A centre bounce set up: The Notebook, Round 8

The original plan for this week’s Notebook was to write about a couple of different topics, as per usual.

Then I started writing about that centre bounce setup at the end of Collingwood v Geelong. And I kept on writing about it.

Which makes this week’s Notebook a one-topic affair, covering as many different angles and flow on topics as possible from how Collingwood decided to set up. It was a fascinating moment.

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There are so many angles to take on this centre bounce I’ll divide it by team, starting with…

Collingwood

– This had to have been – surely – a set play they’d worked on comprehensively.

– If the Collingwood player pulling back was anyone else by Nick Daicos, would their opponent have gone with them? Or was that part of the beauty in the thought process? Imagine the stones it would take to not go with Nick Daicos and try to outnumber at ground level, leaving your team vulnerable to a long hit-out.

– Lending further credence to it being a set play worked on comprehensively, the pattern Scott Pendlebury ran was picture perfect:

If Darcy Cameron won the hit-out, Pendlebury was running into space and on his preferred left foot for a deep entry inside 50.

– The role of Steele Sidebottom almost intrigued me the most. Of course he’s largely there as defensive cover and to occupy Bailey Smith. By design, Sidebottom barely moves. Is that to provide room for Pendlebury’s run, to neutralise Smith, or a bit of both? What reaction would it have forced if Sidebottom cleared out a little further on the defensive side as well?

– Speaking of clearing out, Geelong’s wingers naturally went to the defensive corner of the square to provide cover. Interestingly enough, the Collingwood wingers followed them:

If the point (and we’re assuming here) of Daicos clearing out was to both create room for Pendlebury and potentially provide an option in the second phase of play – does Collingwood’s winges following Geelong’s basically take away the space in the second phase?

Obviously it didn’t get to that point, but if it’s all about creating space, imagine if the Collingwood wingers stayed in the ‘traditional’ starting point at a centre bounce:

A clean centre bounce win, with free wingers potentially flanking Pendlebury on either side, is nightmare fuel for a defence. Because there’s still 20 seconds remaining at this centre bounce. It’s not in single figures, leaving Collingwood with only one option.

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For those who have missed it, the last five posts on The Shinboner, plus…

2025’s Team Structures Page
2025’s Minutes Played By Age (Updated to the end of Round 8)
North Melbourne’s Round 8 analysis v Essendon
Midfielders in tandem, midfielders progressing: Round 7’s Notebook
North Melbourne’s Round 7 analysis v Port Adelaide
Veterans, offence, and scoring: Round 6’s Notebook
North Melbourne’s Round 6 analysis v Carlton

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Geelong

– Atkins’ positioning was clearly the most impacted by Collingwood’s play. Pendlebury has worked the angles perfectly to leave Atkins struggling:

It’s not meant as a clip at Atkins, who might be the most underrated player in the league for what he brings to Geelong, but as an illustration of how Collingwood’s play forced Geelong into difficult choices.

– And speaking of difficult choices, poor Oisin Mullin. It was nearly the ultimate ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ situation for the man in his 25^th game.

Much of a good team’s philosophy is about presenting their opposition with a bad choice – and a worse choice. ‘Take your pick, buddy’.

Imagine how much the hot take brigade would have crucified Mullin if Pendlebury’s run paid off and he streamed out the front of the centre bounce untouched: ‘What was Mullin doing?!’

Also, imagine how much the hot take brigade would have crucified Mullin if he opted to stay in, trying to create an outnumber, and Pendlebury popped the handball over the top to Daicos: ‘What was Mullin doing?!’

The risk-reward scale was off the charts for Mullin either way.

– Even though Mark Blicavs conceded the free from the secondary stoppage which led to Jack Crisp’s mark – potentially the first holding the ball paid in the dying seconds of a close game for 63 years – he deserves enormous credit for his work.

If he loses the hit-out, Geelong, at the very least, are defending a deep inside 50 entry because of the Pendlebury and Atkins positioning mentioned earlier. And at this point, Blicavs must have been fearing the worst, tied up with Cameron in great position:

Somehow Blicavs was able to untangle, perhaps get a touch lucky at Cameron missing the hit-out, and then most importantly hold it in to cause the secondary stoppage.

The poor guy probably wondered what happened when the umpires remembered to pay holding the ball a few seconds later.

It was, for me at least, the most fascinating play of the season for how it could influence future centre bounce and stoppage setups.

Part of the chat has been about how this setup is perfect for teams with a dominant ruckman. My instinct isn’t quite the same.

If this was, and humour me for a second here, West Coast with Matt Flynn defending the lead against Melbourne with Max Gawn, the Eagles immediately just go into full defensive lock down mode and some – not all, but some – of the benefits are lost.

Atkins’ equivalent sticks to Pendlebury’s equivalent like glue, as does Smith’s, Mullin’s equivalent might even face guard Daicos’, and there wouldn’t even be a thought of, ‘what happens if we win the hit-out’ because the whole game to that point would have been spent reading the opposing ruck’s hand.

But the fun part about Collingwood’s setup is there are still extra levers to pull if the situation arises again. The defensive sweeper can move, the wings can adjust, there could even be an attempt for a one-on-one at ground level.

I can’t wait to see the innovation that comes from it, whenever it may be.

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