Modern Day AFL Game Play affects Junior Football - with James Ryan
Written by Daniel Tincknell
When the likes of Mark Thompson construct a game plan that enables his side to run and carry the football through the corridor, with lots of handball and aggressive running, not only do the other AFL clubs copy it but also Junior Football Clubs. Coaches and players begin adopting this style of play because they can see what affects it has had on AFL footy and what success it has bought the teams who use it.When other teams begin to use this style of play coaches also have to think of a way to stop it. One of the coaches who managed to do this is Alastair Clarkson. Clarkson constructed a way to break down the wave running game style. Clarkson used a rolling zone to stop the run through the corridor and force the opposition to kick. The rolling zone was one of the reasons why Hawthorn where so successful in 2008 and played a major part in their grand final triumph over Geelong.
Junior players and coaches no doubt watch AFL football either live or on TV and can see in front of them a new style of football emerging. Clubs around Western Australia have begun to adopt the game plan that they have seen emerge at the highest level of Australian Rules football.
The benefit of using the run and handball type of game, is it allows players to use the ball more and bring other players into the game. In modern day football players are encouraged to look for a team mate in a better position to allow him to use the ball more efficiently to your team’s advantage. Not only are coaches teaching this tactic to their young teams, they are training using it, and also teaching their team how to stop it.Playing junior Football myself for Kingsley I have seen the game change from a handball being your last option, and to always try and kick the footy. Our coach has begun setting up new drills at training that incorporate hard running, short sharp handball, sharing the ball and also bringing the ball back through the corridor. The affects of this style of football has benefited our team, with a premiership and finals appearances.
With Kingsley using this game style other clubs have used it against us as well, we have had to train and figure out away to protect our corridor against the run of other teams. How is this done?
A rolling zone, maybe to complicated at club level, but protecting the corridor with aggressive physical pressure and hard tackling isn’t, St Kilda is doing this tremendously well this year and it has been successful for them so far.
When a team begins to run through the corridor they are hit with players who can tackle and tackle well. When tackled the ball becomes in dispute and teams with good hard ball winning ability can take advantage of situations like these. When faced with tackling pressure at junior level players can panic, and give the ball up. At Kingsley we train as we play, which means defenders in every drill, so we can learn how to cope with physical pressure inside our corridor and how to win the ball in dispute.
With the new style of play, new set ups have to adjusted to. The midfield set ups at centre bounces have been becoming more important as it is vital for a team to get first hands on the ball. With such an emphasis on the game plan a team must get first hands on the football to be damaging. Coaches must look at AFL clubs Centre bounce down set ups and copy them.
Junior clubs and coaches are vulnerable to try new things and to copy successful game plans from the AFL. This can viewed as a good thing, because it is following in other clubs footsteps and allowing the junior clubs to establish an AFL like game plan. But also AFL clubs and players revolve around fitness and skill without these two components some teams will struggle especially in junior football.
