The Blueprint being used against us.

[Merveille]

The Tigers modus operandi - whether it be Jack or Lynch, get the ball to ground at all times inside fwd 50. Do not let opposition mark it. Allows smalls to apply pressure and keep it in, or create the opposition turnover on the way out with forward pressure.
Jack has been amazing at this, doing it one out for a long time. He has been happy to play from behind and spoil it forward to our smalls,
As has Lynch.

What is happening - McEVOY the best and biggest marking player is used to prevent this happening as much as possible. We struggled to even spoil him from behind.
Combined with sustained, manic midfield pressure by Hawks that causes Tigers to dump kick, they carry out the plan.
Reduces drastically Tiger goals from turnover and by Hawks marking the ball they can move it out under control with kick/marks, lessening impact of our pressure forwards.
Jeremy HOWE was the equivalent the week before.

Question is - this worked against the tigers, but will it work against other teams, and can their mids sustain the giant workload?
And surely we can develop a plan to counter this, or can we?

 

[gutfull]

Tigers need a rocket ! Plenty of players deserve the chance to replace all the big heads ...

 

[Smoking Aces]

I would almost be tempted next week to do exactly what we did against Brisbane in the qualifying final.

Push Lynch and Riewoldt up to the edge of the square and leave Dusty one out. Open up the forward line.

 

[DavidSSS]

I think we have changed a bit with Lynch in the side. We now have the option to bring the ball to ground or to kick to one of our 2 tall marking forwards.

Where the problems lie at the moment is that the ball comes to ground and our small forwards are nowhere near it, plus the long bomb into the forward line isn't our modus operandi, we should be passing it into the forward line with a surging run towards goal. That has not been happening.

If we get back to playing well I can't see that we have been worked out.

DS

 

[Merveille]

I think we have changed a bit with Lynch in the side. We now have the option to bring the ball to ground or to kick to one of our 2 tall marking forwards.

Where the problems lie at the moment is that the ball comes to ground and our small forwards are nowhere near it, plus the long bomb into the forward line isn't our modus operandi, we should be passing it into the forward line with a surging run towards goal. That has not been happening.

If we get back to playing well I can't see that we have been worked out.

DS

Agree we should use it better going in, but in the past opposition teams have not marked the ball inside our forward 50 like they have the last 2 weeks. Even when we bombed it long.

 

[TigerPort]

I cannot see how we can asses any of this until all 22 players play with the REQUIRED effort. Last night was deplorable in the effort from the majority. The tackle counts speaks volumes.

 

[zippadeee]

I would almost be tempted next week to do exactly what we did against Brisbane in the qualifying final.

Push Lynch and Riewoldt up to the edge of the square and leave Dusty one out. Open up the forward line.

Castagna one out.
Try something different.
Drop Jack bring in Balta
Lynch high half forward with Bolton and Castagna deep forward leading into the ball.
We need to open our forward line up, its always congested...

 

[Merveille]

Castagna one out.
Try something different.
Drop Jack bring in Balta
Lynch high half forward with Bolton and Castagna deep forward leading into the ball.
We need to open our forward line up, its always congested...

J Short forward..??

 

[zippadeee]

J Short forward..??

Short maybe to the wing, but in saying that he isn't reliable enough.
I personally believe we are too small all over the ground.
We need to introduce Balta and maybe Chol. We can't only have one semi tall in caddy running around.

 

[Scoop]

The Tigers modus operandi - whether it be Jack or Lynch, get the ball to ground at all times inside fwd 50. Do not let opposition mark it. Allows smalls to apply pressure and keep it in, or create the opposition turnover on the way out with forward pressure.
Jack has been amazing at this, doing it one out for a long time. He has been happy to play from behind and spoil it forward to our smalls,
As has Lynch.

What is happening - McEVOY the best and biggest marking player is used to prevent this happening as much as possible. We struggled to even spoil him from behind.
Combined with sustained, manic midfield pressure by Hawks that causes Tigers to dump kick, they carry out the plan.
Reduces drastically Tiger goals from turnover and by Hawks marking the ball they can move it out under control with kick/marks, lessening impact of our pressure forwards.
Jeremy HOWE was the equivalent the week before.

Question is - this worked against the tigers, but will it work against other teams, and can their mids sustain the giant workload?
And surely we can develop a plan to counter this, or can we?

Great post and analysis. The key is slowing our ball movement from the back half, forcing us to go slow and allow a Howe or McEvoy to position themselves in the right spots. If we are manic and taking ground forward with the handball it’s so much harder for that interceptor to get in the right spot. We need to go manic offensively and defensively to force that turnover and slingshot.

Last night we did neither.

 

[year of the tiger]

I cannot see how we can asses any of this until all 22 players play with the REQUIRED effort. Last night was deplorable in the effort from the majority. The tackle counts speaks volumes.

agree - no game plan will make Lynch (this week) and Jack (last week) miss those goals.

we are turning the ball over will sloppy skills and our ball retention is non existent - let’s get our game going first before we through it out.

 

[BillyJean17]

Two fold plan , locking down on our smalls and getting numbers back to intercept . I’m surprised in the past that oppo have paid such little respect to the smalls and focussed elsewhere, coll were first to do it and leave them virtually kickless, makes it it bloody diffficult for us to score

 

[BillyJean17]

Great post and analysis. The key is slowing our ball movement from the back half, forcing us to go slow and allow a Howe or McEvoy to position themselves in the right spots. If we are manic and taking ground forward with the handball it’s so much harder for that interceptor to get in the right spot. We need to go manic offensively and defensively to force that turnover and slingshot.

Last night we did neither.

I reckon a sec ruck is the key , adds versatility , throw an extra tall to ensure at worst we bring ball to ground i50

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Great post and analysis. The key is slowing our ball movement from the back half, forcing us to go slow and allow a Howe or McEvoy to position themselves in the right spots. If we are manic and taking ground forward with the handball it’s so much harder for that interceptor to get in the right spot. We need to go manic offensively and defensively to force that turnover and slingshot.

Last night we did neither.

Our "connection" appears down. The habit of instinctively doing the right thing that combines to form an irresistible force. We're being resisted.

 

[Birdman19]

Reminds me of when gws spanked us in April 2019. For whatever reason we tend to play better as an underdog. We either rise to the occasion or we think we are awesome and the other teams jump us with unaccountable easy goals. It may be the loss we had to have.

 

[hutstar]

Agree we should use it better going in, but in the past opposition teams have not marked the ball inside our forward 50 like they have the last 2 weeks. Even when we bombed it long.

Maybe, but the ball needs to be going in lower. These floaters going in are just too easy to defend. As the OP said, there's a strategy that's working right now, and we're playing into it big time. I feel like the solution is something we used to do a lot, which is kick it to Castagna, Dusty or even Rioli as a contest, or find a good lead at 45 from one of the other small forwards. As it stands, the small forwards have been cut out in a couple of ways the last few games - they're neither a marking option nor much chance to crumb, and for whatever reason they've struggled to be in the right spots to exert defensive pressure well.

That all said, we're not clean enough to have time to pick options right now, it's just get it and hack it. Thus, I'd like to see Jack on a wing full time, and McIntosh on the other wing. Chol, Balta or CCJ at CHF/Ruck, with Caddy rotating HFF/Wing to give Jack/CCJ a rest. Graham and Pickett need to come out of the team for now, get someone in there that can get it and use it a bit (RCD, Dow perhaps?), our midfield looks slow and shithouse.

 

[daniel30]

Our smalls have been not existent last 2 games delivery hasn't been great ,but forward line is not functioning well.

 

[BillyJean17]

Surely this isn’t the first time in 3y oppo have loaded up defenders behind the ball flooding our i50 , for mine an extra tall is obvious answer be it a tall winger in chol or balta or nank to drift forward and make that third man up more accountable

 

[Spirit of Jack]

Caracella was our forwards coach last year. I reckon we are missing his coaching big time.

 

[gold1]

I reckon the only concern for the Tiges and the Afl at the moment is the shortened quarters.Our players got their backsides kicked and will get them back on track.The Afl?Well they should increase the quarters from next weekend because at this rate the scoring will be overtaken by soccer.