Free and greasy in finals prep
More foot, less hand the Dogs’ plan
Australian football
WESTERN Bulldogs’ brilliant brigade of handballers have been told to ease up on their artistry to help combat the greasy conditions that threaten the standard of this year’s Queensland-based finals series.
The Bulldogs will dunk their Sherrins in soapy water at Saturday’s captain’s run in Cairns as they prepare for Sunday night’s must-win battle against Fremantle.
West Coast has taken eskies of soapy water to every training session in its hub while Collingwood lubricated its footballs with a mixture of baby oil and water on Friday to help players adapt to Queensland’s evening dew.
Similarly, Australia’s ODI team trained under lights using wet cricket balls in Mumbai this year.
Dogs coach Luke Beveridge said sweat and sunscreen dripping on to the Sherrin also made games greasy.
“Ball handling will be an important part of the game,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a tweak to your game plan, it’s just an instinct and an understanding that when you’re out you should kick it.
“It’s just whether your players can process it. Whether or not they give that extra handball, which will probably still happen here and there.
“But ultimately when you’re out and you can see forwards, or you need to take some territory, then by and large the best recipe is probably to get it on and either win the next contest and play the turnover-turnover game, or pay the consequences of getting shutdown right where you are. It won’t be a game plan leap it’ll just be an instinctive discussion.”
Led by Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae, Josh Dunkley and Lachie Hunter, the Bulldogs are arguably the AFL’s best team at flicking the ball around until they break into space, which was the secret ingredient in their 2016 premiership.
Liberatore is the AFL’s handball magician and is averaging a career-best 11.9 groundball gets and six score involvements this year when his numbers are extrapolated to normal game time.
The Bulldogs have the AFL’s lowest kick-to-handball ratio, meaning they use the ball by hand a lot, and play a low-mark gamestyle.
The Eagles are 3-4 under lights in Queensland this year and coach Adam Simpson admitted his team had struggled to adapt. “Everyone who wants to try and control the ball in wet conditions it just takes half a second longer to adapt and to take the ball clean,” he said.