Rivals wary of Shark attack
FEW things strike as much fear into a NEAFL team than a Southport Sharks side hunting a loose ball in their forward line.
It’s the situation opposition teams have come to dread and it’s something Sharks coach Stephen Daniel instilled at Southport from the moment he walked in the doors to the club in 2018.
Daniel scrapped the traditional set-up of two tall forwards upon his arrival, replacing it with a structure that includes one mobile tall who is surrounded by small forwards.
It’s a game plan built on pressure. The midfielders get the ball forward where it is brought to ground and locked in before the forwards overwhelm opposition defences with superior numbers and speed.
The style has worked at AFL level and it’s something Daniel has used throughout his coaching career with tremendous success, including last year when he guided Southport to a premiership.
“That is how I have always done it and it’s been successful for me and my coaching over 20 years,” Daniel said.
“The way the game is played these days you have to be quick and you have got to have pressure.
“We work really hard on that. We don’t tell people how we do it and it’s for teams to try and work out.
“It’s a high-pressure game, it demands a lot of our forwards. We play on a really big ground (at Fankhauser Reserve) and we like that.
“It’s an AFL game style, it’s a hard game style and it didn’t work for us great on the weekend (against GWS) but the opposition was superb.”
Former Gold Coast Suns player Josh Hall, who stands at 198cm, is the athletic forward who spends the majority of his time working as the tallest of Southport’s forwards.
He pinch-hits in the ruck when Jed Turner is off, leaving the Sharks with a completely small forward line during periods of games.
Southport started the season with five straight wins before last weekend’s 48-point loss.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for Southport who came up against a Giants team boasting 19-list AFL players and a club put on notice by senior coach Leon Cameron following their loss to Hawthorn a week earlier.