A fresh malady has fallen upon the AFL.
Like the mist descending on the mythical Brigadoon, it is drifting down.
At first I thought teams were just tired and playing out quiet dirges. The television camera span just showed the tight contest.
But just occasionally, the wide view camera showed that all the players were confined to a third of the ground. A new defence has been revealed.
The commentators have been quiet. There is no name yet for this defence.
No previous AFL idiom can be used to describe it. I have to draw on other sports to define it.
It is like a full-court press in basketball, a moving ruck in rugby union or maybe a football midfield press.
It is a full-ground width defensive space coverage for about 120 metres deep. A few defensive team players are always behind all the attacking team’s players.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
It moves backwards with the opposition’s advance. It is an impenetrable wall. It is stifling and it is killing our game.
Flooding is not new. I think it first started with my under-12 coach when we played the top team.
We were somehow up in the last quarter with a ten-goal breeze against us as well as their six-foot-two full forward with a full beard.
Six of our players fitted in the goal square and the full 18 in the defensive 30.
Terry Wallace embraced the concept. Ross Lyon elaborated the flood, perfected it and made it an art form.
Certain Sydney coaches revelled in it, may even have made finals because of it and perhaps even have a cup in the cabinet that has a debt to flooding.
Richmond had the three extra players behind the play, then the burst forward.
Now we have the moving flood press. And every team is doing it.
The moving flood press seems like a coach’s cunning plan. Certainly it wasn’t devised by a player and definitely not be a supporter.
It generally means that the ball is trapped like a pinball flipping from player to player. Chip it forward to a running player if they can. Boot it long to a contest on the boundary if they can’t.
The ball can always be taken over the line to ensure the opposition can’t rebound. Possession turns over again and again.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Kick it backwards and sideways for a quick switch. But the defensive press players can sprint the 200 metres too.
This keeps going until the players are tired and probably just plain bored. At the end of the quarter, or perhaps the end of the game, the players may break out of the press because the opposition has run out of steam.
But as the forwards are also exhausted, they most probably will kick a point. And then the press starts again.
The AFL brought in the six-six-six rule to stop this sort of recalcitrant behaviour. But this only works for the first few kicks after the bounce.
Once the ball is moribund, the press is on. The stand rule does nothing. It just allows the free kick or marking recipient the ability to move an extra five metres to the side and forward.
And it makes the man on the mark look silly. The 20-metre full back kick-out marker just pushes the press back ten metres.
With zen and the art of footy, the axiom is that for every cunning plan there is a counter plan.
The ways to beat the moving flood press include strong, skilful players barging through, tall players holding their marks, players with fresh legs out-running the opposition and finally the random free, including the bonus 50 metres.
Certain players take on the press with speed and strength. Players such as Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver, Marcus Bontempelli, Shai Bolton, and even young Patrick Dangerfield take on the opposition space defenders and brush them aside.
(Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
If they can break the tackle and burst through the press and a running forward gets clear, goals can be had. Melbourne won a premiership from that.
Key position players such as Steven May and even ruckmen such as Luke Jackson and Max Gawn give a way to mark through the press.
But they have to hold their marks, avoid the subtle shepherd or check on the leap and the running, leaping punch of the defender.
Richmond are now running two ruckmen, not because they are needed in the ruck but for marking around the ground.
And the tall marking players have become crucial. This can be seen by the Western Bulldogs’ difficulties at the start of this season. Their lack of ability to beat the press is caused by injured, soft and untalented tall players.
The concussion substitution rule has been found by many coaches to be a golden bullet. Fit, fast players are substituted for tired players to give an added press-breaking boost. Nobody needs the concussion excuse anymore.
The last effective way to break through the press is the surprise free kick accompanied with a quick play-on or 50-metre penalty.
No wonder the fans are screaming about random frees and 50 metres for having a sullen look. It breaks the moving flood press and decides games.
Rob
Guest
Players wear gps trackers these days. Allow each player the freedom to roam beyond their zone (radius) into a neighbouring zone but no further. If they enter a third zone, the video umpire relays a message to the field umpires to stop the game and penalize the offending team by giving the other team a free kick. This will teach players not to roam too far. For example, a centre-half-back can roam across the centre line but gets pinged if he roams into any half-forward zone. Rucks, ruck rovers and rovers can go where they like. If a player from both teams breaches, the umpire should restart the game from the centre.
Lukey Miller
Guest
There is no way that AFL should have zones to fix this problem, but how do we fix the flooding behind the ball - it is wrecking our game? Some one suggested that 6 players from each side should be required to be in each 50 metre zone before play is commenced after each stoppage. Yep, I can see the point - large groups of players would not be able to flood back behind play as they do now. However, just imagine how difficult this would be to umpire and administrate. The rule would probably largely fix the flooding problem, particularly if it was strictly umpired and coupled with a large reduction in interchanges. Something significant needs to be done soon. Clearly this is mainly to do with the fact that we have a football game with no off-side rule and coaches can tactically manipulate the game.
Republican
Guest
Going backwards to move forwards akin to the Rugbies and a metaphor for our days. I don't watch the mens game anymore. I prefer the women's game which is cleaner and a far better spectacle for mine. Reducing playing numbers across the footy ground isn't going to change a win at all cost culture. This has long been a coaching strategy while watching is akin to a chess stale mate. The excessive money in sport today is symptomatic of a dumbed down spectacle which has compromised the beauty of our great game to the point of no return I fear.
Vicboy
Roar Rookie
The coaches have pushed for the rule changes - Sheedy first, then Clarkson advocated for increased numbers on the bench- ironically both bemoan how defensive the game is AFTER their coaching rein ends!
Nick
Roar Guru
True floods focus almost exclusively on defence at all times. True flooding teams show a near zero appetite to score. They can't even rebound. Sydney won the flag in 2005 ranking 14th on points scored for the season. St Kilda in 2010 were 9th (and 400 points behind Collingwood). Collingwood were kicking 3 goals more a match. Makes a difference. Freo in 2013 had the 13th worst (and 500 points behind Hawthorn). When a team is able to kick one goal more than you per quarter, you are ALWAYS going to struggle. Richmond are not a high scoring team, granted. But they could score when it was needed. Richmond in their pomp could overhaul a 4 goal deficit at 3/4 time. Could anyone have said the same of Sydney, St Kilda or Freo back then?
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
maybe 2007? :laughing:
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
Nick, it could be argued that Richmond implemented the flood for their premierships. Always a few behind the lines. They still do. Then they break forward, fast. But now other teams have their men back, intercept and rebound. So if the Tigers failed, it took three premiership years to do it.
Wayne Cooley
Guest
Unfair comment, Hobart and Launnie both not in the same windy ballpark as Ballarat
Wayne Cooley
Guest
No wonder fans are not attending games, ridiculous 50 metre game defining penalties plus continual flooding causing rugby style mauls. Our game unfortunately needs restrictions to curb these tactics enabling more one on one contests to show off the unique skills of our game.
Nick
Roar Guru
What I find fascinating is the ongoing obsession with the flood despite the fact that it fails many, many more times than it succeeds. Only once has the flood worked to the point where it won a flag: Paul Roos' Sydney in 2005. In the 16 subsequent seasons, no team has won a flag off the flood. Lyon tried, failed and hence proved the limitations of the flood. A better, more attacking team, will defeat the flood. Every. Single. Time. The flood is a tactic resorted to by the desperate and the limited.
Jakson Bertoli
Roar Rookie
Call it over-umpiring all you like, all this talk about 'scoring like the old days.' The free kick count in that game was the highest since the 1990s when the scoring is as high as we want it to be. The correlation between free kicks and high scores is unfortunate but undeniable, more free kicks inevitably lead to more shots on goal.
George Apps
Roar Rookie
How about 16 instead of 18 players like the VFA used to have?
George Apps
Roar Rookie
Imagine a light ball in Hobart or Ballarat on a windy day - crikey mate!
George Apps
Roar Rookie
A sensible, logical article . IMO the footy so far has been really enjoyable, unpredictable with big swings in scoring and love him or hate him, a bleached hair player who is entertaining. Higher scoring has been great to watch – it reminds me of the old days sometimes.
George Apps
Roar Rookie
NRL! What a silly game. It's not football, boot and ball don't make contact. Well, hardly at all. The land of bum-sniffers and no-necks! Apart from the new rule - complain and cop 50 metres - I think AFL is OK.
1dawg
Roar Rookie
Great article again Yattz :thumbup: hopefully more of the Locals can do the same.
PeteB
Roar Rookie
Ultimately the only solution is to reduce the amount of players on field at any one time. The game wasn’t designed for the phenomenal fitness and running capacity of todays players.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
The funny thing is we were out flooded by the purple. They used our shape against us.
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
Lol, random Every random year should be 2004
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
Sorry mate, that's dissent, you've gotta go!