Going back to the Back to Back

[Football Tragic]

To me our problem is simple. Yes, we have injuries to key players. Yes, we have been playing predominately strong sides. Yes, some of our younger players have been inconsistent, but I don't think that is our major issue.

We need to go back to to what was our core focus that gave us so much success. We need to go back to building our game off forward half pressure.

During our back to back flag years, we were the team that broke all records with our pressure ratings. We would force turnovers through the corridor which allowed us to quickly rebound back into our forward fifty. It was our forward pressure that created the space to create chains of handballs to run through the corridor and give our forwards chances one on one. Turning over the ball in a crowded F50 doesn't give our forwards the opportunities to have clean kicks for goals - these turn into rushed points. Its all about between the arcs.

We need to change out forward line back to the model that worked best for our us - three smalls, one mid sized utility & two talls. We didn't even play one crumber/pressure player. Having multiple smalls racing back to goal was our greatest strength and created countless goals for us. It allowed players like Dusty to push off his opponent and snap freakish goals. It allowed Lynch to lead out and take marks in space. It allowed space for Castagna to mark an an unlikely speccie.

I think we're trying to much to copy others. We've been spooked by teams that have a powerful midfield and have been able to exploit the 6-6-6 rule with center clearances. I believe we have tried to become too much like others instead of building on our own strengths. Where has all our small forwards gone?! We used to have an embarrassment of riches with them. Now we have MRJ and...well...

Time to stop trying to play ALL our midfielders. Time to to stop focusing exclusively on clearances. Time to work on defending the corridor. If we really want a functioning forwardline then we need to give them space to work in and less opponents to compete against. Bring in more small forwards to turn the ball over up the ground and get it back into our forwardline at pace. It's what we built our flags on.

It's time to go back to what won us the Back to Back's!

 

[rfctigerarmy]

The game has changed, and will continue to change, that you can't keep going back to the past. You must keep innovating as an AFL side, and it might even be to your detriment. Rules changes, clubs work you out, you work other clubs out. A 'forward pressure' strategy isn't a blanket solution.

Mentality is winning games of football. Collingwood have it, Essendon and Adelaide have it. Richmond had it. Even with mentality, you have to keep strategising and innovating. Players, staff and supporters get bored of mantras. Collingwood will fall out of their 'love for just playing footy' at some stage, just like we have. Is being a 'Richmond Man' as important as it was in 2017-2020? Probably not.

You're wondering about forward half pressure, but again, clubs work week to week and during the off-season to work out how to combat that. The 6-6-6 rule and stand rule doesn't allow for as much forward pressure. Would you say Collingwood have it in spades? No. They have a lot of mid-sized forwards, so maybe thats whats in vogue at the moment.

You're thinking about it too simply. But you're right, its not just injuries because every team has them. Our good players have been there, done that. They've won flags. There's no freshness there to the core group of good players. A new generation has to come along, in time, and develop something of their own. Our current (and even past) system is now tired. It wont be resolved in the manner you're indicating.

 

[Football Tragic]

I appreciate what you're saying about evolving with the rules and new strategies but we built a game plan based on our list strengths and now have moved away from that. If our list is now a more contested side based on stoppages, it is not working. The balance of our forwardline is completely skewed. We are winning the ball in congestion rather than in space which means we're slapping the ball onto the boot, and kicking it forward with little direction. This puts our forwards at constant disadvantage. Similarly, we are turning the ball over inside our crowded forwardline meaning that our forwards never have room to size up the goals.

TURNOVER is the key and where you generate that turnover.

Forward Pressure was the foundation of our side and was contagious to the team. We need to get our team balance right to give us a better chance at scoring. We had equal forward entries against the GC on the weekend yet couldn't convert anywhere near as efficiently as the Suns (a trend that has haunted us all year). Why? Becuase they won many of their goals through turnover and quick ball movement. We didn't. Where has the link up, quick ball movement gone? It's gone because we need more small forwards.

 

[Ralll]

We didn't need small forwards last season when we were one of the best intercept teams in the comp, and one of the highest scoring.
I like that you're thinking solutions, but not sure that's the right one.

 

[Ralll]

Although I would love to see a breakdown of pressure ratings and comparison from the end part of last season to this one.

 

[Football Tragic]

I remember last season, early on, we were struggling to score and move the ball. Once we brought in MRJ he added the pressure to force the opposition running defenders to hurry their disposal and kick it long to contests rather than by hand or short kicks through the corridor. It's the implied pressure as much as the actual tackling that generates the turnovers further up the ground.

Last year, when we were the number one scoring team in the league. A large part of this was our forward balance. We don't have that this year particularly without Lynch to straighten us up. It's also the way we're delivering the ball into our forwardline. We are just bombing it in. I feel some of that is from our two new recruits who are winning plenty of the ball but just kicking it forward rather than handballing it out to our outside mids to explode away into space and then pick out an isolated forward.

Our forwardline has too many of the same type of players in there atm. Too many mark and kick for goal types. We need more smaller forwards to not just generate the pressure and turnover run but also to kick the opportunistic goals.

To me, its really about our game plan. We have changed it to try and maximize a new strength - inside ball winners. The problem is is that its affecting our overall balance.
We need to win the ball back more through the corridor so we have the space forward to kick our goals.
We need to get the ball out of stoppages and to our outside users to give our forwards more opportunity.
We need to work on our forward pressure to stop opposition easy field transition out of their defense.

All of these things are missing this year and recovering from our dismal ladder position will take a readjustment of our forwardline balance and work around stoppages. It can be done but bringing in more small forwards and resting more of our mids might be a start.