You're the Coach: Question #2

[mjp]

After your successful move of Bailey Dale forward late in last week's match (he kicked two goals in q4 time on to pinch the game), you have been lauded for your tactical nous...apart from those people who say "If you were such a genius you would have had him there all along"...anyway, we're ignoring those peanuts.

BUT a week is a long time in footy and you have another challenge on your hands.

It's 20-minutes into the first quarter and this game against the Blues is going seriously pear shaped. Cripps has 11 clearances - ELEVEN - already (and 14 disposals), each of the big forwards (Curnow and McKay) have kicked goals (4 and 3 respectively) and between De Koning and Weitering they have already taken 7x intercept marks.

Here are your current match-ups:

Jones on McKay
Gardner on Curnow
Bruce is down there as well and seems to be trying to go 3rd man up.

Cripps is not being 'tagged' but your rolls-royce midfield: Bont, Jacko, Treloar and Liber - have been inside the centre square all day.

Lobb, Naughts, Darcy and Jamarra are all playing inside forward 50.

You need to do something NOW! What is the priority???

[Bulldog4life]

I voted for match-ups down back. I can imagine Curnow and McKay having good seasons again and it might need a tweak or change in our backline to stop them at some point. Stopping Cripps was a close second for mine.

[Bulldog Revolution]

So I've never coached a football game in my life, but I'm asking Jacko to play that defensive role, or Bont, on Cripps to sacrifice their possession game a bit - seems to me that with Cripps you have to be able to match him for weight and size otherwise he's just too much of a bull. (Late amendment - But Libba is also an option because hes just such a winner and sometimes just finds ways to do stuff that doesnt seem possible)

Im reassigning Richards to the third man up role, or Williams, or Darcy, but I think Im going smaller to try and get more run out of the backline - and Im getting one of the talls out of the forward line and trying Bruce forward in a defensive role, given the current Naughton, Lobb, Jamarra Darcy mix didnt seem to be working. I dont necessarily love Gardner on Curnow, but Im not sure we have a logical change, and hes the guy we need to be able to play on Curnow - it feels like a gamble to try Williams or Richards in that role and go small.

Perhaps my instructions to Bruce are to not allow uncontested marks, maybe its the play on their back shoulder and effectively play as a defender on De Koning. Im trying to get Weitering isolated and to keep leading on him, where I think he can be exploited, but if hes dropping off and taking loads of mark its a risk, so if Weitering peels off we need others to make sure he isn't uncontested third man up. Maybe Hannan who can play above his height in the air could be useful in the mix here.

[Happy Days]

I was under the impression this was a good vibes only time of year?

I think that a stopper role has been earmarked for McLean so maybe move him onto Cripps, but realistically I don’t think he’s big enough. Dunkley was the one for this specific spot but now I don’t think we have a rein to pull.

We also don’t have a match up for Curnow (who does) so stopping supply is our only move.

So I personally would do nothing and wait for them to run out of legs which seems to be their terminal flaw.

We would lose this game btw if I had to guess but that could just be me.

[bornadog]

With Carlton you need to stop Cripps and the mids feeding McKay and Curnow. Stop their supply and you stop goals being kicked.

We saw this in round 2 last year when we tagged Cripps out of the game after he killed us in the first quarter.

Who goes on him? I would like to see Macrae take him on, as he did a couple of years ago. He can limit Cripps possessions and still pick up 20 himself.

[mjp]

I was under the impression this was a good vibes only time of year?

C'Mon HD - release the negativity mate. There are still > 3/4's to go and great victories can only be achieved through adversity!

You know one thing? As the coach, you sure as hell can't be 'WORRIED'...this might be the worst case scenario but I reckon you can tell the players that we already had plans for this...just keep chipping away and it'll be alright. We don't need to be level by half time...but just drag that margin back to 4 goals...around that 20 point mark. That's NOTHING in modern footy!

[azabob]

Numbers at the contest to slow them down is the way to go.

If the ball is coming in quickly and with ease no defenders in the competition will stop Curnow and McKay. Positional change or 3rd man up won't help. Their key forwards are confidence players who in full flight don't muck around.

Players to consider to roll up to the contest would be a combination of Weightman, McLean, Daniel etc. I'd also use one of the wingman to be at the contest, the other wing such as Bailey Williams to patrol the D50 to centre circle as an interceptor or lose man to cut off any quick kicks out of a scrimmage.

For the love of Nick Cave, we also need two players on the defensive side of the contest say 2-5 meters away to try and stop any burst running by Cripps or Walsh.

[lemmon]

First priority for me is to stop the scoring and get to quarter time without the Blues being out of sight.

Bruce to full forward and Naughton back, playing the loose role that it sounds Bruce wasn't managing. Bruce goes forward with the instruction of playing close to goal and trying to take one of their tall backs out of the play. If they're intercepting, give them as little territory as possible.

I think Jones on McKay and Gardner to Curnow are still our best match-ups, so I'm sticking fat with that until we can get to the sheds and re-assess.

It sounds like English is rucking, so I'm telling him to roll-back after the centre-bounces and provide extra support to the back 6. Lobb coming up after the centre bounce and plays on ball.

I'm not too worried about Cripps' spread from the stoppages, so Libba is getting the run-with job. Treloar and Jacko out of the mids, Baz and Toby McLean in. Toby is told that we need him to crack in and give us some intensity at the coal face. Baz gets the instruction that we need a lift from our stars, so go and make it happen for us.

[hujsh]

To me it sounds like the problem is starting in the middle. Therefore stop Cripps. If Carlton lose their drive out of the middle it gives the defenders more time/opportunity to defend and hopefully means our forays forward are done so under better circumstances.

[MrMahatma]

The only way I reckon we'd be stopping Cripps, who seems to looooooooove playing against us even in the world of make believe, is an out-number so I've gone with numbers around the contest.

I'd personally love the "slow things down" move to happen any time a team gets 3 on the trot (or 3 in 10 mins). We certainly need a way to put the hand breaks on.

[Grantysghost]

This is like a choose you own adventure book - man I used to love those. Keep it coming MJP.

I know what Bevo would do - +1 to the contest, although he's probably already been doing that.

So, it just has to be stopped at the source. If no +1 make one. Tagging Cripps is a waste of time so sweat on his disposal he likes to handball.
Have to get second balls, so it's imperative we put pressure on the mids and force dump kicks into the forward line give our tall backs a chance.

Then make sure we have speed off the hbf (JJ/Treloar?) and run and carry to create the overlap. Push our HFF high to create space in behind (would most likely be happening with the plus one anyway) and have Marra /Lobb/ Naughty deep but spread.

I don't know which answer to give in the poll.

I picked numbers around the contest slow them down.

[Mantis]

If Bruce is in the team as a defender before Keath or Darcy I'm turning off the TV and going to bed.

Failing that I'm trying to lock down the midfield which includes sending someone to Cripps... but would be asking why someone didn't go to him at the 1st bounce given his importance to their team.

[mjp]

If Bruce is in the team as a defender before Keath or Darcy I'm turning off the TV and going to bed.

Even if you turn off the tv’s in the coaches box, you can still watch the action unfold through the front window...and there’s no point having selection regrets on game day.
Going to bed? Well, don’t miss the afl mandated presser...big fine for blowing that off.

[Go_Dogs]

Numbers around and slow the game down.

What would you do Mjp? Don’t leave us hanging!

[mjp]

Numbers around and slow the game down.

What would you do Mjp? Don’t leave us hanging!

I would push a number up to the front of the stoppage. And if Carlton equalised, I would throw another. They wouldn't be coming out of the front of stoppage under any circumstances.

It's NEARLY quarter time so you get a reset, get the chance to challenge the group...I must admit, this sort of thing doesn't worry me TOO much early in the game - this is one of those "we can't get the ball so we don't know how we're going" type scenarios...crack in a bit harder, put the oppo on their heals and go with it.

As Lemmon mentioned, the defensive match-ups are ones we worked on during the week and were comfortable with - so no point messing with them too much (Jones/Gardner) but changing the Bruce role would be worth talking about...

Cripps? Just challenge the mids. The number I wrote was cartoonishly big (11 clearances in 20-minutes) so, well...it's gonna take a village to slow that train down.

I would 100% be changing the way we play De Koning and Weitering though. I would pick one - probs De Koning - and get Bruce to change ends and stick an elbow in his back. He gets NOT ONE MORE MARK FOR THE DAY. Weitering? We reset on him, get him back to the goal-square and try to add some life across HF. This would be the time I think seriously about playing Bont at half forward and try to go continuously through him....