On face value, North Melbourne losing the clearance count 38-31 – and scores from clearances 31-21 – doesn’t seem like much more than a footnote in a 75-point loss.
Yet the manner which they were lost, and the accompanying setups, kept on producing a flashing red light.
It’s been a nagging thought for the last few weeks – whether the midfield setup as a whole is giving North the best possible chance of winning stoppages – but it was most noticeable on Sunday at GMHBA Stadium.
Today’s post is going to be all about that, getting right into the weeds of what the goals are at stoppages and what the problems look to be from my point of view. The caveat is when analysing a team’s moves, the first thing to do is acknowledge although I think I know what the goals are, I don’t fully know for sure. There is the chance I’m looking at it from the wrong angle.
Regardless, an advance word of apology for today’s post because it’s probably going to get a little more complicated than normal at some stages, and the usual weekly disclaimer: It’s not about singling out individuals, it’s about team roles and responsibilities.
—–
While the North Melbourne match analyses are – and always will be – free for all, for those who want a little bit extra the Patreon continues to run. There are three tiers available in 2024:
$2.50 – Debutant – To show support for the site without receiving any extra features
$5 – Rising Star – The first level where there are extra features and early access for certain things
$10 – Brownlow – First access to everything and anything set up for Patrons
To find out more details and sign up, head here for the Patreon page.
—–
At any stoppage, think of the available area almost like a pie chart that can be divided in three ways:
– Space North Melbourne ‘owns’
– Space Geelong ‘owns’
– Neutral space
For the visual learners, here’s how it looks at the first centre bounce of the game:
In theory, the more space your team ‘owns’, the better position you’re in. Obviously it’s easier said than done with all the jostling and set plays each side tries to execute, but at a base level owning as much space as possible is the goal.
(It’s important to note the same concept applies to around the ground stoppages as well but because those instances bring the fascination of ultra close up shots of ruckmen, it’s easiest to illustrate using a centre bounce)
If I’m on the right path, my queries around North’s stoppage setups are twofold. Instead of going through numerous examples from Sunday, with clip after clip, I’ll go in-depth on one centre bounce that explains it all:
1) Conceding dominant space too easily
It’s not as simple as North’s midfielders calling shotgun to claim space and then not expecting any pushback, or maybe at most someone calling out reload.
There’s going to be plenty of pushing and shoving, plenty of re-positioning, and North won’t come out on the positive side every single time. It’s just not going to happen that way, not even for the very best teams.
Where my concern lies is how easily North either concede dominant space, or willingly set up in areas that make it harder for themselves.
At any stoppage, and particularly a centre bounce, teams want to stop their opposition going ‘out the front’, which is footy speak for ‘go straight forward’. How ‘go straight forward’ became ‘out the front’ baffles me.
Anyway, it means we almost always see one or two centre bounce midfielders protect that space on their defensive side. North are no different.
Because teams look to own that defensive space, sometimes it can even turn into an offensive weapon if the hit-out goes there where players are waiting to take possession. It can be chained up with a half back running past and all of a sudden there’s overlap and sharp ball movement.
The issue for North in their setup is too often they’re way too narrow in the space they’re choosing to own, minimising their strengths and gifting opposition the right of way. Take this as an example:
Here North, in theory, are defending the most dangerous space. But in reality they’re committing two players to what is at most a five-metre span. If we take those ‘three available areas’ explained earlier and apply it here, it looks like this:
The way North have set up here – and repeatedly over the course of Sunday and the last few weeks – is like having one arm tied behind your back. Absolutely everything has to go right to get a clean tap into the area North own, not to mention attempting to get out of that phone box without losing possession.
For everything to go right, everyone has to play their role to perfection…
2) Not allowing maximum chance to use the diminished space
If it’s a conscious choice to set up this way and not just a matter of inexperience, then there are bigger issues. But I’m choosing to believe it’s just a matter of figuring out preferences and learning from week to week.
The key here is even while teething problems are resolved, what should be a non-negotiable is playing to that space – i.e. setting up to make the most of the area carved out and avoiding Geelong’s preferred space. Which is where the role of the ruck comes into play.
Before carrying on, because the next few paragraphs will feel a little like a pile on to some, it’s important to remember Tristan Xerri is exactly five games in to being undisputed first ruckman, with plenty still to learn.
This year’s ruck rules adjustment has brought a host of different strategies as players are allowed to accentuate their strengths and hide their weaknesses more than ever before.
Xerri has largely done well in that regard, using his physicality to neutralise the opponent’s strengths (with the exception of Luke Jackson in Round 2) and winning plenty of hit outs himself. North ranks top five for hit-out differential so far this season, and although I can hear people scoffing and saying hit outs are a useless stat, there’s a point to bringing it up here.
Too often over the last few weeks – and remember whether it’s by instruction or individual error is up in the air without direct confirmation – Xerri’s hit outs are going to completely the wrong area. It’s either gifting the opposition a runway or minimising all his hard work in winning the initial contest; an issue North can’t afford while their current midfielder setups are as already illustrated.
Back to the same centre bounce we’re looking at in-depth, Xerri does all the hard work in neutralising Shannon Neale and is about to win the tap, but because of how he’s set he can only hit it to one area – the area Geelong own.
While North aren’t maximising advantages in other areas, hit outs become more important for them than other sides for this reason. Currently it’s the one element they can rely on (relatively) consistently winning.
So if Xerri is doing all the hard work and then not directing his hit out to where it should be because of either instruction, body positioning, his skill level, midfield positioning, or all of the above, it makes it even harder for North to consistently win territory from stoppages.
Because this is what happens from that hit out. With Geelong owning the space, as soon as the ball hits the ground North are scrambling and the Cats’ midfielders are always in control. The best North can hope for is a secondary stoppage, but the ball spills loose and goes the other way instead.
The passage from Geelong’s turnover to North’s turnover will be explained in the next section.
—–
For those who missed the introduction of a new feature, throughout the season I’ll be updating this for every team, every fortnight:
It provides a hell of a lot of interesting information for me; hopefully it does the same for everyone else. It’s currently free to read here, but after the first update following Round 6, it becomes an exclusive for Patreon subscribers on the $10 tier.
To find out more details and sign up, head here for the Patreon page.
—–
The above passage – midfield positioning in sub optimal areas, Xerri hit outs in different directions to where they should go – happened too often against Geelong and has been happening too often this season. There’s only one clip in today’s post in the interest of brevity, but it could have been double figures and 5,000 words quite easily.
It’s a bit chicken or the egg in some respect, trying to figure out whether misdirected ruck work is because of the midfield positioning or whether the midfielders are set up as they’re supposed to, and ruck work is causing issues. For the sake of team growth it better be the former, but either way the consequences are straight forward.
Even if these clearances conceded don’t directly lead to scoring shots, they bring great territory value for the opposition. As Alastair Clarkson said in his post-match press conference:
“Now the game wasn’t decided, strangely enough, by the amount of goals that were scored from stoppage; whether that was centre bounce or between arc stoppages, but it was decided by the territory the two teams could get or couldn’t get. They beat us in that space. That meant we were having to defend from a much longer pitch than we’d like.”
Because of those territory gains Geelong were able to get, it meant when North did gain possession they consistently started in their defensive half. The closer to defensive goal a team starts their possession chain = the higher likelihood they’ll turn it over close to the opposition goal = the more chance Geelong score from those turnovers. And they had more than 50 points from forward half turnovers on Sunday. It’s a simple game sometimes.
Any game of football, any game of sport – hell, even life itself if we want to get really philosophical – is about finding ways to do more of the things you’re good at and minimising weaknesses.
For North Melbourne in 2024, accentuating those strengths is even more vital given they’re at the ground level and need to lay foundations the correct way. Some errors, and days as a whole, are necessary evils as the group continues to grow together from the ground floor.
But what is – or should be – within control are base setups like what’s been detailed in today’s post to at least give North a chance of starting on the front foot. It isn’t the golden ticket but it’s a starting point. That’s what this season is about – finding the starting point in as many areas as possible.