Given the turnaround in the midfield over the last month or so I’m starting to wonder whether Skipworth deserves a bit more credit.
He had our forward line absolutely humming last year and it’s gone backwards since Corrigan took over. There are obviously some personnel challenges there but we were ruthlessly efficient going forward under Skipworth’s guidance and we’re near the bottom of the table now.
Our midfield is clearly lacking the class of other teams and has taken a while to gel, but over the last month or so we’ve been performing really well statistically and Bellchambers has developed some really great chemistry with the small blokes.
you mean all that success of ball movement we have off our hbf? or how our midfield did sweet ■■■■ all to not leave us in the bottom half of the ladder by the half way point?
you mean the midfield that pulled their heads out of their arses after we sacked a coach before the ■■■■■■■ bye?
idc if i sound like wimm right now, hes had 1 good year and a month out of an 8 year career. like david myers. but whatever.
Not only is there different personnel, but players injured, players down on form, players in different positions. You can’t compare the two. Totally different beasts. Although it seems to be functioning quite well when the personnel are as well.
I think our midfield has enough class. Zerrett, Heppell, Smith, Zaka (before he went down), Langford, Stringer, I think is a fair amount of class. As you point out it has taken a while to gel. And to blend with the rest of the team. Which it has done since Harding took over the tactical role from Neeld.
TBell’s interaction with our mids comes down to Jamar (as the ruck coach) and Kelly (as the stoppage coach).
Shitworth can fark off. Although given he has been an assistant at EFC since Noah launched the ark, and no other club has ever tried to poach him, he’d probably struggle to find somewhere to fark off too!
Not sure it speaks volumes other than the reality of the situation
He wasn’t a star AFL player with premiership history with that cred to his name.
Became a development coach who then got to be VFL coach who then got to be fwdline coach and was successful.
But EFC hardly hasnt had any success finals wise as yet so why would another club come after him
Now moved to midfield. Kudos will come of sorts given we are the number 1 pressure side over the last 6 rds or so. But really until we make and win finals can’t see him being head hunted.
Certain former Hawthorn assistant went from even further obscurity having never played AFL and is now senior coach at Carlton
Skippy building a resume slowly it seems.
Whether the club is likely to still bring in more experienced assistants moving fwd we shall have to see
I see a guy that is currently performing well in his role, this year and last year. Don’t know anything about his history and I don’t pretend to know what goes on at the club but Skipworth’s recent results seem very encouraging. If anybody thinks he’s crap this year I’d love to know why.
So everyone else but Skipworth is responsible for the mid field improvement?
At the very least you’ve got to give Skippy credit then for overseeing and managing all these other coaches input “without confusing the players” ™
And the valid point re the the forward line coaching - last year I posted several times that I thought the VFL forward set was the worst organised aspect of that side - borne out by results. Corrigan has replicated that worry this year in the firsts.
Skipworth has been a coach at Essendon for 5 or 6 years, hardly a lifetime. Coaching the Bendigo Bombers was a worse assignment than coaching Carlscum and he survived.
Don’t know if he is a good coach, but he did OK with forwards last year and our midfield has improved.
I think you’re misjudging him. He was an honest trier as a player, lacked pace and size but not courage or endeavour. He actually did pretty well at Bendigo even though it was a very hard gig and he wasn’t there long. As others have said, he did well with our forwardline and now he’s got the mids going. Sure there are many factors behind success and failure, but you’re searching for reasons to downplay apparent success.
I don’t think any decisions should ever be made on any coach mid-season and that everyone should be assessed after our final game, whether it’s the last Home and away round or the Grand Final. Skipworth is going well right now and if the midfield continues to impress then I would certainly be signing him on for next year.