Carlton coach Brendon Bolton is keeping it simple with new game plan
CARLTON coach Brendon Bolton has applied the KISS principle to his game plan, which has made it easier for the players to follow and harder for them to be beaten.
Carlton
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IT WAS a design principle favoured by the US Navy in 1960.
Nearly 60 years later it is a method that has been adopted by the coach of the Carlton Football Club, Brendon Bolton.
The KISS principle — Keep It Simple, Stupid — is working for the rebuilding Blues, whose game plan simplicity makes it easy for their players to follow and harder for them to be beaten.
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No one is guaranteeing the Blues won’t cop more Port Adelaide-style whacks this year, but Bolton’s KISS method has resulted in a tactical overhaul that appears more suited to his young list.
Carlton of 2017 has minimised risk. They rarely play-on from a mark, rarely handball and instead try to control possession in a steady-as-she-goes manner.
Bolton doesn’t want his Blues to get locked in an up-and-back counter-attack fest he knows his side will struggle to win.
It’s all about safety-first.
Carlton has become the clear No.1 kicking side in the competition with a whopping kick-to-handball ratio of 1.82:1 — a huge increase on last year’s 1.24:1 (ranked 8th).
To put that figure into perspective, Geelong has 10 players who handball more than they kick. Collingwood, Hawthorn, Brisbane Lions and GWS have nine each.
The Blues have one. The 2017 AFL average is only 1.24:1.
Sixty-four per cent of Blues kicks are of the short variety (2nd), up from 57.4% (9th) in 2016.
Marks-per-game have jumped up to 104 (3rd) from 89.9 (9th) and uncontested marks are 93.8 (3rd) from 76.6 (11th).
Tellingly, the Blues’ mark play-on percentage has dropped to 33.5 per cent (13th) from 39.2 per cent (4th).
There’s been little risk, but ironically there’s been reward in the form of wins over Essendon and Sydney and encouraging signs from the kids and rejuvenated senior players.
They have struggled to kick competitive scores, but in a “reset” built defence-first, this is hardly breaking news for the navy blue faithful.
Bolton’s philosophy has been an easy target for criticism after a 92-point pre-season thumping from St Kilda and 90-point Round 5 belting from Port Adelaide.
But he has vowed to stick fat, admitting “tough lessons” will frequently come between the “sprouts of growth”.
“We are not going to be locked away on wins and losses” has been Bolton’s much-repeated statement.
The emergence of the Safe Blues is designed to limit the frequency and severity of the latter.
KEEP-BALL BLUES
Source: CHAMPION DATA
Originally published as Carlton coach Brendon Bolton is keeping it simple with new game plan
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