The old ways are dead. The AFL-soccer crossover is here. You somehow got on board and didn’t even realise it.
Why exactly don’t AFL players just boot the ball long to Wayne Carey anymore? Besides age and scandals carrying him away?
Well, the first night I showed up at uni soccer training as an 18-year-old, I was isolated with the other new players and us unimaginative, green newbies were given the basic truth of modern sport that had never occurred to us in high school.
“Play the way you’re facing,” the coach discussed with us.
This means that when you’ve got the ball, don’t try to turn around blindly, even if you’re facing away from your attack. You as a player have a 180-degree sphere that you can see in front of you to try and find a teammate with a short (or long) pass.
If it’s away from your goal, backwards, so be it; but at least you’ve done the high-percentage move and your team still has possession of the ball. If you turn without knowing what’s behind you, since we don’t have eyes on the back of our heads, you open yourself up to be tackled.
You are only safe to turn around to pass forward when you have a free kick, or when someone calls out to tell you. That’s soccer. Spain won three tournaments by almost literally doing nothing else but playing the way they face. But what about footy?
We’re lucky that this year we have the day off before grand final day. I invite you to stay up until seven in the morning, grab some bourbon and corn chips and take a walk back in time with me via the grand final Marathon. Let’s watch the usual suspects – 1970, 1989 – they look like a bunch of blokes playing kick-to-kick. Mark, boot the ball long, pack forms, boot it long again. The entire gameplay takes place in packs 50 metres apart from each other.
Why do I remember this next play? Just an odd example of my memory grasping random stuff. As late as early 1997 and the very dying days of Paul Couch and Gary Ablett the Great, I remember one sequence of Geelong chaining four short passes together to move up the ground, resulting in a successful shot at goal. Both the commentators and I quizzically regarded this sequence of short passes to free teammates and sort of shrugged with, “Well, whatever works I suppose”.
I guess short passes were still slightly taboo. This was the days of Pagan’s Paddock, where even non-sporting Fox FM had sound bites of man of the end-of-decade Wayne Carey introducing segments with, “Stay away from the flanks and go straight up the middle, Barry”.
Flash forward to 2015. Since you left and came back at the same second, no one noticed your absence. That’s how time travel works.
The best teams now are those who manage their possession of the ball best. Play the way you’re facing – there is no free space, and footy players are only safe to turn forward when they’ve taken a mark. Keep possession. High percentage handpasses and passes by foot to free players. Get free, find someone else who is free.
That’s what each individual play on a footy field now consists of: little moves to players who have run hard to shrug their markers. Avoid the contests. Bombing it long is reserved for when players are surrounded without options, for defensive clearances along the boundary line and forward entries when a team contains a key forward who can swallow the high ball, like Tom Hawkins.
So, no contested marks now except in front of goal. But these players still have nerves of steel. The way modern footy players can handball their way out of the hairiest defensive clampdown situations right in front of the opposition goal is really freaking amazing. Footy players are now a kind of brutal thinker. Like, um, oh I don’t know, Franz Kafka? Google wasn’t so helpful on the phrase ‘brutal thinker’.
Last decade those defenders would have been told to ‘Stop fiddling around with it, boot it!’ Now we understand – those who are afraid of the ball have no right to be on the field.
ProfVonSchrodinger
Guest
Pretty sure the "flood" was a direct rip off of what those in Association Football term as "parking the bus". Terry Wallace took it to a whole new level when the Dogs beat Essendon in 2000 by essentially parking 18 players in the back 50.
de orkestje
Guest
I well remember circle work. I don't think my coach actually understood what it was meant to be accomplishing though.
Vocans
Guest
And, Perry, Peter Hudson before him was given acres to play in all alone for the same reason Carey was. Of course they'd put two or moe on Hudson these days, or flood back. The interchange means players are rested enough to flood back and still present for attacking plays on the rebound.
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
It sounds awful! Winter training sessions were a big turnoff for me when I was in a team, indoor stuff suits me more. Show up, play, no fuss, no muss.
Peter Baudinette
Roar Guru
We normally used the whole field. Everyone formed an oval shape, a short kick apart, one footy to begin with, then introduced one or two more. Someone started off with the ball, everyone had to be on the jog/or on the move, the circle/oval moved clockwise and you moved the ball by hand or foot through the circle. Back in the day we would do it until the coach was blue in the face. Sometimes the only drill we did all night! It morphed into finishing with a goal; maybe switching direction; a kick out situation from full back....but god forbid anyone went straight through the corridor or tried to be creative. It was all about encouraging people to follow up their handy work, keep on the move, get your hands on the ball lots, work the angles....that sort of thing.
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
Eade was one of the big tacticians back then, I wouldn't be surprised. There was also the Bulldogs' flood wins over Carlton and Essendon in 2000 (only game they lost), c/o Terry Wallace. Which one was circle work? Keepings off drills? Regards,
Peter Baudinette
Roar Guru
I may be wrong, but I think Eade introduced the Flood to try and negate Pagans Paddock. Although, "The Flood" was the label everyone else put on it. We have also seen the introduction of zones at kick outs. This may have come from Basketball. And has manifested itself it other forms of zones and presses. We are now seeing more sides playing corridor footy. Swings and Roundabouts. Do they still do circle work at training? Gees I hated that drill.
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
Hi Al, One sad thing about the modern game is that defensive systems have eliminated the star full forwards kicking big bags of goals. 100 goals in a season is a miracle these days. I suspect Lockett and Dunstall's numbers would be down if they played two decades later, great as they were. Apples and oranges, but Matthew Lloyd still managed almost 1,000 goals and century seasons in more modern times. Regards,
BigAl
Guest
Great article Marty - excellent counter to those who lament the . . . lower scoring, less contested marks etc... of todays game compared with days of yore ! I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I see some of the footage from those old games - some of those old time 'legends' just wouldn't get a game anywhere these days (hello Big Nic !) Still plenty of room for improvement, the in the back rule should be gotten rid of if a player has been totally claimed/wrapped up. Also, that ridiculous 'intentional' out of bounds rule !!!
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
No one 'got' Freo in their early days, wondering about the zig zag passing and the like. I'd like the chance to see that team through adult eyes. Their current team also fascinates me, the way they played that second quarter in the 2013 prelim against Sydney, I couldn't take my eyes off it. Their defence pressed up to halfway and they completely smothered them. I wonder if in the GF they choked or if the MCG was too big for them.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Aussie Rules has been progressive with how it integrates ideas and concepts from a smorgasbord other sports into it's game plans for quite a while now. Back in the mid 90's Gerard Neesham was big on bringing in concepts from a sport he had played at a representational level in, water polo (his brother was an Australian captain), Funnily enough, possession and zoning off were also a key features of his game plan.
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
Also, I feel that a lot of the time, people don't understand why a player would ever pass backwards, so this is trying to explain why. Keeping possession is everything.
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
Hi Perry, These are some excellent points. Whether it is borrowed or organic evolution, and I can't pinpoint when exactly it took over, the pass and move style of play is the king now in footy, I suppose is the main idea of the article. It's the most skilful and high-reward way to play any team sport, I feel. Regards
Perry Bridge
Guest
'No U turns' is and has for ages been a well worn phrase by Aust Footy coaches. While they generally wanted a quick 'play on' around the ground, the requirement generally and still is for a teammate to run past for the handball and the marker provide a block if required. (soccer...more basketball perhaps?? or just Aust Footy) We also know how defenders can panic if the long ball goes in and it's a foot race back - if they take possession they have to consider a blind U-turn. Nothing new there. Back in the 90s Pagan and his paddock worked because of how good Carey was in the air and on the ground - however a key was the forward running surge of crumbers like Fruity Allison, Winnie Abraham, Peter Bell and later Boomer Harvey, who would hit the contest, front and centre or wide for the Carey handball - and be surging towards goal. Did any of it borrow from other sports in particular? or was it more a case of make best use of the tools at your disposal. Short passes - well, Richmond with Campbell and Knights were expert at that - and even with Richo up forward - somehow Pagans paddock and North held sway through the 90s when faced with the Tiges. High possession is risk....low possession is risk. Risk vs reward is guided in no small part by the quality of 'finishers'. The people who can put the score on the board. As much as I loved John Longmire - he was no Carey - Pagans paddock worked for Carey but wouldn't work for just anyone.