Those who know me on here know that I am the I am usually the last person to blame the coaches. I think they cop the blame all to often. This is a long post but bear with me.
I understand that poor performances against sides we are supposed to beat have been happening well before this coaching panel. I don’t know what the cause of that is, but I don’t fully blame the coaching staff for that.
Against poorer sides our workrate always seems terrible. There is no accountability, no pressure, and no desperation. Again I don’t fully blame the coaching staff for that. The players and especially the leadership group are mainly to blame for that. If as an AFL player knows job is only football cannot be mentally pre-pared for the game they shouldn’t be there. Its most certainly a mental issue, I suspect some sort of subconscious air of arrogance.
I understood last year that the coaching staff where dealing with having to mix the old players with the new. I gave them slack when they would stick to the game plan and trust in it for long term success. Even though from the outside looking in, obvious changes seen by all could have saved games. I believed that changing things up may have lead to more confusion due to lack of time playing together. That the players may loose faith in the “way the coach wanted them to play”
Sure the players put in a poor performance today. But we are becoming increasingly easy to play against, teams figure you when you only have one way to win.
Why did we persist with trying to guard space when the doggies had the ball. They just kicked around us like witches hats for one and a half quarters. Half way through the 2nd we started finally maning up with instant success. But then in the 3rd we came out trying to guard space again. I could be totally wrong but it felt to me like the players where told to go back to guarding space.
Why don’t we put Joe in the ruck at times, last year he was quiet in games, then once on the ball he got a few touches, gained some confidence, and looked unstoppable. Or is he simply playing injured.
Why not swing Hooker back earlier, if they did it probably would have won us the game.
I can certainly see why people are saying John is a poor gameday coach. He seems to persist with things to long believing they will come good. But its not only during one game, its from week to week as well.
I am not an AFL coach but I am a strong believer in the basics. We persist with a kamikaze risk all style of game, all the time. Trying to take the impossible kick, and handballing to stationary targets. Guarding space when we should be manning up.
We need to become far less predictable, and fast. If we don’t its going to be a long season.