectation of its likely outcome based on previous learning which leads stage 3.

HAWTHORN v CARLTON GAME ANALYSIS

As much as it pains me to say, the Hawks are awe-inspiring at the moment - winning in so many different ways it's near-impossible to nail them down when have so many different game phases they can play through.

I assume Geelong will keep Geelonging though to Easter Monday so I can't wait to see what Chris Scott comes up with to combat the Hawks.

On the other hand the Blues are struggling and I didn't have them in my 8 at the start of the year so I'm not fully surprised by their current form.

Today we look at:

• Hawks handball chain that creates the outnumber advantage up the ground
• Hawks going side 50 during a slow play
• Hawks again going inside 50 on slow play but the Blues adjust in-game
• Hawks again handball chain to create the outnumber advantage up the ground
• Hawks kick out #1
• Blues get their own outnumber advantage but have no idea how to use it
• Excellent Carlton pressing and chasing defense
• Hawks kick out #2
• Hawks kick out #3

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS STUDY

 

2 - 3 times a year I come across a study that's about 25 pages long that sucks me in and I have to read it word-for-word while I'm typing out notes from it which than cuts it down to about 10 pages and this study did just that (29 into 14 pages to be specific!)

As usual this study is based on soccer but everything translates to footy, and any team invasion sport.

To be able to coach something you first need to know what it actually is and the processes behind otherwise you're guessing and/or not following evidenced-based coaching practices.

What I'll also add is a list of new terms and what they mean to help guide you through this post series.

Cognition - is the ongoing, active maintenance of player-environment interactions, achieved by closely coordinated perception and action.

Action Selection/Execution - the movement selected by the player to solver the current problem presented to them/the final action of that proposed selection.

Outcome Assessment - the final result of the action selected based on the expectations you had of it.

Perception-Action Cycle - you perceive to move and you move to perceive meaning you see an action you can take, you take it and from that previous action new action possibilities present themselves.

Visual Orientation/Attention - your ability to perceive and interpret the action around you/what actions you choose to focus on.

Pattern Recognition - the ability to recognise in-game patterns of teammates and opposition.

Anticipation - the ability to predict pattern of play based of pattern recognition/experience and thus being able to react earlier then other teammates and opposition.

Working Memory - is where the most current information sits your memory bank of which only somewhere between 3 - 6 chunks of information can be held at a time before it becomes overloaded and something drops out and/or system fatigue stars to increase. If information is retrieved optimally then it can be moved to long term memory where retrieval has far less resource cost.

Perceptual Updating - You see a potential action and you start to act on it but the environment changes mid-action, you perceive this in real-time and alter your next action as a result of it.

Exploratory Behavior - refers to performing in an environment that is unstable or unfamiliar, and thus cannot be predicted beforehand

Auditory/Somatosensation/Proprioception - verbal/all senses such as touch, pain, temperature, body position and balance/movement, action and location in space

This will take 5 or so posts to get through so here's the introduction + the characteristics of stage 1.

• There are 3 functional stages of cognition being situation assessment, action selection/execution and outcome assessment that all form a perception-action cycle that corresponds to a single play situation
• The main cognitive processes are visual orientation/attention, pattern recognition, anticipation, working memory, action selection/decision making, executive control processes + behavioral/cognitive learning
• If you have the ball you can pass, shoot or dribble
• If you don’t have the ball you tackle, block the ball/running course of opposition or move to another part of the field for defensive/attacking purposes
• The typical duration of a single play is a few seconds which allows for some perceptual updating/response preparation within the situation
• The model works in a cascading way where earlier stages continue to be active during the processing at later stages and can influence the result until an action has been executed
• Stage 1 continues to deliver information about the current play situation during the process at stage 2 which can lead to inhibition of action if circumstances change halfway
• There are also feedback connections between stage 2/1 so the process of action selection can initiate new exploratory behavior before an action is decided upon/fully executed
• Several processes within stages also occur in parallel such as the selection between response actions during stage 2
• Although the model as a whole has a serial processing character, it encompasses parallel/interactive processes both within and between the 3 stages with each stage depending on specific cognitive processes as we'll see below
• STAGE 1 provides the player with a continuous assessment of the current play situation via visual perception but also auditory, somatosensation and proprioception, all intimately connected to attentional functions which direct focus towards particular aspects of the situation
• Attentional focus is supported/elaborated by active exploratory movements, in particular visual orienting, and relies heavily on previous learning
• Much of the orienting processes occur at an automatic cognitive level but conscious intentions can also influence the player's behavior via executive control processes
• Sport specific pattern recognition refers to configurations of the surrounding players in relation to the ball and is a central aspect to stage 1
• Anticipations of the actions of the other players are an integral part of the situation assessment such as basing on postural positions of teammates/opposition
• The outcome of stage 1 is a dynamically updated assessment of the current play situation including anticipations of the immediate future which is represented in the player's working memory

COLL/PA + HAW/ESS + MELB/GWS GAME ANALYSIS

Here's the 2nd part of my game analysis for round 1 where we look at:

• Collingwood hunting Port's ball carrier
• Collingwood's extra-aggressive kick out tactic
• Hawthorns fast v Essendon's turtle-like transition
• Hawthorn's kick out tactic again - wake up other teams!
• GWS's attempt at similar kick out tactic

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SYDNEY v BRISBANE GAME ANALYSIS + A SPRINKLE OF GEELONG

Some up and down results from our first full round of football this weekend from the Tigers major upset on Thursday night all the way to the usual hot Gold Coast start before falling away late-season and plenty in between.

My Swans are struggling a bit so far on wins and losses (o-2!) but could have stolen opening round and was in a winning position in round 2 against the probable top 2 favorites for 2025 but we'll find our feet at some point.

In this analysis post we look at Sydney/Brisbane and touch on Geelong at the end as I just had to go back and watch that 3rd quarter sequence from Murphy Reid after listening to it on the radio on the way back from a way too-hot practice match.

In this 10min video we look at:

• Sydney with a set play from defensive 50 off of a play restart from injury
• Multiple Sydney players losing Bailey in the mid 50 for a crumbing goal deep inside forward 50
• Multi-layered sequence of Sydney leaving direct opposition and being covered by surrounding teammates
• Sydney coming forward at the ball carrier to change their kick
• Sydney using a trigger to come forward and press into the opposition receiver
• Murphy Reid perfecting leading patterns in his very first game!

For full access to this game analysis post, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

COACHING MODERN FOOTBALL - 5 DAY, 50% OFF SALE!

                                                       

We're all about to start practice games against actual opposition (36 degrees at Digger's Rest will be hell on earth for this 46 year old!) where as coaches we'll be seeing if what we've tried to implement with our players over the pre-season, has carried over to games and to what extent.

Form these games we'll find gaps in what we've taught the players and what they've learnt + other gaps in our team's performance where more needs to be added to really make your team's performance click over the next 20 - 25 weeks.

The Coaching Modern Football series consists of 17 chapters with each one focusing on a specific phase of play encountered in every game of football you'll coach and ply in this year.

Once reflecting on your practice games you might find you need to insert some better strategies to make a phase of play or set of tactics even more robust.

This 5 day sale will run from today (Wednesday, March 12th) until Monday morrning (March 17th).

All chapters are at the lowest price they have been since I released them, and the lowest price they'll ever be.

$15 - Forward Press Defense, Lane Running, 666 Connection, Forward Play, Playing Between the Lines, Exploiting the Stand Rule, Ruck Runs

$20 - Team Formations, Creating/Utilising Length, Creating/Utilising Outnumber Advantages

$25 - Midfielder Running Patterns, Manufacturing Corridor, Micro Game Moments

$35 - Wing Play, Center Bounce Clearance, Overlap, Kick Out Strategies

$325 - All 17 Chapters

"All Chapters" has it's own purchase link, otherwise you need to purchase individual chapters from their own specific links and all chapters are emailed out in PDF form.

To take advantage of this opportunity, head to the register page, make your choices and go next level in 2025.

GWS v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS

It's never as good as it seems (GWS and Callaghan), and it's never as bad as it seems (Collingwood, listless).

Let's hope for at least for 1 of these teams that is the case as it's a trench-like drop off if it is!

 In this 6min, 4 clip analysis we look at:

• Nathan Buckley talking about Collingwood's center bounce clearance method
• The actual clearance Bucks' talks about and we've looked at this plenty of times before
• GWS mult-layers forward half defense
• Collingwood staple kick out tactic but intercepted by guess who?

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SYDNEY v HAWTHORN GAME ANALYSIS

In what has turned out to be the last Saturday without any sort of footy for 9 months and a very slow day at that, here's my game analysis clips from last night's game while I have ample time to put it together and post it.

Impressive from the Hawks to win in a different way then they were last season and after Sydney came right back at them and getting close enough to pinch it regardless of those horrendous 2-brown jumpers!

We're all bored from not having footy to watch so I'll make this one free to provide somewhat of a footy fix.

In this 11 min video we look at:

• Sydney's multiple layers of pressing forward defense
• Sydney breaking the Hawks forward half defense
• Leading patterns and cohesiveness of the Sydney forwards
• Sydney not pressing forward on defense like they normally do resulting in a goal for the Hawks
• Elite small forward craft from Papley
• Sydney loosing Sicily during Hawks transition transition offense slow play 
• How to press forward into the ball carrier when they have space to run through
• Wicks' double tackling effort

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0sVhxGoRno

 

10 NEW STREAMLINE TRAINING ACTIVITIES

                                          

I haven't posted one of these for ages so just remember that these training activities simply have a brief description and that's it - no images, diagrams and pictures to accompany them. Let's get to activities 122 - 131.

#122 -PASSING CIRCLE

#123 - PUSH UP TO SCORE

#124 - NO CORRIDOR

#125 -  8 ROTATE

#126 - PIVOT PLAYER

#127 - END ZONE

#128 - NUMBERS

#129 - HANDBALL TO KICK

#130 - 1-0 GAME

#131- 3-2-1 GAME

For full access to these training activities register for a level 3 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

RELATIONSIM v POSITIONISM

                                                           

These 2 terms are never really mentioned in AFL conversations, not with this specific wording anyway, but in Soccer there are constant Twitter threads on 1 or the other or the comparison of both approaches.

That's not to say they aren't used in AFL, they most definitely are, we just don't use the same jargon.

These notes come from a Twitter account called @ogpinions, which is a soccer analysis-based account so let's have a look at the 2 approaches.

RELATIONISM

• Refers to the relationships and interactions between players in an attempt to develop self-regulating players who can solve their own problems without coach intervention and who can adjust to variable game conditions
• Player position’s should not be predetermined but should depend on game variables such as opposition and teammates with the player being in control of their position
• Top-down guidance is associated with relationism where coaches provide game situations for players to solve and observe their natural tendencies through guidance
• It is not against positional play but is against methods that inhibit self-regulating players
• Once players develop positional understanding then self-regulation should be prioritised

POSITIONISM

• Is defined by positions on the field and from a belief that a fixed, static concept is the source from which everything else can be derived
• May not develop self-regulating players as some, most or all solutions are already provided to them and they don't develop the ability to think for themselves
• Top down control is associated here where the coach provides the solution and the players execute it and they follow a specific game model
• Can lead to a lack of adaptability where players struggle when teams behave differently then they thought they would
• The main difference is the role of the coach

Now that we have a bit more information on what these both are then what teams do you think bias one or the other?

AFL PRE-SEASON WEEK 2 GAME ANALYSIS

                         

In week 2 of the pre-season games we look at:

• Gold Coast stoppage formation on secondary center ball ups
• Sydney with multiple layers of pressing forward defense 
• Brisbane wing run
• Collingwood up to their old tricks at center bounce clearance
• Lukosius kick = Perfection
• Port Adelaide using handball to draw defenders in then breaking them

For full access to this game analysis register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.