Mark Bickley: Round 15 saw the most goals this season as teams again look to put scoreboard pressure on their opponents
AFTER Richmond and the Bulldogs won AFL premierships with low goal tallies, the competition followed suit. But now the tide is again starting to turn in favour of more attacking football, writes dual Crows premiership skipper Mark Bickley.
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FOOTY’S back!
Round 15 produced 249 goals. The most of any round this year.
With so much discussion recently regarding the state of the game, it was a timely reminder that our game is still in pretty good shape.
With seven teams breaking the 100-point barrier, and four others in the 90s it proved that when the willingness to attack is there, and high scoring is not impossible.
This year the game has faced more critics than ever before. Extra congestion around the ball, more tackling and lower scoring, has many questioning the game as a spectacle.
So how did we get here? I’m blaming Richmond! And to a lesser extent, the Western Bulldogs.
The premiers of the last two years have had the lowest goal tallies of any premiership sides since the AFL was formed back in 1987. To give some perspective, the Bulldogs of 2016 were the 12th best offence and last year’s champions, the Tigers, were just as uninspiring in front of the big sticks, kicking fewer goals than any other team in the top eight.
The Kangaroos, who finished 15th last year, kicked more goals in the home-and-away season than the eventual premiers.
The secret, of course, was the pressure they applied to the opposition, particularly in their front half. While the Bulldogs were very good, Richmond took it to another level. A mosquito fleet of small forwards terrorising opposition defenders and total buy-in from the rest of the side, carried them from 13th to premiers. In the process they dismantled the league’s highest-scoring team, Adelaide, on the biggest stage possible.
Who wouldn’t try to replicate that?
To coin a phrase from Champion Data’s AFL Prospectus, “Richmond made pressure sexy”.
So every team from second to 13th was given hope. Pressure and defensive structures became the number one items for most clubs during the pre-season. This is where my theory kicks in, at the expense of attacking ball movement.
Over the past couple of weeks teams have had the bye round which gives coaches an opportunity to review what they have been doing and also look at the trends throughout the league. Most would have noted improved defence, but also teams are finding it much harder to score. The Tigers, the Demons and the Pies notable exceptions, who all average just under or just over the 100 point mark.
As you would expect, clubs will study these teams to find out how they are doing it and now have to try and develop those techniques for the last two months of the season.
The Tigers are the most consistent and, to be fair, that started late last year when they averaged over 100 points for their last five games including the three finals.
While the pressure has continued in 2018, their scoring has improved and shows no signs of letting up.
Melbourne and Collingwood have also both improved their scoring by more than 10 per cent on last year. They are playing with a bit of dare, changing the angle of the ball and creating overlap run, getting the ball out into space.
Over the weekend that to me was the most notable difference, teams looking to get the ball to the outside quicker. Don Pyke urged his team to take the game on at three-quarter time, with great success, creating 24 inside 50s and a match-winning six goals.
It makes sense, if teams push extra numbers up and around the ball causing congestion, there must be more space to use on the outside . A greater awareness of this space and an urgency to move the ball quickly into it, will hopefully see a continuation of last weekend’s scoring.
I’ve always been a believer in the game working itself out. History has shown there is often a lag period between defence being strong before offensive play catches up.
Sydney in 2005 had the third lowest goal tally of any premier in the AFL and was criticised at the time for a defensive style. Then, after averaging just 10 goals in successive grand finals in 2005 and 2006, a side called Geelong came up with an attractive attacking game style that saw it win three flags in five years, including a 24-goal effort on grand final day 2007.
So before we change too many rules, let’s see how the game responds in the last eight rounds of 2018.
Also makes you wonder what would have happened if the Crows, as the highest-scoring, most attacking team in the competition last year had of won the flag, what the pre-season agendas might have looked like?
We can only wonder.
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