You say they have gone backwards but I am not seeing that. Last year those players were being forced to play every game so we saw them for longer and they become settled in their roles. This year it is all over the shop due to the returning players. No one is settled in their position and it is showing as the team struggles to play consistent combined footy.
This is the issue facing Woosha and why it irritates me when we lose and everyone starts screaming for selection changes. Constantly changing the side is not helping the players and isn’t helping the team. So I don’t think they have gone backwards but i do think they feel unsettled and uncertain.
This is hard for Woosha and the coaching panel and it is hard for the players. It is going to take time to settle and find a rhythm.
Can’t believe Dodoro passed up all those chances to get those awesome players. Oh wait, that many picks means enough room for plenty of other clubs to make the same dumb mistake too. What were they all thinking?! It’s almost like nothing is a sure thing at draft time and top players can come from further down. Nah, that can’t be right.
Assimilating the returning players was all on the coaches. You can’t say oh dear we have no continuity when the coach threw that away. At least for areas that were functional.
The games we’ve won, we’ve been able to run out the game.
The games we’ve lost, we’ve struggled to run out the game.
The pattern has been with us for more than a few years now. We play well enough to have a 4 goal break then cannot sustain the intensity.
The pattern continued through JLT. It has continued early on this season.
If we can’t put together a month of good quality football at any stage this year, then hopefully we’ve been able to get games into our younger players and start planning for the future.
Worsfold is tracking ok given the ■■■■ cake job he’s taken. But at some stage (as with Sheeds, Knights, Hird and Bomba before him) the on field performances will out weigh the excuses.
The Myers backline scenario aside from an easier transition back to senior footy I think is us seeing Woosh trying to find a way to get a stronger bodied competitive taller type HBF from our current list.
I just don’t think he rates Gleeson there as been in and out of team and hence being trialled on a wing. Dea is too slow. Morgan can’t get on park.
Hocking is going to be next trialled there IMO based on where he is playing in VFL
The lure of Myers kicking off HBF doesn’t cover over his flaws. He is however is terrible overhead. And has no composure under pressure and a habit of just kicking the ball blindly. He ain’t a defender. Inside mid or nothing at all for him.
We miss Hibbo. Wish we still had him.
Have to find someone. Zac Tuohy would have been great but we are a year too late.
I wonder if it has something to do with two factors, fitness and injuries.
Myers is very injury prone and playing midfield is one of the most physically demanding roles in the modern game. I imagine after a year off and only a few games to get right the coaching staff were reticent to play him in the midfield and have him stuffed for the year. I imagine they want to get him into the game and to get him some match fitness with a lesser chance of suffering some sort of injury. Watson has always been a midfield beast and even he has struggled to get back into without falling apart, Myers season would be over if he did that.
So to me, if my thoughts are correct, it makes perfect sense to play him off HBF to ease him back into football.
And on that note it seems too many in here seemed to expect all the players would come back and play brilliant football as simple as that. Which I find strange. An injured player who has been out for 12 months always takes half a season to get back to anywhere near normal output. They are only one player and have a full team of support around them to cover as they do this. Now imagine you bring in half a dozen players at the same time under the same sort of conditions, I wonder what might happen in the second half of a game?
The logistics of rebuilding this side is unprecedented for this coaching panel, let alone for anyone in the AFL.
Oh please! There was no way to do this and win. Most people on here were demanding the returning players all take part from game one, now that they are exhausted and struggling people are having a go at the coaching panel for playing them.
The one thing you do well Ants is assess games fairly, but you also have the greatest capacity for 20/20 hindsight brilliant input. Anyone can do that.
Outline on here how you would tackle each player for the rest of the year. Start with the forwards and when and how you would play them, then outline the midfield positions and rotations, then move the backline. Then provide an understanding of how you would rest players, cover for injured players, determine when a player should be omitted and then watch what the reserves do and determine who is playing well and who is playing to the game plan.
I am also of the opinion that Zaka is done, however Woosha has said he is playing his role the way they want him to. We don’t know what that is so it is hard for us to judge if that is fair or not. All we see is the game and we decide Zaka is crap and must go. Meanwhile Zaka gets marked as doing his job properly by the coaching panel as a whole, not just Woosha. Is he making mistakes (butchering the ball)? Yes he is. But is he doing the role required of him? Don’t know as I don’t know what that role is.
I get the feeling the Worsfold is coaching this year like an experiment to see who’s good, who’s bad, who’s not required, and who we need next year.
I never see him on the TV vision, on the phone making changes, giving instructions, getting heated or anything.
He seems to sit there watching the game before him, like he is also watching it on TV, making observations etc.
It’s as though the game and match is being left up to the players to sort out on the day.
I don’t know, it’s such a weird year for us with all these aging returned players, and the young guys from last year trying to gel as a team, and for parts of the game, it works, and then it doesn’t. It’s like they switch off.
As soon as it’s mathematically not possible for us to play finals (not far off), I sure hope we remove all players who won’t be there next year and play the ones who will, and try and salvage something for the future.
Whilst it’s his 2nd year it may as well be viewed like it’s his first where he comes in assesses, makes the appropriate culls at years end. And he needs to be allowed to do this.
Frustrating for supporters who just crave wins and success. Have to change our expectations for year, enjoy seeing the growth and development of our younger players. Even those making mistakes a plenty or far from being fit enough.
Don’t even need a hard tag on him, he is softer than Zaka and gets most of his kicks in the 3rd row of the grandstand and yet we felt the need not to have anyone play anywhere near him. Just needed someone to stay close to him and put a little bit of body contact on him and he would of gone to water.
He always looks like he is holding back a world of emotions during every post match press conference. Even when he smile he is still no completely there.
Maybe it’s the way he deals with patience with mediocrity while knowing that this is a process.
My question is “Does he need to cull any of his assistants”? I don’t know whether they are any good but there is a lot of recycling going on in the coaches box.
I think blaming coaches letting the players off the hook and skirting the issue about our list just not being that good.
We’ve got 4 coaches who’ve all been AFL senior coaches at some point, they all are very experienced. And Skipworth who internally is highly regarded, and frankly our fwd line has been working well thus far.
