The first two games last season were a train wreck. In my view a lot of that was due to poor player selection. Those high scring defeats crulled the whole season.
I liked the thoughts of Paul Roos on the importance of defence. Sadly lacking from the dogs at the start of the season. Paul says players have attacking skills but you have to drum defence into them. Here is what he said which perhaps echos the 'dogs of war' objective.
Third, teams that win sports championships throughout the world are the best defensively. People sometimes think they’re not doing enough in attack during a regular season but come finals time, defence invariably wins competitions. Attack-and-talent based teams have their good days during a season and beat the best teams. But great defensive teams create pressure and turnovers.
They win high-pressure games. They’re physical and aggressive. The team no one else wants to play — that’s where you want to get to. Strong defensive teams can still be high scoring, because points are needed on the board, but that comes after the real work gets done.
At an elite level, your players already have attacking skill. You have to drum the hard-nosed, unglamorous sides of the game into them. You want to frustrate the opposition. Build a defence that no other team finds easy to break.
It was our mantra at the Demons — be the team everyone hates playing. That doesn’t come from playing fancy. You get tough around the football.
Be defensively strong and consistent and keep building on that. Be physical. Be tough to score against. Offence is talent, and defence is mentality. Defence is more controllable. Everyone can be taught a consistent defensive mindset.
There’s more talented players than not when you’re a high-level coach. Ball in hand, they’re ahead of the curve. If anything needs to be drummed into them, it’s the basics. Over and over again. Until it’s boring. Because boring makes you good. Boring makes you consistent. Boring gives you regular behaviours and selections and the execution of game plans. Then you add your imaginative layers. But there’s a simplicity to knowing what everyone’s role is. How you act and behave on and off the field.
If you’re a behavioural-based team, your performance rarely drops. I think of Hawthorn and the Melbourne Storm. If you’re a talent-based, experimental team, you’ll have your good days when you beat one of the better teams. But it won’t last, and it will crack under pressure. The great teams have loads of talent … but they have a focus on behaviours, roles, routines and the basics.