Training reports indicate that big Sam is getting left to his own devices a bit, looking a bit alone and forlorn.
I will be very piissed if we can’t put together a decent program to develop his football skills and keep up his motivation through getting to play some actual football, simulated or otherwise.
I still have my suspicions that we farked up with the development of Gach whose situation wasn’t a lot different to Sam with limited experience and a soccer background. Even if Gach was slacking off, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the program on offer isn’t stimulating and interactive with other players.
If they stuff up two project ruckmen in a row, I won’t be blaming the project ruckmen.
Part of the reason I stopped doing training reports was that you have to be ultra-careful about what you said about particular players. You could type in one word and people would over-analyse.
The quoted post is a classic example.
Now I was extrapolating on what JM reported, and he said he hoped the same thing, that they would give him a more engaging program.
I do see from this I am not over Gach, I did note he was welcomed back at the club, where a father son in Tom Wallis wasn’t (may have been an oversight, but I wasn’t the only one who noticed). I haven’t heard anything concrete about a bad attitude from Gach, other than a hint from reboot.
Classic. Damn those professional coaches working on aspects they feel most important for development of player.
Hmm… Player who has picked up the game for a year only, basic skills and nailing those aspects down you may think is more important than any complex drillls.
Gach knew how to play footy. But physically and mentally nowhere near it, lack of professionalism on and off the field nothing to do with the coaches.
There was Gach’s Uber incident where he made a drunken threat (who knows if there was any provocation). Speedy, are you basing your judgement of Gach on anything more than speculation?
I will be happy to hear that you have a basis for what you say, and more confidence that they can give Sam a good program. At the moment the only concrete thing I heard on Gach was from Ego, and that was that they couldn’t give him much match time in the ruck because there was up to 3 rucks in front of him in the VFL side.
I am concerned for Sam that he may not get much ruck match practice if the AFL side has one ruck only (eg. Luey), and Sam could be behind TBC, Smack and maybe Stewart at VFL level.
Gach came and went very quickly for an AA U18 ruckman who was able to play on a broken leg and wasn’t given the time to develop the body to compete with the big boys (he was well on the way putting on some kg of muscle), despite a 2.95s 20m sprint and a leap to rival Nic Nat.
Sam hasn’t as many footy accomplishments as Gach, but at least he has a bigger body, but given there is limited opportunities to learn his craft at VFL level, I have got my ears up for signs they are managing Sam well, given he needs to progress quickly to be VFL ready. Hopefully they can give him some ruck time against men other than at VFL level if necessary.
I think it is reasonable to query EFC’s ability to develop a novice footballer given that is not its core business, and ruckman is also a very narrow speciality to teach from a low base. We are also in a situation where we will be tempted to cut corners given our debt.
Apologies to JM for using his training comment as a spark for my rant, but I will be very happy to be slapped down by people who have some facts to counter my extrapolations, and will be grateful for the reassurance.