1. Hats off to Bulleen. I thought they were the best teams we have played so far. They had a nice balance of press, physicality with some ability to play too. I say nice balance , but the truth is that i personally feel the press and physicality at this age is a tool used to steal the game away from the everyone, including the pressing/physical team but especially the opposition. [and 'If you cant beat them join them' is a tempting bit of advice to follow.]
2. We found the press and physicality (from both Bulleen teams) hard to deal with. but for me, i love the fact that every time a team presses us and gets physical it takes us outside our comfort zone and we have very difficult problems to solve. That is where learning lives.....if we are brave enough to take it on that is.
Clarity of mind combined with enhanced Speed of Play ( speed of thought, movement and technique) is the combination we need to develop to take on and beat teams like Bulleen. I believe we will get there, but it wont be this year.
I thought our defensive line accepted the challenge of the press and were great. Maybe Josh got caught too low and wide at times early on, but improved. Time after time they got pressed and dealt with it time and time again. Our boys probably hated it, as they are always 'a misplaced pass or a miss-timed move, away from a game defining mistake', and obviously we got caught a couple of times, but the heads didn't drop. The boys just stood back up and stayed brave and went again.
Our real issues were in midfield. We got a little dominated in this area. It is very difficult, no matter what philospohy is adopted, to win a game without dominating the midfield. I am trying lots of things, trying to develop technique ( first touch, creating angles, passing accuracy) and trying to instill the right frame of mind in our midfielders ('work hard, use the space with intelligence, share the ball efficiently) but at this point we still have lots of work to do in this area.
The forwards also dont help themselves sometimes due to poor positioning ( too narrow, too high) and movement (making the pitch smaller rather than bigger). Another work in progress.
The pressure the opposition put us under shows us that technically as a group ( although some individuals are improving at a rapid rate) we still have a huge way to go. Our first touch, passing and creating good angles (both on off the ball) broke down way too often tbh, most notedly in midfield. Sometimes it is unavoidable due to the small pitch and aggressive press but other times there are no excuses other than we are not yet good enough (under pressure). Our execution in training is getting better and better, but the games on Sundays are another level up and we cant ey fully take what we do in training, into games.
We could always abandon our attempts to improve technically in this area and follow the same path as everyone else. Get fitter, faster, stronger and be more aggressive and use this to hammer the opposition into submission, mentally break them down, and use what ever talent is left over to win the game (like Eastern lions did to us a few weeks ago). I dont believe however that that would be the best way for us to go. Any time spent developing this is time taken away from other things. More important things.
Our training is geared towards technique and intelligence when in possession because (1.) It needs the most attention (2.) The coaching team are of the belief that in the long run it is this, that will make the difference in terms of reaching long term potential both individually and as a team and (3.) some things are easy add-ons when players are older. Technique and intelligence isn't one of these.
And with this in mind, i accept all responsibility for players making mistakes when playing out, for having to receive the ball knowing it is going to get difficult, for conceding relatively 'cheap' goals and not being overly attacking and creative going forward (not because we don't want to be (it is the intention) its just that we don't move the ball quickly enough yet to get an attacking overload and we too often look for the 1v1 rather than the space. We will work on this and get there.)
Another thing to note is that a change in philosophy might not make any difference. At the end of the day, if the players in opposition team are better at playing an aggressive way than us, then they will still win. The big difference using a more aggressive philosophy is that we get less technical possession practice. less problems to solve , and we get on the same path as them, except behind them. At least being on a different path may get us ahead in a couple of years. That is the hope. I have seen it happen. But there are no guarantees.