What happens next

[mcs]

Hawthorn are such a high scoring team because they are so good at getting a man open in the forward 50, spotting him and hitting him with a perfect pass. They don't kick to too many contested situations. That's the one big thing we need to do next year if we want to improve and get to their level. This is something has been well ingrained in their game plan and do it to perfection.

They in a way play like the 2005-2006 Swans when going into forward 50. I.e. don't bomb it long but look for the player on the lead. A real reason we don't do the same I think is that outside of Buddy/Tippett, we have no one that is really 'permanent forward' in the setup - I.e. its mainly midfielders rotating through, and I don't think they are well enough trained to be able to make the leads like true forwards can.

Its a tactic we need to learn to use again, as at its best, as Hawthorn did to us, it makes the other team pretty much unable to stop the flow. We need that alternative mechanism to bombing it long and hoping. Start using short targets and accurate kicking again, and then all of a sudden we can combine the best of both the slingshot and the Hawks/Swans 2005-06 model, and suddenly we have alternatives when one or the other isn't working.

[ScottH]

It's more than that. They don't have four talls - they hit players on the lead. We hit spots

that are usually filled by defenders

[Meg]

What happens next

I've just seen this video clip of the Swans Sad Monday. Thankfully they had the sense not to dress up. Apart from Laidler who is wearing a gas mask. Which is kind of funny, apart from the obvious reference perhaps he was saying that he wasn't part of the bad smell?

http://www.foxsports.com.au/video?v=swans-low-key-mad-monday_1227074230955&nk=2aafc121e7732d29a9dc692eeb4bfd92

[Conor_Dillon]

That's right.

And that's why I think Goodes should hang up the boots and Reid should move to defence. Buddy and Tippett are just too dominant to allow for even a 3rd tall forward. I'd like to see Membrey play that Breust type forward role, offering up a dangerous accurate goal kicking alternative. As for the rest, we can rotate any number of players through: Towers, McGlynn, Cunningham, Jack, Jetta.

I was astounded by how often Reid got in the way of Tippett and Buddy during the year. He just brought his defender into the marking contest. I have to put this one on Horse.

We should play a more open forward line. Try to isolate Tippett and Franklin one on one. If they get double teamed, we should be able to hit an open man inside 50. This should become an integral part of the 2015 game plan. With those 2 forwards, we should be the highest scoring side in the competition.

It needs to be remembered how little football Buddy, Tippett, Reid, Goodes etc have played together. Given none of them had proper pre-seasons last year, they probably wouldn't have done any subatantial training with regards to structures and leading patterns together either.