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What's next for AFL game plans?

Roar Guru
8th December, 2017
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Alastair Clarkson. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Roar Guru
8th December, 2017
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1373 Reads

Tom Hafey coached Richmond to four premierships between 1967 and 1974. He liked to keep the game simple Tommy – playing to the strengths at his disposal. The game plan was built upon and around player fitness and the AFL Team of the Century centre-half-forward – Royce Hart.

Richmond’s list during the Hafey years boasted other great players – notably; Kevin Bartlett, Kevin Sheedy and Francis Bourke. But Hart was the linchpin and Tommy new it.

Denis Pagan was clever enough to adopt a similar style for North Melbourne. He went on to coach the Kangaroos to the 1996 and 1999 premierships – with Wayne Carey playing a similar role as Hart played under Hafey.

Both Hafey and Pagan were as predictable as they were effective.

More recently, Hawthorn’s triple premiership run from 2013 to 2015 was underpinned by a game plan evolving from an anti-social, contested brand of football into a highly skilled precision based game plan.

Hawthorn at their premiership best displayed the clinical prowess of a surgeon’s scalpel. Pinging the ball around – holding, holding… then releasing the trigger through the corridor and toward goal.

If mimicking is the greatest form of flattery our game would certainly qualify. The manic pressure displayed by the Bulldogs in 2016 was clearly present in Richmond 2017. We Aussies are like sheep at times.

AFL Grand Final Dustin Martin Richmond Tigers 2017

(Photo by Scott Barbour/AFL Media/Getty Images)

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Critically, successful game plans must be crafted – mindful of the attributes of the playing list at the coach’s disposal. This should be a given for any coach. A team’s game plan and their playing list must be syncretised.

The coaching challenge experienced by Brent Guerra – trying to instill the Hawthorn style of play into Fremantle over the past two seasons – is perhaps a recent example of the need for a playing list and game plan to be aligned.

If a coach bemoans that the team is not buying into or executing the game plan, then it’s the wrong plan. And frankly the coach is likely to be lacking basic understanding, communications or humility.

So what is the next phase for the contemporary AFL game plan?

The 2014 AFL grand final between Hawthorn and Sydney may provide some insight. As a spectacle the game was not particularly memorable. However, something struck me at half-time of that match. Given Hawthorn’s ‘keepings-off’ and highly skilled game style, it is perhaps unsurprising they finished the 2014 home/away season averaging a modest 59 tackles per game, compared with Sydney’s 74.

However, by halftime of the 2014 grand final, Hawthorn had tackled Sydney on 45 separate occasions. It’s safe to assume the Hawthorn hierarchy had decided during grand final week the best way to defeat Sydney was to tackle them, and Hawthorn’s on-field leadership was sufficient to execute the change.

Facing a seven-goal deficit at half-time the Swans never recovered. Beaten at their own game.

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My point is this – Hawthorn appeared to have planned and executed a brand of football during the 2014 grand final different from their standard game plan that had previously served them so well. No mean feat.

By extension, perhaps the next phase of AFL game plans is a more flexible approach, where a well-rehearsed Plan A provides the foundation, but Plan A is then combined with an ability to adjust – according to the variable week-to-week circumstances.

There is evidence of this appearing in today’s game. But only in small degrees from my observation.

I will never understand why players and coaches speak of only focussing on what ‘they’ wish to execute as a team. What small-minded arrogance. Within a team’s control is how they plan for their upcoming opponents. Ignore them at your own peril.

The world’s best chess players can read what moves their opponents are planning in advance, and adapt accordingly. Similarly, the best AFL coaches give their weekly opponents exactly what they do not wish to receive. This can only be achieved by respecting the weekly opponent and adjusting accordingly.

Perhaps Charles Darwin had a valid point when he said – “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

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