I thought Worsfold’s only strength was the ability to stay calm and controlled in all situations, including known media engagements.
If he can’t do that, then what exactly is his strength as a coach?
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OK, so what was wrong with saying that?
He mixes an amazing half time cordial. Like spot on, not too strong, not too cold and just the right amount of ice. It’s a rare talent, and one that we should be thankful for having at our club.
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Played the game for 5 years right?.
That’s incredible to be playing afl level footy with that much under your belt.
No he meant, too fast forwards because Freo were keeping at least 1 and sometimes 2 extra defenders at the back when all our forwards moved up to help get the ball out of defence. So McKenna or someone running fast and straight out of halfback and kicking the ball long to FF will have Hooker or Joe against 2 or 3.
Woosher actually said it was too fast and didn’t give our forwards time to come back and setup properly.
Now if Freo has kept extra players back we should have extra forwards and mids running back into our forward line, when our defenders have won the ball. So the coaches wanted the ball carrier to use our free players in transition, to look for short angled options where we had free players. A good example is when Smith kicked laterally to a spare player at CHF rather than bomb it into the square.
But to be fair I don’t think our high forwards were making good positions to make this strategy work. It was a role that should have suited Stringer’s skill base perfectly, but maybe he isn’t good at putting himself into the right positions.
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I actually have no problem with a coach singling out players in the presser if it’s deserved. Wouldn’t necessarily do it to a young kid though.But if that means players are going to be held to higher standards than I’m all for it.
Hopefully he is dealing out some hard truths behind closed doors to some of our senior guys too.
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Anyone who watched the game on TV would have no idea if Woosha’s comments were correct or incorrect.
“The message to the players was that if we go that fast every time, Fremantle always have a couple of players back,” Worsfold said.
"They don’t follow their men up and if we don’t give our forwards time to get back and set up we’re kicking into an extra number, at least one. That’s just players learning.
"Conor McKenna takes off every time even when the message is out that we’ve got loose numbers around the ball, let’s use them and let the forwards get back.
“So it’s about us just maturing as a group.”
Outrageous!
On Hooker and Daniher:
“We still didn’t give them enough of a chance, I don’t think, with those turnovers. We were out and ready to go but coughed the ball up,” he said.
"We were going too fast, we weren’t letting our forwards off and get back and get set back inside our forward line.
“So there was some real decision-making around parts of the game that went too fast and didn’t let Hooker and Daniher be in enough contests inside 50.”
That’s the point. The criticism should have been for the other players who were too slow to get forward and create options rather than for McKenna, who had the initiative and ability to get the ball in defence and run it through the lines.
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Worsfold said a message was sent out for the players to use the spare players around the ball.
Let’s assume that is true.
Does he then have a go at the forwards, even though they know what the players were told on the ground?
It means when the coach and all the players make their weekly call to ask if we’re happy, we say “no”.
I’ve heard dozens of times that what the fans think affects how the team plays, and that fans “accepting mediocrity” = no flags. It’s so simple!!
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And I’m sure McKenna would have used the teammates around him — if they hadn’t been straggling behind.
Attitudes like that HAP, are why we’ve been mediocre for 15 years.
It’s almost like they’re trying to change the decision making to suit the team we have, rather than recruit 22 Usain Bolts.
It’s really really weird.
We weren’t that good against Adelaide and a number of factors delivered us the four points. They had injuries, clearly faded, shorter pre season etc. I enjoyed the win but surely people weren’t taking that as a sign of a big year to come.
The Freo loss wasn’t unexpected either… Any team with a decent midfield will always be a strong chance to beat us. Fyfe, Neale, Mundy, Walters, Blakely… They may struggle at times but Freo over there are a chance to beat any side in the Comp, especially one with a midfield as weak as ours.
Re Wooshas comments… What a load of rubbish. We’ve been crying out for pace to help out our slow midfield for years and when we get a few quality runners, we start pointing the finger at them. I get game plans but I thought have line breaking runners was a good thing.
Setup your forward structure properly Woosh… Your full forward can kick goals from 60 out, you’ve got quick forwards who can get back and key forwards who can take a grab inside 50: is it really that hard?
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Spot on
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He mentioned ‘McKenna’.
What he was saying, in answer to how we structurally fell apart, was that there are times when our fast and direct ball movement is unstoppable, but when the cards aren’t falling your way - when the opposition has the mechanisms in place to disrupt that flow, and more importantly, when they are being successful at it, you need to consider what you’re doing and chose a better path. If there isn’t one, you need to create/wait for the structure to develop forward (regardless of who’s to blame for that) and then pull the trigger. This is not rocket science, but some people will take the shallowest of shallow understanding from something to suit their bent, or to vent their emotion.
Edit: what Kay_Eff_See said.
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For some reason my irony-detector has started beeping.
The players we have contain a number of speedsters apart from McKenna: Tippa and Green spring to mind, and McGrath and Parish have real toe, and then there’s Saad at half back as well …
You’d think that if the game plan was properly designed and the players all used their attributes to the fullest it wouldn’t be necessary to suggest that McKenna should slow down.
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Run a flying V, but only with 6 guys?
Sounds like a great plan.
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we are tooo NICE NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS!
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