Tactical analysis : The HB winger

[Grantysghost]

Some astute woofers have noticed our new tactic whereby at a centre bounce the half back is used as a defensive winger and a mid is running off half back.

I was watching with interest last night and we utilised this for a fair portion of the game, Bramble was nominally the defensive winger and a rotating cast of mids went through half back.

This was deployed on the members side or lhs for us ( eg when the opposition was kicking to the Footscray / La Trobe St end it was that side and opposite the othe way)

Firstly, love it. My best guess is its a tactic to limit and control teams coming out of the front of the centre bounce and one of the first noticeable strategies I've seen to combat the 666 other than the winger camping defensive side.

Secondly, I would love the woof community to sink their collective teeth into this and dissect exactly what we are doing here.

What I didn't work out was where our winger was during all this! Maybe HF rolling down?

Ive made a crude attempt at a visual (on phone so go easy) to try and make it a bit clearer, the blue is the area we are trying to defend I believe. Love to hear your thoughts!

https://i.postimg.cc/VLCp2JVN/Screenshot-20240803-072732.png (https://postimg.cc/8jTZ6zD8)

[azabob]

Last week Dale also took turn as the defensive wingman.

What I was surprised at last night was pretty much all the midfielders bar Treloar had a go at “HB”.

We did get burned by it once or twice last night but all in all the upside is huge.

[Stevo]

I watched closely last night and really couldn't work out how and why we were setting up like that but it appears that by doing that we are adding an extra midfielder to our rotation without them necessarily coming on an off the bench.
GG I probably can't add any real technical analysis to what what you have detailed but I'll be trying to check it out in the coming weeks.
Interesting observation and thank you for mapping it out.

I hope someone like MJP can add some comments to this.

[Grantysghost]

I watched closely last night and really couldn't work out how and why we were setting up like that but it appears that by doing that we are adding an extra midfielder to our rotation without them necessarily coming on an off the bench.
GG I probably can't add any real technical analysis to what what you have detailed but I'll be trying to check it out in the coming weeks.
Interesting observation and thank you for mapping it out.

I hope someone like MJP can add some comments to this.
This is total mjp click bait

[azabob]

I watched closely last night and really couldn't work out how and why we were setting up like that but it appears that by doing that we are adding an extra midfielder to our rotation without them necessarily coming on an off the bench.


My guess is we are no longer bringing up one of the forwards to the stoppage which we historically have done?

[jazzadogs]

Pretty sure the winger (Poulter) often started at half forward.

So if we say West started half back on Neal-Bullen (who the Dees use as an extra mid), Bramble wing, Poulter forward...West rolls up with Neal-Bullen to the contest, Bramble swings back to defence and Poulter goes to the wing.

My take is it gives us better representation on our 'defensive' side of the stoppage.

One observation was that I felt Gawn was deliberately trying to hit the ball wide to the unmanned wing (unmanned in that Bramble is pushing back and Poulter is pushing up). We would need to be careful if our opposition started getting on top.

But overall, I can't really remember any centre clearance goals in the last few weeks since we've started noticing this, so I guess it's working?

[Grantysghost]

Pretty sure the winger (Poulter) often started at half forward.

So if we say West started half back on Neal-Bullen (who the Dees use as an extra mid), Bramble wing, Poulter forward...West rolls up with Neal-Bullen to the contest, Bramble swings back to defence and Poulter goes to the wing.

My take is it gives us better representation on our 'defensive' side of the stoppage.

One observation was that I felt Gawn was deliberately trying to hit the ball wide to the unmanned wing (unmanned in that Bramble is pushing back and Poulter is pushing up). We would need to be careful if our opposition started getting on top.

But overall, I can't really remember any centre clearance goals in the last few weeks since we've started noticing this, so I guess it's working?

That makes sense JD. It's a real change from what we've been doing for ages with the HFF rolling into midfield and having 5 forwards.

Love it.

[bornadog]

That makes sense JD. It's a real change from what we've been doing for ages with the HFF rolling into midfield and having 5 forwards.

Love it.

I think that is what Macrae's role has been as well.

[Grantysghost]

I think that is what Macrae's role has been as well.
How long before the media work this one out?

What amazing analysis we get :rolleyes:

[SquirrelGrip]

Pretty sure the winger (Poulter) often started at half forward.

So if we say West started half back on Neal-Bullen (who the Dees use as an extra mid), Bramble wing, Poulter forward...West rolls up with Neal-Bullen to the contest, Bramble swings back to defence and Poulter goes to the wing.

My take is it gives us better representation on our 'defensive' side of the stoppage.

One observation was that I felt Gawn was deliberately trying to hit the ball wide to the unmanned wing (unmanned in that Bramble is pushing back and Poulter is pushing up). We would need to be careful if our opposition started getting on top.

But overall, I can't really remember any centre clearance goals in the last few weeks since we've started noticing this, so I guess it's working?

Yes this is what happened and Treloar did come off half back at least once during the night.

I found it very difficult to notice or understand on TV, but finally at the ground, it was fascinating to see it in action.

Bramble or Dale were normally the ‘defensive’ wings with Poulter usually the one starting at half forward. Richards was probably the most frequent to start at half back but certainly it was shared around. It’s a big strategic change for, our normal half forward coming up into the midfield (e.g. Macrae). The half back player attacks hard coming through and is usually one of our more explosive players. I wonder if this change of tactic is part of the reason Sanders and Macrae are out right now. Normally becoming the mid from half forward, do they lack the explosion required from half back?

This tactic also seems to mess with coverage of our midfield and who the opposition match up on. It really helps with our entry into- our forward 50.

Not sure Gawn hitting wide helped much. Whilst Bramble did go back after the centre clearance, he did hold his position at this point. Great games by Poulter and Bramble suggest the structure works for them.

[GVGjr]

From memory Brisbane in their heyday employed a similar plan and often ran midfielders across half back with Chris Scott and Nigel Lappin. They would then push up into the midfield and defensive wingers were employed. Having the midfield depth to achieve that is the key and the Lions had plenty of that.

I'm going to try and ask someone I know to explain the tactic to me next week.

[mjp]

This is total mjp click bait

Yeah - I have BTG access to AFL (Footscray) games but not AFL games.

It's been clear there's a half-back-wing-mid-half-forward flip going on, but it's hard to work out what. Honestly, it's hard to work out WHY???

It would 100% be confusing to the oppo hf and wing as their starting opponents are immediately 'somewhere else'...which messes with their structure. BUT an experienced oppo would be fooled for about 3.5 seconds then play their role and resume their normal match-up.

I actually don't get 'it' (the benefits) right now.

[mjp]

From memory Brisbane in their heyday employed a similar plan and often ran midfielders across half back with Chris Scott and Nigel Lappin.

Yeah, but that was pre 6-6-6 so you could pretty easily manipulate starting positions...it's not as easy now and getting a flip once the game starts is consequently a lot trickier.

[meenies]

In the past when teams get run ons against us, it seemed to be they smashed us by clearing the ball out of the front of the centre square. This set up seems to counter that. Now our mids can concentrate on being aggressive winning the ball and the HB winger and BF midfielder be the defensive units.

[hujsh]

If we do well with this tactic I look forward to seeing how the AFL ban it.

[Mofra]

I noticed Bont doing this a couple of weeks ago as well.
It is only for CBs though - we have been doing well keeping our wings quite wide during regular in-game stoppages.

It probably comes down to how coaches treat the wing role. Some keep the wings 'to a side' so their heat maps will be mostly left/right. Some deploy them with a forward/back bias depending on whether they want to speed the game up or slow it down. Some will have the HF run high to the contest, or just ahead of it to move the ball quickly if we get a spillage in front of the stoppage.

Given our run in the past month or so, I say whatever the hell we're doing - keep doing it.

[Mofra]

If anyone saw Essendon get a CBA clearance and kick the winning point with 1 minute to go - I'm not sure that happens with the easy we now set up. A defensive wing would cause a high kick to the D50 where we now clearly back our intercept marking players in.

[Happy Days]

If anyone saw Essendon get a CBA clearance and kick the winning point with 1 minute to go - I'm not sure that happens with the easy we now set up. A defensive wing would cause a high kick to the D50 where we now clearly back our intercept marking players in.

MJP already said it but brother that gave me war flashbacks.

[Grantysghost]

If anyone saw Essendon get a CBA clearance and kick the winning point with 1 minute to go - I'm not sure that happens with the easy we now set up. A defensive wing would cause a high kick to the D50 where we now clearly back our intercept marking players in.

I was at the game, it was interesting as both midfields really backed themselves in that last cba. It's hard to cover all the space for sure and I think Freo's wingers were probably too high (one maybe should have been deeper) but it was so fast it was really down to the centre square guys.

There was one earlier where Young took it out of CB, bounced three times and goaled, all the Essendon defenders stayed back and on their mans. Was weird.

BTW Mckay is very average and so is Nick Cox. I heard Cox is over 200cm, he would need to be 300 to be any good...very soft player and slow. Easily nudged off the ball.

It's the beauty of the 666 it really does allow for these comebacks late.

Agree though that Durham kick would have been pressured / he would have been covered.