frickenel said:
Good post frick, and if you cast your mind back the long torp was used several times to good effect by Newman, usually with Simmonds and a few others at the drop and it was usually straight up the guts. I bet you will see this play a lot more this year.
Other methods used with success by Terry and the coaching staff, the chip around outside the 50, forces the zone to stretch back, much like in soccer, thus giving more space to find a player in the gaps of the zone.
The running shot at goal from outside 50, used to great effect by Newman and Delidio, and more recently Matty White (who would have thought?!), also streches the zone with players having to defend outside the 50, creating more space inside 50 for future entries.
In the Freo match on two occasions they brought the ball down one wing and when the zone sagged to that side kicked directly across the face of goal to the open spaces and a one out contest, Morton on one occasion for a goal, can't remember the other.
My all time favorite was the Adelaide match when the Tigers got the lead, Adelaide flooded, and the Bowden brothers played keepings off in the back line. Flooding the backline when you are losing is suicide against a smart coach or players.
Mark my words, if teams contimue to zone so strongly this year they will get caught out by smart coaches, that's how the Tigers got close one match and then beat Hawthorn in round two. And dumb coaching had Geelong continuously pressing forward into a disfunctional forward line with no plan B in the grand final.
