Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

[Mantis]

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.

As did St.Kilda, who also sat off us at the clearances and then thumped us when we turned it over.

So far we have beaten the 3 worst teams in the competition and one which is a bit of a basket case. And while being competitive and threatening at times in the rest we haven't been sharp enough to beat teams who are slightly better than us.

The rest of the season has a number of 50:50 games (including the next 2), a number that look like certain losses, but not too many where we look certain winners so it's going to be interesting to see how we finish the season off.

As with comments that Lantern has posted our in game coaching has been indifferent, I guess Macca is still probably coming to grips with being the 'ship steerer' on game day, but he needs to find his feet sooner rather than later... That fact that he has very little experience in the box to help him wouldn't make it any easier.

[Missing-Dog]

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.

[Sedat]

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.

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.

[Mantis]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

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.

But doesn't the coach also need to let Simon do his job?

Stories around draft time were that Brendan wanted 'hard nuts', whereas Simon had his eye on some spread (outside) types which our team/ list is screaming out for.... Smith is going to be a solid player for us, but in the balance of things he wasn't the type we needed at that point in time.

[Mofra]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

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.

I think that's the rub - for mine, his good outweighs the bad, and tactical nous is somethign that can be developed and supported by assistant coaching staff (and the "football director" role some clubs tend to favour with Thompson & Eade).
FWIW the criticisms of B-Mac on Woof tend to be more measured and constructive as well - this thread is a good example, no histerics.

[1eyedog]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

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.

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.

[Sedat]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

Stories around draft time were that Brendan wanted 'hard nuts', whereas Simon had his eye on some spread (outside) types which our team/ list is screaming out for.... Smith is going to be a solid player for us, but in the balance of things he wasn't the type we needed at that point in time.

Only time will tell, but it will be interesting keeping an eye on Hayden Crozier's progress and also Brad McKenzie's - like Smith, both have already had a taste at this level. I'm comfortable that Clay Smith will have a very solid AFL career for us - he's simply too ferocious a ball hunter and loves physical contact for him not to have an impact at this level - but like you I have my concerns about overlooking genuine talent with skill with pace (even if a little underdeveloped physically) when presented with a top 20 pick. We won't know the merits or otherwise of our 2011 ND decisions for a good 2-3 years at least.

Of course we would not have needed to draft a Smith type had we been able to hold onto Ward but that is a topic for another day

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

If he hasn't 'gone off', even in the privacy of the change rooms after our losses to St.Kilda and again yesterday he never will.

Both of these performances were disgustingly bad.

My 7 week old child decided to drop the mother of all load's halfway through the first quarter, i guess she wasn't happy with that performance either.

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

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

Love your work

[Mantis]

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.

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.

[Cyberdoggie]

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.

I don't disagree, we have made some strange match day moves and especially sub choices. I also wonder how much of that is the coaches decision, as he spends a lot of time on the bench and seems to put faith in his coaching staff above to orchestrate things.

[stefoid]

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.

A forward who can kick goals, eh?

the man is a genius

[1eyedog]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

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.

I'm honestly not sure, probably not at the time when Macca came on board but I doubt if Laidely would have cost us fortune at the time, we may have had to cough up an additional 100-150k on top of Grant or King's salary to get him. I would prefer Laidley in the coaches box next to Macca than Grant or King who appeared to be safe options for Macca (no I do not mean yes men).

Senior coaches (mentors) in the coaches box is the new black, especially with first time coaches (Rocket, Laidley, Craig, Thompson)and I think we should start thinking about this as an option before we start loading up on the Clokes, Boaks. Alot of people disagreed with the Laidley option but for what he would provide (pure match day tactics and support for Macca) I thought he could have been a fantastic support.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

I dont know whether we had the dollars, but I dont think Laidley was available to us.
Watters and him were Eagles teammates many moons ago right?

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Brendan McCartney on the couch Monday

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.
.

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.