Even the great Geelong team has - on more than one occasion - been outscored by five goals in a single quarter.
Of course the Cats have been able to turn it around and get back on a winning track.
In round nine the Sydney Swans smashed us by 43 points in the first quarter and then went on to concede 13 goals straight against the Western Bulldogs the next week.
But even Rodney Eade and his in-form Dogs struggled when Richmond kicked eight goals against them in the second quarter two weeks ago.
These examples suggest that all coaches are searching for the best method to halt an opposition’s momentum and that no one method is correct every time.
You have to be prepared to chop and change to come up with a consistent response, so I thought I’d look at some of the methods teams use to stem the tide of goals.
One method is to slow the play down and take all the momentum out of it.
Most teams try and play fast from the start so slowing the play down can be frustrating for your opposition.
The time in possession increases in your favour and the opposition can’t get their hands on the ball, which can create a change in mindset.
This method usually requires playing closer to the boundary line.
Some teams, like Collingwood, play close to the boundary most of the time anyway working on the premise that, if they turn the ball over, the opposition are further away from goal and have to kick from a tighter and more difficult angle to hurt them.
Teams like Collingwood and the Sydney Swans might move the ball up the line with a series of deliberate, short kicks.
They’re still trying to advance the ball and score, but it’s more measured than the chaotic approach of going through the centre corridor and mucking it up, which creates a turnover and allows the opposition to score back over your head.
Traditionally, another method has been to put a player behind the play and that worked okay when teams actually kicked long inside 50 and you knew where the ball was going to land.
It’s very difficult these days when teams have three of four different targets in their forward line.
You’re never sure which player they’re going to kick to and one extra defender doesn’t help much.
Another tactic is to take a small forward off and replace him with a defender, so that you’re actually playing seven defenders.
If the game continues to work against you on the scoreboard you can then put one or two more players from your forward line or midfield in the back line to try and clog up your defensive 50.
At that time though, you have to understand that the ball is going to be down the opposition’s end a lot and that can increase the mental pressure on your players.
When you actually get the ball you must also make considered movements, so that you’re not just kicking it to an empty forward line or straight back to the opposition’s spare players.
Another approach would be to change from a zone to a man-on-man defence and there’s a lot of merit in that.
Man-on-man defence holds players accountable unlike a zone where players guard space and, if an opponent gets past them, they don’t always know whether it was their man.
In man-on-man you know it’s your man and when you get beaten everyone knows it.
The final and least palatable method is to flood and send all your players behind the ball.
It’s not your first, second or third preferred option, but with the season being so close all of these approaches will be used over the next 10 weeks.
Some of these methods don’t look particularly nice and the players can get frustrated too, but in the end all you’re trying to do is stay in the game and not get blown away in one particular quarter.
For those who follow Port Adelaide, you’ll see that we haven’t been able to do any of them very well and we continually look to get better.
I think last week against the Bulldogs we tried all of them, with little effect.
We would spend 98 per cent of our training time trying to score, time spent trying to stop a flood of goals against you is not that exciting for the players but it may prove to be the most valuable time spent by season’s end.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
