2018 Rd 23: Post Game Passion: Carlton vs Adelaide

[Barbs]

I'm happy with the zone style because the coach is expecting them to learn how to play in a way that will win. One on one is for wet days and the bottom leagues. Watch a division one game in local leagues; they play zone.

Its the turnovers that are killing us. We won the inside 50s, which shows we are winning the ball and getting it forward. We then break down and it comes back and we are struggling to get back to position. Playing one one one is not going to improve us much.

One a few occasions this year our approach has worked and we score. Fast ball movement via accurate kicking is very hard to defend. But it requires great skills and being organised and we are struggling to meet these levels.

The coach has high expectations. Good.

The mystery though is this - if in moving the ball forward we have nobody to kick it to, how is it we're struggling to get back in position when the ball rebounds? Everybody should already have been back.

Better still, how do the opposition get through our backline and stream towards goal in greater numbers? Our players aren't forward as attacking options and they're not back guarding the defensive 50.

Where exactly are 18 guys wearing navy blue on the field???

My answer (and in agreement with a few other posts) is that our midfield just jogs around setting up the zone. I'll accept Cripps at times running a bit slow as the guy must be stuffed from everything else he does. But the rest of the mids have got to run both ways much, much harder otherwise it just exposes our defenders and leaves our forwards outnumbered.

Either our players aren't ready for the zone yet or the coaches haven't developed an effective one. Either way, we can't stick with it.