Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

[stefoid]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Well yeah, but all Gia and other small forwards really want is for the ball to be kicked vaguely to their advantage. Do that and he will kick 4 goals a game.

I still maintain that our signficant problem is getting clean ball through the midfield and stopping the opposition from doing the same. Its when that breaks down that we get pumped.

I would love to be privvy to Macs real thoughts on Grant and Sherman, because we have all the pace injection into the forward half we need right there, with some crumbing skill to boot.

[GVGjr]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

While I do enjoy Brendan's 'loving father' delivery, I wonder if any of our leaders will be ever dropped?
Higgins and Gia are so similar in pace. It's getting to the stage where one of them may have to make way for someone a little faster.

Have to agree with you on this one Ghost. I think there is only room for one of Missy and Gia, who play a very similar game as forwards. While they are pretty much the only regular contributors to goals scored, dropping or moving out one of them is difficult unfortunately.
We desperately need at least two others down forward who contribute multiple goals regularly.
Once we develop or acquire those guys, one of who surely needs to be a crumber with goal sense and blistering pace, one of Gia and Missy might need to reinvent themselves to remain in the side.

[Bornadog]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

While I do enjoy Brendan's 'loving father' delivery, I wonder if any of our leaders will be ever dropped?
Higgins and Gia are so similar in pace. It's getting to the stage where one of them may have to make way for someone a little faster.

The trouble is no one is putting up their hand to play. Last weeks effort by the Bulldogs players at Willi was woeful to say the least.

[Bornadog]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Have to agree with you on this one Ghost. I think there is only room for one of Missy and Gia, who play a very similar game as forwards. While they are pretty much the only regular contributors to goals scored, dropping or moving out one of them is difficult unfortunately.
We desperately need at least two others down forward who contribute multiple goals regularly.
Once we develop or acquire those guys, one of who surely needs to be a crumber with goal sense and blistering pace, one of Gia and Missy might need to reinvent themselves to remain in the side.

Brendan was asked if Higgins will be moved to the backline and he answered yes and said they did last week in the second half.

I would like to see him in the backline as he can deliver the ball well. Last year Rocket tried him there and he did well.

[Sedat]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

I would like to see him in the backline as he can deliver the ball well. Last year Rocket tried him there and he did well.

Only until Craig Bird got a hold of him and carved him up with 4 goals. That's the dilemna with creative types down back such as Bob, Higgins and Vesz - they will get scored against as they provide attacking rebound drive. To me, this is a necessary 'cost of doing business' so to speak as we really need to provide our forwards with enough quality ball to impact on the scoreboard.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Probably why I supported the option to get Laidley over as support for Macca. He is far superior to Macca in terms of tactical nous and he was the best candidate available at the time.

Laidley may be tactically better than McCartney, but he is a poor coach overall. I have never seen a coach who could so often get his team into winning positions and then not close out the game. We would be ringing our hands at the moment. He is not a good coach and would have been the wrong fit for us. What did he achieve at North?

My take on Macca and the position we are in is that we remain a work in progress. We will have good games and poor games. We will finish bottom half of the table. Importantly though we are getting games into young guys as well as developing a style of football which is honest rather than flashy, that when our younger guys mature physically will make us tough to beat.

Losing a battle doesn't necessarily mean you lose the war. Take the 2 non-competitive losses for what they were and look instead at the overall. Wins against sides we should have beaten. Competitive losses against top 4 contenders. Its all moving in the right direction.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

This is not a referrendum on McCartney v Eade. Rocket's time at the club has long ended and his record with us is well and truly secure. Your thoughts and perspectives on Rocket's tenure are well known (as are mine) and you are more than entitled to air them on 'woof' for discussion and dissemination, but this thread is not about Rocket, it is about our new senior coach.

Like all first time coaches, McCartney is finding his feet in what is a brutal caper and working with the tools he has at his disposal. The good has definitely outweighed the bad thus far IMO, but it is OK for some of us to be concerned with 2 utterly non-competitive performances in 10 weeks - that makes for 4 a season which one would hope is a pattern that is eradicated sooner rather than later. Rome wasn't built in a day and getting the base right is a critically important part of the equation, but there is more to becoming a successful team than just 'cracking in' - I wholeheartedly trust McCartney to understand this intimately and to work on teaching the playing group to become fully rounded players. I will say this though...McCartney will be working with one hand tied behind his back if he cannot get the requisite support from Simon Dalrymple in identifying talents and skill sets in new draftees that our club is currently in short supply of, Jason McCartney in developing a well-rounded playing list, and the rest of the footy dept in supporting Brendan's efforts as senior coach. These are issues out of his full control, and his coaching career will ultimately live and die by the decisions in list management and the draft table in the next year or two.

Great measured post Sedat.

Would we have the $$'s to get involved in that sort of deal?

On that topic there was some interesting discussion on AFL 360 last night... With the hosts both Rocket & 'Bomber' Thompson provided some interesting thoughts on where the off-field game is heading and that the gap between the haves and the have nots is going to continue to widen.... Without saying too much you could tell that Rocket has seen a huge gap between what we have and what we have to deal with compared to Collingwood.

Depressing, isn't it?

[mjp]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

I actually enjoyed the interview and thought it went for about the 'normal' amount of time - and yes, I watch the show every week.

I remain baffled though by talk about lacking mid-sized forwards both by McCartney and on this thread. Didn't we play THREE of them on the weekend - Gia, Higgins and Dickson? And couldn't your argue we played FIVE (add Veszpremi and Murphy who also went down there to the list). And didn't a SIXTH (Skinner) travel? And yet another - Sherman - get dropped?

If everyone is waiting for the second coming of Brad Johnson or for Stevie J to see the light and migrate across from the Pies - it is going to be a cold winter! Who else is even out there? And - to get back on my favorite hobby horse - if mid-size forwards are the priority, then why select Smith over Crozier????

[Rocco Jones]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

If everyone is waiting for the second coming of Brad Johnson or for Stevie J to see the light and migrate across from the Pies - it is going to be a cold winter! Who else is even out there?

It's going to very long if we have to wait for him to join Collingwood and then see the light and join us.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

I think we need to give Macca the 2nd half of the year to see improvements. I think he has been very good soo far for a coach who has never played AFL football himself and is only 10 games in to his coaching career with a club who is in the middle of a rebuild.

Yet people seem to say this doesn't matter.

[Dazza]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

He also mentioned Grant needs to bulk up. Any chance this is the reason he's been out the past couple of weeks without explanation?

[azabob]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Yet people seem to say this doesn't matter.

Do you think it matters? Personally I don't.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Do you think it matters? Personally I don't.

Yeah I do. I just don't see that someone who has never played at the highest level can speak with great authority on it.

[Before I Die]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Yeah I do. I just don't see that someone who has never played at the highest level can speak with great authority on it.

This from a teacher??


Coaching and playing are completely different activities with very limited skills overlap. I can't begin to imagine why it would matter whether or not he had played at the highest level.

But then, this is an opinion forum and everybody is entitled to their own.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

This from a teacher??


Coaching and playing are completely different activities with very limited skills overlap. I can't begin to imagine why it would matter whether or not he had played at the highest level.

But then, this is an opinion forum and everybody is entitled to their owm.

Yes, that from a teacher. In my work, I don't speak with any authority on topics I have little or no experience in. I don't coach athletics because I can't run (oh, and I hate it), I don't teach singing because I can't sing.