Fight against the tide
I’M sure supporters sometimes wonder: how can a team one week put in an incredible performance while following it up the next week with a shocker?
Every team has been guilty of it at some stage, and I’m sure it is as frustrating for supporters as it is for players. Why does this happen? Well, it’s hard to say exactly. Momentum is the biggest asset any team can have right now and I don’t mean week to week (although that clearly is a massive help). I mean quarter to quarter, contest to contest.
When the pendulum swings against you, it can feel harder than ever to swing it back.
It’s times like that you want the quarter-time break to come, so you can reset.
Momentum is like a snowball — the longer you let it roll, the bigger and harder it becomes to stop.
It takes a goal against the run of play or a series of small wins — or even simply a series of nil-all draws — to try and stifle the opposition’s flow.
What I mean by that is, if a team is on top, sometimes you just want to turn it into a scrap to slow them down. That might help explain why some games deteriorate into a scrap fest.
Let’s look back at the West Coast game from Round 3 this year. Maybe not the best game to bring up, since we ended up losing, but I think it would be hard to find a game this year that has had a more significant momentum shift between quarters.
The Geelong team that went into the rooms at halftime was not the same one that emerged in the second half. In a way, it’s annoying to come out and, for no obvious reason, just play better footy.
But what it does show is that now, more than ever, supporters should expect a plethora of emotions when coming to the footy.
I can remember watching the ball come into our D50 over and over, and I knew something was breaking down.
I knew there were gaps and holes in our defence. I knew how it was supposed to look for us, but we just couldn’t stop it.
In these situations, halftime break comes along and, sure, we change some things, but it just allows you to gather your thoughts and narrow our focus — something you can’t do in the heat of the moment, or at least is very hard to do in the heat of the moment.
Don’t for a second think “we can’t lose to them”. That’s not the case any more.
Carlton has a had lean start to the year, but I can guarantee they’ll cause a few more upsets before the year is finished. They gave us a good run for our money.
No team goes into games any more worrying about the following week’s fixture.
And then, of course, there’s one more big factor when it comes to momentum — the crowd.
There’s a reason every team in every sport in the world plays better at home. And its not just the ground itself, it’s the support.
It can be intimidating for a team to travel into hostile territory, and the fans should keep it that way.
Now take everything I just said about momentum, and how hard it can be to wrestle back, and add into the equation anywhere between 30-70,000 fans screaming at you.
Just think about it for a second: is it really a surprise that teams can perform so differently in such a short period of time, given all the pieces of the puzzle? I’d be more surprised if every game played out as it was supposed to do.
Anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!