The Western Bulldogs’ start to the 2016 season has been nothing short of impressive. In conceding only 74 points so far on the season, the second-least through two games since WWII, the Dogs have impressed media analysts and the average pundit alike with their defensive cohesion and solidity.
As impressive as all this is, however, analysing how they’ve achieved it is interesting enough to look at.
In the NBA, the latest and greatest buzzword to describe the trend of basketball tactics is ‘smallball’. This is a tactical trend led by the Golden State Warriors to run with line-ups that are shorter and more mobile than their direct opponents.
Despite forgoing a height advantage, the team utilises a advantages gained in mobility, run and spread. While we’re not too sure how often Luke Beveridge has watched Stephen Curry knock down a three, there is no doubt that the similar applied logic of smallball has found its way to the Whitten Oval.
The players that the Western Bulldogs rotates through its defensive unit includes Marcus Adams, Easton Wood, Dale Morris, Matthew Boyd, Robert Murphy, Shane Biggs, Jason Johannisen and Matt Suckling.
This unit is very short, with only one player who can be considered a key defender, Marcus Adams, with the rest of the team being medium or running defenders. Using this defensive unit in a conventional defensive system, such as manning up the forwards, might see the team give up height in marking contests and lose one-on-one contests.
While this happens, as the Dogs ranked among the league’s lowest in defending marking contests last year, the defensive scheme aims to minimise the occurrence of these outcomes where they are disadvantages and maximise the instances of advantageous situations that are gained from such a mobile, attacking defensive unit.
Firstly, one cannot look at defence and offence in isolation. When this defensive system was first implemented last year, it was done so as much to benefit from the offensive firepower out of defence as it was to implement a strong defensive system.
While that element is still true today, and its fast, possession-dominant style of attack has had it been called ‘sexy’, it is interesting to analyse how such an offensively-minded defence has been so effectively defensively this season.
The Dogs play a zonal defensive system that presses high up the ground and attempts to lock the ball in their own forward half. This means that players defend certain areas of the ground rather than direct opponents more often than most clubs in the AFL.
To implement this system successfully, the Dogs have recruited and selected players who are mobile endurance-wise and able to play on both small and tall defenders, the likes of Easton Wood and Marcus Adams slotting in perfectly in a system like this.
The reason that this smallball zonal defensive system seems to have worked so devastatingly is that Luke Beveridge seems to have successfully implemented a scheme where the advantages of this type of team selection seem to have outweighed the negatives.
While helped by the narrow flanks of Etihad Stadium where the Dogs play the majority of their games, the Dogs have used their defensive unit to the fullest of their strengths. In selecting endurance athletes in the defensive half, a zone can be well implemented, both in covering territory and forcing pressure and pressing to occur up the ground.
Smaller players are also generally are more skilled below the knees when the ball hits the deck, helping force turnovers and prevent the continuation of opposition possession. Furthermore, this defensive unit has the pace to outnumber forwards at the contest.
All of this helps force opposition forward thrusts to be lower quality, or to prevent opposition forward thrusts to even occur through the forcing of turnovers. For example, both Fremantle and St Kilda attempted multiple times to switch the play across the ground to find an opening, and often failed. This occurred because not only were there limited holes in the Dogs’ zone, but they were switching the play closer to their own goals than they would usually otherwise do.
This meant that when turnovers occurred, they were shallower and more destructive than usual.
This system still creates disadvantages, such as running goals out the back of the zone or there being plenty one-on-one marking contests to defend. However this seems to be outweighed by the advantages of smaller players in this defensive system.
Lastly, the recruitment of Marcus Adams has many of the weaknesses of the system, for example his 13 intercept possessions against the Saints ending many of their attempts on goal.
The Dogs’ smallball defence has been the league leader this year though a strong zonal system, ability to force turnovers through pressure, pressing and winning more ground balls, taking advantage of a mobile defensive unit.
Samantha
Roar Rookie
No one thought it was flimsy until they started to slide, this Bulldogs hype could end the same way. Not saying it will but until they actually have to travel some and not have everything their way, I'll remain somewhat sceptical. I also think part of Port's problem was they got sucked into their own hype, hopefully the same thing doesn't happen to the Dogs. If the Dogs get by Hawthorn this weekend there is every chance they could be undefeated going into their bye. That will be enormous pressure on a young side. Very well may never come to that or they may handle it just fine, but IMO its a legitimate question to ask.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Adams has certainly looked the goods first two games.
Pumping Dougie
Guest
Mr F, I mostly agree with you, although I think Tex Walker's brief but meaningful heroics would have been irrelevant if our boys converted relatively easy opportunities - if we held our nerve in front of goals, we should have won by 5 goals. But yes, we lack a 'Brian Lake' in our lineup to reliably defeat the big gun forwards of the comp in pressure games. Jarryd Roughead, Kurt Tippet and Tom Hawkins are too big and can cause us problems. I think Adams is strong, mobile, smart enough and has the tools to beat the likes of Walker, Josh Kennedy, Darling, Gunston, Pavlich, Jack Riewoldt, Petrie, Ben Brown and possibly Buddy. Our own Roughead (who was absent in the Crows final through injury) is capable of doing ok on the likes of the three big guys I mentioned. So it all hinges on a 2 gamer called Adams (if we're good enough to be there at the pointy end of the season), our team defense and our ability to convert in front of goals when the heat is on.
Johno
Guest
You might want to open your eyes mate. Freo scored 100 points against GC this week, and StKilda also scores 100 points last week against Port. So there goes your theory that neither team can score. Yet the Dogs held them both to under 40 points. You also say you want to see them beat the Swans at the SCG? Did you forget they already did that last year?
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Having got my negative post out of my system above, I don't want people to think I'm Danny from Droop St. The dogs have been spellbinding these first two games: ball movement is fast, fast, fast. What I noticed is that the saints are trying to do almost the identical thing, but are probably one or two years behind in their development. Whereas the dogs would criss-cross 8, 9, 10 handballs to finally release the kicker in the clear, the saints would often get to 4 or 5 and then turn it over - but you could see they are heading in the exact same direction. It takes abslutely clean hands and plenty of speed to succeed with such a game plan, and there's not one cleaner than Libba Junior. He is just so, so, so clean with his hands - in amongst the pack, one grab at the bobbling ball and it's out lightning quick while others are still looking for it. Can this game get any faster?
Mister Football
Roar Guru
PD That is one reason why we lost, coupled with the fact that what has plagued us for decades, continues to plague us today: big blokes plucking the cherry with impunity (remember Rohan Smith playing CHB in 1998?) So while this article is an interesting read, and gives an idea of how the dogs have managed to make bigger sides look silly (so far), it remains evident that we are still relying on a backline that looks ridiculously light on, and when we start playing teams at the business end of the season, who can put the footy in the right spots, to the advantage of their big men - our shortish backline will get shown up yet again.
Joel
Guest
That's a fair assessment I think. The bulldog's set up might be better approach to the Hawks forward line- make them chase a bit more. As a West Coast fan I'm already wondering if we were a better side defensively with only one genuine tall in McGovern- even the performance against Brisbane was well short of out best defensively. McKenzie is still quite limited in terms of disposal.
Pumping Dougie
Guest
The main reason we lost against Adelaide on the G in September was because of very poor conversion in front of goal, allowing the Crows to stay in the game. As for who we've played, last year we played and beat most finals sides. And this year I'm pretty happy to take Freo's scalp. I look forward to more games against the top sides, preferably in Victoria. But you're all correct that the jury is still out. However this is true for all sides at this stage, except Hawthorn.
Nick Welch
Roar Rookie
Whilst there's similarities there, the Dogs rely on forward pressure more than West Coast did last year, whilst their defenders are better attackers and worse one-on-one defensively than the Eagles. Whether that makes them more or less likely to beat the Hawks on the G - it's hard to tell.
Nick Welch
Roar Rookie
Whilst I appreciate there's every chance Freo and the Saints won't be thereabouts at the pointy end of the season, I also think you yourself are understating the remarkable nature of keeping a team under 40 points. As I said, they've conceded the least points through two rounds of the season for sixty years. That is mighty impressive irrespective of opponent or ground matches are being played at. And in any case - I'm not commenting upon the likelihood of finding success with this system in the future (as Ryan will tomorrow), merely breaking down the reasons behind the defensive results so far to date. Whilst I agree that we will need to see how it holds up against the competition's elite, that's beyond the scope of this article.
Joel
Guest
I fear that the bulldogs will face the same issue as west coast have in the last 6 months- the zonal defence to force a kick and then rebound like hell works really well until you try and do it to hawthorn at the 'G.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
I hope to convince you otherwise tomorrow ;) That's a fair call though, as to who they've played. But this isn't new for the Dogs - it stretches back to the entirety of last season as well.
Michael Huston
Guest
My expectation is that they'll do better than Port. Not necessarily that they'll reach a grand final or win the flag, but I don't think they'll fade throughout the season or collapse when challenged. Port had a flimsy game-plan that was run or die. So when they couldn't run, they died. Western Bulldogs aren't as one-dimensional. They play good, tough football that rarely lets you down. But the reason they're like Port is because Port's run-or-die couldn't always stand up to the likes of Hawthorn and Sydney, and there's no guarantee yet that the Bulldogs good, tough football will stand up to Hawthorn and Sydney's good tough football.
Samantha
Roar Rookie
Have to agree, very apt comparison to Port's early 2014 run. Built off a very soft draw.
Michael Huston
Guest
Western Bulldogs have not done anything that remarkable, believe it or not. They kept Fremantle and St Kilda to scores of 38 and 36 respectively. Against a Fremantle side that's notorious for having scoring difficulties at the best of times, and a St Kilda team who last year kicked a score of over 100 just three times. So, defensively, they're solid, but nothing amazing. As for their scoring, they clocked just over 100 against a Fremantle side that was appalling and had no Michael Johnson, Luke McPharlin etc., and didn't even crack the 100 against a St Kilda team who were regularly thumped last year. Need to see how their brand holds up against a Hawthorn, or a West Coast (at Domain) or a Sydney (at SCG) or an Adelaide. Need to see them away from Etihad, and perhaps on a different shaped ground that may challenge their game a little more. And need to see them score and defend against a strong defensive unit (such as Sydney) or a strong attacking unit (such as Hawthorn). Otherwise until then, I'm putting them in the same category as 2014 Port for now: Nice to watch and root for, but need convincing.
Nick Welch
Roar Rookie
Certainly the wide expanses of the G means that a zone is less compact, and easier to breach. The elimination final loss to Adelaide with multiple scoring chains sourced from the defensive half shows that. Morris' ability to go tall and small isn't just valuable for his performance on the game, but his teammates' as well, with his experience meaning he's able to set up a zone and communicate with his teammates effectively. I'm not surprised that you see the similarities with the Dogs' and Hawks' defence, after all Luke Beveridge was the Hawks' defensive coach!
Nick Welch
Roar Rookie
Cheers Ryan! I'm still tweaking my pace of game efficiencies, with some adjustments to make, but you'll most likely see it appear over the next few weeks!
Nick Welch
Roar Rookie
Cheers Austrosaurus! It's great you've read some of my stuff, but don't shy away from reading the other great analysis here on The Roar!
Nick Welch
Roar Rookie
There's been a lot of coverage of the Dogs' great record at Etihad - but the Hawks' has been just as great in recent years. It will certainly be an interesting battle!
Nick Welch
Roar Rookie
If other teams haven't worked this out yet for the Dogs, well they're not doing their jobs very well!