Our Playing Style....2nd Qtr example

[kaos theory]

About mid way through the second qtr, aftar a centre bounce, the ball worked its way down to the collingwood member's wing, defensive side. A mass of players were converging on the ball. Somehow, fisher got it first and shot off a rapid backward flick hand ball, while runnig at pace, to another saints player.

This set up an amazing chain of about 10 rapid handballs around that position to open up a forward move through about 5 or 6 pies' players.

Out of that sequence emerged monty with the ball, who then sprinted goalward. He kick into the forward line, kosi & roo crashed the pack, milney swooped on the ball, and without breaking stride snapped a goal.

It was brilliant, exciting play. It was geelong-like at their best. It was fast, creative, hard & skillful.

There were lots of other examples through the game, but this passage put it all together nicely, and is an exiciting indication of the style we are developing.

The pressure, hardness, contested ball, defensive play coupled with exiciting attacking play is something most of us didn't think was possible with this team.....But wow, are they delivering atm!

Keep that up and this is going to be a HUGE season for us...

[Enrico_Misso]

Watched the replay of that incident 3 times tonight.

I think I counted 7 handballs but the efforts were inspirational - some absolutely fantastic work done by Hayes, Fisher and others.
Led to an inspirational goal.
The whole thing embodied our approach to the game and to the season so far.

Incidentally I think Roo was going for the mark, but on replay it almost looks like he directed the ball into Milne's path ?

[Marcus1232]

Milney probably did one of the smartest things i have seen last night

was running into a marking contest with harry o, on our HF line there were about 3-4 collingwood players around so instead of trying to take the mark just belted it over the line and i thought this boy has finally started to use that noggin of his

[Beej]

Also replayed this about 5 times. Goal of the game.

Lenny's little tap to get it to a team-mate in the middle of those handballs was quality.

I was off my seat, arms-outstretched in amazement as Milne's kick dribbled through.

About 5 mins prior to that I was telling the bloke I was at the footy with how Milney actually prefers to dribble it through rather than kick it up in the air.

[Iceman234]

Also replayed this about 5 times. Goal of the game.

Lenny's little tap to get it to a team-mate in the middle of those handballs was quality.

I was off my seat, arms-outstretched in amazement as Milne's kick dribbled through.

About 5 mins prior to that I was telling the bloke I was at the footy with how Milney actually prefers to dribble it through rather than kick it up in the air.

The tap was to CJ who fired off a bullet over-the-top left handed handball to Joey to drive it forward.

Was just clockwork.

[Shaggy]

About mid way through the second qtr, aftar a centre bounce, the ball worked its way down to the collingwood member's wing, defensive side. A mass of players were converging on the ball. Somehow, fisher got it first and shot off a rapid backward flick hand ball, while runnig at pace, to another saints player.

This set up an amazing chain of about 10 rapid handballs around that position to open up a forward move through about 5 or 6 pies' players.

Out of that sequence emerged monty with the ball, who then sprinted goalward. He kick into the forward line, kosi & roo crashed the pack, milney swooped on the ball, and without breaking stride snapped a goal.

It was brilliant, exciting play. It was geelong-like at their best. It was fast, creative, hard & skillful.

There were lots of other examples through the game, but this passage put it all together nicely, and is an exiciting indication of the style we are developing.

The pressure, hardness, contested ball, defensive play coupled with exiciting attacking play is something most of us didn't think was possible with this team.....But wow, are they delivering atm!

Keep that up and this is going to be a HUGE season for us...

That piece of play was possibly the best play I have ever seen ... and I was lucky to be on the right wing to watch. It was unbelievable. Our lads were under the pump with the handballs the whole time and yet were super controlled and super aggresive and Milney capped it off. Legend stuff.

My wife loved it as well. The three highlights for her were the play on the wing, Rocka's kick out of bounds on the same wing and every time Roo kicked straight ... Its great when the family enjoys the outing.

[Broodruff]

I was much the same as everyone here,
Just in amazement at the efforts of all the guys, just to get the ball out of there, then to get it up forward and Milney to kick the goal.

Magic.

[saint66au]

This set up an amazing chain of about 10 rapid handballs around that position to open up a forward move through about 5 or 6 pies' players.

I reckon though, somewhere in the crowd, you would have heard...

"Stop stuffin' around with handball and kick the bloody thing!!!!"

[bigred]

That type of play has been winning Geelong games for the past two years.
Having the skill to pull off a string of sharp handballs in traffic, getting it out to the free man and then breaking.

Watch the Geelong final from last year. They made us look second rate by doing this.

I watched that sequence a couple of times last night. Great piece of play.

Need to have the skill to do it though.

Just to add to this, we have the defensive pressure to make this very, very hard for other sides to do to us.

[saint66au]

Spot on bigred.

The other Geelong-esqe skill we are picking up is not to panic when tackled. How many times in that final did we grab a Geelong player, only for him to use the momentum of the tackle (and our inability to pin arms), and the knowledge that you do a have a few seconds, to fire a handpass to a teammate in space?

Now thats us...plus when tackling we are crunching players hard, giving them no chance to use a swinging tackle to find a teammate. Its gonna cost us the odd soft free for a push, but this year they do seem to be cracking down on blokes who just buckle the knees and fall forward when tackled, so its working in our favour..the Crows game being a prime example.

[Liam_G]

The other Geelong-esqe skill we are picking up is not to panic when tackled. How many times in that final did we grab a Geelong player, only for him to use the momentum of the tackle (and our inability to pin arms), and the knowledge that you do a have a few seconds, to fire a handpass to a teammate in space?

Too right. That's one of the major things I've noticed this season. Too many times we would panic when under pressure and not choose a good option as soon as we looked like being tackled. Now, the players will actually wait until they are touched before making their decision. Hayes is perfect at it. If under pressure, he will absolutely run his full distance or use all his time, wait until he feels a touch from the opposition and THEN dispose of it.

[SainterK]

This set up an amazing chain of about 10 rapid handballs around that position to open up a forward move through about 5 or 6 pies' players.

I reckon though, somewhere in the crowd, you would have heard...

"Stop stuffin' around with handball and kick the bloody thing!!!!"

Yep, and I was sitting next to them

Hasn't everything just gone click, I am also in awe....

[Saints43]

The other Geelong-esqe skill we are picking up is not to panic when tackled. How many times in that final did we grab a Geelong player, only for him to use the momentum of the tackle (and our inability to pin arms), and the knowledge that you do a have a few seconds, to fire a handpass to a teammate in space?

Too right. That's one of the major things I've noticed this season. Too many times we would panic when under pressure and not choose a good option as soon as we looked like being tackled. Now, the players will actually wait until they are touched before making their decision. Hayes is perfect at it. If under pressure, he will absolutely run his full distance or use all his time, wait until he feels a touch from the opposition and THEN dispose of it.

Lenny has always taken the tackle (I mean that in the nicest sense) before disposal because it took the opposition player out of the next contest. It's a TEAM ethic. It's a much easier decision to get rid of it and have the takler attempt to kill someone else.

[kaos theory]

Glad to see others had recognized it. It was awesome play....

That play should also have been goal/play of the week. Too often goal of the week is just a single player doing something. This was what the modern game is all about at its best.

Also have people noitced Luke Ball's hand balling? Its gone up a level. His in close work and quick release of the ball, under pressure, has been fantastic.

The biggest improvement in our team that has enabled this sort of play has been our decision-making and quality of delivery, by hand & foot.

[Moorabbin Saints]

That play was unbelievable.

How many times did we handpass it back over our heads to a player? It looked flukey but came off every time. Our teamwork and talk is at an all-time high.

[Thinline]

I'm often hearing Lyon talk about 'first instinct' decision-making.

The lads are obviously listening.

Geelong play that way. Now we do too. Essendon tried on Friday night against Hawthorn and got away with it (even if their skills were not quite as sharp as Cats and Saints).

Does a few things:

Makes speed predictable - if that makes sense.

Creates space by forcing defensive players to back pedal, turn around, waste time moving from off balance to on balance and by that time the ball has gone from defensive third to the wing. Split seconds count.

Creates a skill standard to which ALL players aspire.

Heightens awareness of support players - expect the unexpected, don't assume a stoppage.

And apart from anything else, it's bloody great viewing.

Have you also noticed that even when the ball is seemingly hopelessly locked up, we always have some busy little beaver in there working relentlessly to free the ball. It's almost a rugby-type play in the way they try to wrench the ball clear. Baker, Gwilt, Montagna, and Ball are particularly big on this.

Just something I've noticed.

[BAM! (shhhh)]

That was the modern epitome of champagne football.

A series of tough, contested plays, any of which by themselves is a great effort (Collingwood made zero mistakes in the sequence), all linking up to form a perfect goal.

Inspires your fans, and has to demoralise the opposition to boot.

[Sainter_Dad]

Another aspect of the quick handpass that I have noticed and love - is the bounce pass - from inside a pack often the handpass will come out scooting along the ground - it is deliberate and looked for by the outside player - and very hard to overcome - because if the opposition have their legs apart - blocking space - quite often the ball just shoots straight through

[saint vince]

This set up an amazing chain of about 10 rapid handballs around that position to open up a forward move through about 5 or 6 pies' players.

I reckon though, somewhere in the crowd, you would have heard...

"Stop stuffin' around with handball and kick the bloody thing!!!!"

Yep, and I was sitting next to them

Hasn't everything just gone click, I am also in awe....

Was going to say the same thing. I was sitting in front of somene who kept complaining about handball all night. Everytime we kicked long to a contest or coughed it up they were happy. I just don't understand why you don't want us to keep the ball as long as we can. If it takes 50 possesions to get a goal it is better than giving up the ball to the opposition.

Go saints

[InkerSaint]

To his credit, Noddy Sheahan noticed and highlighted the same passage of play.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/ ... 42,00.html

He's an intriguing player, Milney. He has enough critics to fill Etihad Stadium, yet he endures - and flourishes.

He has played 172 games and kicked almost 350 goals, including 60 last year. Including four last night, three in the first half.

His third came eight minutes before halftime after yet another example of why St Kilda is so much better this year.

Three or four defenders racked up a dozen rapid-fire handpasses under pressure at half-back before finding a way clear.

Away they went, and Milne finished off the work.

[yipper]

That passage of play was just a prime example of how good we are this year. The Pies did absolutely nothing wrong in that forward pressure. It is just that the Saints have fine tuned their handball skills into a rapid fire, but deadly accurate means of escape. They hunt in numbers as well - meaning the Pies had to contend with a string of players getting on the end of these brilliant handpasses until the Saints got it clear - then away they went. The finish from Milne was a classic.

[python]

it was an amazing bit of play, absolutely fantastic, though watching the replay i thought ch 7's cameras did a poor job capturing it, the replay seemed to show it as an average passage, but watching it at Etihad, it was incredible

[Armoooo]

If this is the play I'm thinking about the thing I was most impresses about was Milney's pick up, sure he got a lucky bounce but it takes skill to control a ball when you're travelling at that speed.

[Sobraz]

If this is the play I'm thinking about the thing I was most impresses about was Milney's pick up, sure he got a lucky bounce but it takes skill to control a ball when you're travelling at that speed.

yup, that was the resulting goal, and Milney's control was amazing...

He was at full tilt, and sort of tapped it up to himself before skiding it thru on the angle... Amazing skill, and without doubt, team goal of the year....

[asiu]

Watched the replay of that incident 3 times tonight.

havn't seen #19's stiffarmed closed fist to the cheekbone (?) mentioned

11 minutes left in the third

under us in the pocket ...