I strongly suggest that if you haven’t already that you listen to the 6 Tackles with Gus podcast on 14th July. In it he talks a lot about statistics, what coaches look for that aren’t the media “pumped up“ measures, things like high intensity efforts, number of kick chases, support plays, being in the right position etc.
On defence Gould talks about the good defensive teams staying “connected”, how they respond to a break, how quickly they “reconnect“, keeping the spacing even, moving at the same speed, in the same direction, up and back, side to side etc. The idea idea of running attacking patterns, plays or shapes is to drag someone out of position, get them to move out/back/left when the rest are moving in/forward/right, get them to hesitate, basically break the connection between adjoining players.
After listening to that I went back and had a look at a few of our games and it sticks out like dogs balls, we get disconnected, all of things above happen at some point or other during the game. Then I watched a few Penrith games and they stay connected, on the rare occasion when the defence is breached they very quickly reconnect. They move together, if they need to slide, they all slide, if they need to advance they all advance, if they need to retreat they all retreat, together, always at the same speed and always staying connected. That doesn’t happen overnight, it takes lots of training and discipline amongst the players, self belief as well as belief in your team mates.
Ciraldo’s mystery defence system? Stay connected, it’s that simple.
Always a Bulldog
