Is 80s Australian Rules football back in vogue?

Things used to be a lot simpler when zones and the press were no more than local leagues and newspapers. How times have changed!

Flooding and zone defences have been a prominent issue in restricting the attractiveness of a free flowing game. These strategies are set to increase with the introduction of the interchange cap.

Under the AFL’s plan to introduced an interchange cap from the 2014 season onwards, player fatigue is expected to increase late in games and the perceived result will be players ‘resting’ in defence.

This belief is yet to be proven and is unlikely to until the AFL implement the cap during the regular season. Coaches hardly took it seriously during the preseason trials.

Back in the 80s when game plans were no more than verbal motivation, instructions were simple. Players were told to attack the ball and kick it up the ground as far as they could. Repeat.

Interchange rotations were kept minimal and players would often rest on the field. The game was slower and more subject to physicality because ball movement was slower and there were much more one-on-one contests around the ground.

Defensive flooding has become one of the games most revered strategies and its utilisation leaves fans rushing to the exit when teams in the lead ice the clock.

The consequential effects of flooding is backwards kicking which not only chews up precious seconds but allows players to rest on the field with no direct opposition.

Zone defence has been a relatively new strategy which Alastair Clarkson introduced with aplomb in Hawthorn’s 2008 premiership winning season. Rather than defending against a player, he instructed his men to protect a space, or zone.

It gave defensive players time to read the play and if implemented correctly, opposition players were restricted in their running lanes. It also required optimum work rate from players who were aided by constant breathers on the bench.

It’s fair to surmise that overall, the work rate of players today is higher than their counterparts in the 80s.

The increase of professionalism in the game has widely contributed to this, but sports science can be used to develop players in moulded ways.

Certain players are conditioned to run long distances over a long period of time while others are more adapted to short distances over short periods of time.

There’s a lot more science in football compared to when players were asked to go out and run until they couldn’t.

Rotations have been the key to this. Nowadays, players often run their fastest when on their way to the bench!

One of the key elements to Collingwood’s consecutive grand final appearances was Mick Malthouse finding a weakness in zone coverage and defensive clusters.

It was actually ridiculously simple – kick the ball over them.

Rather than chipping 20m kicks through the backline with the intent of keeping possession, Malthouse played his team to their strengths and instructed for long bombs out of defence, clearing zones and clusters. From there it was up to midfielders to attack the ball.

This made 80 percent of the players on the ground irrelevant and Collingwood were able to use their best 20 percent to win the ball. It worked.

Collingwood’s long kicking followed up by ball-winning midfielders was fundamental was to their success, much like it was to teams throughout the 80s.

The quick movement of the ball by foot before players were able to roll over to the opposite end of the ground allowed for exploitation of one-on-one contests to the delight of Travis Cloke and Chris Dawes.

Before the ‘hands in the back’ rule, power forwards were even more dominant.

Coaches have already signalled a slowdown in ball movement once the rotation cap is introduced, but for the 2013 season, the old school fundamental of kicking long (not always to a target) will be emphasised with 2014 rule changes in the back of coaches minds.

Long kicking clears zones in the current format. More importantly however, it will lessen the amount of player running in a game of football which is likely to be a deciding factor in games from 2014 onwards.

80s football is making a comeback.

Do we need to mention the mullets?