The beginning of the 2011 AFL season has bought exuberant hype surrounding the substitute rule and the tactics around choosing a player and when to substitute him on.
Thursday night showed the whole world what could potentially go wrong if a substitute is activated without an appropriate game plan.
Brett Ratten pulled a cunning move at the beginning of the fourth quarter, which won Carlton the game, while showing the football community he is still a dangerous force as a tactician.
Leading comfortable by 18 points at half time (which should have been much more if not for the 10 behinds they had kicked), Jarrad Waite was substituted for Kane Lucas following medical advice not to risk concussion if returning Waite back to the ground.
Structurally speaking, Waite is the most important player for the Blues due to his marking, spoiling and ability to play at both ends. In his absence, the Blues midfield lofted numerous balls into the forward 50 expecting Eddie Betts and Jeff Gartlet to grow 20cm and outmark Luke McGuane and David Astbury overhead.
They we’re crunched every time and powerful rebounding by Chris Newman and Brett Deledio saw Richmond kick six unanswered goals in the third term to go into the final break with a 14 point lead.
With the Carlton structure in disarray, it was too much to ask from Kane Lucas to cover Waite’s absence so Ratt’s made the call to pull Shaun Hampson out of the ruck and park him in the goal square to either bring it to Betts’ and Gartlet’s disposal or take the mark, keeping the ball away from Newman and Deledio – Richmond’s two best ball users.
After making the change, Hampson proved strong in marking contests against Astbury, taking two good marks and kicking one goal. Carlton went on to kick five goals to none to run away with the game by 20 points.
Learning the hard way how to overcome structural deficiencies in the event a substitution must be made, Ratts has saved coaches all over the league two quarters of tactical trial and error testing.
Had he not made the change, Richmond would have likely continued their dominance from the third quarter and taken the four points.
The substation rule will one player substituted from the bench as well as a few on the field into different positions.
This means we will see the emergence of multi-position players more this season than ever when coaches are forced to restructure the spine in the absence of key position players.
With their additional height and body strength, this will be the year ruckman prove to be the most important players in the team.
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