What to do in games when the chips are down - Discussion

[1eyedog]

Can't see that happening anytime soon.

Has there ever been a side in recent history to keep the exact same coaching group for 5+ years?

I know it seems petty that we lose one and the heat is immediately turned up in the coaches box and I'm not here to pot the coach but the way we lose rolling out that high press methodology makes us look like a basket case and makes other teams look like movie stars. It is unsustainable and was worked out by other teams two years ago. I said in the three things I've learned thread that the high press doesn't work if you don't have two key ingredients. 1. A completely defensive mindset and 2. Maniacal attack on the ball forward of centre. I understand that we needed to change things up due to the weather and there was a high chance of turning the ball over in the conditions playing our high possession game plan but reverting to that high press was, well it was a 10 goal loss.

Bevo seems very loyal but I feel compelled to start questioning the benefit of musical chairs in the coaches box opposed to the influx of new ideas. There's a saying in evolutionary biology that isolation breeds mental strangulation and I worry sometimes that the lack of in-game flexibility, the rigidity of player selections and the reversion to our 2016 handball club game plan (which can and does overwhelm middle of the road clubs in perfect conditions), shows an inability to progress with a new idea (be it positional in-game changes), or find broader answers or solutions or adaptations to game plans (i.e. the high press methodology) to the point it becomes a case of the more things change the more they stay the same for us.

[Scorlibo]

I said in the three things I've learned thread that the high press doesn't work if you don't have two key ingredients. 1. A completely defensive mindset and 2. Maniacal attack on the ball forward of centre.

Agree with everything you've said 1eye - but I'd add a third ingredient: goals! When the forwards don't convert from the first entry, every successive entry becomes more difficult to score from. We won the inside 50s but most of them were trashcan entries to a sea of 30 players because the forwards couldn't score from the first entry.

[Eastdog]

This thread has become relevant once again.

[SonofScray]

Here's what I'd be considering:

1. Add some length to our game, a bit more territory and focus on taking ground.
2. Manufacture intensity and emotion in the game. Two goals, fight. Repeat.
3. Go with a harder tag, earlier on. Put players in the gun like the Plough era dogs.