Have the Cats learnt enough to turn tables on Tigers?By Michael Gleeson
The Age
October 23, 2020In round four, Geelong played Melbourne. The game was close, decided by a kick, but it was the sort of modern, ugly contest that prompts scalding for being a blight on the game.
It was also the first game Geelong changed their style to ratchet up owning the ball. Already a kick and hold team, after this game they lifted the keepings-off style up a notch.
It was pretty effective ... until they played Richmond.
ROUND 17: GEELONG v RICHMONDGeelong owns the ball. They win contested and uncontested possession, marks, contested marks. They destroy Richmond in clearances – 32-16 and 10-2 in centre clearances. They monster them in owning the ball.
Geelong kick four goals. They lose the game comfortably.
The teams were different - we'll get to that – but the Cats learned two things. The first is you cannot play slowly. Richmond don't fret about losing clearances or possession, their patience is waiting to inevitably give the ball back then quickly send it to the other end of the ground to score. You go slow, they punish you fast.
The second point they learned is you need more than one credible and viable tall forward target.
The speed you bring the ball in and the number of forward targets are linked.
Richmond love slow movement. Their team defence rolls across the back 50 arc filling holes like wet sand filling footprints in the shallows.
If you have just a Tom Hawkins as the primary forward target they know where the ball is going to go so they close up around him. Richmond players know how, when and where to cover for one another and fold back into the right places and spaces.
So when Noah Balta is on Tom Hawkins, if the Cats bring it in slowly to Hawkins then Dylan Grimes and Nick Vlastuin have time to cut across and mark.
So first, the quicker you bring the ball forward the more chance Hawkins has. Second, you have to give the Richmond defenders more players to worry about than Hawkins.
The Collingwood semi-final was when the Cats really pulled the trigger on this newer game.
They moved the ball fast. They still heavily possessed it but they got the ball in quickly.
And as importantly, they started Patrick Dangerfield forward and kept him there.
A CHANGED TEAMIn round 17, Geelong's forward line had Ben Jarvis on debut, Brad Close in his eighth game and Lachie Fogarty in his sixth.
On Saturday the forward line will have Dangerfield, Gary Ablett and Gary Rohan.
Ablett might be in his last game but who is really brave enough to ignore him and zone off him? Rohan has a modest finals record but try to think of him as medium-sized, fast pressure player and an advance on the kids who were there last time.
And then there's Dangerfield forward.
"Ablett will get [Bachar] Houli or [Jayden] Short I'd say, like Brisbane did with Daniel Rich, and just make it a shootout between them," said former Geelong and Essendon assistant coach Rob Harding.
"[Nathan] Broad potentially goes to Rohan. It's harder for Richmond to drop off the forwards this time when it's Ablett. Grimes, you'd think, has to go to Dangerfield."
This is why Dangerfield forward is so crucial. The question of Dangerfield has been whether you can afford to take him out of the midfield. Against Richmond, the question is can you afford not to play him forward?
Richmond, too, will be significantly different and better for changes on field - Dion Prestia, Shane Edwards and David Astbury weren't there last time.
Geelong actually play a similar defensive style to Richmond with Harry Taylor and Lachie Henderson trying to block the run and jump of the forwards, waiting for Mark Blicavs or Tom Stewart to arrive to mark or spoil as third man in.
Blicavs starts on a wing but pushes back to play as basically a seventh defender. He is very clever at getting into the leading lanes of forwards such as Tom Lynch, so even if he is not always in marking contests he cuts off leading options.
He is also important in not losing contact with Dustin Martin when the Tiger star rolls from the middle to the forward line.
Richmond use the width of the ground and their wingers Marlion Pickett and Kamdyn McIntosh are incredibly important links in that. Their running ability end to end and use of them as release players from defence is crucial to Richmond.
McIntosh and Pickett are important in pulling the Geelong wings, especially Blicavs, who is their most important structural player, away from their roles.
"The greasier conditions, maybe rain, will suit Richmond's style of play and ball movement," Harding said.
Tactically, we know what Richmond will do - they have been doing it and doing it better than anyone for four years - the question is whether the Cats' tweaks are enough to break that style.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/have-the-cats-learnt-enough-to-turn-tables-on-tigers-20201023-p567ws.html
