Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

[Maddog37]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

He will make mistakes. He is still a rookie AFL coach.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

He has said this a lot, I will concede that. For mine some of the comments surrounding education of the playing group might have better been kept to himself (mainly prior to Christmas, I'm not going to dig out examples). Perhaps nobody else picked up on them, or they weren't there in the first place

FWIW, I noticed this too. He made several mentions of having to re-educate the players, having to go back to basic etc. To me, this came across as a shot at Eade and Co.

[GVGjr]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

FWIW, I noticed this too. He made several mentions of having to re-educate the players, having to go back to basic etc. To me, this came across as a shot at Eade and Co.

I took it the other way in that he had to educate the team to play the way he wanted then to.

Eade had his style and philosophy on how footy should be played while McCartney has a different one.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

Was at training today and Macca gave the boys a serve during a ruetine drill. All I heard was How F-----g long does it take to ..... and that's when he calmed down and explained things.
The boys changed straight away and reverted to playing the drill the way Macca wanted.
I was very impressed.

So they should, being well-paid professionals.

[jeemak]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

FWIW, I noticed this too. He made several mentions of having to re-educate the players, having to go back to basic etc. To me, this came across as a shot at Eade and Co.

Knowing that I make up 50% of a paranoid sub-section of the fan base is much better than knowing I make up 100% of a paranoid sub-section of the fan base .

[MrMahatma]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

I felt he talked a bit like he was footy Yoda in the offseason.

But we're in season now and he's 0-2. Still a lot of water to go under the bridge.

[Bornadog]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

A couple of further questions and observations:

* Have you noticed if the backline is structuring up differently -

BMC started off at Geelong as the back line coach and really moulded them together before moving on to be the midfield coach and we know how good they have turned out to be. I guess its going to take him a few years to get the right players to play the way he wants them to play.

I am not convinced we have the right players at the moment, but we will eventually get there.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

* It's my sense that Hudson would be loving the change in contested-ball philosophy (which Eade always rated highly, but didn't seek so much to create contest after contest). It's a pity in my opinion that he'd decided to move up North before he found out who the new coach was.

This was always the easy win bit with this team though. I said last year when we were getting carved up that we should have been playing like Sydney circa 2006-8, as we had a bunch of slow, hard ball winners but very few super talented superstars who were going to hurt teams from open play (and conversely, was a bit too slow and short to stop teams hurting us from open play).

Roos built a hard-as-nails team of parts to just keep the ball stuck inside as much as possible and isolated his two or three superstars (Barry, Goodes) to do damage one-on-one. It was a no-brainer that we had the personnel to at least do that okay in 2011 but Eade had invested too much in the style he had built since 2006 to change it too drastically, and when he started moving to it his older messages were too entrenched with the troops to get much buy-in, so you would get inconsistent commitment to the changes in game plan.

I am glad that Macca at least has had the brains to see that (you wouldn't last long in this caper without some nous), but the main thing the boys are getting from him is simply a fresh voice, saying a lot of the same things, but without even any imperative to actually win a game of football. No question Macca has had an easier job so far than Eade did last year: Eade actually had pressure on him not only to prove that the side was 'hard', but to make a GF and win the thing. It's a lot easier to just get the team to buy into the hard, ball-winning side of things if there is no imperative to actually score goals and beat teams and all that -- and since that's all we're looking for this year, and winning the hard ball has never been this team's problem, it's 'easier' at this point to look good as a coach.

Macca's real test will come over the next couple of years to prove that he can actually convert this hardness into wins, which is where you have to supplement the crazy attack on the ball with actual thinking, quality, structure and skill -- otherwise you may as well recruit a whole team of Addissons. They'll look committed every day, but you won't win a lot of games of football.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

Just after a few opinions on the way the new coach is tracking? Personally I am stoked with our new coach. I have enjoyed the way we have gone about things and the way Macca conducts himself. The players like him and he seems to have a really good relationship with the players. I have seen plenty of things to like in his 2 games in charge so far.

He has them playing a definitive style and it was obvious from the first pre season game that the playing group had adapted to it and embraced it. Regardless of whether it is the right style to play for our group (I think it is) it is really impressive that he has already got them playing such a specific brand of football. It shows buy in from the players and shows that he certainly knows how to convey a message. Yes it is a professional environment and they have a long time to work on these things but lots of other clubs have had trouble getting teams to change a style of play especially changing it so dramatically.

I love that I see progression in lots of players individually. I see them make a mistake one week and the next week they play it differently. We are doing the basics at a far higher level. Our positioning around packs and ability to extricate the ball from congestion cleanly is much better. This is not a criticism of Eade. Eade was a fantastic coach and I hope McCartney can be as successful as he was but like players different coaches have different strengths.

Under Eade I was often frustrated by the positioning of some players at contests and even basic things like getting up front and square to a marking contest. Can you remember our side ever having as many front and square gathers in a game? On Saturday night we murdered Adelaide in patches just by creating a contest and having players getting to the right spot at the front of the pack. In the past our players had a tendency to run down the side of the pack or forward of the play.

These little things will not win us a premiership or even guarantee us a finals birth but they are incredibly important and something I always felt we were missing. We have some huge holes that need filling but getting these things right as a foundation is absolutely the right way to go IMO.

Something that stands out to me that we are bringing into our game is the ability to stand up in traffic and turn dead balls into wins for us. We are getting really good at winning balls that are about to called for a ball up or going out of bounds. Just with the way we are protecting the space around the ball and standing up to release players with little handballs. I watch replays of Geelong games regularly and it is a Geelong trait. They just win more of the little contests within contests than other sides.

We have played 2 good football sides and are still in a transition phase but in both games we completely dominated patches. We had Adelaide completely pinned in its own half for almost 75% of the 3rd quarter on Saturday night. Against West Coast we recovered from a horrific start to really take control for patches of the match. If we had of got a bit more reward I am sure we would not have dropped away. Not many sides will compete that strongly with West Coast for 3 quarters this year I assure you.

We have some glaring deficiencies that need fixing. None of these were of McCartneys making. He obviously needs to do some work on how we can make better use of our forward entries. I like the way we are able to create congestion and then burst away from that with guys like Dahlhouse and Griff. It is the next kick we are having trouble with. I liked the way we addressed it in the 3rd quarter on Saturday. We seemed to hold onto the footy a bit more when we had nothing on. It will take time and obviously we need to improve the personnel at our disposal.

We need some players that have a bit more skill with ball in hand and some pace to break the lines but the best way to counter that at this stage is keeping the ball either in our hands or in congestion for as long as possible. We are going a long way towards doing that already.

I am enjoying the combative and organised way we are playing. It is obvious we are playing to a specific game plan based around having numbers around the ball, contested footy and short passing. I like it, I like the way it plays to our strengths and I like the way the players are embracing it.

We are 0-2 so we obviously have some work to do. I am certainly not saying we will win the premiership and I would be surprised if we make the finals but I think we are on the right path. Watching us play at the moment is like watching a light bulb switch on in the players heads. To me I can just see them starting to see the merits in the way we are playing. They need only refine it and apply it for longer to get some results. I might be wrong but I am certainly a fan of the way McCartney is going about things so far.

DT having seen the St Kilda game, what are your thoughts now? Just wondered if you wanted to add anything to your thoughts above, which are good reading.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

We are just three games in , our backline is not structured the way Macca would have wanted with Morris out, Williams out ,Lake just back to full fitness , Hargrave not in form , Wood and Addison used to fill in and at least Addison is grinding out the results , Markovic under fire but coping , at the moment we just don,t have the stable back 6 a good side is based on and thats not Macca,s fault
Our forward line just hasn,t clicked , Jones is only young and is in danger of burning out without some structure around him , Minson and Roughead have been rotating through but just hav,nt made an impact , Dickson has had two games to show him the standard required he is a proven goalkicker but needs some time to get up to speed , Gia is supposed to be showing some leadership and he would all too aware that his output is down , Dahlhaus is playing higher up the ground and we are missing his energy closer to goal , we do have other options but its going to be a week to week problem based on match ups and tactics , I,d say thats a 50/50 split between the players and Macca
Our midfield has been given the responsibility to score the bulk of our goals given our offensive weaknesses , Macca has a game plan to make sure we fight for control of the ball the players have tried to follow the game plan but just have just not had the disposal efficiency and decision making to make sure the game plan is carried out correctly , this has meant that we havn,t scored quickly or easily and not consistently over 4 quarters , this lack of control and flawed decision making has starved the forward line and on turnovers allowed the opposition to rebound and spread , I,d say that 70% the players 30% Macca
So overall there is more upside to come , Macca just has to keep on keeping on , the players just have to sharpen up and focus , and the fans just have to be patient


.

[Missing-Dog]

Re: Two games in...Thoughts on McCartney?

We are just three games in , our backline is not structured the way Macca would have wanted with Morris out, Williams out ,Lake just back to full fitness , Hargrave not in form , Wood and Addison used to fill in and at least Addison is grinding out the results , Markovic under fire but coping , at the moment we just don,t have the stable back 6 a good side is based on and thats not Macca,s fault
Our forward line just hasn,t clicked , Jones is only young and is in danger of burning out without some structure around him , Minson and Roughead have been rotating through but just hav,nt made an impact , Dickson has had two games to show him the standard required he is a proven goalkicker but needs some time to get up to speed , Gia is supposed to be showing some leadership and he would all too aware that his output is down , Dahlhaus is playing higher up the ground and we are missing his energy closer to goal , we do have other options but its going to be a week to week problem based on match ups and tactics , I,d say thats a 50/50 split between the players and Macca
Our midfield has been given the responsibility to score the bulk of our goals given our offensive weaknesses , Macca has a game plan to make sure we fight for control of the ball the players have tried to follow the game plan but just have just not had the disposal efficiency and decision making to make sure the game plan is carried out correctly , this has meant that we havn,t scored quickly or easily and not consistently over 4 quarters , this lack of control and flawed decision making has starved the forward line and on turnovers allowed the opposition to rebound and spread , I,d say that 70% the players 30% Macca
So overall there is more upside to come , Macca just has to keep on keeping on , the players just have to sharpen up and focus , and the fans just have to be patient


.

Spot on! I could not have added anything further to that so I will just agree. Good post