Sometimes the Notebook is deliberately formatted to focus on one theme. Other times it all just happens organically.
Today’s post is most definitely the latter. This edition of the Notebook touches on ball use in different forms, from three different games.
First there’s Port Adelaide, then Essendon answering their Look Ahead question already in pre-season (rude!), and Fremantle showing significant signs of improvement in their process.
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The Patreon is up and running once again for 2025, which you can find right here. The three tiers are much the same as previous years, with refined features for the top two.
In addition to Patreon, you can find me on Twitter – and also Bluesky, where vibes are much more pleasant and there’s much less hate. It’s nice.
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Port Adelaide using the corridor as bait
*With the major caveat this could be illustrated with the click of a finger if there was full ground vision available, away we go.*
This was really fun to watch on Saturday. As usual, the normal caveats apply about whether it was gifted to Port Adelaide through St Kilda’s defence, whether it was more of a trial rather than something permanent, and everything in between.
However. The Power using the corridor to drag Saints defenders in – and then going immediately to the space left vacant from that – was key to their successful periods of ball movement.
An explainer: Teams want to force turnovers in the corridor, so every time someone – Port Adelaide in this case – uses the middle, defenders usually use it as a cue point to swarm. In theory, simple logic dictates when those defenders try to swarm, they have to come from somewhere and leave those pockets of space behind.
That ‘somewhere’, wherever it may be on the field, is left either unoccupied or lightly occupied; ripe for the attacking side to exploit if their ball movement is good enough.
Sometimes it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, like this handball combination between Mitch Georgiades, Travis Boak, and Connor Rozee moving the St Kilda defence around. Suddenly Saints are all out of position and scrambling around as Port simply take the space available to them:
Other times it’s a little more obvious to see. This handball from Willem Drew to Rozee sees three Saints move in to try and trap the captain. But then there’s some space immediately over the back of that first layer of defence that Port utilise. From there it’s a domino effect as Port cruise down the field:
The part that goes without saying, even though it’s exactly what I’m about to say, is what happens when that ball use into the corridor doesn’t work, and the result is a turnover with plenty of opposition numbers ready to sweep forward. It’s the risk you take.
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For those who missed the start of season announcement, you can find it here. And the schedule between now and the start of the season is…
| Post | Patreon access | Public access |
| General 2025 announcement | Live | Live |
| Over/under win total | Live | Live |
| Look Ahead, Part 1 | Live | Live |
| Look Ahead, Part 2 | Live | Live |
| Look Ahead, Part 3 | Live | Live |
| NMFC Match Sim Analysis | Live | |
| The Notebook, Match Sim | Live | Live |
| Continuity Rankings | Live | Live |
| NMFC v West Coast Analysis | Live | |
| The Notebook, Pre-Season | Live | 4th Mar |
| Team Tiers, Version 1 | 5th Mar | 6th Mar |
*Plus an extra North Melbourne post in the week of Round 1*
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Essendon answering their Look Ahead question in pre-season
The whole point of the Look Ahead was to set up questions to track over the entire season, not have them answered in pre-season.
Nevertheless, it’s clear Essendon’s question – whether team offence or defence takes priority in development – has been answered with the former.
The part to catch my eye the most was the frequent changing of angles. Sometimes the chat around improved offence devolves to ‘go as direct as possible’, but there’s 1,000 different ways* for a team to play when in possession.
(*No, I will not be naming all 1,000)
There are several different examples that could be used to illustrate how Essendon’s best – and most sustainable – moments came as they shifted the ball around. But the easiest to see was actually right at the start of the game, for their first goal of the day.
As Zach Merrett receives on the outer wing, the simplest option is to go long inside 50 to the pocket. For as much as there’s pockets at GMHBA Stadium instead of straight, narrow lines anyway, but I digress.
Instead he looks inboard and finds Nic Martin. For Martin, it’s a similar thing where he immediately looks to the outer side instead of closer to goal, indicating this type of passage has been an area of focus.
Martin finds Isaac Kako, who then has Sam Durham free in the pocket at point blank range. It’s a nice visual of how switching angles doesn’t have to be restricted to setting up play in the back half.
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The Create Your Own Depth Chart feature is now part of the List Management suite, all on the $5 tier for Patreon subscribers:
You can subscribe to the Patreon for 2025 right here. The three tiers are much the same as previous years, with refined features for the top two.
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Chips in on Fremantle
Look, going at a defence rather than trying to around it:
Look, Luke Ryan going for the aggressive option instead of the safe one (process over results in this case):
Look, an attacking kick off the line and then run and carry to earn a deep entry:
These are all promising signs in the process. Very promising.