Fevola-like focus inevitably leads to football failure

Tag : arc magnets

BRENDAN Fevola has kicked 30 of his 57 goals this season againsttwo teams — Essendon and Collingwood. Yet the pattern goesbeyond a warrior rising to meet his most despised foes.
Neither the Bombers nor Magpies chose to attack Fevola in numbers,backing instead a trusted key defender one-out. Mal Michael, PaddyRyder and Dustin Fletcher shared Fev duty for the Dons; HarryO'Brien and Nathan Brown the Pies. Nary a ruckman was to be foundfilling the space in front of him, although Collingwood did useNick Maxwell in "the hole" at times a fortnight ago.
Different approaches have brought contrasting results: 30 goals infour games of essentially man-on-man football, 27 from the othernine where Fevola has seen his empty nest become more of a crowdedhouse.
"It's great for Brendan and it's great for the midfield to have anoption, but the last thing you need is his hands attracting theball like huge magnets every time he leads," says Danny Frawley, aman who has played in a team with similar tunnel vision (St Kildaand Tony Lockett), and has been directly opposed to such players(Geelong and Gary Ablett, for one).
"As good as Lockett and Ablett were — and they were two of thegreatest forwards of all time — they never played in apremiership, and it was because of their dominance."
Frawley sees this as the next phase of Brett Ratten's coachingcareer — how to bring on the likes of Matthew Kreuzer, AdamHartlett and Shaun Hampson to provide that second and third target,benefiting all by spreading the load. "So they can tell Brendan,'We still need you to have an impact, but if we need you to kickseven and eight we're going to be in trouble … the reason whywe win will be the reason why we lose'."
As it was on Sunday. Carlton entered its forward 50 zone by foot 32times, 23 of them aimed at Fevola. He kicked 7.1 and missedeverything once, leaving 14 Fev-centric attacks that amounted tonothing. Fletcher and his robo-arms might not have done such a badjob after all.
While Henry Slattery's cracked cheekbone illustrates the perils ofoccupying Fevola's space, other opponents have succeeded by using asafety-in-numbers approach. Adelaide rolled the Blues in round sixwhen his two markers, Ben Rutten and then Nathan Bock, hadsupportive bodies in their vicinity — a fact driven home toRutten when he stood Fevola in the less-pressurised environment ofthe state game, and Fev kicked six.
While Port Adelaide ultimately lost the seemingly unloseable inround 11, its tactic of filling the defensive arc kept Fevola totwo goals, one of them after the final siren. "He had no space tolead whatsoever, and it wasn't until they flipped Kreuzer forwardand he kicked three that they were able to win the game," saysFrawley.
The knock-on benefit of smothering him can be that it tends tobring out the side of Fevola that no Carlton folk like to see, whenfrustration leads to bad body language and apparent disinterest.
Only Hawthorn's focus on Lance Franklin comes anywhere nearCarlton's blinkers for Fev — the Hawks have looked to theirenigmatic star with 31% of forward entries by foot, compared toCarlton's 35% for Fevola. But then, we've all been guilty this yearof having eyes only for "Buddy".
Brad Fisher is the next-most-kicked-to Blue — just 35 times,or 6% of attacks.
Contrast this with Brisbane's dynamic duo of Jonathan Brown andDaniel Bradshaw, who the Lions have gone to 122 and 121 timesrespectively, or 21% each.
Frawley points to another more desirable scenario, that of theWestern Bulldogs, where nine players have kicked 10 or more goals,four more than 25. Brad Johnson, the most-turned-to Dog inside 50,has been targeted with only 10%. "That's just about impossible todefend against if they're getting their fair share of midfieldsupply."
Richmond was keeping its Fevola plans to itself yesterday, butFrawley did not need an intimate knowledge of Punt Road tospeculate on what they are. "Terry Wallace will have a plan inplace on his whiteboard which will be, 'Let's negate Judd'sinfluence, and on top of that, let's double or triple-team Fevolawhen the ball's in the air'.
"It's like going to the casino — you've got to play the odds.Where's the ball going to? It's going to Fevola."