Matthew Knights sacked

[macca]

I'm watching a replay of On the Couch, and Hird predictably being grilled - but this I found really funny.

On the coaching job, Hird replies 'no I wasn't offered it, I didn't accept it'

Huh? You were offered that job James

Thats kevin Rudd like, ask a questions to him, he asks his own quesiton, gives his own answer, tells you what he wants you to hear. Knights should have been kept and got some decent more assistance to work the defensive side of their game.He made the tough call on some older players, he had to cut the list.

[LostDoggy]

Not sure I agree.

Being able to clearly and coherently get your message across - using video and animations - to a generation that understands and expects things to be delivered via multi-media - is a key aspect of coaching.

Whether Matthews puts the presentations together himself or gets assistance from the IT Dept. to do it is largely irrelevant...he would certainly be experienced in mapping out a presentation and delivering it.

With the legend of the Hardwick powerpoint failure, I actually think it is a good test. How your presentation holds together when all the surrounding technology fails is a good measure of how clear it is...can you still get the concepts across?

Most of todays coaches would be spending a significant proportion of their time identifying what they want to show their players and figuring out how to show it most effectively.

I largely agree with the gist of your post, mjp. However, having worked in businesses that are largely about presentations (architecture, management/strategy consulting, lecturing/tutoring at university), so often we see PowerPoint being a crutch for an inability to communicate.

I said last week to someone that Microsoft should be sued for creating a piece of software that makes the stupidest ideas look professional.

I would rather Leigh Matthews coach my club with zero powerpoints, then have Matthew Knights coach my club with the latest whiz-bang gizmos. I mean, when modern coaches complain that their players don't 'follow instructions', are they referring to some boring presentation they showed on Tuesday morning? And they then wonder why the 23-year-old with the attention span of a gnat can't remember it?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that PowerPoint is just a tool. You can get the message across in a variety of ways, and I seriously doubt that Ppt is the best format for delivering all, or even most, messages.

And I really don't think that Gen X/Y/Z are really more predisposed to watching a boring PowerPoint anymore than listening to a boring speech.. it's a bit of a furphy. I see my colleagues stick PowerPoint up in their lectures at uni and watch the eyes of the students glaze over. Instead, pull out something they've never seen before, something that they can relate emotionally or personally to, something that piques their interest, a photograph, a model aircraft, a comic book, an vintage instrument, an old leather football, challenge them personally, ask intriguing questions, make them think, speak with interest about the subject ... these things don't need electricity, but you usually end up with a roomful of engaged people talking, thinking for themselves, and coming back for more.

[Greystache]

I think there is some truth in it, although it may have been overplayed by the media.
It is fact though that Hardwick had a laptop failure in the final interview which destroyed his power point and made it hard for him to look overly professional. Knight's final presentation was much better in comparison which helped him win the job. So Knight's positivity wasn't the only deciding factor.

I can't comment specifically on the Essendon interview process but I have a family friend who was involved in the selection process at another club Hardwick was unsuccessful at, he said Hardwick was very impressive in his initial interviews and his pre-prepared presentations were very good.

He was pretty much over the line until the final interview where the panel asked him to represent his original presentation and they grilled him about their perceived weaknesses in it, their feedback was they were surprised how poorly he handled being put on the spot, and that he struggled to clearly present his thoughts. So they went with the coach who was second choice to that stage.

While it was a different club, there seems to be a similarity in that Hardwick struggled in the final interview, was it a computer issue at Essendon that undid him or did that just exacerbate a weakness already there.