Are small-ball Richmond Tigers revolutionising footyAlex Malcolm
ESPN AFL
21 September 2017And The Big Men Fly.
That was the name of Alan Hopgood's 1963 play about an Australian Rules Football team. The cover of the paperback version is an image of a Carlton player taking a contested mark. But this September has been devoid of them.
Three of the six finals played this year have featured less than 20 contested marks in total. Eight of nine finals last year featured more than 20, with 34 taken in the grand final. The aerial feats of Tom Boyd (six contested marks) and Jordan Roughead (three) for the Western Bulldogs in the decider were every bit as valuable as the run and dash of Norm Smith medallist Jason Johannisen.
But things have changed so far this September.
What has given rise to this year of small ball? For Richmond, it has been a feature all season and was established to best maximise the particular strengths of Richmond's list - the Tigers opted for a forward line that is built on smalls with great defensive pressure.
"We just try and put on as much pressure as we can and if we get touches and goals then great but all our foundation comes from great pressure," Richmond's Dan Butler told ESPN.
There are no surprises with what the Tigers will bring on Saturday against Greater Western Sydney. Tigers coach Damien Hardwick has described his side's defensive pressure as their "one wood," and they suffocated Geelong in a ground ball war of attrition in the qualifying final and will look do so again against GWS.
Do the Giants go toe-to-toe? They picked a smaller, quicker side against West Coast partly by design to exploit the Eagles' talls, but also due to the injuries to Shane Mumford and Jeremy Cameron.
Coach Leon Cameron was non-committal about whether picking a smaller side made the Giants better.
"Sometimes it does work and sometimes it doesn't, tonight it worked," Cameron said post-match last Saturday.
"Our main focus was being cleaner and absorbing pressure. We were poor against the Crows at absorbing pressure. And then maintaining our rage with our pressure, our tackle pressure. I thought we did that pretty well.
"From that, our ball movement was clearly better than it has been the last three or four weeks and we moved the ball in a manner that probably gave our forwards a better opportunity than what we have in the last couple of weeks. So that was pleasing but it all came off the back of the pressure that we provided."
Giants midfielder Tom Scully said the Tigers' pressure was the best in the competition.
"I think Richmond have set the benchmark of their forward pressure and their pressure all around the ground," Scully told ESPN.
"Obviously they've got a lot of smaller guys in there that are very, very quick and they apply great pressure and it's something that we've looked at. We've played a number of different sides where we've played probably a bit taller up in our forward line and some weeks we've gone a bit smaller.
"On the weekend we went a little bit smaller and it helped our ability to keep the ball inside our forward half and to apply pressure. We've got some flexibility down there and I'm sure whatever way we go it's going to help suit our game style."
There is a case to be made that Giants should attempt to stretch Richmond in the air particularly given that some of their rebound from defence won't be as unpressured as it was against West Coast. The likes of Nathan Wilson and Heath Shaw were able to rebound with impunity against the Eagles but defender Aidan Corr thinks it won't be that simple against Richmond.
"(Richmond's) small forward line for us backs puts a lot of pressure on," Corr told ESPN.
"They keep the ball in their forward half and it makes it very hard for us to ignite our ball movement. That's something we're concentrating on at the moment. You hope for a nice dry day so you can get a bit of aerial power.
"You just have to be switched on. You can't always run it out, sometimes you've just got to surge it out, quicker ball movement, quicker decisions, sometimes you'll have to just kick it out long because you're going to get run down from behind by a small forward."
In such a scenario, the outlet contested marking targets of Rory Lobb and Jonathon Patton become vital.
In fact, there is a case to be made that the Tigers can be attacked in the air - they have only lost two games by more than 14 points this season, with Adelaide and St Kilda taking 25 and 21 contested marks in 76- and 67-point wins respectively.
It might be in the Giants' interests to see the big men fly. Small ball at the MCG might suit the Tigers down to the ground.
http://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/id/20762278/are-small-ball-richmond-tigers-revolutionising-footy
