Dear Damien.
Game Plan Tip #3.
Man up the loose man in defence:
If this is all difficult to understand, AFL.com have media of the last 7-8 years of average footballers like Nick Maxwell floating around in defense and marshalling rebounding counter attacks which has evolved to 'sling shot' football. I suggest a quick browse through the copious of footage to see how damaging this can be. The last 5 rounds watching Richmond opponents would be a good start. You have even tried this tactic with Chris Newman and Houli last year to good effect, unfortunately and oddly, this year not so much.. but that's for another tip.
This can be simply rectified by manning up the loose man in defense whether it may be Josh Gibson, Nick Maxwell or even the Richmond streaker who was able to find some good space in the southern stand pocket. (Wouldn't hurt giving him a call, might be able to assist in our forwards development more so than the current lad.)
Again simply Maths. If we bomb the ball high up into the air to our saviour in Jack Riewoldt its unlikely he will out mark the 2 blokes who are on him plus the 3rd defender who floats around the defensive 50 unmanned. As good as the cousin of the cry baby is, he can't out mark 3 blokes every forward 50 entry. I'm guessing your plan was for Vickery to out mark 3 defenders this year? Kudos to the staff for dropping him until he is able to beat 1 defender first. Kudos.
We are getting killed on the rebound. Regardless of how good our delivery of F50 entries are, simple mathematics if you have 3 vs 1, the chances are the 3 will win more than most regardless of where you kick the ball. Only so many entries will consist of a lace out pass to a lead that beats a man 1 on 1 and 2 defending space. Simple success probability. Get 3 vs 3 and just maybe we might string some more marks in our F50 arc.
#coaching4dummies
