Man on man, or loose man?

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Pretty simple.

Do you prefer us to play man on man, or do you prefer us to drop one down back to play as the loose sweeping man?

For mine, I don't like when we allow teams to have one extra in our forward half. Against the lesser teams, yeah - it works - but against Geelong they absolutely murdered us. Perhaps at times it's understandable to drop one back, if for example we're under fierce attack, but IMO unless that type of situation arises I don't see the point. Half the time we end up having a useless spare man. Addison played this role at times yesterday and in previous games I've seen the likes of Tiller etc. be playing as a loose man too. No disrespect to them, but they can't effectively play this role. Gilbee does it very well but we're seriously caught out when we rely on our 'lesser' types to create the play and spot up targets.

Against the top sides, especially Geelong, you need to make their backs accountable because they're very good at running in waves and helping their teammates by making contests a 1-on-2 or a 2-on-3. I have no idea why we allowed this to happen all day yesterday? I read we still had 40 something entries into the F50, but as you know, we kicked a very poor/low score.

Thoughts?

[hujsh]

We get killed with a loose man. Doesn't hurt their attack too much but kills us.

[westdog54]

This is a very simplistic view, but the way I see it:

One-on-one = contests
Contests = Defensive pressure
Defensive pressure = turnovers
Turnovers = Counter Attacks
Counter Attacks = Goals

Give 'em nothing. No space, no easy touches, no chip-around time, only zone off if you need to or if you're definitely going to make it to the ball.

[mjp]

This is a very simplistic view, but the way I see it:

One-on-one = contests
Contests = Defensive pressure
Defensive pressure = turnovers
Turnovers = Counter Attacks
Counter Attacks = Goals

Give 'em nothing. No space, no easy touches, no chip-around time, only zone off if you need to or if you're definitely going to make it to the ball.

Yeah...but how exactly do you counter attack? With run, which requires a loose man. And where does he come from? And if you counter attack well and are running the ball with time and space, who cares if the opposition have a loose man back? What are they going to do to stop say, Gilbee, hitting up a hard leading target?

You can have a default position, but I dont think you can really be black and white on this one. There will be times when you need to be accountable one on one, and others where you need (or a forced due to opposition tactics) to have one loose...

[LostDoggy]

Big difference to a player working hard and providing a target, to a player he runs goal side and pays his direct opponent no respect.

Im a 'one on one' fan. Our players should know when to run and provide options and when to be very tight.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Pretty simple.

Do you prefer us to play man on man, or do you prefer us to drop one down back to play as the loose sweeping man?

For mine, I don't like when we allow teams to have one extra in our forward half. Against the lesser teams, yeah - it works - but against Geelong they absolutely murdered us. Perhaps at times it's understandable to drop one back, if for example we're under fierce attack, but IMO unless that type of situation arises I don't see the point. Half the time we end up having a useless spare man. Addison played this role at times yesterday and in previous games I've seen the likes of Tiller etc. be playing as a loose man too. No disrespect to them, but they can't effectively play this role. Gilbee does it very well but we're seriously caught out when we rely on our 'lesser' types to create the play and spot up targets.

Against the top sides, especially Geelong, you need to make their backs accountable because they're very good at running in waves and helping their teammates by making contests a 1-on-2 or a 2-on-3. I have no idea why we allowed this to happen all day yesterday? I read we still had 40 something entries into the F50, but as you know, we kicked a very poor/low score.

Thoughts?

So when the other mob drop a 7th defender back you man him up?
What about when they drop back a 8th? 9th? How many forwards becomes too many?

[The Bulldogs Bite]

So when the other mob drop a 7th defender back you man him up?
What about when they drop back a 8th? 9th? How many forwards becomes too many?

Obviously as I alluded to, in some situations, the loose man is required - however my point is that we appear to use it/allow it to happen far too long. Yesterday was a prime example; leaving Milburn & Scarlett to rack up the possessions all day was poor. Meanwhile, our loose man was non-existent - they were constantly able to spot up targets.

What's the point? Eade didn't try and change anything once, he left it as it was, and we were murdered across half forward.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Obviously as I alluded to, in some situations, the loose man is required - however my point is that we appear to use it/allow it to happen far too long. Yesterday was a prime example; leaving Milburn & Scarlett to rack up the possessions all day was poor. Meanwhile, our loose man was non-existent - they were constantly able to spot up targets.

What's the point? Eade didn't try and change anything once, he left it as it was, and we were murdered across half forward.

But Scarlett and Milburn weren't loose men, they were manned up, they simply thrashed their opponents.

I saw Scarlett on Welsh for a while and the commentators said Minson was on him as well. It was hard to tell on TV because usually his opponent wasn't in the picture.

Harbrow was on Milburn in ht 2nd half of the 1st quarter but I don't know if he was on him for the whole quarter or not.

[hujsh]

Scarlett started on Welsh and Milburn started on Minson.

Milburn stood about 15m in front of Minson showing him no respect

[Scraggers]

Milburn stood about 15m in front of Minson showing him no respect

In the swirling wind of Kardinia Park, I think he played the conditions better than Minson ... how many times did a kick drop short and Milburn took an uncontested chest mark.

This happened all day, and very few of our players adapted to the conditions ... but as previously stated, we don't have to play there again this year

[LostDoggy]

They rotated their backs on our forwards but always had one extra plyer in defence. Milburn had 19 disposals in the first quarter alone. If it wasn't him it was Harley or Scarlett running free from their half-back line and banging the pill into the forward line or picking out a losse man in the middle.

It was amazing to watch it go on without any noticable plan to contend with it.

In the first quarter it was helped by our forwards playing too far up the ground despite the fact we were with the wind. We needed to have at least two forwards and even three playing back near the square. This would have kept their backs from running in numbers out of defence and left our forwards better positioned to contest or hit up on a lead.

[LostDoggy]

In the last quarter when they got their run-on we still refrained from getting a man back. The final insult was watching their forwards lead into open space straight up the middle where a loose man in defence would have been.

The absence of Williams was critical to this game. Without him our defence is seriously restricted against a good side like Geelong.

Everitt spent a fair amount of time on Mooney and at this stage of his development that is too big an ask. Lake went to him as well and he struggles when he is forced to play up the ground where Mooney does most of his work.

I thought Gilbee and Hargrave did well but the other defenders were belted although it must be said they were under constant presure because of the way the ball came in - often and without pressure on the kicker.

Overall I think this result has been looming as our form has been ordinary since the Brisbane game. Hopefully, we learn from this and take the neccessary steps to get back on track.

[LostDoggy]

We must of had at least 4 men playing loose as Mooney's, S Johnson's, Milburn's and Scarlett's opponents seems no where near them.