Adelaide’s Don Pyke wants his players to execute “total team football” in his first season as senior coach.
Pyke is urging the Crows to develop a strong understanding of each other first, not the game plan.

“The game plan is flexible enough and adaptable enough that it is not rigid so that we say, ‘we do this’,” Pyke said.
Adelaide face North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night to kick off 2016.

“So you can’t be rigid (with the game plan). I’ll make the decision based on my capability.

“That’s why I talk about the ‘connectivity’ - that players know I kick it 40 metres, so they won’t be looking for the 65-metre out-the-back kick.

“They will be actually recognising my limitation or my capacity and they will be leading up. That’s when you get true connection - and you see that already between some of the forwards and you see it coming out of our back half.”

With so many different styles, abilities and personalities in action on game day, Pyke believes it’s integral to better understand one another’s habits and tendencies.

“All teams to be successful, Hawthorn have it - innate understanding. They have played a lot of footy together, but they actually know where each other is going to go and where they are going to be. It makes the style of play more seamless.”

“There are a lot of decisions in a game. Millions of decisions with every player in every scenario making a decision at some point. The challenge is to make the right decisions at the right time.

It’s what the coach calls ‘total football’.

“It hard is to capture. But it exists. It is a connection between the guys. Not only in terms of how they live their lives off the field, but how they connect on the field. If you can build that, and you can build trust within that, then the players end up in a really good position to carry out whatever it is the game plan is.

“The game plan is one component, but it is making sure they are all on the same page - that is vital.”