With nine new rules being introduced by the AFL in 2019, Crows Assistant Coach Scott Camporeale provides an insight into how Adelaide has been adjusting to the changes this pre-season.
The specialist midfield coach told AFC Media how the 6-6-6 set up at centre bounces would impact his side.
On what the 6-6-6 structure means for the Crows:
“Essentially, it means we need to have a forward that starts in the goal square and the other five forwards are in the forward 50 and then wings off the side”
“Traditionally, we were one of the teams that manipulated numbers around the square – starting off the back, starting of the wing – so that’s a change for us in terms of how we can still own the ground and what our forward structure looks like versus what our defensive structure looks like”
“There will certainly be some adjustment to it, there’s a fair bit more space now because there’s less density and more ground to cover from the centre bounce so we’ll be looking at the personnel in there, what that mix looks like plus our structure around it"
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“I think there’ll be more opportunities for teams to score if you can be good in that area so we’re focusing really hard on that”
“It’s already been really important in the past from a field position point of view but it’s probably even more so now with less density around it”
On the impact on wingers:
“It probably depends on how the team is going, whether you be more attacking with those guys or if we’re not going so well, where we position them to help that inside group to perhaps force teams wide rather than letting them clear the ball out the front”
On combating opposition teams from scoring quickly from centre bounces:
“We’ve got things in place that we’ve been trialing over the summer as to how we can manipulate the new changes, if we’re not getting done at centre bounce and also how we can manipulate it when we’re going really well from centre bounce”
On the inclusion of Brad Crouch in the midfield:
“Our numbers say we weren’t that good in that part of the ground last year, we were really good at not letting teams score against us but that was probably more about what was happing around the centre bounce and not necessarily inside”
“Is Brad going to be the one moving piece that helps us? No, he’s not, he’s a very talented player that will definitely help us, but we need to keep tinkering with how we go about it and our strategy”
