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Opinion

Has Nathan Buckley uncovered a solution to congestion?

Roar Rookie
22nd July, 2020
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Roar Rookie
22nd July, 2020
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In the 2018 finals campaign, Nathan Buckley came up with a subtle defensive tactic.

It suited Collingwood’s high flying Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe. It crowded up Collingwood’s zone defence. And it made scoring very difficult indeed.

What was this brilliant tactic? It was Mason Cox.

Now stop laughing and listen. In my last article I put forward the idea that a ball up was a better result than a free kick in today’s game. My argument was that in the time it takes for a free kick to be paid and the ball returned to the recipient of the free, the opposition will easily have time to roll back and reset their defensive structures.

Winning a free kick often results in kicking down the line to a pack. The closer you get to your forward fifty the more congested it gets. Winning a free kick can actually add to the congestion because it means the opposition will go completely defensive. At least with a ball up both sides need to keep some players forward of the ball.

So, what was Buckley’s brilliant tactic with Mason Cox? Normally when you have a player as tall as Mason Cox you would drop them back to the next line of scrimmage. Use their height in the pack. However, whenever the opposition had an opportunity to kick the ball into Collingwood’s defensive 50, Buckley had Mason Cox stand the mark.

Collingwood Magpies

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

When Mason Cox jumps around on the mark with his hands up in the air he is about five metres tall. Kicking over Mason Cox always results in a high kick into the forward line with lots of hang time – just the perfect ball for Jeremy Howe. If the ball hits the ground, then to paraphrase Damien Hardwick, there are about 75,000 players crowded around it.

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It is not fair to blame Nathan Buckley for the congestion in the game. Sadly, I must concede that he is just finding subtle ways to exploit the situation. However being a member of the ABC (Anyone But Collingwood), it would give me great please to reverse Nathan Buckley’s tactic and use it to stop congestion. My idea is to not let any player stand the mark.

If being forced to kick the ball over a tall player creates long hang time and big packs, what would happen if there was nobody on the mark. What if the umpire marked the spot and forced everyone to stand back ten metres, including the man on the mark? It would be a bit like the exclusion zone enforced now but including the area in front of the mark.

When a player is kicking in from full back and is able to kick the ball long and low there is rarely a big pack. Consider how much the game opens up when a player with the ball runs around the player on the mark and kicks.

He can choose to kick it short and low to a target in front or to the side of the pack. Or he can kick long and low over the pack. If the rule forces the defence to spread out and gives them less time to converge on the incoming ball then we might see a lot more marks inside 50.

I am only proposing this idea for free kicks outside the forward 50 arc. My logic is simple: if putting a player on the mark limits the options of the player with the ball, and putting a tall player limits their options further, then dragging the player on the mark back ten metres will increase the options of the player with the ball. Hopefully at least it would stop the long kick down the line to the next pack.

The only problem I see is that Nathan Buckley will need to find a new use for Mason Cox. And by the way, before anyone gets too narky, I do like Nathan Buckley as a coach.

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