First Use Tactics
Ruck and stoppage craft, from the first bounce to the last throw-in.
What we mean by First Use
The most important fundamental in the game is first use: winning the ball out of the stoppage so your side has it first. Every centre bounce, ball-up and throw-in starts a new contest, and the team that wins first use sets the terms of what happens next. It is the ruck’s job, the midfield’s job, and the coach’s job to make it a plan rather than a hope. Everything on this page is about that.
Jeff White started First Use to teach these tactics. He spent 14 seasons and 268 games winning first use for Melbourne, and when he came to coach his own sons he found nobody was teaching the ruck the way it is actually played. So he wrote it down: where the ruck goes, where the midfield stands, who sweeps and who runs, the hit zones, the body work, the second and third efforts when the first one is lost. The playbooks and programs here are that knowledge, for the player who wants to own the ruck and for the coach, parent or mentor who wants to understand the stoppage well enough to teach it.
Football tactics are evolving fast. Some fundamentals never change, but every change to the rules alters how the game is played, and the stoppage with it. We will keep developing products on how we see the game as it evolves.
