David King on the Melbourne blueprint

[Older demon 2,799]

I read with interest the article written by David King titled "Melbourne Blueprint: Paul Roos’ legacy at Melbourne will be decided in 2015." He makes some good points and I like the way the stats graphic at the end is presented and that you can see the various bar graphs for each player by kicks, marks etc. but it is so obvious how uneven the workload is spread

Who would believe that Pederson and Watts are the leading score assist men! Frawley easily the most marks and significant goal contribution ! Only 4 players with more than 60 clearances ouch! Statistically Bail had a very good year despite the constant criticism on here.

I think I can safely say is that there is a lot of room for improvement.

[Rogue 585]

For anyone interested, here's the link: http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/melbourne-blueprint-paul-roos-legacy-at-melbourne-will-be-decided-in-2015-writes-david-king/story-e6frf3e3-1227124750659

[rjay 25,347]

Unfortunately it really tells us nothing, gives us a bunch of stats and leaves the answers until 2015.

In other words he doesn't really have a clue whether Roos is on track or not and will wait to use hindsight at the end of next season.

[What 18,810]

thanks for telling us absolutely nothing, Kingy

[beelzebub 23,390]

"Melbourne Blueprint: ....... is that there is a lot of room for improvement.

This is it in a nutshell really

[Bay Riffin 1,509]

what a lazy underwhelming article article, just grab some stats and do nothing with them. his one conclusion that Roos legacy will be decided in 2015 is also myopic. Roos could gradually improve the team in 2015 then again in 2016. why was 2015 the key evaluator?

[Slartibartfast 18,039]

Unfortunately it really tells us nothing, gives us a bunch of stats and leaves the answers until 2015.

In other words he doesn't really have a clue whether Roos is on track or not and will wait to use hindsight at the end of next season.

I rate King. He told us Neeld was no good very early with his "mature bodied game plan for a bunch of kids". He was spot on whilst swimming strongly against the tide.

There are a few home truths in his article. He tells us our last 8 weeks (which is a fair slab of the season) was in fact no better than our last year under Neeld/Craig. I for one didn't realize that. He tells us we are the highest stoppage team with the worst stoppage numbers. Surely that's concerning. He tells us we are the worst tackling team in the competition. Rather ironic given Roos' ethos and scathing criticism of Richmond's failure to tackle in previous years.

Most of the world including DL have unquestioning faith in Roos. King is now questioning that and is one of the first to do so. I don't expect him to be Nostradamus about next year, in fact I'd think less of him if he tried to be. I happen to be in the King camp and have for some time questioned Roos' game plan and methodology. I'm not saying it's wrong, just not accepting as most do here, that "is Roos is good".

The reality is that the last third of last season, a time when we should have been adapting to the Roos game plan better, was as bad as we've ever been. That's a worry.

I thought it was a good short form article by King, let's face it, he's not writing a thesis he's writing a article to the footy reading public about MFC.

Pretty good I would have thought.

[Wells 11 5,476]

Beat me by a second re your opening line BB....

I still the article is empty and meaningless but King still has some credit with me. He was the voice calling for Neeld to be sacked half way through his first season. It seemed such a sensationalistic, dumb call at the time but l wish we'd listened to that now. Although you could also say Neeld in 2013 created the path for Roos in 2014...but a fair bit of painful water under the bridge to get there.

[beelzebub 23,390]

It was fluff and garbage Bob., That you werent aware our back season was shizen surprises me...where were you.

Its fairly common knowledge that Roos will still be at the club in some capacity after his coaching tenure so 15 is hardly the 'pivotal " year 'King useless would have it.

The stats really mean bugger all, they could mean any number of things if it was one's bent.

We're one season into our Roo'd awakening. A tawdry effort for mine ( the article )

[Hiram Cowfreak 78]

I rate King. He told us Neeld was no good very early with his "mature bodied game plan for a bunch of kids". He was spot on whilst swimming strongly against the tide.

There are a few home truths in his article. He tells us our last 8 weeks (which is a fair slab of the season) was in fact no better than our last year under Neeld/Craig. I for one didn't realize that. He tells us we are the highest stoppage team with the worst stoppage numbers. Surely that's concerning. He tells us we are the worst tackling team in the competition. Rather ironic given Roos' ethos and scathing criticism of Richmond's failure to tackle in previous years.

Most of the world including DL have unquestioning faith in Roos. King is now questioning that and is one of the first to do so. I don't expect him to be Nostradamus about next year, in fact I'd think less of him if he tried to be. I happen to be in the King camp and have for some time questioned Roos' game plan and methodology. I'm not saying it's wrong, just not accepting as most do here, that "is Roos is good".

The reality is that the last third of last season, a time when we should have been adapting to the Roos game plan better, was as bad as we've ever been. That's a worry.

I thought it was a good short form article by King, let's face it, he's not writing a thesis he's writing a article to the footy reading public about MFC.

Pretty good I would have thought.

I doubt many would agree with me on this, but I felt Roos lost the players about half way through last season, and these stats sorta back that up. I think they played for the coach in the first half of the season ,but this noticeably dropped off.

Roosy has a media persona as a cool, easy going guy...but I doubt he is like that when players don't follow his orders!

Our most important recruit this season is Simon Goodwin, he will be the glue between the players and Roos and he is the one I will be watching with most interest next season.

[old dee 24,028]

I rate King. He told us Neeld was no good very early with his "mature bodied game plan for a bunch of kids". He was spot on whilst swimming strongly against the tide.

There are a few home truths in his article. He tells us our last 8 weeks (which is a fair slab of the season) was in fact no better than our last year under Neeld/Craig. I for one didn't realize that. He tells us we are the highest stoppage team with the worst stoppage numbers. Surely that's concerning. He tells us we are the worst tackling team in the competition. Rather ironic given Roos' ethos and scathing criticism of Richmond's failure to tackle in previous years.

Most of the world including DL have unquestioning faith in Roos. King is now questioning that and is one of the first to do so. I don't expect him to be Nostradamus about next year, in fact I'd think less of him if he tried to be. I happen to be in the King camp and have for some time questioned Roos' game plan and methodology. I'm not saying it's wrong, just not accepting as most do here, that "is Roos is good".

The reality is that the last third of last season, a time when we should have been adapting to the Roos game plan better, was as bad as we've ever been. That's a worry.

I thought it was a good short form article by King, let's face it, he's not writing a thesis he's writing a article to the footy reading public about MFC.

Pretty good I would have thought.

You have my vote Bob.

Seems to state exactly where we are at IMO

[rjay 25,347]

I rate King. He told us Neeld was no good very early with his "mature bodied game plan for a bunch of kids". He was spot on whilst swimming strongly against the tide.

This one is purely a hindsight article 'Bob'...Neeld was an easy target and he (King) did get it right, I get the feeling that he is not going to be so forthright about Roos and is hedging his bets. Hence the end of 2015 call.

[Davos 928]

I love how whenever a journo writes a less than glowing piece on the club, someone will always pop up with the old "I hate so and so, has absolutely no idea etc".

Always good for a laugh.

[rpfc 28,966]

Must have been a good first 14 weeks...

[beelzebub 23,390]

I love how whenever a journo writes a less than glowing piece on the club, someone will always pop up with the old "I hate so and so, has absolutely no idea etc".

Always good for a laugh.

Its not a case of having no idea as he , King, plainly has some idea. The nature of the article was lazy. His assertion that Roos will be judged upon season '15 is quite frankly ridiculous. Roos will be judges upon how he prepares the team for the next coach etc.

So from my seat i reckon 1) hes wrong from the outset in this instance and 2) tries to back his assertion with ambiguous stats.

Yeah...all the makings of top notch journalism there.

[Sir Why You Little 37,342]

Fairly interesting article i thought. Have always thought Roosy's 2nd year will be the most important one.

The 2nd year is where the club/team must make a major improvement. The years that follow will be more incremental.

Next year is all systems go for Roos and co

No excuses that has been addreessed in the main.

And yes the last 8 weeks of this season were putrid. Would love to know the real answer.

[P-man 13,367]

It serves its purpose - summarises the positives and negatives.

The stoppage intensive style may have simply been a means to stop the bleeding, and for a while it achieved that albeit whilst sending the neutrals to sleep. But creating the most stoppages whilst simultaneously being the worst at winning them is incredibly damning no matter which way you shake it up. If that is the template for the Roos gameplan, then there is a tonne of work ahead. Again this is not earth shattering but King summarises the situation fairly well.

As for his concluding statement, all coaches come under greater scrutiny in their second season, and just because Roos is preparing a side for an incumbent doesn't mean he escapes that scrutiny. The heat comes on in 2015.

I disagree with King getting pats on the back for his early call on Neeld. To call for a coach's head halfway into his debut season is simply premature, and just because Neeld was gone 18 months later doesn't make King's ridiculously early call anything more than headline hunting.

[Port Demons 131]

I doubt many would agree with me on this, but I felt Roos lost the players about half way through last season, and these stats sorta back that up. I think they played for the coach in the first half of the season ,but this noticeably dropped off.

Roosy has a media persona as a cool, easy going guy...but I doubt he is like that when players don't follow his orders!

Our most important recruit this season is Simon Goodwin, he will be the glue between the players and Roos and he is the one I will be watching with most interest next season.

I wouldn't say the Roos lost the players rather I would say the players lost the confidence in themselves purely through fatigue.

What they had in the first half of the year was what a lot of clubs go through with a new coach and that is they're riding the high of improved work ethics and game plans.

We have to remember that we were not fit enough physically and mentally for two-way running and it was inevitable that the players would fatigue in both these areas.

This would be one of many contributing factors to the 2nd half season fade out.

One other thing I remember after talking to Roosy (at my local coffee shop in port melbourne) was he did say he started to test the game plan (and personnel) to attack a little more. This opened us up to being scored against heavily in short spurts and we just didn't have the gusto (or personnel) to recover back into games. And then there were some of the games where we may as well have not turned up at all just gave the 4 points away (i.e. vs Brisbane at Etihad).

Tough road ahead still but at least it's not backwards now and there is logic in the method of recruitment at all levels in the club.

Small tick for me for 2014.

Expect a slightly bigger one in 2015.

2016 is the season our list should start to be taking full shape and youth taking the future into their hands.

[rjay 25,347]

I disagree with King getting pats on the back for his early call on Neeld. To call for a coach's head halfway into his debut season is simply premature, and just because Neeld was gone 18 months later doesn't make King's ridiculously early call anything more than headline hunting.

Agree, it was headline grabbing...made the big call and it fell his way.

[DemonFrog 1,359]

Who is David King and why should I care about what he has to say?

[old dee 24,028]

Who is David King and why should I care about what he has to say?

He got Neeld right about a year before most

[Davos 928]

I think King had some inside mail on Neeld...

[old dee 24,028]

I think King had some inside mail on Neeld...

Whatever the source he put his hand up very early and was 100% correct

[jnrmac 20,305]

I doubt many would agree with me on this, but I felt Roos lost the players about half way through last season, and these stats sorta back that up. I think they played for the coach in the first half of the season ,but this noticeably dropped off.

Roosy has a media persona as a cool, easy going guy...but I doubt he is like that when players don't follow his orders!

Our most important recruit this season is Simon Goodwin, he will be the glue between the players and Roos and he is the one I will be watching with most interest next season.

I think Roos put the acid on a few in the second half of the season and they played like they were too scared to do anything wring. A bit like under Neeld. he gave them hugs early on but I think his demeanor changed markedly wit the players.

Roos clearly has more currency but he found out a lot in the second half about who could and couldn't play his way. PLayers like Kent had something like 16 tackles for the whole year. You'd expect that to be rammed down his throat that he can't just be a one way player. Others would have had similar messages and may not have played with the freedom they had in the first half..

So IMO 2015 is an important year for whether the players will heed the message and we improve on tsoppages, tacking, two way running etc. Not sure itsthe be all and end all as King alludes to.

Will be interesting to watch in 2015 thats for sure.

[Webber 10,641]

I doubt many would agree with me on this, but I felt Roos lost the players about half way through last season, and these stats sorta back that up. I think they played for the coach in the first half of the season ,but this noticeably dropped off.

Roosy has a media persona as a cool, easy going guy...but I doubt he is like that when players don't follow his orders!

Our most important recruit this season is Simon Goodwin, he will be the glue between the players and Roos and he is the one I will be watching with most interest next season.

This sort of gossipy presumptuous second guessing is lazy rubbish. Roos 'lost the players'? I wonder if 'the players' would agree with you, or think you're a clown? Damien Hardwick presumably had 'lost the players' at Richmond for the first half of this year, but re-found them for the second. Ignorant nonsense.