Competitiveness

[Sad Dee 12]

Hi everyone. This is my first post.

In the past three seasons we've had three coaches - Neeld, Craig and now Roos who have all had to coach the team to be "competitive."

What is going on here? AFL footballers having to be coached to compete?

I find this hard to comprehend. Can someone explain this to me?

[Bobby McKenzie 2,387]

Hi everyone. This is my first post.

In the past three seasons we've had three coaches - Neeld, Craig and now Roos who have all had to coach the team to be "competitive."

What is going on here? AFL footballers having to be coached to compete?

I find this hard to comprehend. Can someone explain this to me?

Welcome Sad Dee. I hope your sadness will eventually go away one day. You raise a good point. One would think that being good enough to make the big league one would have to be naturally competitive. Surely it is not something a coach has to teach. Too many of our boys are competitive for sections of the game and switch off for a while. I guess it is then up to the coach to remind them of this and get them back to being fiercely competitive.

[Machsy 2,858]

I'd say that there is a difference between having a desire to compete, and having the competency to do it.

Our players have not had the best training to present as a competitive outfit.

[ILLDieADemon 804]

Can we go back to 2010 when everyone thought we were going to dominate the next 10 years.

Wow, wasn't everyone wrong.

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

Can we go back to 2010 when everyone thought we were going to dominate the next 10 years.

Wow, wasn't everyone wrong.

"elite this…elite that…"

[praha 11,240]

Can we go back to 2010 when everyone thought we were going to dominate the next 10 years.

Wow, wasn't everyone wrong.

"Oh they're gonna be something. The Dees are gonna be something!" - Bruce Mcavaney

[What 18,810]

":The Dees are gonna be something!!" - Bruce McAvanaey, 2010

Well he was right

We are definitely something, too bad that something is a disgrace to the game of footy

Edited April 6, 2014 by hogans_heroes

[John Crow Batty 8,879]

"Oh they're gonna be something. The Dees are gonna be something!" - Bruce Mcavaney

Schwab's greatest achievement was in pulling off this con job that sucked in just about everybody from experts, the media, fans(both ours and others) to punters.

Edited April 6, 2014 by america de cali

[DemonFrog 1,356]

Hi everyone. This is my first post.

In the past three seasons we've had three coaches - Neeld, Craig and now Roos who have all had to coach the team to be "competitive."

What is going on here? AFL footballers having to be coached to compete?

I find this hard to comprehend. Can someone explain this to me?

It is easily explained. The MFC mainly recruits non AFL standard players

[old dee 23,872]

It is easily explained. The MFC mainly recruits non AFL standard players

Now we are getting to the nub of the problem.

[P-man 13,366]

I'd say that there is a difference between having a desire to compete, and having the competency to do it.

Our players have not had the best training to present as a competitive outfit.

This.

OP is confusing the desire to compete with the ability to compete. Many players appear to lack at least one of them, but it is more about the ability to compete.

Edited April 7, 2014 by P-man

[old dee 23,872]

This.

OP is confusing the desire to compete with the ability to compete. Many players appear to lack at least one of them, but it is more about the ability to compete.

We are at one on this p-man

[Alcho Dee 269]

We need another clean out, it's the only way.....

[RalphiusMaximus 6,088]

Sadly we've have a history of recruiting players who had specific skillsets that the coaches were after at the time rather than just getting the best footballers we could. Bailey wanted quick outside runners who could kick well. Neeld wanted hard nuts. Thus we have a group of players from the Bailey era who can run and have pretty good disposal but don't get it enough to make use of their kicking (or panic and mess up the kicks anyway), and we have a bunch of guys from the Neeld era who are happy to throw their body in but are either too slow to win the footy much, butcher it when they get it or both.

We're hoping that Roos gets this and just recruits guys who can play the game.

[Glenn Molloy 494]

Don't worry Sad Dee, Bailey used the word "competitive" hundreds of times, so it's actually been four coaches who've been banging on about it. I know what they mean by it but I wish they'd use a different term. It should be about WINNING the contest. Anyone can "compete", but the good individuals and teams win more contests than they lose....it's that sort of mentality that we need more than just being competitive.

[Je Roos Salem 661]

These players just don't know how to play for each other (and barely for themselves). Our past few years, coach change, huge personnel change, structure change, different game plans have turned players into numb objects who lack trust and don't know what to believe. It's like they've been largely removed from the goal of winning footy games due to the culture around them. They lack creativity, enjoyment. irrespective of skill, many of these players aren't inspired enough to play the game at the elite level, or at least with this team at this club. I'm not sure if it's about a competitive 'on and off switch' anymore.

There's been plenty of bad luck, bad choices off the field, but to see a culture of a team on the field like ours is the worst part.