Just another variable to lament in an overall poorly run program. 

Wonder if this was one of the items we took to the AFL?

Too funny. From an article back on the 14th of March. Wonder if we could have used those 6 weeks to teach guys how to kick at goal.

MELBOURNE has spent the past six weeks feverishly "upskilling" its playing group in response to the new runner restrictions, co-captain Nathan Jones has revealed.

Wow, amazing how many things get let out of the bag after a few Assistants are shown the door.

 

This doesn’t surprise me. I doubt he was talking about the beginning of the season so much as when it became clear that plan A wasn’t working and we started making adjustments on the fly to turn things around. Goody has said on a couple of occasions that he though that they tinkered too much with the game plan.  None of that would have been bedded down and we were implementing it with a team down on confidence. 

Although the midfield group was fairly intact for the season both forward and back lines were in constant flux and often in disarray. In the forward line TMac played poorly in the beginning of the year and seemed to go into his shell, not that uncommon when poor form hits. When he did start to turn things around he got injured. Melksham was out most of the season, Weid was struggling, Hannan wasn’t around, there were a lot of youngsters effectively trying out without any real leadership around them. You knew there were problems when they moved Lewis down there to provide some leadership.

In defence there was at least Frost, Salem and Hibberd as stable players but the structure around them changed virtually every game. Lever joined only later in the season, May was in and out as was Hore and Jetta.

Teams tend to play best when players are able to play their natural game and the coach puts in structures to support them, that was a big part o f the Tigers turn around. Dimma realised he was over coaching and concentrating on what people couldn’t do rather than what they were great at. Look at how much better Fritsch looks in the forward line playing his natural game. When you try to force an unnatural structure onto people they need significantly more coaching and management, without runners I can’t see that working. Imagine if you tried building a game plan that forced Clarry to play on the outside? You would have to send a runner out every 5 minutes to remind him not to dive in and put his head over the ball. 

It is too easy and simplistic to just blast coaches and players for being terrible teachers and leaders. The truth is far more complicated, and improvement is not going to be about sacking all the on field leaders. It is far more likely to come from building a game plan that lets players play their natural game and simple rules and strategies to implement when things are turning against us. That allows everyone to be an on field leader. Having a stable team with key people on the field week in week out will also make a big difference, along with an uninterrupted preseason where they really embed the game plan and lock in player roles.
 

3 minutes ago, FlashInThePan said:

This doesn’t surprise me. I doubt he was talking about the beginning of the season so much as when it became clear that plan A wasn’t working and we started making adjustments on the fly to turn things around. Goody has said on a couple of occasions that he though that they tinkered too much with the game plan.  None of that would have been bedded down and we were implementing it with a team down on confidence. 

Although the midfield group was fairly intact for the season both forward and back lines were in constant flux and often in disarray. In the forward line TMac played poorly in the beginning of the year and seemed to go into his shell, not that uncommon when poor form hits. When he did start to turn things around he got injured. Melksham was out most of the season, Weid was struggling, Hannan wasn’t around, there were a lot of youngsters effectively trying out without any real leadership around them. You knew there were problems when they moved Lewis down there to provide some leadership.

In defence there was at least Frost, Salem and Hibberd as stable players but the structure around them changed virtually every game. Lever joined only later in the season, May was in and out as was Hore and Jetta.

Teams tend to play best when players are able to play their natural game and the coach puts in structures to support them, that was a big part o f the Tigers turn around. Dimma realised he was over coaching and concentrating on what people couldn’t do rather than what they were great at. Look at how much better Fritsch looks in the forward line playing his natural game. When you try to force an unnatural structure onto people they need significantly more coaching and management, without runners I can’t see that working. Imagine if you tried building a game plan that forced Clarry to play on the outside? You would have to send a runner out every 5 minutes to remind him not to dive in and put his head over the ball. 

It is too easy and simplistic to just blast coaches and players for being terrible teachers and leaders. The truth is far more complicated, and improvement is not going to be about sacking all the on field leaders. It is far more likely to come from building a game plan that lets players play their natural game and simple rules and strategies to implement when things are turning against us. That allows everyone to be an on field leader. Having a stable team with key people on the field week in week out will also make a big difference, along with an uninterrupted preseason where they really embed the game plan and lock in player roles.
 

Fair enough, however Goodwin talked about our brand after every game, so clearly he was talking about a style of play all players were expected to understand and execute. It just gets worse the more that comes out. These are professional coaches and players being paid much more than millions of other Aussie employees who learn and execute what i expected of them. 

What a terrible indictment on the whole Football Department 

The rest of the AFL just got on with learning new rules and techniques. We fell apart for an entire season. 

I don’t know how that is actually possible, but it happened. 

At my work, most of it I had to learn on the run, it was continuously changing once everything went Computerized. 

I just don’t know how things can go so bad for so long

on the Matchday threads Leadership was often mentioned, that’s where it all starts

1 hour ago, KingDingAling said:

If fit, Lever should be our captain. He is a wise head, comes across as very decisive, and is a natural leader. He would make a great captain.

You have got to be kidding.

Why? because he points fingers? because he can string a sentence together in the media.

He has done nothing as a player and should focus on earning his spot in the team and justifying his salary before anything ridiculous like this happens.

What a load of baloney. 

When I saw the headline, I thought "finally one of the coaches has come out and admitted that we don't have any outside runners!".  And then I see that it's the "no runners" rule?  Please!

This wasn't the only factor that Rawlings mentioned, just one of.

Though it makes sense.

Also one of the reasons why teams with a serious batch of 200+ gamers tend to do better, especially in finals. You can't buy experience.

3 hours ago, defuture15 said:

I had a suspicion about this and now it is confirmed. At least we can do something about it now!

Is it, though? Are we expected to automatically assume that because a former assistant coach made the statement it must be true? He might be wrong. After all, if that was the problem, and the coaches were aware of it, why wasn't it fixed? 

Funnily enough I was listening to that podcast just a couple of hours ago.

It’s an interesting take-away to conclude that he was blaming our failed season on the lack of runners. Rawling went to pains to point out that it’s a lot of different things, and detailed a few of them. To pick one in isolation like this is the media’s go, but it must have been a slow news day for the author.

33 minutes ago, bing181 said:

You can't buy experience.

Well actually you can...it's why top clubs buy in experienced free agents...

...but I do get your point.

Our lack of good leadership/experience goes back a long way and we're still playing catch up.

All articles like this do is reinforce to the general football public, what a lightweight club they already thought we were.

It’s kind of embarrassing...like @Mach5 pointed out, it’s clearly one of many points made by Rawlings, pin pointed by the journalist...but geez it makes us look like amateurs..

So in other words ... either our "game plan" was so complicated our players needed constant reminders of what they were trying to do .... or ... our players had no idea at all of what they were trying to do.

Crikey ... gets a bloke thinking ...

10 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

What anyone with a brain could've told you.

Funny. I'm doing a leadership course at work at the moment. It is the educational equivalent of having someone masturbate into your ear.

“We don’t even notice the new runner rule anymore. infact it probably favours us if anything” - Adam Simpson on  3AW, 10 Sep.

Interesting comparison between 2 top 4 sides from 2018.

• Goodwin response....play Lewis in the reserves for some leadership at Casey.

12 hours ago, bluey said:

Good riddance, eight years of failure and that’s all he can come with, lack of runners, lucky he’s got a bro in the business.

Agree.  What about skills and delivery and a game plan. At least a plan b when teams use a spare man against us. 

12 hours ago, Sorry kids said:

Leadership is natural to some, the likes of Johnno Brown, selwood and co. Other learn it through being taught. Does anyone know if our leaders do accredited leadership training.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Corporate/HR onanism.

Manifestly we need to engage a focus group of committed stakeholders  to progress ideas then set up workshops to actively implement the new direction  consistent with these new values as conveyed by our updated modern  mission statement! 

Didn't this team finish 4th last year?
I know Rawlings said that the Runners are just one of a number of things that went wrong, but the implication is one of:

1) The team didn't know how to play last year and were coached on-field through their run of good form at the end

2) The team caught lightening in a bottle at the end of last year and the Runners simply didn't matter

3) The players have simply forgotten how to play this year and need to be reminded of what to do and when (despite finishing 4th last year)

4) The coaches failed to implement the gameplan properly

 

Any of these tell us that the problem is coaching!! Just another indication of how poor the Football Department has been for a period of time now. (I include the leadership group in that, as part of their role is to assist and coach young players through)

10 minutes ago, monoccular said:

 

Manifestly we need to engage a focus group of committed stakeholders  to progress ideas then set up workshops to actively implement the new direction  consistent with these new values as conveyed by our updated modern  mission statement! 

I'll have a Capo  ( no sugars ) and a coffee scroll ( buttered )  unless there's a nice glazed custardy fruit thingy!!

I loved group meeting !!

11 hours ago, KingDingAling said:

If fit, Lever should be our captain. He is a wise head, comes across as very decisive, and is a natural leader. He would make a great captain.

If by "natural leader" you mean he likes to stand by himself and point vigorously at the opposition players that he refuses to be accountable for, then absolutely yes. If this club was fair dinkum Lever would start next season at Casey until he shows he can do the job he was recruited for.

2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

“We don’t even notice the new runner rule anymore. infact it probably favours us if anything” - Adam Simpson on  3AW, 10 Sep.

Interesting comparison between 2 top 4 sides from 2018.

Like Geelong, the Eagles have VERY experienced and/or premiership players on every line. 

9 hours ago, rjay said:

Well actually you can...it's why top clubs buy in experienced free agents...

...but I do get your point.

Our lack of good leadership/experience goes back a long way and we're still playing catch up.

Barassi brought in Barry Davis at North Melbourne in the early 70's and immediately made him captain.  The rest is history.

Free agency is now entering its 8th off-season in the AFL so every club (including ours) has had the chance to bring in A grade experienced talent.  But to do so takes a lot of forward thinking not so much as opportunistic thinking. 

Davis went to North (along with Rantall & Wade) under the short-lived 10 year rule.  We picked up Ditterich under the same rule.  So,  in effect,  free agency has just replaced the old model.

Yet he we are with a dearth of experienced talent at the club.  Jones & Jetta are the only real veterans but both have questionable future's.  Injury is a factor with Jetta whilst Jones is near the end.

Older A grade players are often those who are also the leaders at a club.  We don't have them and haven't had them for over a decade.