AFL Training

Hi All,

Ran an interesting session at AFL training last night and thought you might want to give it a go in your invasion units. Most of the players range between 11 and 14 years of age so suitable for Year 6/7 students but also for older students but I have also run this with 10 year olds in football (soccer). The great thing is that it is suitable for all types of invasion games, especially football, netball, basketball, ultimate type invasion sports.

We want to develop the principle of play (or tactic or action rule - same thing) of running through the lines, in that we want the full back of half back flank to run past and provide an overlapping option or the half forward to run back and receive a pass and the winger to run on and fill the vacant forward flank position.
Thus I divided the field into thirds but ran them lengthwise as opposed to across the field (like netball) with a scoring zone like ultimate frisbee. Primary rules (the rules that give the player the parameters to work in) were set as per AFL in general. However, the main rule restriction was that players had to stay in the third they nominated and could move up and down that third but not across. The ball could be distributed across the thirds but not the players. Players from any third could enter the scoring zone but no one could stay there. We could then develop an understanding of the 'fat side' and the 'skinny side' (or open and blind etc) and ideas about how to support when the ball is passed backwards, what players on the corridors next to this should 'read and react to and to reads and reactions that may be required further up the field.

Points of interest to emerge were :

• Only some players found it easy to nominate the area they would best be able to work in and be responsible for selecting it themselves
• As always, some players could adapt or were patient and spent time learning and understanding the functionality of the game, others had to be directed in what to do or they disengaged
• Some of more naturally gifted players again found it difficult to solve the problems the thirds opposed to running where the ball was but the numbers have begun to reduce. However, some of their decisions on who to pass to were not based on the player being open but on their own perception of who was most likely to complete a catch, even if that meant kicking to a pack as opposed to an open player
• Once we had passed ten minutes of play, the play action was starting to replicate what we wanted to occur with the running past players in offence but the swaps from forward to back was quite restricted. Thus on kick in's after a goal was scored, the midfielder was reluctant to come back to receive the ball and swap with the defender. As a result, the defender just kept leading back to the same spot on a repeated pattern
• Players rarely looked laterally across the field or behind but instead focussed forward. Players behind did run on but rarely looked to be available for the pass
• Most players worked on receiving a pass but not many looked to create a pass
• in the last series of play actions, one of the 13's forwards dropped back to take over the position on the mark of one of the mids in his third. This then allowed the mid to drop off and fill in a space. rather than look behind to a free player, the opposing player simply bombed it long to a pack.

I'll be interested to see what develops further. They did well considering it was the first time they had played and even then it only went for 20 minutes. The last two dot points are the areas we will work on in the next session and then we will allow each team a player who can rove across all areas. I'll probably change the scoring areas to replicate AFL with a '6 point' zone in the middle section and two '1 point' zones on either side. The key is not to put too many changes in at once

I'll let you know what happens.

Greg