Strengthen the Wall with a Zone

Last year the U11's learnt how to apply defensive pressure in their own forward line by forming 'the wall'. The idea is to deny the opposition an easy clearance after a behind is scored or where the opponent gets a mark/free-kick in our forward 50. Towards the end of the season the players were shown how to build a second 'wall' of 'defensive-attack' just outside the 50 meter arc and the tactic worked very well. In almost all of our finals games last year Monbulk was able to keep the ball in our half of the ground for more than 75% of the game, giving the players many more scoring opportunities. The players great execution of 'the wall' allowed this to happen.

This season the U12 coaching staff want to extend on the success of the wall by introducing more structure to the wall in the form of a 'zone defense'. Below is an extract from the AFL Coaching Manual describing how the zone should work during opposition kick-outs.


In forming the zone players attempt to spread themselves out evenly through the 50 meter arc. The idea is that when the opposition kicks the ball out Hawk players in the area where the kick will land will have enough time to bring pressure to that area in numbers and that no area of the arc is free of that pressure. Also, if the players raise their arms, effectively making themselves bigger targets, this can give the opposition kicker the impression that there are no good options, leading them to make a bad decision when directing their kick.

The U12's have run through a drill at training to focus on the zone and we will focus on it over the coming weeks and we continue to give the team more tactics and plays to draw on.