AFLW ROUND 6 GAME ANALYSIS PART 2/2

I ended up with a monstrous 50mins of clips from this round and we have the 2nd half of it today but first a check up on the remaining teams:

Dockers - wind-affected games don't lend themselves to the lowest scoring teams as they really only have 2 quarters to score and if they don't then they're in a lot of trouble and that's what happened here with Freo only managing 15 in Q1 with the wind but then allowing the Dogs 26, leaving too much work to be done in Q3 where they only managed another 15 while not scoring against the wind at all.

Dogs - scored in just 3 quarters, which was helped with the Dockers scoring in just 2, to get a solid away win 

Giants - got way behind at half time but decided to kick a bit more and put up a league top 5 scoring quarter for the season in the 3rd but just fell short

Tigers - definitely had control of this one (48 to 36% time in possession) but just did enough early to creep over the line but the Giants got over the back of their defense time and time again in that 3rd quarter

Dons - managed 1 goal for an entire game 3 times last year and hit their 1st game for that same stat this year with North and Hawthorn to come

Suns - are quietly sitting in 5th right now and I have them finishing 7th on my predictor which is a great platform to springboard for the next 3 - 5 years.

Saints - somehow the Saints have scored 50 pts less than the Bombers and given up 37 more points in a simply disastrous season and will there be a mid-season coaching change - a rarity in AFLW?

Eagles - aren't what they were last year but an away win is always a good win but are playing too skinny for mine which they did move away from in year 1 of Daisy

Lions - they couldn't have been this low on the ladder ever before at this time of the season (12th on 2 wins) and with Syd (4th), GC (5th), Hawks (7th) and Carlton (6th) to come, they'll miss the finals without a dramatic turnaround in their offense which I allude to in the videos

Crows - some close losses (Syd 8pts, Gee 9pts) and great away wins over the Hawks and Lions but still have the Suns, Roos and Demons to come...ouch

Today we look at:

• If you're a coach then you HAVE to know the ins and out of affordances
• GWS on Kick Out
• Essendon Outnumber Advantage Fail
• Essendon Rebounding from D50
• GC Handball Chain
• St Kilda Handover Fail
• Saints Not Using Their Numbers
• Double-Effort Dalgleish!
• Saints Going Too Defensive
• St Kilda Outnumber Advantage Fail
• Brisbane Forwards Not Reading M50 Triggers
• Brisbane Creating/Utilising M50 Space x 3

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

AFLW ROUND 6 GAME ANALYSIS PART 1/2

Another round of upsets with the biggest we'll see for the year in the Hawks beating the Roos they somehow manage to not win the Premiership.

Hawks - just kept showing up in the 2nd half, taking time and space away from North to exit contest forcing them into a less then 1:1 kick:mark ratio for the 1st time this season...and maybe forever

North - now can focus back on proves rather than outcome to keep the winning streak alive and we'll see a rejuvenated North now 

Pies - missed their season high game points total by 1 point in the first half in this one before falling away for an 8 goal to 1 2nd half

Cats - scoring at will but apart from holding St Kilda to 15 points who do it to themselves more than anything else, they've allowed 100pts to North, 57 to the Suns, 51 to Essendon, 46 to the Crows and 49 to the Pies in this one

Dees - now the number ranked team for 2027 with a HUUUGGGEEE game Friday night (but I'm going to the bloody movies!!)

Blues - in a bit of a spot at the moment with only 6 goals in the past 2 weeks where even the Saints have 9

Power - apart from Dowrick, no one else is taking a consistent stand for them with the Tahau injury really hurting them

Swans - still winning despite the injuries and need to do the job v the Lions this week before facing North, Carlton 

Over 27mins and 8 videos, today we look at:

• Bogue getting out the back again...and again
• Pies Too Schleicher-Focused
• Geelong at Center Bounce x 3
• Bonnici Midfield Run
• Cats at Stoppage
• Melbourne at Center Bounce
• Sydney/Port Adeliade Numbers
• Sydney at Center Bounce
• Dockers Ruck Loose in Defense
• Bulldogs Wing Run

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

HAWTHORN v BRISBANE PRELIM FINAL GAME ANALYSIS

What. A. Game.

Probably the best in my lifetime from a spectacle point of view.

The Hawks were 99% of the way there...until they weren't (all correct decisions for mine by the way).

The most ridiculous aspect of this game was the momentum swings with both teams both having healthy chunks of the game purely under their control but as transition games tend to go, that can change on a dime.

The multi-goal runs for each team looked like this:

Hawks 2 in a row x 2, 3 in arow x 1, 5 in a row x 1

Lions 2 in a row x 2, 3 in a row x 1, 7 in a row x 1

There were 16 goal kickers for the game across both teams, with 8 of them going for 2 or more and after seeing the Swans forwards go for 6, 5 and 5 2 weeks ago v the Lions, the Hawks big 3 of Watson, Gunston and Lewis went for 6, 5, and 4 on them. 

Just mad game all-round and one you could easily watch over and over as a neutral supporter.

Today we look at:

• Brisbane Rebounding from D50 x 2
• Rayner v Watson at Center Bounce
• Hawks Struggling to Go Inside 50
• Hawks on Kick Out
• Lions on Kick Out
• Hawks at Center Bounce

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

10 NEW STREAMLINE TRAINING ACTIVITIES WHITEBOARD EDITION

Here's another whiteboard edition which are still streamlined but require a visual to get started, with activities #241 - #250 consisting of a simple image with a diagram and a quick explanation.

#241 - PLAY FORWARD

#242 - BREAKOUT POSSESSION

#243 - 4v4v4 CONTINUOUS WAVES

#244 - 3 TEAM RONDO

#245 - PROGRESSIVE SMALL SIDED GAME

#246 - RECOVER BELOW THE BALL

#247 - 360 DEGREE SMALL SIDED GAME

#248 - 3 +4v3

#249 - 2 SQUARES IN A ROW

#250 - PLAY FORWARD

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

AFLW ROUND 5 GAME ANALYSIS PART 2/2

Picking up where we left off yesterday:

Dees - form is indeed solid but have played teams currently placed 8th, 15th, 11th, 14th and 13th v North 5th, 11th, 9th, 18th and 3rd so a touch of difference there and they're still 68% behind the Roos 

Power - finals still in their grasp and totally in their own hands but 54% disposal efficiency and 2 goals from 30 inside 50's won't cut it

Tigers - the subtraction of Conti could be an addition as they unearth depth through their midfield forced to carry the load

Saints - from 13:20mins to 21:10mins in the 2nd quarter they allowed Richmond to score 3.2 straight and that was the game - improved performance though off the back of young talent 

Swans - Sitting 4th but lost another soldier for the year with Bris, North, Carlton to come sandwiched between Port and Collingwood - can they hold on toa finals spot?

Giants - missed a huge opportunity against a depleted Swans but were too fumbly early and the Swans dominated off their turnovers

Kangaroos - every week they get the very best of the opposition so any win is a good win, and this was more convincing the score suggested

Blues - didn't look over-awed which will benefit them later on but were still a level behind during this one but -18 inside 50's showed where this game was mostly played 

Dockers - 68% kick possession share for only 2 more inside 50's but also won clearances without Strom 

Bombers - would have liked to see Steph Wales take this one by neck v a 3rd gamer and just don't get enough from the established players

Today we look at:

•  Geelong at Center Bounce
• Crows Ball Watching
• West Coast at Center Bounce and F50 Crumbing 
• Eagles Again at Center Bounce
• North Melbourne Forward Hald Defense
• Roos Play the Pattern to Get Corridor
• GWS Turnover
• Molloy Forward Craft x 2
• Sydney Forward Press Defense
• GWS Lose Their Outnumber Advantage
• Essendon Defender Losing Player

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

AFLW ROUND 5 GAME ANALYSIS PART 1/2

An upset with the Eagles beating the Lions, a great come from behind win by the Hawks and 5 games within 15pts for another solid round of women's footy.

Hawks - 89 marks and a 5 goals to 1 2nd half indicated far better ball movement then previous weeks 

Dogs - +15 for clearances on the season for a whole, +27 in their 3 wins, but -7 in this one and it resulted in -12 inside 50's as well

Suns - a slow start but showed some early-maturity by not letting this be a "down" game and still managed 9.7 after 1/4 time

Pies - destroyed in clearance (-19) and their ball movements struggles once again yet managed 12 scoring shots so that's progress  

Crows - will need to win 4/5 against team around them before finishing off with Melbourne and North, and even that might not be enough

Cats - covering injuries very well and are scoring for fun but are very leaky defensively

Eagles - got the win they wanted and now could go on a winning spree if they can maintain that same output

Lions - got beaten up by the young Eagles (- 6 clearances, -13 contested possession + -12 tackles) and seem to have to gone to the contest/surge well for too long 

Today we look at:

• Hawthorn at Center Bounce x 4
• Hawks Slow Play Offense x 2
• Bulldogs Maintaining Their Outnumber Advantage from D50 to F50
• Gold Coast Forwards 
• 1 Poor Kick

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

TRAINING ACTIVITY DESIGN SEQUENCE

                                    

Training activity design still has major room for improvement at local level as there's still a lot of cone-to-cone kicking going on with zero opposition or time constraints. 

Game-based activities are making their way in but without constraints then you'll just see the behaviour you see on game day that you're actually trying to get away from and change and thus the same mistakes pop up in games week after week. 

Have no doubt, this is a coaching problem so here's a training activity design sequence to improve that side of your delivery during training.

Firstly, you must have an intention before anything else and let's say in this instance it to work on offensive ball movement with a specific focus on improving time in possession.

Your first thought is to use a possession game so go into that and see what presents itself, observing closely to the limiting factors affecting your intention (offensive ball mments - time in possession).

When looking for any performance limiters, you need to look at both ball carrier and the off the ball players which may take 2 coaches to do so.

For the ball carrier you're looking at things like where/how long they search the environment for open players, how much patience they have with the ball in hand and their technique of the specific kick they need to use to solve the problem.

For the off the ball players you're looking at things like how do they manipulate space to become open options that the ball carrier can find, the timing of creating and filling space to again become a viable passing option and how teammates do this in accordance with other teammates (team coordination) + the opposition (creating outnumber advantages).   

Once you determine the main cause/s of ball movement disruption then you need to scale back and design a small slice of the game and recreate a similar situation with far less complexity.

A lot of teams till go with even team numbers using as many players as they have available so everyone is involved but this won't simplify the scenario enough and the same errors will occur as a result.

You might have to scale back to something as small as a 3v1 or 2 initially to initiate the correct behaviours you're after and then build on that - don't be so impatient as a coach that you have to keep scaling back from starting too far in front.

Building up quickly is better than progressing backwards slowly.

To improving searching of the environment, use a +2 on offense so that there will always be free players to use but you still need to search for them, progressing to a +1. Constraining the defense (number of them, where they start/how they can move) can also be used here.

For impatience with the ball, allow the ball carrier to take as long as they want to once they've taken a mark, and then start putting time constraints on that (8secs, 7secs, 6secs etc).

Technical deficiencies like kick type/trajectory, footwork or ball drop issues go into the craft basket but even then you still need to use constraints to maintain game representation so it can transfer back to training possession games and weekend games more importantly.   

For space manipulation you need to play with the area you are training in and the number of players you have in that area starting with small and big areas and low numbers so that there is lots of space to manipulate to small and big areas with more players so that there is less space to manipulate.

If success rate isn't at 75 - 80% then the space is too small and/or there are too many players 9in whatever space you are using.

For team coordination this is where you might need to take the alternate route of a theory session or 3 as it will cover all 3 lines of your team (backs, mids, forwards) that shows players how they all should move together (666-Connection, Inner-Outer Layer etc) and also cover any specific positional roles (extra at the contest, specific hit up lead options etc). Once players have some knowledge on this then you can add whatever is relevant from your theory into the possession game.

Timing is probably the last part that comes and is essentially the coordination component put into practice so if we use that hit up lead player for example, they now know their specific role, and go to work on best displaying it in the relevant training activities and coaches can observe their space manipulation/timing (forward craft/leading patterns) and the cycle starts again.

This just 1 example simplified which is already pretty detailed which shows you need complete clarity on what you need/want to improve on and then go to work on nailing that 1000% rather than simply touching on 25 things and improving on none of them.

Any questions/discussion on this, I'm happy to discuss.

AFLW ROUND 4 GAME ANALYSIS PART 2/2

Picking up where left off from in part 1...

Tigers - might have unearthed some new midfield options without Conti but still struggled without her

Dockers - your typical mid-table team with important games v Dogs, Crows, Syd to really show what they're made of

Hawks - 29 goals with 14 from McDonagh and Dupay on the season but midfield is underperforming for them against better teams

Cats - 3rd best offense in the league even including that 27 in round 1

Essendon - better again this week breaking the 50pt barrier for the 1st time this season

Blues - 2 spurts of scoring won this game and that's all it needed

Pies - 2nd worst offense only to the 18th placed Saints (113 v 77) but surprisingly a better defense than 4th placed Cats

Eagles - definite 2nd year blues here and just seem 5% all over the ground

Demons - clear number 2 and rand Final eve can't come quick enough

Today we look at:

• Hawks Transition Defense
• Essendon Going Inside Forward 50
• Essendon Forward Press Defense
• Essendon Outnumber Advantage
• Collingwood Missed Handball
• Pies Ball Watching v Player Marking
• No Pies Help Defense
• Collingwood at Contest
• Eagles Ignoring Corridor

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

AFLW ROUND 4 GAME ANALYSIS PART 1/2

Some "half" upsets and also some improved performances over the weekend.

Dogs - absolute clearance dominance in this one (33 - 18) and +19% for time in possession

Swans - some individual Molloy efforts kept this from being a complete debacle

Saints - since round 1 they've scored 15, 15 and 7 points for a total of 4 goals which is 1st year expansion area's

Roos - literally going through the motions but their 1st real test against the Blues on Sunday

Power - this could be the loss that has them miss finals

Suns - this could be the win that gets them in finals

Lions - responded like proud teams do but with the same style that doesn't stack up against North and probably not Melbourne either

Giants - if they're top 10 can put it together against a top 8 team 1 day, they're a good chance to win but it's always left to a different 5 every week except for Parker

Today we look at:

• Sydney at Center Bounce
• Saints Ignoring Corridor
• North at Center Bounce
• Saints Going Inside 50
• Slow Down Sholtz!
• Port Forward Lengthening
• O'Dwyer Wing Play
• Conway Quick Transition

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

AFLW TOP 5 GAME ANALYSIS CLIPS PRODUCT

As ridiculous we are already 25% of the way through the AFLW home and away season so I thought I'd drop a top 5 clips from my game analysis for local/community coaches to learn from.

Transitioning from 1 end to other and being able to put together possession chains is what I think is the number 1 performance gap in local footy so that's where my focus lies in a lot of my videos, including these ones.

You'll notice some unfamiliar terms in some of the titles that are my names for concepts but once you watch the clip it should be pretty clear what they mean.

I also decided to add in a video on how to tra9in each scenario specifically, as well as how you can layer the activity to increase game-like complexity and representation.

This is a stand-alone product that I will email out in a PDF for just $20.

Let the learning for 2027 begin now!   

#1 - St Kilda Losing Their Outnumber Advantage

#2 - North Melbourne Creating, Maintaining and Utilising Their Outnumber Advantage

#3 - Melbourne Fat Side Line Formation

#4 - Melbourne Displaying 666-Connection

#5 - Richmond Creating But Not Maintaining and Utilising Their Outnumber Advantage

Go to https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/, scroll to the bottom option GAME ANALYSIS TOP5 VOL 1, and click SELECT.

Once purchased, if you any further questions then just let me know.

AFLW ROUND 3 GAME ANALYSIS PART 2/2

To other teams not covered earlier this week:

Suns - can see a theme of highly encouraging performances that just fall short of wins but they seemed stacked with young talent

Cats - a great away win with a few troops down and still and a nice draw in front of them in the short term 

Pies - dominated inside 50's 42 - 25 and evened out in the other stats but conversion in the forward half a deep worry 

Hawks - were able to score 14 times from 25 inside 50's and that efficiency probably saved them in the end

Dockers - not as dour as past years but a high kick-mark style with a lot of short and sideways kicks doesn't really suit their list for mine but did enable them to hang around in this game so if they can find more damage from their possession then they'll be on to something

Blues - 12 to 18mths ahead in the kick-mark possession game style and it showed in the result

Bombers - another team trying to maintain possession more for minimal damage but probably should have won this one

Richmond - again in the 'where do they sit" area but managed to steal this one and any win in a12 week season is one you'll take

Today we look at:

• Gold Coast Not Using the Outnumber Advantage
• Schleicher Lead
• Freo Length
• Smith Work Rate
• Richmond in Possession

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