Folly of the final minute flood.

[Triple B]

Does anybody else seem to believe that the tactic of getting everybody in the defensive half when defending a small lead late in the game often leads to the downfall?

I've seen it plenty of times from all teams and I shuddered when the runners called all our players down back late last night.

What happened last night?

Makepeace, a HBF or pocket gets dragged downfield following his man and just happens to be loitering in the area when the ball spills to him 40m out. Goal.

If all the opposition backmen just stayed back and let our players fill up space on their own, well that would be just dandy, but the reality is they follow their man and even though we have 16 defenders, they have 16 forwards!!

Maybe I'm wrong, I probably am because smarter men than me (all AFL standard coaches) seem to do it, but it just @@@@s me.

[DST]

Re: Folly of the final minute flood.

Originally posted by BBB
Does anybody else seem to believe that the tactic of getting everybody in the defensive half when defending a small lead late in the game often leads to the downfall?

I've seen it plenty of times from all teams and I shuddered when the runners called all our players down back late last night.

What happened last night?

Makepeace, a HBF or pocket gets dragged downfield following his man and just happens to be loitering in the area when the ball spills to him 40m out. Goal.

If all the opposition backmen just stayed back and let our players fill up space on their own, well that would be just dandy, but the reality is they follow their man and even though we have 16 defenders, they have 16 forwards!!

Maybe I'm wrong, I probably am because smarter men than me (all AFL standard coaches) seem to do it, but it just @@@@s me.

It's a tough one BBB, more men in the forward 50 can mean more chances of them finding someone or someone bobbing up ala Makepeace.

But it does not look good when a team gets a run on and they are moving it quickly from the square to see so much space in the forward 50 for forwards to get in front and lead into. Imagine the frustration of a scrubber of a kick going forward to land in the arms of a player who is just standing their in space. The perception is the more bodies around the contest the less likelyhood of that happening.

It's a fine line as we saw.

DST

[Barry Schneider]

When Poulton kicked the winner for Port the Swans were criticised for not putting enough players back.
It is desperation tactics that can backfire when a team is being overrun.

[Triple B]

I understand more players will congest the area and all that, it just seems to backfire so often.

The big problem with sending all down back to congest is that when/if we get the ball and take it away, there is nobody to kick it to!!

The best way to protect a 4 point lead is to make it a 10 point lead, which aint gunna happen if we have 18 players in the back half.

[ScottH]

Well, on TV, it appeared that too many times as players were stremaing up the wing with the ball they suddenly realised they had no one to kick to and stopped and hesitated. Obviously no one at home.