Brendan McCartney pregame today

[Queanbeyan Demon 6,848]

Attended the pregame function in Canberra today. Brendan McCartney was the guest speaker. He was super impressive. Here are some of the points he made . . .

• We are getting it right 85 percent of the time – flags are won by teams that get it right 90 percent of the time
• No team ever operates at 100 percent – that’s a fallacy
• Often he can tell who’s going to win a grand final within two minutes of the opening bounce based on how many numbers are at the ball and mistakes made
• Numbers at the connect is what counts – bad teams have players that leave the contest too early or arrive to late
• You know the side is playing well when you leave a contest and the opponent is on the ground
• Pressure acts must be executed with the body close to the ball/opponent (i.e. not with the arms out stretched and the body at a distance from the pressure act)
• The Melbourne game style is based on a ‘physical’, style of game – hard to play but ultimately successful in finals
• Teams that don’t play a physical style (he said there were six at the moment) will be found out in September
• Young, low profile coaching group and it’s a deliberate approach to keep media profile low
• Under pressure, players default to their ‘instinctive’ way of playing (this was in reference to a question about Jack Watts)
• Players attend around 16 meetings a week
• Players review clips of their performance
• Most players are able to provide accurate self-analysis of their performance
• Videos are made and reviewed of training sessions and more is often learnt from these than game footage
• His role is one of mentoring and assisting the assistant coaches – often sitting in on their meetings with players
• Goody’s role is confined as much as possible to the players and game day (90 percent of his time) the other 10 percent is meetings with the board or managers etc.
• A club is operating well when it can find good players low down in the draft (in reference to Maynard)
• Priority has been to recruit players “who love the contest”
• The players are acutely aware of how their performances effect the supporters
• Many players who were treated poorly by the club a few years ago are now around the club (McDonald was mentioned)
• Most professionally run club he’s been involved with
• The club has provided a lot of education about the history of the MFC to the players and they all love the place
• At any one time a maximum of 90 percent of the players will be buying into the game plan or coaching philosophy and anyone who says they have 100 percent buy in is kidding themselves
• All players are given full and frank information about their performance and no player can claim to be in any doubt about the standards required from the club (both on and off the field) and how their contribution is measured
• When asked about why the players do “dump things” he said footy teams are like any other endeavor where people management is involved . . . just because a coach (CEO/manager/parent) directs something to be done (example sighted was kicking long with the wind last week), it doesn’t mean they will/can execute it

[FarNorthernD 5,861]

That sort of info is gold. Thank you for passing it on QD

[rjay 24,928]

9 minutes ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Pressure acts must be executed with the body close to the ball/opponent (i.e. not with the arms out stretched and the body at a distance from the pressure act)

Unfortunately we fell well short in this department today...way too many arms outstretched.

[bing181 9,238]

Should pin this at the beginning of every post match discussion thread ... especially when we lose.

Feel like we're in good hands, frustrating though some of these losses are.

[angryfijian 25]

I have felt for the last couple of weeks, that the players are almost competing against eachother for the footy rather then sticking to the game plan. Especially in the midfield! Today Viney, Jones and Oliver fought eachother for the same ball on the ground. In the past, one player exracted, and the rest ran and carried the ball. Gawn got so frustrated today,  he ran and carried the ball from the centre bounce and created a goal!! It's almost like the players are to scared too play like they did earlier in the year and take risks because they have been told that they will be dropped if they make mistakes. Hunt, Harmes, Watts, Petracca, Garlett,  Hibberd, Lewis, Jones (actually the whole team) except for a few were so fumbly and panicked (without any lack of pressure from the opposition) that it seemed mental, not physical. Like playing under duress. Don't forget Brendan McCartney was sacked by WB because the players didn't like his management style. No one likes to be micro managed. Goodwin needs to excert his imprint, and take a stand like Paul Roos - I will help this team become better no matter what. We have also lost our mongrel attack at the opposition ever since the suspension of Bugg. It's almost a shadow of the attack and support the players showed eachother in the games we won.  

Edited August 5, 2017 by angryfijian

[Watts Jurrah Dunn? 735]

It's great that we play a combative, physical, finals-like game style which causes our players to die in the arse late in the season and not play finals.

[praha 11,240]

45 minutes ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Attended the pregame function in Canberra today. Brendan McCartney was the guest speaker. He was super impressive. Here are some of the points he made . . .

• We are getting it right 85 percent of the time – flags are won by teams that get it right 90 percent of the time
• No team ever operates at 100 percent – that’s a fallacy
• Often he can tell who’s going to win a grand final within two minutes of the opening bounce based on how many numbers are at the ball and mistakes made
• Numbers at the connect is what counts – bad teams have players that leave the contest too early or arrive to late
• You know the side is playing well when you leave a contest and the opponent is on the ground
• Pressure acts must be executed with the body close to the ball/opponent (i.e. not with the arms out stretched and the body at a distance from the pressure act)
• The Melbourne game style is based on a ‘physical’, style of game – hard to play but ultimately successful in finals
• Teams that don’t play a physical style (he said there were six at the moment) will be found out in September
• Young, low profile coaching group and it’s a deliberate approach to keep media profile low
• Under pressure, players default to their ‘instinctive’ way of playing (this was in reference to a question about Jack Watts)
• Players attend around 16 meetings a week
• Players review clips of their performance
• Most players are able to provide accurate self-analysis of their performance
• Videos are made and reviewed of training sessions and more is often learnt from these than game footage
• His role is one of mentoring and assisting the assistant coaches – often sitting in on their meetings with players
• Goody’s role is confined as much as possible to the players and game day (90 percent of his time) the other 10 percent is meetings with the board or managers etc.
• A club is operating well when it can find good players low down in the draft (in reference to Maynard)
• Priority has been to recruit players “who love the contest”
• The players are acutely aware of how their performances effect the supporters
• Many players who were treated poorly by the club a few years ago are now around the club (McDonald was mentioned)
• Most professionally run club he’s been involved with
• The club has provided a lot of education about the history of the MFC to the players and they all love the place
• At any one time a maximum of 90 percent of the players will be buying into the game plan or coaching philosophy and anyone who says they have 100 percent buy in is kidding themselves
• All players are given full and frank information about their performance and no player can claim to be in any doubt about the standards required from the club (both on and off the field) and how their contribution is measured
• When asked about why the players do “dump things” he said footy teams are like any other endeavor where people management is involved . . . just because a coach (CEO/manager/parent) directs something to be done (example sighted was kicking long with the wind last week), it doesn’t mean they will/can execute it

Gonna be the devil's advocate...the leader in any field has 100% buy in. Saying "it's just not possible" is imo a exploitation of an uneducated support base that doesn't appreciate or know the metrics. 

[david_neitz_is_my_dad 4,083]

1 hour ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Teams that don’t play a physical style (he said there were six at the moment) will be found out in September

We have been found out already

[Chook 15,013]

Maybe he should think about telling the players this stuff. I reckon it might help them… 

[Lampers 563]

7 hours ago, praha said:

Gonna be the devil's advocate...the leader in any field has 100% buy in. Saying "it's just not possible" is imo a exploitation of an uneducated support base that doesn't appreciate or know the metrics. 

I don't agree with this. Footy is more and more like the corporate world these days and world-best organisations will only have around 80-90% engagement of staff, or "buy in".

That gap can often be down to what people have happening in their personal life, mental state, personality clash with their colleagues etc. and therefore not something you can realistically resolve.

Then try and see if you can achieve thise levels in an AFL level atmosphere with mostly young alpha males with huge egos. In the corporate world there are plenty of followers and passive people who are more easily kept happy, I'd suspect a much smaller ratio of those on AFL lists.

On the flip side, lack of strategic clarity and inconsistent messages from coaches absolutely can erode buy in so it's not something you can give up on and say "Oh well, we can't get 100% buy in so why bother trying?".

I think McCartney is being realistic.

[John Crow Batty 8,863]

We are the only side other than perhaps GC or North that are not having a real crack at this late stage of the season. And they have little to gain. We have lost a strong ladder position and shown ourselves up as a shallow team. The next few weeks will be huge and we have set up a hard task to win 3 in a row and regain respectability or else confirm  our position as the perennial inept laughing stock irrelevance of the competition. If we don't get back into the 8 we can kiss goodbye yet again to hope of a favourable fixture and premium games next season. This will cost the club plenty and members will drop off. 

[Mach5 4,767]

I remember about 5-6 years ago talking to a couple Geelong fringe 22 players who were left out of a finals side - during this particular final (semi/prelim, can't recall) they were actively barracking for a Cats loss because they didn't want to eventually miss out on a flag by omission. I was surprised by how vocal they were while watching the match. This is from players at a club who at this time was seen to be setting the industry standard for culture & buy-in.

[DeeSpencer 25,711]

I like McCartney and I like that we are based on contested footy but I also think the outside game matters and skills matter and just rolling numbers around the ball leads to a lot of space for the opposition to work in. See GWS being out the back all day.

Yesterday I think we had the following in the midfield: Viney, Oliver, Tyson, Jones, Lewis, Maynard, Harmes. They are all contested ball winners and nominal inside midfielders. Lewis and Jones are the only 2 who are good kicks. Harmes and Jones the only two likely to repeatedly break the lines and they aren't exactly super quick. Jones the only elite runner.

Now with more discipline we might've got away with playing stoppage footy and killing the game in the first quarter but we lost a bit of hardness and discipline and panicked and we didn't have nearly the run in the legs to go and chase down the Giants. As soon as it got outside the contest we were done.

The questions I'd like asked of the coaches is where is the outside run and how do we expect to play in tight every week and not have some versatility to run with the ball in attack and run back to defend. 

With more outside run I think we'd capitalise on our inside ball winning better - Oliver is dying to dish his handballs off to someone actually on the move - and we'd defend better the other way with more balance across the ground.

[Zoiikgarden 134]

13 hours ago, praha said:

Gonna be the devil's advocate...the leader in any field has 100% buy in. Saying "it's just not possible" is imo a exploitation of an uneducated support base that doesn't appreciate or know the metrics. 

You've got to be joking, surely!

[Satyriconhome 10,878]

13 hours ago, praha said:

Gonna be the devil's advocate...the leader in any field has 100% buy in. Saying "it's just not possible" is imo a exploitation of an uneducated support base that doesn't appreciate or know the metrics. 

From one of the uneducated, who has been privy to this information previously, absolute rubbish, there are some with personal agendas who will always prevent the 100% buy in in any organization

[dazzledavey36 54,944]

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

I like McCartney and I like that we are based on contested footy but I also think the outside game matters and skills matter and just rolling numbers around the ball leads to a lot of space for the opposition to work in. See GWS being out the back all day.

Yesterday I think we had the following in the midfield: Viney, Oliver, Tyson, Jones, Lewis, Maynard, Harmes. They are all contested ball winners and nominal inside midfielders. Lewis and Jones are the only 2 who are good kicks. Harmes and Jones the only two likely to repeatedly break the lines and they aren't exactly super quick. Jones the only elite runner.

Now with more discipline we might've got away with playing stoppage footy and killing the game in the first quarter but we lost a bit of hardness and discipline and panicked and we didn't have nearly the run in the legs to go and chase down the Giants. As soon as it got outside the contest we were done.

The questions I'd like asked of the coaches is where is the outside run and how do we expect to play in tight every week and not have some versatility to run with the ball in attack and run back to defend. 

With more outside run I think we'd capitalise on our inside ball winning better - Oliver is dying to dish his handballs off to someone actually on the move - and we'd defend better the other way with more balance across the ground.

This is where I've found it strange that they're trying to turn Stretch into an inside midfielder. I thought he was perfect last year playing that outside wing role. He's stagnated this year due to changing into a role that doesn't suit him.

While I think Lever is a good priority, I would hope Josh Kelly is right on top of the list in big bold capital letters. We have zero outside ball winners who can spread hard and break the lines.

[Watts the matter 1,235]

3 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I like McCartney and I like that we are based on contested footy but I also think the outside game matters and skills matter and just rolling numbers around the ball leads to a lot of space for the opposition to work in. See GWS being out the back all day.

Yesterday I think we had the following in the midfield: Viney, Oliver, Tyson, Jones, Lewis, Maynard, Harmes. They are all contested ball winners and nominal inside midfielders. Lewis and Jones are the only 2 who are good kicks. Harmes and Jones the only two likely to repeatedly break the lines and they aren't exactly super quick. Jones the only elite runner.

Now with more discipline we might've got away with playing stoppage footy and killing the game in the first quarter but we lost a bit of hardness and discipline and panicked and we didn't have nearly the run in the legs to go and chase down the Giants. As soon as it got outside the contest we were done.

The questions I'd like asked of the coaches is where is the outside run and how do we expect to play in tight every week and not have some versatility to run with the ball in attack and run back to defend. 

With more outside run I think we'd capitalise on our inside ball winning better - Oliver is dying to dish his handballs off to someone actually on the move - and we'd defend better the other way with more balance across the ground.

I raised this point about a month ago, my jaw dropped when I heard Goodwin say something along the lines of 'we don't have inside and outside players'. Well we witnessed what happens when a team does on the weekend.

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

This is where I've found it strange that they're trying to turn Stretch into an inside midfielder. I thought he was perfect last year playing that outside wing role. He's stagnated this year due to changing into a role that doesn't suit him.

While I think Lever is a good priority, I would hope Josh Kelly is right on top of the list in big bold capital letters. We have zero outside ball winners who can spread hard and break the lines.

The closest thing to it on our list but still not the answer. He is too slow for the role and doesn't take risks, always turns back instead of taking the game on like you want your outside players to do. 

 

 

 

[billyblanks29 184]

Richmond are one of those non physical sides come finals time. It's definitely a less taxing style of play and they look good at this stage of the year. Will be interesting come finals time. If they win it will everyone copy them?

Edited August 6, 2017 by billyblanks29

[manny100 1,557]

Yes I think the tigers are one of them. Wonder who the others are.

Thanks for the thread QD. Very interesting summary of Brendan Mc key points. Cheers,

Edited August 6, 2017 by manny100
Omitted thanks for thread.

[DeeSpencer 25,711]

2 hours ago, Watts the matter said:

I raised this point about a month ago, my jaw dropped when I heard Goodwin say something along the lines of 'we don't have inside and outside players'. Well we witnessed what happens when a team does on the weekend.

The closest thing to it on our list but still not the answer. He is too slow for the role and doesn't take risks, always turns back instead of taking the game on like you want your outside players to do. 

 

There's very few AFL midfielders with the elite endurance required and more speed than Stretch. The Hill brothers, Isaac Smith, not too many more. Lewis Jetta but he doesn't have the work rate any more. Gaff is similar speed with a little more take off but is also completely one sided.

It's not really a matter of speed. It's a matter of run. It's putting the foot down and spreading away from contests at enough pace to get a break on an opponent. Hunt, Hibberd, Garlett, Hannan, we can find pace through the flanks, but we need the game open and that means mids who's first instinct is to push to space.

I like Goodwin's philosophy that outside players have to win the ball and inside players have to run the ball too. It's the same kind of theory that should be for forwards or backs have the ability to defend and attack in equal measure. And if we can rotate mids inside and out that gives greater flexibility in selection. That said, I think guys like Jones and Tyson aren't going to become natural outside players overnight and Stretch has it naturally. Yeah I wish he was faster and more damaging but he peels from contests perfectly and reliably hits targets. Or he did until this year when they've put so much focus on him being stronger inside. 

I think a lot of the reason he goes backwards is because they are instructed to keep the ball in the congestion if there's not a good option forward as we so often have a spare at the contest whilst the opposition have the spare behind the ball. Either we even up forward and then kick it more or we find more spread so the ball can maintain attacking momentum and not go back in to congestion. Add more natural outside runners and every player at the stoppage will be encouraged to get the ball moving faster.

[grazman 7,436]

2 hours ago, billyblanks29 said:

Richmond are one of those non physical sides come finals time. It's definitely a less taxing style of play and they look good at this stage of the year. Will be interesting come finals time. If they win it will everyone copy them?

I reckon they are, I also think the others might be West Coast, Essendon, St Kilda, Hawthorn and Freo.

[dimmy 1,307]

5 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

This is where I've found it strange that they're trying to turn Stretch into an inside midfielder. I thought he was perfect last year playing that outside wing role. He's stagnated this year due to changing into a role that doesn't suit him.

While I think Lever is a good priority, I would hope Josh Kelly is right on top of the list in big bold capital letters. We have zero outside ball winners who can spread hard and break the lines.

WE had one , he was playing against us yesterday. He got an offer he could not refuse and his old man got a job.

[SFebes 4,884]

Great post and good to hear but....

We don't have any stars

We don't have leaders in critical times

We still have a dumb gameplan with overhandballing and bombing long

We still don't have good key forwards

I do admire the professionalism this club now has though.

 

[bing181 9,238]

7 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I like McCartney and I like that we are based on contested footy but I also think the outside game matters and skills matter and just rolling numbers around the ball leads to a lot of space for the opposition to work in. See GWS being out the back all day.

The point made on the AFL site today: we have a midfield stacked with inside ball-getters who have no-one to feed it to when they do.

[At the break of Gawn 4,460]

4 hours ago, billyblanks29 said:

Richmond are one of those non physical sides come finals time. It's definitely a less taxing style of play and they look good at this stage of the year. Will be interesting come finals time. If they win it will everyone copy them?

I disagree on that. Richmond are a very solid side and play team first footy and have only lost 1 of their past 6. Their last two weeks even without Jack Riewoldt they've had a good spread of contributors. As much as I hate saying it, they are a superior team to us at the minute and I think they will make top 4.