Applying and dealing with pressure will be the key to deciding the winner of the 2017 AFL grand final
THE Crows must be ready to bring the heat and to deal with the Tigers’ manic pressure if they are to win their third AFL flag on Saturday, says Warren Tredrea
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THE team that brings the heat and deals with the pressure will win the premiership.
It’s as simple as that.
Saturday’s grand final is a mouth-watering match-up pitting the best attacking team – Adelaide – against the best defensive unit – Richmond.
But as opposite as the teams appear in those statistics they’re very similar in the way they get the job done.
Modern football is about execution – hitting your targets under pressure and converting your opportunities in front of goal.
But it’s equally as important to win the ball back quickly when you lose possession.
That’s where both grand finalists have excelled in 2017.
They’re the top two teams for scoring off turnovers per game versus their direct opponent – Adelaide ranks number one (23.6 points) and Richmond ranks second (12.1).
As any football fan knows, ball retention is vital and turnovers can cost you heavily on the scoreboard and sometimes the game.
It’s no coincidence both Adelaide and Richmond pressured the life out of their preliminary final opponents last weekend, scoring heavily from turnovers.
This is also one key reason why this grand final looms as potentially one of the hottest contests in grand-final history.
You only had to watch 10 minutes of football last weekend to realise Adelaide and Richmond base their game on bringing heat and if you can’t handle it they’ll execute with military like precision.
While the Tigers are more prolific tacklers (ranked fourth) than the Crows (13th), Don Pyke’s men are better at winning contested ball ranked fourth to the Tigers 12th.
And while Adelaide and Richmond go about their games slightly differently, nothing separates them when is comes to inside 50 differential, points scored from stoppages and midfield scores from clearances.
The great unknown is – who will handle the boiling point pressure of grand final day the best and who won’t?
Many highly fancied teams and their players have failed to deal with the suffocating pressure that exists on grand final day and this Saturday will be no different.
It will go a long way towards deciding the match.
Unusually, both teams lack grand final experience on their playing lists, with not one player having been there before.
But the same can’t be said for the coaches who’ve both tasted premiership success before.
Adelaide coach Don Pyke achieved this with West Coast as a player in 1992 and 1994 while Damien Hardwick also claimed two flags with Essendon (2000) and Port Adelaide (2004).
The Crows are the overwhelming favourites to win their third premiership cup on Saturday afternoon – the first in 19 years.
And while both teams successfully accounted for their preliminary final opponents with relative ease, this week is another story.
Players must stay fresh and embrace grand final week.
Ignoring it or trying to treat it like a normal week is useless.
It’s the most analysed, hyped up and emotionally charged week of football the players will ever be apart of and its important they realise it. They have already been faced with sorting out ticket requests, a Brownlow function and a public training session – all abnormal goings on in the weekly football cycle.
That’s why they must take the opportunity to switch off as much as possible without ignoring it all together.
It’s a fine line – they also can’t afford to get caught up playing the game in their own minds before the ball is bounced at 2pm (SA time) on Saturday afternoon.
The team that handles the heat and executes under pressure will be the one that’s left holding the premiership cup aloft.
And that’s why Adelaide will be premiers – because they handle and apply the heat better than the rest.