Would we be better or worse off if Eade was still coach?

[angelopetraglia]

Obviously it's still early days and he needs more than a pre-season and six games to put his stamp on the club. However, we now have had some time to see Brendan McCartney's style, approach and game plan.

There are always advantages (e.g. new voice, new style, see things differently, freshen the place up) and disadvantages of changing the coach (e.g. starting over again, instability, learning a new game plan, building relationships).

My question, do you believe we would currently be in a better, worse or no different position if Eade was still coaching the Bulldogs?

[whythelongface]

Think your opening paragraph best sums this question up. Way too early to tell.

However in saying that we were going backwards last year so I am more than happy to give mccartney a couple of years to ply his trade to develop this squad. I like what I saw last night and it will take a fair bit longer to get the team playing this way consistently. No need at this stage to reflect and ask where would we be under eade. Let's move fwd and focus on and enjoy the development of this team under macca.

[always right]

I was a fan of Eade but I don't think that Eade woud have the cattle to play his style.....and I'm not sure he had shown the willingness to change his philosophies. It was the right time to change coaches but still too early to judge whether Macca was the correct choice.

[SonofScray]

Can't see much being different other than we may have recruited and traded differently and had higher hopes or fewer hopes heading into the season depending on where he thought we were at.

Mac is saying the right stuff about mentality and competitiveness and hardness which we've seen glimpses of, it was diminishing rapidly under Eade.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

We had been on a downward spiral for two years under Eade.

He simply had no plan B, and thus, his game plan was outdated after 2009. We didn't have the cattle to play the '09 game plan which had failed on the big stage numerous times, but we continued with it.

If Eade was such a brilliant coach, he would be the senior coach of another club. He isn't. He is a good coach who got stale -- let's leave it at that and stop reverting back to the past.

[chef]

We had been on a downward spiral for two years under Eade.

He simply had no plan B, and thus, his game plan was outdated after 2009. We didn't have the cattle to play the '09 game plan which had failed on the big stage numerous times, but we continued with it.

If Eade was such a brilliant coach, he would be the senior coach of another club. He isn't. He is a good coach who got stale -- let's leave it at that and stop reverting back to the past.

This.

[Remi Moses]

We had been on a downward spiral for two years under Eade.

He simply had no plan B, and thus, his game plan was outdated after 2009. We didn't have the cattle to play the '09 game plan which had failed on the big stage numerous times, but we continued with it.

If Eade was such a brilliant coach, he would be the senior coach of another club. He isn't. He is a good coach who got stale -- let's leave it at that and stop reverting back to the past.

Ditto for me. Like Rocket, but we needed a change

[Greystache]

We had been on a downward spiral for two years under Eade.

He simply had no plan B, and thus, his game plan was outdated after 2009. We didn't have the cattle to play the '09 game plan which had failed on the big stage numerous times, but we continued with it.

If Eade was such a brilliant coach, he would be the senior coach of another club. He isn't. He is a good coach who got stale -- let's leave it at that and stop reverting back to the past.

Pretty much sums it up for me too.

[BulldogBelle]

All coaches have a use-by date and Rockets had come. He was fantastic for the club when he was there, but I remember clearly Dogs vs Swans at Canberra 2011, Rocket giving a spray at qtr time, and the players whom i was so used to looking Rocket in the eye, were looking at the ground. I could imagine them thinking "Here we go again" and praying for qtr time to finish so they could get back to business. Rocket had a style that brought out a teams potential, but would only ever produce one premiership window. Once the window started closing, Rockets style became a burden. All coaches have a particular style and Rockets was suited for a team on the up, not on the down.

[Scraggers]

First off ... 24 people have voted and only a handful of comments ... Why is that ??

I think the OP is correct, it's too early to say ... I voted that there would be no difference ... I think if Rocket had a 90% fit Cooney and Lake (like we do right now) we would have had the same results this season that we have had under McCartney. This year if we were still under Rocket we would have lost to Eagles, Adelaide, St. Kilda, and Collingwood ... We would have won against Melbourne and GWS. Too early to call ...

[boydogs]

Voted Eade, only because I think we would be a step closer to a refresh than a rebuild if he was still around. We're heading in the right direction.

[Eastdog]

I'm also in the camp of its too early to say. We need to give Macca more time as it is only 6 rounds in.

[FrediKanoute]

I don't think it would be any different in terms of results.....maybe we would have beaten one of Adelaide or WCE, but probably not.

I think the big difference though would have been that where a 2-3 start for Macca is seen as a pass in a rebuild phase a 2-3 start for Rocket would have had the butchers sharpening their knives......

[Pedro Sanchez]

There's a definite change in our game style which was evident against the Pies for almost 4 qtrs and has been there in patches in other games.

The trick is to get the group repeating Friday night's performance and playing this hard, lets rip in, contested footy game in game out.

I've got to say I like the new style.

I also liked Eade but his time was up. He's a great taction and an impact coach who was losing his impact.

You can only berate players for so long before they start going numb. The players were shot last year.

B Mac's biggest job is to get the self belief back. From the outside it looked as if Eade's style of giving a spray sucked the fun and life out the players. Given he was there for so long it'll take some time for the guys to heal and re-find there x-factor.

Anyway if we can repeat our effort against the Pies then maybe the healing has well and truly started...

[Bulldog Joe]

It is not a question that can be realistically answered.

.....and the answer is also irrelevant.

The club made a decision. The club needs to do everything to show it was a positive move.

Even if we are really successful, we will not know if we could have been just as successful with Rocket and conversely if it fails we still will not know if the same result would have occurred with Rocket.

The Collingwood game gives me a lot of hope that we can get back to being a top side.