- Mar 12, 2003
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We tried the same thing in the Grand Final last year. Certainly in the second half. Altho the effect was limited. Sideways. Sideways. Sideways. Back the other way. Back the same way. Then, stuff it: Long down the line.May be Fages and team came in this year preparing for Pies with the uncontested marking gameplan. Others appear to be cashing in.
Brothers’ secret plan to ignite Pie plight; Tigers return to bad old days in 20-year low: Talking Pts
Brothers’ secret plan to ignite Pie plight; Tigers return to bad old days in 20-year low: Talking Ptswww.foxsports.com.au
‘NOT RUNNING OVER THE TOP’: SCOTT BROTHERS’ TACTIC COOLS PIES
Have the Scott brothers devised a game plan to shut down Collingwood and its ability to produce comebacks?
There was a feeling of deja vu at the MCG on Friday night, with Collingwood losing in a similar fashion for two-straight weeks at the hands of Essendon and Geelong.
Indeed, the same tactic was used against Collingwood across two weeks to great effect — with a high uncontested marking brand diffusing the Pies from being able to play their natural chaos game.
Heck, Craig McRae’s side couldn’t get its hands on the ball at stages in both matches.
In fact, Geelong took a whopping 70 extra marks to the Pies including controlling the ball in the fourth term to hang onto its lead and never let Collingwood even look like challenging.
It marked the Cats’ third-highest amount of marks in a game ever (145) and their most ever uncontested marks ever (139).
And it came off the back of Essendon taking 50 extra marks against the Pies the week prior, with Brad Scott’s Bombers racking up 139 marks — 129 uncontested. Even in Collingwood’s narrow Round 15 win over North Melbourne it was -45 in marks.
“This is probably the talking point,” Demons legend Garry Lyon said on Fox Footy after Geelong’s win over the reigning premiers.
“When you watched (the Cats) execute in the manner they did, this is why Craig McRae has said they can’t keep coming back.
“They’re not going to keep rolling over the top of teams because (opposition) will go to school on the way they play.
“What Geelong did was: ‘You’re not running over the top of us when we’re taking 139 uncontested because you’re not going to have the ball’.”
This is why I'm pretty firm in my belief the future of the game is in mid-zone off-ball movement to free up space. Moving the ball from defensive 50 to forward 50 should really be a doddle, given the width of most grounds.
The flow on effect of that will be that the game resorts to a basketball style of defence, where defending the mid-zone becomes impossible/redundant, so teams immediately flood back inside defensive 50-60 to block leading lanes and force long kicks to the top of the square. Which is essentially where some teams were in the early 2000s, but for different reasons.
Longer term than that, it may even become necessary to legislate against the "mark". Particularly if tackling also goes by the wayside, as I believe will happen within 20 years or so.
