The new buzz-phrase of AFL coaches is 'field position'. But what exactly is it? Just another bit of footy jargon that the fans are clueless about?
Well, not really. Field position relates to the forward press that is de rigeur in AFL football nowadays, in the sense that a team with good field position has pushed the ball into its half, has its defensive grid in place and working properly.
That they now have an expression for it shows how much stock the coaches put into the way they set themselves up in games, and how significant the defensive systems are.
All of which makes you wonder whether Ross Lyon should have put a patent on his forward press when he introduced it at St Kilda in 2009, originally dubbed 'frontal pressure' by Neil Craig, but certainly a stunningly new variation of the defensive zones that were being used by Craig, Alastair Clarkson ('the cluster') and others around that time.
Lyon would have made a fortune because within a year of unveiling his little invention it had been turned back upon him by Collingwood in 2010 with a quicker and better version which the Magpies called 'The Box', or the 'Roman Box'. And now everyone is trying to lock the ball in the front half of the ground, not least triple premiership juggernaut Hawthorn, which deploys tackling machines like Paul Puopolo, Luke Breust and Cyril Rioli with the express purpose of doing it.
The press came from basketball, specifically a man named John Wooden who coached UCLA on the college scene in the 1960s, and it changed that game, too, because previously the defensive team automatically folded back once it lost possession, conceding the middle part of the court.
But in basketball, the press became so common that the antidotes to the press also came along, and that is about where we are at with AFL football now. Everyone knows that it is coming, and it is about how you handle it.
Basically it is the same in both games; if the press works well, you can potentially get the ball back and extract an easy score, but if it breaks down you concede an easy score at the other end. It is risk-reward. It is also why we see so many goals dribbled through from the goalsquare nowadays (Adelaide, and particularly ESPN columnist Josh Jenkins, is brilliant at this), and why so many forwards seem to be able to find space without the nuisance of an opponent (witness Jason Johannisen getting himself clear to mark and goal to win the game for the Bulldogs in Sydney last weekend).
Collingwood's version continually fell apart in the early stretch of the year, allowing opposing teams with a touch of daring the licence to score heavily against the Magpies until it was tightened up, and given a certain stiffness by one Ben Reid, the forgotten champion of the black and white brigade, who has returned to his best.
Adelaide is the No.1 scoring team in the AFL partly because it has a cluster of options up forward but also because under Don Pyke, the Crows run at opposition presses with a bravado that is unmatched. Yet this can work the other way, too, and the Crows are only eighth on the defensive list, conceding 88 points per game. Melbourne pulled Pyke's team apart at times last weekend, and kicked 15 goals, enough to win most games. Problem was, Adelaide kicked 18, which is precisely the issue when you play the Crows. Once again, it is about risk-reward.
The coachspeak is interesting. Every week at quarter-time and three-quarter time breaks club staff hold up whiteboards to show the players up-to-date statistics for a range of KPIs, and contested possession is almost invariably one. Specifically, the coaches will refer to the contested possession differential between the two teams, plus or minus a certain number.
It is meant to be important. But Hawthorn has lost the contested ball count in 12 of 14 games this year and are on top of the ladder, which Nathan Buckley described this week as "an outlier''. It is a puzzling statistic for everyone.
How can it be so? At a guess, it is because Hawthorn presses up so hard and well that it more often than not gets the football back before it even reaches the point of a proper contest. The Hawks get their hands on the Sherrin through rundown tackles and intercept marks. Then you can't get it back from them.
It works pretty damned well, as the results show. Which means that the four-peat still looks well and truly on.