yeah b-b-b-but u hate woosha.
2 Likes
John ‘Wayne’ Worsfold.
True Grit.
1 Like
Great coach, no, not until he’s won a flag, but he’s achieved ten times more than Hardwick in 4 years less.
1 Like
Maybe, but hardwick has had the harder task imo.
Wooshfold has been terrific.
That’s not a knife !
2 Likes
I think im pretty happy with the way things have gone this year because a) we have won 3 in a row b) its round 17 and we are still in the hunt to play finals, and c) guys like Zerret, Fanta, Joe D, Walla, are heaps better than Stanton/McVeigh, Monfries, Neagle/Gumby, Jetta/Davey from times of old.
I agree ive got low expectations but Im proud of how the future is looking.
At the same time I agree we are hardly a force yet given we are only in the eight on % and there’ve been plenty of years where the last 5 rounds have gone poorly for us.
Its a pretty exciting stage of the season, where things could click and we could finish with some serious momentum and who knows what could happen, or we could lose the next 3 and be done and dusted before the last lap.
At the start of the season I thought making finals was doable, and winning a final would get Woosha an A+, so I’m going to wait and see how this all pans out before I rate Woosha.
3 Likes
Their injury situation has been horrible also.
It was way worse last year
Was it? I mustn’t have been paying attention. I know Murphy was out for a long time - most of the year. Clay Smith was injured, also. The Better Half (actually… you’ve met) is a Dogs supporter, so I get to see a lot of them. Every week she’s telling me about their injuries…
I’m happier with Worsfold recently because, (duh), we’re winning.
When we were losing games like Brisbane I was less happy with him. Radical, I know.
I get both sides of this, we’ve obviously had challenges this year stemming from the friggin saga, players being out of the game etc, but I’ve never been convinced on this “chemistry/make changes themselves” theory. The chemistry maybe, but if they need to learn to make changes themselves then step one of that process is to demonstrate what changes should be made and when. Kind of like what coaches do.
We are coming out of an unprecedented period of disruption to our list, so Woosha gets a pass IMO, but he could have got a better one.
1 Like
So your assumption is that he hasn’t done this, not that he has spent the time and effort to guide them?
2 Likes
There’s a couple of bits of compelling evidence that he hasn’t.
If he’s done it at training, that’s not really relevant and hasn’t shown through consistently on game days. Which is what we get to see. Call it on the job training if you like, more moves could have been made in the earlier parts of the season to give compelling examples of what was expected.
I don’t make any assumptions about team meetings or training sessions because I don’t see them.
It’s a double edged sword. I thought this year was going to be about heaps of changes most weeks, blooding kids and resting old guys, and experimenting with players in different positions as well as messing with ruck combos and fwd lines. All this was with a view to get to know his players and work out the way forward.
My gut feeling as that he has used less than 30 players which seems low for any team let alone one in our position?
What Woosha has done is quickly settled on his best side and stuck with it to see if it can improve, rather than make wholesale changes.
This also goes for making changes during games. How do you know if your game plan is resilient if you change it as soon as it struggles? There’s only one way to get real data to investigate this, but i agree it comes at a cost.
5 Likes
So in other words you are making assumptions. You have no evidence either way so you are going to declare that he hasn’t.
Much like others have said, but I’ll leave some thoughts as well.
Yes, the “leave it up to the players” thing is annoying. Both in the sense of them being emotionally prepared to play the game against perceived weaker opponents, and in the sense of making changes during the flow of the game to counter the opposition or take advantage of their weaknesses.
For the coaches to not be doing everything they can to manipulate those things to our advantage just means that the opposition is playing with an advantage. I was watching Brad Scott go off at Daw on the weekend and was thinking both, “you’re a complete moron”, and “at least he is trying to rectify what he sees as an issue”.
I do just wonder if the coaches have perhaps underestimated where this team would end up this year. Because setting a plan and making them follow it regardless of performance seems like a fine thing to do with a developing team. And perhaps we are still that even though we are currently in the 8. However once you hit finals, if you still choose to persist with this lack of intervention to improve performance because your trying to teach the players to do it themselves… well that would just seem silly. Similarly, if we miss finals by a game or two, and we’ve lost to Brisbane / Carlton / etc when a couple of astute coaches moves / words on match day may have made a difference in the result. Well, would you have rather have made those moves and played finals, or continued to teach the players to identify and make the moves themselves.
Summary : I’m yet to be convinced our coaching panel are good matchday coaches.
It has, but they were IMO the hardest working side last year and this year they’re a long way from that.
1 Like
Blitz is built on assumptions.
4 Likes
8 years, 4-5 elite players on the books when he got there, unwavering support of the board, 75k members and heaps of money to spend on uber-assistants like Choco?
Geez, tough ask.
I think a lot of your criticisms of Essendon are true to a point but everything that’s gone wrong at Essendon has gone right at Richmond - stable coaches, very few big injuries, no gun players wanting out, they’ve managed to land a few good players from GC/GWS (Prestia, Cassidy), no off-field troubles, good finances, etc etc etc and they’ve achieved…?
Which is worse??
Looking good compared to Wallet is the easiest gig going around, but it shouldn’t get you 8 years.
Yeah
Why should he try and train them at training?
3 Likes