Morgan,
We are winning the ball ok you are right - but we are terrible at the spread and moving it away. What game are you watching?
Brad Hill may do that OK, but having 1 outside to 3-4 in and under is madness. Contrast that with Hawthorn who rely on mitchell for so many of the clearances, but have plenty of players situated outside, and who move the ball cleanly away. Same with GWS.
The better sides reverse the ration of inside to outside players that we go with. Which is madness when you think that we have both Hills, Weller who could be elite outside runners and users of the ball.
Clearances - from centre or stoppages - is a different setup. I was just isolating one component of the game where, watching from behind the goals, the set-ups have been chalk and cheese, and Hawthorn have destroyed us in that area. I have never seen a more clear example of one side with a structure, and one side playing bees around the honeypot under 13's footy.
Yes there is a requirement to link up, but what you will notice is that the zones used do allow for the smaller units to link up effectively, but even if Hawthorn were missing with their outlet kick, you'd still see the set up, and effective clearance away from the contested area. We don't have anything like that.
But I'll throw it back to you: is there any area on the ground where you can see any consistently replicated pattern of play over the past 6-8 games that suggests that we are developing a similar or analogous strategy? This is what I am looking for at this stage of our development - not wins, not necessarily consistency from players, but signs that we are developing, or there is emerging, a consistent style of play.
