When is a team actually a team?

[Hardnut 327]

Yeah, I thought timD's thread idea more centred around the team 'ethos' or 'playing for one another' and didn't want to derail the thread too much into the specialised area's within a team - such as our 'kicking to position'.

Other posters can educate me and a few others here, but hasn't our relationship with the Casey team changed to a point where we have a lot more autonomy? A team set up much in the vein of the Cats and the Pies reserves teams?

I don't know the answer to your question re Casey Macca, but I did forget to mention your Stevie J as a kicking coach comment. My understanding is that he does do some kicking coaching, albeit informal and ad hoc - my guess is that he has had a lot to do with the improvement in Tom Hawkins kicking.

[Trisul 666]

When they have no doubt.

[Macca 17,080]

I don't know the answer to your question re Casey Macca, but I did forget to mention your Stevie J as a kicking coach comment. My understanding is that he does do some kicking coaching, albeit informal and ad hoc - my guess is that he has had a lot to do with the improvement in Tom Hawkins kicking.

Not surprised re Johnno.

Everything is related and connected in a team sport. Right down to who chases harder (or more importantly who doesn't chase with intent). You get 2 or 3 in your team who 'go through the motions' with regards to chasing and fairly quickly, half the team are doing it.

This is where you need great leaders out on the park - but it starts at practice and I'm not sure the coaching staff in any organisation can readily 'teach' this type of attitude. It comes from within.

We need more players in our team who

A - never play a bad game

B - never give up

C - hate losing

D - set a great example at training

And these types should be self starters. The coaching staff can only do so much. If I was to stick my neck out for one of our current players to have all these qualities it would be Viney - but I could be wrong. The truth is we need 6 or 8 players on our list who have all of the above qualities. All players can achieve B, C and D. Mindset achieves B, C and D.

We can achieve 10 wins this season. It's gonna take a lot of hard work but in the end, that's what it boils down to - hard work.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Macca

[bing181 9,348]

I'm a little over glib one-liners about 'positives'

... though you're doing fairly well with glib one-liners about negatives.

[old dee 23,916]

I don't think this is off topic regarding the thread Macca.

Other posters have mentioned both Geelong and Coolingwood have their own VFL teams - I don't believe we should underestimate how much this contributes to helping those clubs form genuine 'teams' - players coming out of those VFL clubs slot straight into the senior team. Surely this is one of the basics of 'what makes a team a team'?

Hardnut I don't believe that not having your own seconds team has a lot to do with our poor results.

IMHO in has way more to do with poor selection over the 2006 to 11 period.

By any measure we selected poorly with the vast majority of our picks

poor picks that no amount development would have turned into world beaters.

We made a number of "smart selections" that turned out to very ordinary players.

And there are still a few that have yet to prove they were worth the effort.

That period IMO will continue to hurt us for the next 2-3 years.

[The Rebbe 30]

An example of a glib one liner

So we begin the year not knowing how bad we'll suck...again

[At Least I Saw a Flag 5,304]

Perhaps one could also ask

When is a man not a man?

When he's a freak in a sideshow ...

@"The Freak" by The Zoot

[timD 994]

An example of a glib one liner

thanks

Glib one liners indeed. Smart-Alec and proving the point all in one is not a bad effort.

Now maybe we are back at perhaps thinking about the point of the op.

Lord knows that the club needs to know.

Maybe the issue of team is the biggest thing ATM? If we are training well and everyone reports that the structure of training is better then perhaps this is not really an issue of players or coach, but rather a sense of team? That players are not yet playing with the sense of selfsacrifice and mutual responsibility they should have because they don't think or feel like a team? That cannot be the only problem of course, but I do wonder to what extent "not putting in" is a function of lack of respect for or sense of belonging to the team, rather than talent or fitness.

It is the biggest issue facing the club IMO - how to get the players playing together in a coherent and effective way. Bailey couldn't do it and neeld is struggling too.