Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

[Missing-Dog]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

I hope Bmac is saving it for a Grand Final in 2016, where at half time we are 22 points behind, he goes into the change rooms and gives the boys a good spray like they have never seen over the 4 years! They realise, this is serious sh1t now, ome out the 2nd half and slap the other team by 16 points, in 2016, where Griffen wins teh Brownlow, and North Smith, and happens to be number 16 himself..

ahhh.. We can only hope they are his plans

[LongWait]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Post match he suggested positioning was a key problem as it made it so much harder for us. We win as a team. We sink as a team. There will be some players "educated" .

We didn't adapt either to what was being done to us.

I assume this would refer to how to better position themselves outside the contest (not letting them get goal side and out the back), and how to assist team mates get more time to kick without there being so much pressure on them.

This is a real problem for us every game and was particularly evident yesterday. Our stoppage positioning both around the stoppage itself and further up and down the ground is awful and was exploited by Sydney all day.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Well, let's see how they adapt against Port.

[angelopetraglia]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Anyone watch him On the Couch? What did you think? Pretty soft questions. I didn't learn too much.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Anyone watch him On the Couch? What did you think? Pretty soft questions. I didn't learn too much.

Yep, nothing there of any note really.

[Bornadog]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Anyone watch him On the Couch? What did you think? Pretty soft questions. I didn't learn too much.

I watched it and agree the questioning was pathetic and as usual that show gives us less time than any other team. Most other interviews go for far longer and they really delve into those clubs, but with Brendan it was barely 5 minutes.

The one thing he did say was we are desperate for a mid size quick forward who can also kick goals.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

This is a real problem for us every game and was particularly evident yesterday. Our stoppage positioning both around the stoppage itself and further up and down the ground is awful and was exploited by Sydney all day.

You asked me why I questioned Macca's canniness on another thread. You've answered your own question here.

I have no doubt he's a great developer of people, but his tactical nous has been shown up more than once this year, and we are definitely the side getting 'sucker punched', by little moves by opposition coaches here and there, the most out of any team I've watched in 2012. We give up a lot of goals just by being a bit naive in our approach to the game, and I think the coach has a lot to do with that.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

I watched it and agree the questioning was pathetic and as usual that show gives us less time than any other team. Most other interviews go for far longer and they really delve into those clubs, but with Brendan it was barely 5 minutes.

The one thing he did say was we are desperate for a mid size quick forward who can also kick goals.

There's the rub. You could only use that in reference to Griff, Dahl or Wood with a straight face and it ain't enough.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

There's the rub. You could only use that in reference to Griff, Dahl or Wood with a straight face and it ain't enough.

And only one of those is a regular forward.

[Remi Moses]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

The interviews are usually fluffy. Swans got goal side on our Forward entries, we need a mid size option or two. Stuff we all know

[jeemak]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

I watched it and agree the questioning was pathetic and as usual that show gives us less time than any other team. Most other interviews go for far longer and they really delve into those clubs, but with Brendan it was barely 5 minutes.

The one thing he did say was we are desperate for a mid size quick forward who can also kick goals.

We cop the same across all media. I remember listening to Rocket get cut off on SEN in the morning due to a need to cross to the 8:30am news. A week later Malthouse wasn't, at the same time of day (I'm really glad I don't listen to SEN anymore, there'd be no way I'd be able to retain the information I absorbed at uni these last twelve months if I did!).

I agree that we need a quick medium sized genuine forward, urgently. I've said in other threads one is the equal of any priority at our club, aside from a genuinely quick midfielder with excellent skills. I think the inconsistent output from Gia and Higgins at times has shown how hard this position is to master on a weekly basis, for mine, it's probably the hardest position to play on the ground in the modern game.

You asked me why I questioned Macca's canniness on another thread. You've answered your own question here.

I have no doubt he's a great developer of people, but his tactical nous has been shown up more than once this year, and we are definitely the side getting 'sucker punched', by little moves by opposition coaches here and there, the most out of any team I've watched in 2012. We give up a lot of goals just by being a bit naive in our approach to the game, and I think the coach has a lot to do with that.

I haven't seen enough of the team live to make a judgement on this, though in some respects I agree with you. Whether it is all McCartney or the players or a bit of both I'm not sure however, I have been concerned with the "cracking in" at all costs philosophy that has a tendency to mess up the balance at contests and loose ball situations.

It's all exacerbated by our innexperienced forward line, aside from Hggins and Gia, not being able to cope with the poor delivery and retard the opposition from moving the ball out quickly. The pace issues of the aforementioned senior players contribute to this as well.

With respect to "cracking in" I really hope it's a short term measure to sort out who is prepared to contest and follow instructions at a basic level. I think the team is demonstrating most if not all members have been prepared to do this, and it's imperative we start seeing other layers being added to this simplistic philosophy in the second half of the season.

McCartney's comments post match suggested there was an element of our players not following instructions for setting up at stoppages and around the ground. It will be interesting to see if there is evidence of improvement in this area over the coming two months, because it's sorely needed.

[LongWait]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

You asked me why I questioned Macca's canniness on another thread. You've answered your own question here.

I have no doubt he's a great developer of people, but his tactical nous has been shown up more than once this year, and we are definitely the side getting 'sucker punched', by little moves by opposition coaches here and there, the most out of any team I've watched in 2012. We give up a lot of goals just by being a bit naive in our approach to the game, and I think the coach has a lot to do with that.

The coaching staff's ability to quickly teach and get player adherence to the correct positioning at stoppages has little or nothing to do with "canniness".

The previous coach had 7 years to teach the players how to position themselves correctly and didn't bother or couldn't, but now the problem (which we've had since I can remember) is evidence of a lack of "canniness" from McCartney? I think not.

[Mofra]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

It's rarely the senior coach alone that comes up with a plan for the opposition each week. The man on man style worked wonders against North as it forced them to rush their handball style game, causing turnovers.
Sydney destroyed us due to their positioning around the stoppages.
Give and take.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

It's rarely the senior coach alone that comes up with a plan for the opposition each week. The man on man style worked wonders against North as it forced them to rush their handball style game, causing turnovers.
Sydney destroyed us due to their positioning around the stoppages.
Give and take.

The man-on-man style "worked" on North because they are a rabble. Anything should work on that mob (I know they beat Geelong but that's footy isn't it).

I stand by my comments that Macca is not a tactical genius -- his gameplan is basically Geelong 2008 (without the cattle), and his gameday adjustments are generally slow and obvious, and he doesn't seem to have the intuitive rat cunning that the best gameday coaches do, so tends to get blindsided by lateral moves by opposition coaches. Anyone is of course free to disagree and I guess we'll see in due time won't we.

No reason why we couldn't still be successful though -- tactics are only one component of football.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

The coaching staff's ability to quickly teach and get player adherence to the correct positioning at stoppages has little or nothing to do with "canniness".

The previous coach had 7 years to teach the players how to position themselves correctly and didn't bother or couldn't, but now the problem (which we've had since I can remember) is evidence of a lack of "canniness" from McCartney? I think not.

The only person I remember saying that Rocket didn't position players well at stoppages is Macca (implied in a comment that he had to educate players on this stuff). Yet, one of those guys senior coached his teams to 3 prelims and a grand final, and the other guy is 10 games into a senior gig, so maybe it should be taken with a grain of salt: of course Rocket knew how he wanted his clearance set-ups done, and, from all evidence, it generally worked pretty well.

The evidence goes beyond just clearances too. We have been hit over the back more than any team this season, and I'm sure if stats were kept on this stuff, we would see that more backmen have snuck forward (while still playing as backmen, not swapped into the forwardline) to kick goals on us than on any other team in the comp. One could say it's because Gia and Higgo are so slow that smart opposition coaches just get their younger, faster, fitter defenders to sneak forward because Gia and Higgo won't follow them, but that requires a counter-move from Macca, and 10 games in, it's still happening with monotonous regularity. I don't even mind if we see a counter-move tried, even if it doesn't work, but I don't think the players are even noticing the problem, which tells me that the coaching staff haven't noticed it either and are just putting it down to normal game circumstances.

Having said that, I know Macca is still teaching the team to play the way he wants, so the jury is out. Do you really think he's a tactical genius, LongWait?