Time for AFL coaches to show some courage Rohan Connolly
The Age
July 27, 2015 We talk about player courage a lot in AFL football. To show it earns the plaudits of teammates and fans alike. A lack of it is seen as one of the game's greatest sins.
But as the debate about where our game is headed rages on, perhaps it's time we started applying pressure on our coaches to show a bit more of it, too.
The safety-first option informs the vast bulk of decisions players make on the field nowadays. But from where is that fear instilled? Many would argue from the coaches' box, and from men also living in perpetual fear for their positions.
The pressure on those men and the consequences of even a few losses in a row are greater than ever. How is that played out? Not only in the rigid drilling of structure on game day. But in how their players are taught from day one.
Bachar Houli's already infamous last-minute kick-in for Richmond on Saturday provides an interesting debating point for the bigger picture.
Of course he shouldn't have gone down the corridor at that stage with the Tiger numbers clustered out wide. But should Richmond have been left defending only a two-point lead at that stage of the game?
Poor conversion, as coach Damien Hardwick noted, accounted for much of that perilous position. But so, you could argue, did a reluctance to release the handbrake when the Tigers held a big advantage in general play.
Like in the first term, when Richmond racked up 106 disposals for the quarter, 27 more than the Dockers, and almost doubled them for clearances, but spent inordinate time maintaining possession, refusing to spread the game and open it up.
Interestingly, when the Tigers became the first team to beat Fremantle on the back of a blistering eight-goal opening term in round 10, that devastating quarter came from fewer disposals and only as many inside-50s, with the Tigers doubled for hit-outs and clearances and beaten 8-2 at the centre bounces.
But that was when Richmond, at 5-4, was still trying to climb back into contention. Their football since has been successful, but more conservative, resulting in 10-goal hauls in only four of the six games since.
Will a more patient, possession-based and lower-scoring model hold up against the very best? Next week against Hawthorn certainly provides the acid test.
What Richmond won't be able to afford is, as other opponents of the Hawks try repeatedly, to send extra numbers around the stoppages to win the ball. That's manna from heaven for Hawthorn defenders like Josh Gibson, Brian Lake, and runners like Grant Birchall and Taylor Duryea, who, freed of enough opposition, can run the ball out at their leisure.
But that's dependent upon a coach in Alastair Clarkson who has enough faith in his ball-winners to back them to do their stuff unassisted by reinforcements.
As the struggle to curb the Hawthorn juggernaut looks increasingly forlorn, which coach will have enough courage to back his charges to beat them on their merits? Because not only does the outnumber theory stem from fear and an inherent inferiority complex, it simply doesn't work.
A defensive mindset, Adelaide assistant coach David Teague told SEN on Sunday, is a lot easier to coach than one of attack, particularly for a developing or losing team.
"Offence is a bit more instinctive and there's probably a little bit more creativity behind it," he said. "So I think that's where coaches have had a bigger effect, trying to challenge the opposition offence by trying to master their own defence."
Or perhaps, a cynic might argue, trying to avoid losing more than daring to actually win.
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