COACHING MODERN FOOTBALL CHAPTER 5 EXPLOITING THE STAND RULE - SNEAK PEAK

 

The "stand" rule has been in for a few years now and it has made a huge difference to how teams can transition from end to end which I believe has been a huge positive for the game.

Some teams use it more than others in the AFL but that's probably because of their specific game style of keeping the ball in motion v stop-start build ups and then deliberately trying to exploit it at all times.

If you have the stand rule in your league, then you should definitely be doing just that and if you have in under 18's then you should be preparing your players for senior footy next year by exploiting it as well.

In the video below I give you the 3 most important tips to exploiting the stand rule to give you its full advantage...

From here I give the main rules to follow to carry this out optimally + videos to show playing on past the man on the mark and handballing forward of the man on the mark.

For full access to this chapter, click the Exploiting the Stand Rule purchase link from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/. 

RICHMOND v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS

In today's game analysis we look at some structure/formation vision.

Teams of lesser talent need to put more importance on organisation as at least your players can be in better positions and better decisions are made from better positions.

It also keeps the ball where you have players positioned so you can always at least be contesting the ball in a 50/50 situation.

During their youth movement, the Tigers have been using simple but effective team formations to keep the ball in their "bubble" and it's a reason why they've been very surprising this season.

Today we look at a defensive 50 throw in and a couple of kick ins. 

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GWS v SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS

A tale of 2 halves this bad boy with the result taking my Swans from a mathematical chance to a "mathematical chance" now.

With a pressure rating of over 200 in the first half and then to finish at 175 for the entire game means we must have went at 150 tops for the 2nd half which isn't winning anything.

It's been that kind of year for Sydney unfortunately but now let's see some younger talent (Dattoli, Snell, Cleary, Bowman, Hanily) and ready ourselves for 2026 after an active drafting/trading period + academy selections in the draft.

From this game we look at:

• Getting the ball in the right players hands in the right parts of the ground
• GWS Forward 50 Ball Up 
• The Anatomy of the Orange (or in this case - charcoal) Tsunami

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COACHING MODERN FOOTBALL CHAPTER 4 - 666 CONNECTION SNEAK PEAK

                                                     

In my opinion, the biggest thing missing from local/amateur football is what I call 666 Connection which refers to all players and all lines staying connected, without any major gaps of space between them.

Defensively, these gaps in connection simply provide more leading space options for forwards and thus more area to cover when you’re out of possession.

Any defender will tell you that the more degrees of space a forward can work with, the harder is to really do anything about it if delivery is adequate.

Offensively, we're constantly focusing on winning 1v1's and trying to find teammates out in space but with the huge disparity of physical and tactical prowess of players even within a single team, simply having good numbers around the ball as much as possible is a way to keep all players involved and share the load over a full game, and season.

Most teams use something along these in the AFL but Sydney has been doing it for 4 or 5 years and it's now a staple in their game.

I’d suggest that this is something very new to most of you I'd so I've compiled a bunch of examples so you can see what it looks like in all different facets of the game.

• OFF OF A CENTER BOUNCE FREE KICK
• HALF FORWARDS COMING UP STRAIGHT AWAY
• OFF OF A DEFENSIVE 50 REBOUND
• OFF A DEFENSIVE HALF FREE KICK
• OFF OF A DEFENSIVE HALF MARK #2
• OFF OF A MID 50 MARK
• ALL FORWARDS GET IN FRONT OF THE BALL
• FULL TEAM/GROUND FORMATION DEFENSIVE 50 THROW IN
• POTENTIAL END RESULT

I also add some animated videos from different game moments to show this a bit more clearly:

• GAME START CLEARANCE LOSS
• GAME START CLEARANCE WIN
• INTERCEPT MARK/FREE KICK DEFENSIVE PART 1
• INTERCEPT MARK/FREE KICK DEFENSIVE 50 PART 2

And finish off with videos to teach it:

• TEACHING 666 CONNECTION

For full access to this chapter, click the 666 Connection purchase link from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

TEAM-BASED FRAMEWORK

TBF's greatly assist in all players being able to carry out in-game tasks in a highly cohesive manner.

In local/community footy the continuum from your best to worst player in any given round is vast regardless of the 23 named for that day.

Some players have high game intelligence but lesser action capabilities, some are the complete opposite but most are somewhere in between, again on avast continuum.

When we play a team and we call them "well-drilled" then this is a perfect example of a successful TBF.

At local level the disparity from the richest to the poorest club in even a single league/division also has a huge gap which means talent will never be evenly spread throughout the competition.

So what do you do without the amount of high level talent as those upper teams?

Develop a solid Team-Based Framework.

What I'll present below is an extremely basic version of a TBF that looks at both in and out of possession game moments.

To put this on steroids, check out the Develop Game Model option from the register page.

Let's start with our team in possession...

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COLLINGWOOD v FREMANTLE GAME ANALYSIS

Freo may have finally moved into some sort of contention after their win against the Pies at the G on the weekend, although it'll be a near impossible task to win from outside the top 4 this year as home advantage is probably going to reign supreme come finals time.  

That being said they are is as good-a form as anyone and with the right teams dropping games they shouldn't, they could make top 4 and have a chance, especially with that midfield and Hayden Young joining that that for the run home.

No alarm bells for the Pies yet, we've seen the dominant team at this stage of the year have a down patch the last 2 season's (Collingwood and Sydney) but it's weird that when Collingwood lose they still win in the eyes of the media (coming from behind and not making it v Suns + the tackle and release tactic from this weekend).

From this game we look at:

• Perfect Tackling Technique
• Collingwood High Press x 2
• Forward Press Defense
• Holding Width
• Fremantle Spread

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SYDNEY v NORTH MELBOURNE GAME ANALYSIS

This game didn't hit any great heights except for the Rolls Royce performance of Isaac Heeney.

Compiling 34 possessions with 16 contested, 13 clearances, 8 marks, 5 tackles and kicking 5 goals on top of that is surely performance of the year material and will take some game to top it.

Hence this game analysis is Heeney-strong where we look at:

• North not being able to fully take advantage of their outnumber advantage
• Heeney transition run
• Heeney stoppage goal...again

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