Defence, why no zone.

[Ajn]

It seems easy to see, but man on man defence allowed too much open forward line for Hawks. The 15m chip into the hole over the man on the mark led to at least 7 easy goals. This was very un Sydney like and I think it is apparent how much we needed Shaw/Mattner/LRT/Johnson and their experience to peel off and fill the gap. I think the answer lies in our rucks being less forward focused and more drop back and fill the gap. White and Tippett should be our forward Talls and the rucks need to allow them space.
Keen to see if others noticed this, it is junior football stuff....fill the gap!

[Melbournehammer]

There were three problems, or possibly four, and two of them are out of our control. They were:

1. Hawthorns skill level was literally so far above ours it was not funny. The comedy of errors at the beginning of the third quarter when successively Richards, Grundy, bird and jack missed easy disposals was devastating. They never missed after half time.
2. Their pace killed us. They just ran off us into space over and over which meant that we chased endlessly without the ball. Lewis ran past Parker, Burgoyne past whoever he was playing on, smith blew up hanners, Bolton was a witches hat most of the night, hill made macca look slow. End was endless.
3. Our switching defence often was exploited. At least three times in the second half we ended up with a Grundy or a Pyke on any of their forwards. It is a recipr for disaster and the hawks had the ball in uncontested possession so much that they were just able to hit that player over and over and over.
4. We are short same key defenders and our personnel just don't have the confidence to attack when we have it because they are fringe players playing in major matches or they are worried about us turning the ball over. Grundy to his credit keeps peeling off to look for the ball. Smith never does. There is a real lack of run from behind the ball which is forcing us to bomb it forwards. Mal and Macca never get any space any more and there is no shaw or mattner to burst off half back. Bizarrely we started two seasons ago with an abundance of hbf and we basically have none currently.

[MightyBloods]

It seems easy to see, but man on man defence allowed too much open forward line for Hawks. The 15m chip into the hole over the man on the mark led to at least 7 easy goals. This was very un Sydney like and I think it is apparent how much we needed Shaw/Mattner/LRT/Johnson and their experience to peel off and fill the gap. I think the answer lies in our rucks being less forward focused and more drop back and fill the gap. White and Tippett should be our forward Talls and the rucks need to allow them space.
Keen to see if others noticed this, it is junior football stuff....fill the gap!

We do play zone defence with our midfielders pushing back and then running hard forward. The problem we have is that we have a number of players either under done or carrying injuries to carry out what they would normally do (ie Hanners, McVeigh, Rohan, Jetta). We need to freshen up our side for this week and include some fit players.

[Wazza]

We do play zone defence with our midfielders pushing back and then running hard forward. The problem we have is that we have a number of players either under done or carrying injuries to carry out what they would normally do (ie Hanners, McVeigh, Rohan, Jetta). We need to freshen up our side for this week and include some fit players.

Good points and I agree I would also throw in Luv what Rampe has done this year but we are missing that 3rd Tall defender too many easy marks in our FWD 50. Rampe has done well but we are lacking some height. Everitt would seem the likely candidate, take Rampe's heart and work rate transplant into Everitt...I want LRT back!!!

Cheers

waz

[Ajn]

We do play zone defence with our midfielders pushing back and then running hard forward. The problem we have is that we have a number of players either under done or carrying injuries to carry out what they would normally do (ie Hanners, McVeigh, Rohan, Jetta). We need to freshen up our side for this week and include some fit players.

Understand the injuries, but we need to fill the gap with height, I believe Everitt should have been the third/forth tall to do this job. His brain fades are hurting us. LRT, Johnson or Reid would normally do the job and this is why we need a ruck to fall back into the gap. LRT is the closest to being available, please swap for Everitt. (midfielders are only covering this weakness)

[crackedactor]

It seems easy to see, but man on man defence allowed too much open forward line for Hawks. The 15m chip into the hole over the man on the mark led to at least 7 easy goals. This was very un Sydney like and I think it is apparent how much we needed Shaw/Mattner/LRT/Johnson and their experience to peel off and fill the gap. I think the answer lies in our rucks being less forward focused and more drop back and fill the gap. White and Tippett should be our forward Talls and the rucks need to allow them space.
Keen to see if others noticed this, it is junior football stuff....fill the gap!

There are un Sydney like things happening in our forward line too as noted in Sunday's footy show. Kennedy was about 55 m out, no pressure , had Hannebery in the pocket alone or could have chipped 30 m to allow Rohan to run into open goal. had a 50m shot instead for a point. Then there was Mitchell 50m out and McVeigh by himself on his right side (by himself) could have ran into an open goal, but no Mitchell has a shot for a point. Not sure if it is injuries, poor attitudes or they need more matches into the unfit players to get them fit for Grand final day!!!