1 0n 1 or play on at all cost?

[JUDO]

I have always loved and defended our game plan, We won a flag with it. Now i think the time has come to "Play on at all cost".
The only highly skilled deliverer we have lost is P Williams. And we now have Barlow jack bird and Mattner all can hit a target a speed.
I think its time to open up the front 50 and give Micky and Henry some space!

[hot potato]

I have always loved and defended our game plan, We won a flag with it. Now i think the time has come to "Play on at all cost".
The only highly skilled deliverer we have lost is P Williams. And we now have Barlow jack bird and Mattner all can hit a target a speed.
I think its time to open up the front 50 and give Micky and Henry some space!

With our young brigade I now endorse PLAY ON AT ALL COST. Running backwards, kicking sideways, kicking backwards give the other team time to recupe, time to fill holes, gives them them confidence to defend one on one. Not a high percentage of Swans players have the initiative to lead anyway, Goodes does, he had to run 100 m last week to receive a 35 m kick from a kick over the mark, he was ready to take it far earlier. ROK and McVeigh and MOL as does Moore. But when a guy runs back after a mark, they don't know when he's going to release. PLAY ON AT ALL COSTS on a percentage basis will result in more I50's and goals. Well the Cats still have the same PLAY ON AT ALL COSTS gameplan, and no other team has worked out how to stop it yet this season. It's brilliant footy I reckon and more exciting for everyone invlolved.
One third of the way into the SOO cross country wrestling on Wed nite the commentator said "This is very monotonous." Most AFL games cannot be accused of this except in over defensive games.

[mcs]

I wish that ROK would play on more often- he seems to so often miss good opportunities to get it inside 50 to a 1 on 1 or a mismatch etc but takes too long to go back and doesnt look up. Annoys me no end because so often his excellent marking and leading just outside the 50 opens it up only for him to take too long .

Id like to see us evolve our gameplan into a play on at all cost as the new younger guys come in- as hot potato rightly pointed out nobody still has worked out how to stop Geelong doing it. At the current stage in the game it is what needs to be the general gameplan where possible, with the knowledge that we can go back only if required to our more defensive game plan.

[Nico]

You can't change a game plan over night.

To say our players don't lead up is a strange one. MOL constantly leads, Playfair constantly leads, Hall leads for the whole game and ROK also leads regularly further up the ground and Davis leads all over the forward line but no one kicks it to him.

To say we should play on at all costs because we have a "young brigade" doesn't mean the right decisions will be made and you wouldn't say Moore and Bird are super fast. By playing on quickly different skills and midsets are applied when delivering the ball, so what's to say our players will adapt. We play it safe now to limt the turnovers and we have about the best defence because we adopt safety first tactics.

Agreed we should at times move the ball on quicker but we should also make more space for kicks to be delivered to.

What people dont get about our game plan is before they even run out onto the ground the opposition is concerned about our game plan and our "ugly footy" and our tough man reputation. Essendon was on the back foot right from the start and you could see they were struggling with the mindset to the point where their running game plan was non existent. So Roos plays mind games with the opposition to the point that clubs all seem to play us the same way.

The great thing about our game plan is we get a run for our money every week, frustrating at times it is and absolute crap disposal at times, but we are rarely flogged.

[floppinab]

You can't change a game plan over night.

To say our players don't lead up is a strange one. MOL constantly leads, Playfair constantly leads, Hall leads for the whole game and ROK also leads regularly further up the ground and Davis leads all over the forward line but no one kicks it to him.

A lot of the time they can't though.

Ball up on a half back flank. We've pushed a few thousand players around the ball. MOL is parked on the edge of the centre square with Playfair about 10m to his left. This appears to be our most common setup. We win possession two or three handballs, look up, all the player with the ball sees is a flood of players running toward our goal. With MOL playing so well I'd really love to see us setup with MOL and Playfair and maybe one or even two more playing deeper and leading forward, not backward.

Agreed we should at times move the ball on quicker but we should also make more space for kicks to be delivered to.

That's the key. It's frustrating to see us not flood back but apparently flood forward as well. It really hurt us against Geelong we they nailed us on the rebound coz we had too many midfielders pushing forward and massive space for their forwards to work with because they keep their forwards far closer to goal than ours are.

[dimelb]

If you're going to play on at all costs your skills have to be tops - like Collingwood tonight. Ours aren't that good, so we have to do the job differently.

[liz]

If you're going to play on at all costs your skills have to be tops - like Collingwood tonight. Ours aren't that good, so we have to do the job differently.

Yep, though Collingwood's aren't always. Whatever else his limitations, Malthouse seems to be able to prepare his team brilliantly and get them all "up" for the big games.

The limitations in the Swans' skills were there to see against the Dogs. Our boys worked harder than their's for longer but their ball use put ours to shame. It wasn't just the kicking for goal. It was the kicking all over the ground.

And if you play on at all costs but can't hit a target, you're going to turn the ball over, be defensively out of position and leave our undersized backline horribly exposed.

You also have to consider what they're physically capable of. The midfield works incredibly hard to get numbers to contests to pressure the opposition midfield, which is again largely to protect an undersized backline. If you want the team to always play on, it will only work if those same players are also running hard into space as soon as the Swans get the ball so the player with the ball has lots of options to chose from (since he has less time as he's played on). It can be done for periods of the game but it's a big ask for them to do it all match long. It's why the Swans play in bursts - ie "tempo footy".

Geelong can get away with it because they have brilliant one-on-one defenders. Scarlett is the best in the business, while Egan (last year), Harley and Milburn are pretty good too. But even just having the one - Scarlett - makes a huge difference. Ours are pretty good, Bolton especially and Ted is getting better. But since Bolton and Barry (and sometimes Ted) generally give away inches and kgs to their opponents, they'd find life very tough if the ball was coming in with little pressure applied in the midfield. And if you want them to play a "play on at all costs" style, the midfield defensive pressure would have to give, somewhat.

[FootyontheBrain]

Our core skill set is tough contested footy. It's sets the table for everything else we do. I think by the 3rd and 4th quarters we wear teams down to the point they give up. It's the time we get away from this that we let teams back, ie the second term last week.

I've got no problem with our tactics. Obviously, I'd love it if we could deliver the ball like the Cats, Hawks, Doggies, but we're not that side. For mine, beautiful footy is a Swans match that ends with, "Cheer, Cheer, the Red and the White..."

[timthefish]

no team would ever get near a premiership with a "play on at all costs" mentality.

could we be a bit more attacking and direct from time to time? yep. did throwing it on the boot and pumping it forward work for us in the last quarter yesterday? no, it almost lost us the match.

[cruiser]

For me the second half of yesterdays game was high pressure, intense, highly skilled, contestable, thrilling, one on one footy and I loved it. If people like Robert Walls find it boring them perhaps they should go watch basketyball instead.