Re: Post Game Passion: 2019 AFL Rd 19: Carlton vs Adelaide
Reply #134 –
The reason you guys are arguing is because there has been a change in philosophy.
Both have their merits, depending on which way you are alligned and IMHO there is no right answer but just what is going to work today.
Bolton's zone is a defensive/offensive strategy. It allows the forwards to have more space inside 50 because you welcome the opposition up the ground and empty the scoring zone whilst congesting your defensive area. It is less about individuals and their ability, and more about a team causing turnovers, and then making use of those turnovers. Bolton's plan would be more succesful with a team with a poorer set of disciplined individuals. His game plan's major issue, is that the attack relies on being efficient, and also relies on players being able to hit targets consistently which is something that even the poorest of athletic individuals can do provided they are footballers. It is less contested, and less combatative which means that its easier to play more consistently.
Teague is an offensive/defensive strategy. It relies on having more opportunities to score, and means more people are pressing into attack. It means that we are prone to scoring against from turnovers, and we are seeing teams go end to end on us quite easily (which is likely the most difficult thing to) because the major difficulty there is clearing that defensive zone, which results in more hurried kicks out due to pressure. I've noticed that in Teague's game plan, we are less reliant on generating scoring from winning first use. Our contested posessions have gone up (likely because our forward press is resulting in more contests inside forward 50). We seem to be more reliant on individual ability to play football and be athletic rather than team oriented game plan than we had before.
Which one is better is going to simply be a matter of what is "in vogue" than anything else.
Bolton was doing something that is more Hawthorn oriented. Teague was doing something more Adelaide/West Coast oriented.