Coaches do heaps of things, but an AFL team is a complex system comprised of players with human agency. Until headsets are allowed, players will continue to put themselves in the wrong position sometimes. Remember NicNat training with an iPhone strapped to his back blaring instructions at training about where to be? He had Dean Cox to learn from, who would get twice the possessions off half of the natural talent because he knew where to get cheap kicks, and do you think NicNat learnt a bloody thing? A decade later and he still runs around like a chook with his head cut off.
From Lyon’s press conference after the game: “If you go to spots where you can’t hurt them, they will release you into the congestion. It’s hard when you are a young forward, you want to get the ball, you get a bit desperate.”
Most teams adjust their positioning on the fly depending on the game situation. The best teams impose their will on the other team, and make better decisions when required. The bad teams are forced into difficult decisions, then make the wrongs ones. Against good teams, I reckon we tend towards that.
Now, maybe you think Tabs and McCarthy are footballing Rhodes Scholars, but Tabs looks to me someone who has little awareness of what’s happening in real-time, and CamMac strikes me as someone who runs about on gut feel. I reckon organising those two bozzos, as well as a new player in Matera and Ballas is a work in progress, which is to be expected given how little they have played together. I think some of that is reflected in Lyon’s acknowledgement that the game plan was a little too complicated.
Or, Lyon for some reason tells his team to have no-one forward against good teams, then lies about it at a press conference. It’s entirely possible.
But again, this is one aspect of Freo’s play. Freo are really cracking in, as they have always done under Lyon. The defenders are playing with flair in the backline and running in support through the middle. The kids are showing glimpses. Old stagers like Sandi, Mundy and Johnno are in their swansong and performing admirably. A Pearce is having a comeback season for the ages. Fyfe is back to his imperious best. Walters is playing his way into form and is ready to take a game apart. The new stadium is actually pretty good, and we don’t have to drink Carlton Mid anymore.
But all anyone wants to talk about is that we muff up our forward positioning slightly more than most teams, who almost to a team have better forwards and more options going into attack.
It’s incredibly myopic. There are plenty of positives. You might enjoy the game more if you focus on those for a little while.
