Have we finally got a Plan B?

[TigerLand]

Happy to eat humble words, said on numerous occasions Hardwick doesn't and will never change his style or look for a Plan B. Hat's off to him for the past month and a new style that is working well.

I've really enjoyed what we've seen the last month, a change in game plan which took a while to get going. We were smashed on rebound last year by Port with the switching of play and run and dash through the middle in numbers. Clogging the corridor and forcing teams to play down the wings and having a defensive set up on flanks a kick a head of the ball is working amazingly well. It's an evolution of the full oval cluster which Clarkson mastered.

Hat's off to our coaching team, it's innovations like this that wins premiership. Teams will work out how to beat this eventually, we need to be ready for this with our next evolution. Always being 1 step ahead is how teams sustain success.

Well done and well played Hardwick and well done to the players for executing it well. A joy to watch on Friday night (seen replay 3 times now).

[YellowandBlackBlood]

I actually think that for the first time in a long time, the players actually are starting to believe in the coach and his game plan. They can see the results their effort is getting them. This is huge and immediately makes Hardwick look like a better coach.

[Heart of Darkness]

Interested in people's thoughts on "tempo footy". When we were 2 and 4 it was the dreaded principle that was had us entrenched in mediocrity. Many here wanted us to deploy a run and gun type game plan more similar to Port's last year.

We seem to have done the opposite and gone back to focusing on controlling possession and limiting mistakes in critical areas. It can be unpleasant viewing at times but it appears with the list we have success is more sustainable playing in this fashion.

What do people think is responsible for the turnaround in the last month of footy? 3 things stand out to me:

1. Tackling pressure- Our tackling has improved immensely. 3 of the last 4 week we have won the tackle count with 60+ tackles. Would be interested to see some numbers that reflect the effectiveness of our tackling because it seems much better and this results in inferred pressure and mistakes from the opposition.

2. Stars playing like stars- Of our big 5 (Rance, Lids, Cotch, Dusty and Jack) only Rance was having a better than average season at the end of round 6 (in Lids' case injury being the issue). I think they have all been fantastic in the last month. Being our better players others take lead when they perform in this fashion and it results in the whole playing group lifting.

3. Taking our chances- In our 3 match losing streak prior to the last month we kicked 27.39 combined. The last 4 matches we have kicked 50.38. the last 4 matches we have also gone in with 3 talls up front as well. This structure straightens us up as a team and means we're not constantly kicking for goal from the pockets.

Some of this is personnel, some of it coaching, and some the result of a little luck and confidence. We're not a top 4 side but at least we're playing with some heart and we've played some kids who could potentially take us forward.

[big tone]

We are tackling now in stead of coralling.
We are kicking the ball forward in stead of backwards and sideways, even if they are only short kicks.
We are kicking it into a dangerous position in our forwardline instead of to the boundary.

3 simple things that allow us to be competitive.

[Yeahright]

What do people think is responsible for the turnaround in the last month of footy? 3 things stand out to me:

In two words? Work rate.

Players are working harder and smarter in defense which then makes it easier to transition to attack. Players seem to be working hard both ways and providing those short leads freeing up space to allow the tempo footy to be played

[TigerLand]

I actually think that for the first time in a long time, the players actually are starting to believe in the coach and his game plan. They can see the results their effort is getting them. This is huge and immediately makes Hardwick look like a better coach.

I think last year the players believed when we went on a huge run. But the biggest issue is that when the opposition get on top we struggle. Think over the past 4 weeks in each game the opposition have got their tails up and we have been able to stem the flow of goals and not allow them to pile 5-6 goals in a row. Essendon were the better team in the 3rd qtr yet we still won the qtr on the scoreboard. Freo came hard (so it seemed thanks to commentators) and we were able to weather their storm.

We've always been able to ski down hill very well but to take a few hits in the corner and come out unscathed is a very new and refreshing change.

[TigerLand]

Something that drives me nuts is the no sheperding policy and instead we run to create the spare man leave the ball carrier under pressure.
This has improved quite a bit, instead of doing 1 - 2's, we have passed the ball and protected him and backed him to use the ball well going forward with less pressure. We still sometimes try for the 1-2 instead of sheperding but i've liked the improvement

[tony_montana]

Yep I reckon you've all nailed it ^

you cant carry Newman, Petterd, Gordon and Lloyd all in the same side.

The youthful exuberance that Menadue, Ellis, McBean and McIntosh have brought to the side has caught on to the rest of the group imo. Improvement from the likes of Grigg, Ellis, Houli, Grimes, Vickery and Griffiths has taken pressure off our top 6.

Improved our fwd entry, mentioned in another thread I think we're picking the right moments to go to the boundary now as opposed to before where it seemed we always went there.

and finally, our defensive structure is 10x better than it was, I am very impressed with how well we are closing down space, how hard we are tackling and competing and opposition sides ability to hit us on the slingshot has decreased dramatically.

[bojangles17]

The last month we are playing much more like top 4 sides do, red zone defensive pressure. On Friday night it looked,like we have a couple of gears as we also opened it up some. Good coaching , let's get it right for when the whips are crackin 

[Zlatan]

i worry its not plan b, its plan a

the mick malthose style

[Penelope]

since 1/4 time against colonwoood we have greatly reduced the amount of times we hanball forward to a player under pressure, although it started to creep back in against the dockers when they increased their pressure, but not to the levels in the first 1/2 dozen rounds.

I dont agree that we have stopped corralling, there was plenty on Friday night, even from morris who normally goes like a bull at a gate and over commits, which allows the opponent an easy out.  There was plenty of examples from our forwards on how corralling can create pressure and indecisiveness for their backmen. The second part to this puzzle is having the players further down field blocking the exits.  What we did have was increased tackling pressure in contested situations, often with multiple tacklers

It seems they have learned when to play tempo footy and when to pull the trigger. The first 1/4 in particular they nailed this. Hitting your targets is an important key to getting tempo footy right, which again they nailed in that first 1/4

[Owl]

Just love the confidence in our defensive stuff atm and now the goals are starting to come as well...  They spread beautifully, we look fit and don't seem to have players shirking the running which is awesome.  Ellis running himself to exhaustion in the bummers game and then going on for the rest of the game is just stuffing brilliant, then backing it up against Freo after a short turn around... good stuff.

[YellowandBlackBlood]

Just love the confidence in our defensive stuff atm and now the goals are starting to come as well...  They spread beautifully, we look fit and don't seem to have players shirking the running which is awesome.  Ellis running himself to exhaustion in the bummers game and then going on for the rest of the game is just stuffing brilliant, then backing it up against Freo after a short turn around... good stuff.

You speak with great wisdom, oh wise one!

[Owl]

thank you sir

[JP Tiger]

We got back to Hardwick's original mantra when he first took the job, which was - 'Do the simple things at a high level & you become unstoppable'.  Those 30mtr passes that keep hitting targets are a perfect example of doing something that is really quite simple, but so hard to stop when it is done well.  Its those precise 30mtr kicks that have turned us around.  Its simple but so effective, even the undefeated top side with the best defensive coach going around couldn't stop us from doing it!  Is that enough proof that Hardwick's original mantra was right all along?  Now its simply a string of 30mtr passes through the corridor (which we are also able to defend if we do miss a pass) until we get it over the centre, THEN we hit the pedal & send longer passes to leading forwards!  Slicing through the corridor by foot has made it much easier for our forwards read the play & lead into space.  We've been keeping it simple, doing it at a high level of efficiency & look what its done for us!  Suddenly we look capable, sustainable & very organized!       
Its not plan B at all, its just the same old original Plan A, but done properly now! 
An injection of youth who buy into the plan has certainly helped too ...