Craig Jennings Analysis of Dees Game Plan

[rjay 23,888]

29 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Respectfully disagree Rjay,

I'd like to see Clarrie moved forward and Viney used as our tagger, not disagreeing how good a job he did on Cripps, but with our turnovers it provides plenty of options the other way.

Until we get our lateral and short range quick ball movement sorted out I'd like to see 2 of Harmes, Brayshaw and Viney in there at all times and rotate Clarrie and Trac through the other mid/forward rotation. Viney isn't going to hurt any side inside forward 50, but I think both Clarrie and Trac do.

Magnets and plans B, C &D all need to be in place to make us less predictable in games/quarters to keep opposition second guessing and allow us to change things up a little when we need to shift momentum 

All good 'Pennant', I would rather see 2 of Clarrie, Brayshaw and Trac with Harmes as tagger where needed and Viney 5th option.

I think Viney clogs up the middle with poor decisions.

Tries to take too much on but hasn't got the skills, size or decision making to do it.

Clarrie, Brayshaw and Trac are more likely to give us the breakaway we need.

[tiers 2,761]

18 Clarries would be better. But until that day, he should play where he is of greatest value to the team. If that is the midfield in any given game, so be it. But if it is the forward line, then so be it. He is that versatile and that good he can bring value wherever he plays (oops, perhaps not in defence).

[Demon Dynasty 15,386]

3 hours ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Respectfully disagree Rjay,

I'd like to see Clarrie moved forward and Viney used as our tagger, not disagreeing how good a job he did on Cripps, but with our turnovers it provides plenty of options the other way.

Until we get our lateral and short range quick ball movement sorted out I'd like to see 2 of Harmes, Brayshaw and Viney in there at all times and rotate Clarrie and Trac through the other mid/forward rotation. Viney isn't going to hurt any side inside forward 50, but I think both Clarrie and Trac do.

Magnets and plans B, C &D all need to be in place to make us less predictable in games/quarters to keep opposition second guessing and allow us to change things up a little when we need to shift momentum 

Until we get better inside outside runners who can escape congestion with agility / burst and then distribute the ball with more aplomb / finesse PSD, i fear that any such shuffling is just that.

My only trustworthy / worthy exception at this point in time, who i honestly believe offers all of the above (power/burst and agility away from congestion plus decent AFL ability to hit targets), is Tracc.  Playing mid/resting forward as he has been is working well.  Don't make him a mostly forward / part time mid or we are robbing Peter imo.

I would ask each of Clarry, Viney, Gus & Harmes to play stints forward and see who gets/wants one role or the other in terms of connecting from middle vs stealing goals, pressuring inside 50 etc.

This may or may not help in their understanding of how necessary it is to assess and finesse the kick as much as possible coming i50 to the advantage of target player.  Then ask these same players to do same for their forwards during shorter stints in the middle.

Rinse repeat till one or more of them are assessed as being more suited to one bias or the other.

Plenty of matches left to experiment and decide which of these fellas are worthy playing a combined role mid / forward or maybe a dedicated role only.  It might turn out that none are quite up to the task and we need to start blooding again to remedy our issues here.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Rusty Nails

[Demon17 4,541]

23 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Question paraphrased: Can the issues be fixed and can they be fixed quickly?

Jennings answer: It's a 30 second fix. That's just pure strategy and match day coaching.

Pretty damning assessment of Goodwin right there!

Ross Lyon said as much too on Wednesdays Footy Classified.

[Brownie 5,171]

3 hours ago, rjay said:

...because it takes away our biggest strength.

Not sure Rjay. He can be our biggest strength but Clarrys walking at the moment. He's off and I think a number of our players need to see changes to our plans too.

Fingers crossed we see things shift this weekend.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Brownie

[Bay Riffin 1,413]

10 hours ago, Deesprate said:

Jennings also had a crack at Goodwin a few week ago about the length of pre season training camps. He stated the optimal period was 5 days but Goody ran a camp for 11 days the longest he had experienced. Said it reflected Goodys love of training but left the players disenfranchised due to the length. Goody seem to have a mantra my way or the highway. At least he loses the coaching gig he can say I did it my way

11 days. seriously. how could they whine about 7 days. doesn't mean they are running a marathon each day. geez

[Pennant St Dee 11,257]

3 hours ago, rjay said:

All good 'Pennant', I would rather see 2 of Clarrie, Brayshaw and Trac with Harmes as tagger where needed and Viney 5th option.

I think Viney clogs up the middle with poor decisions.

Tries to take too much on but hasn't got the skills, size or decision making to do it.

Clarrie, Brayshaw and Trac are more likely to give us the breakaway we need.

 

1 hour ago, Rusty Nails said:

Until we get better inside outside runners who can escape congestion with agility / burst and then distribute the ball with more aplomb / finesse PSD, i fear that any such shuffling is just that.

My only trustworthy / worthy exception at this point in time, who i honestly believe offers all of the above (power/burst and agility away from congestion plus decent AFL ability to hit targets), is Tracc.  Playing mid/resting forward as he has been is working well.  Don't make him a mostly forward / part time mid or we are robbing Peter imo.

I would ask each of Clarry, Viney, Gus & Harmes to play stints forward and see who gets/wants one role or the other in terms of connecting from middle vs stealing goals, pressuring inside 50 etc.

This may or may not help in their understanding of how necessary it is to assess and finesse the kick as much as possible coming i50 to the advantage of target player.  Then ask these same players to do same for their forwards during shorter stints in the middle.

Rinse repeat till one or more of them are assessed as being more suited to one bias or the other.

Plenty of matches left to experiment and decide which of these fellas are worthy playing a combined role mid / forward or maybe a dedicated role only.  It might turn out that none are quite up to the task and we need to start blooding again to remedy our issues here.

Good points by both, hopefully we find the right mixture soon enough 

[Dr. Gonzo 22,412]

5 hours ago, Brownie said:

Even mentioned that we don't seem to evaluate the opposition's game plans and have a strategy to counteract it.

Wasn't that Jennings role? Strategy and opposition analyst

[Hogan2014 390]

No were to hide for Goodwin, very damning & every coach is picking apart his game plan. 

[rjay 23,888]

1 hour ago, Brownie said:

Not sure Rjay. He can be our biggest strength but Clarrys walking at the moment. He's off and I think a number of our players need to see changes to our plans too.

Fingers crossed we see things shift this weekend.

He hasn't come on as much as we would like but he still had 26 touches, 16 of them contested last week.

I know it's only numbers but he's an important cog around the ball.

He needs smarter players feeding off him, it's why I prefer Brayshaw and Trac around him rather than Viney who is more likely trying to go for the same contest.

Bennell will feed off him if he gets up the ground a bit.

Maybe it's also time to swing Salem up the ground a bit.

[D4Life 2,299]

On 7/9/2020 at 5:12 PM, Nelo said:

If Craig Jennings is so good why isn’t he at Melbourne anymore, or why isn’t he at another club??

He was at Melbourne last few years, if it was so blindingly obvious why didn’t he fix it?

[Skuit 9,166]

Goody adopted a training-wheels philosophy from Roos - drilling a single game philosophy into the players rather than concentrating on the opposition or being reactive. Go back to the threads during his tenure and everyone would complain that Roos was a poor game-day coach and never made in-game changes. It's a difficult environment for an opposition strategist. The head coach has other priorities. 

Jennings was lauded for helping to devise our strategy in 2017/18 - but we leaked something chronic and tweaks to the super high-press had to made mid-season before we went on our run. Who knows who instigated what at the time - but judging by the footage of the narrow Crows win Jennings was unhappy he wasn't getting his way and was behaving far from what would be expected from a team player. 

This interview in my mind is rather unsavory. He was shown the door for likely the above attitude and his first dig is at the team coached by one his replacements. He states that St. Kilda were easy to counter - yet they were next to North the biggest thorn in our side during Jennings time at the club. I still blame our 2018 loss to them as the reason we didn't get a genuine tilt at the flag. 

Who knows if that was his doing or if he was being ignored. Any boss will receive often conflicting advice from numerous employees, and can't act on it all. It seems telling to me that Jennings didn't land at another club, despite being considered some master strategist in the media. What he said in the SEN interview seems about right - but we'll never know what he was responsible for at the MFC. 

From an unflattering channel 7 report at the time of his dismissal: "Jennings sought to promote himself, advised by a well-known PR agent. His public self-promotion campaign culminated in a profile piece in Virgin’s in-flight magazine. The club supported his efforts to raise his profile, but this column believes the Demons were uncomfortable with aspects of the extent to which he was generating publicity."

 

 

 

   

[rjay 23,888]

13 minutes ago, Skuit said:

This interview in my mind is rather unsavory.

Couldn't agree more 'Skuit'...

...and I think he's done his chances at another AFL gig a lot of harm.

His judgement seems a bit out.

 

[Skuit 9,166]

5 minutes ago, rjay said:

Couldn't agree more 'Skuit'...

...and I think he's done his chances at another AFL gig a lot of harm.

His judgement seems a bit out.

 

Effectively criticising a former employer in a public forum and getting close to divulging confidential information. No matter their talents, not many people get away with that in most industries - and the AFL is an especially insular industry with clear pecking orders. 

[dee-tox 4,798]

59 minutes ago, Skuit said:

Goody adopted a training-wheels philosophy from Roos - drilling a single game philosophy into the players rather than concentrating on the opposition or being reactive. Go back to the threads during his tenure and everyone would complain that Roos was a poor game-day coach and never made in-game changes. It's a difficult environment for an opposition strategist. The head coach has other priorities. 

Jennings was lauded for helping to devise our strategy in 2017/18 - but we leaked something chronic and tweaks to the super high-press had to made mid-season before we went on our run. Who knows who instigated what at the time - but judging by the footage of the narrow Crows win Jennings was unhappy he wasn't getting his way and was behaving far from what would be expected from a team player. 

This interview in my mind is rather unsavory. He was shown the door for likely the above attitude and his first dig is at the team coached by one his replacements. He states that St. Kilda were easy to counter - yet they were next to North the biggest thorn in our side during Jennings time at the club. I still blame our 2018 loss to them as the reason we didn't get a genuine tilt at the flag. 

Who knows if that was his doing or if he was being ignored. Any boss will receive often conflicting advice from numerous employees, and can't act on it all. It seems telling to me that Jennings didn't land at another club, despite being considered some master strategist in the media. What he said in the SEN interview seems about right - but we'll never know what he was responsible for at the MFC. 

From an unflattering channel 7 report at the time of his dismissal: "Jennings sought to promote himself, advised by a well-known PR agent. His public self-promotion campaign culminated in a profile piece in Virgin’s in-flight magazine. The club supported his efforts to raise his profile, but this column believes the Demons were uncomfortable with aspects of the extent to which he was generating publicity."

 

 

 

   

As much as his comments are great for fans like us, I agree they do come across as a little unsavory.  And as much as an interview like this is good for his profile he may have burnt his bridges at AFL level as a result.

I also find his comments about StKilda strange given that when he was at Melbourne we could never beat Saints and their simplistic gamestyle.

Edited July 10, 2020 by dee-tox

[Leoncelli_36 2,264]

Listened to this analysis for the first time tonight. He seems fairly bitter and there is evidence that he has bad blood with Goody. 
 

while I agree with the disconnect argument and that each line is out of sink, he made a few observations that seemed more relevant to last season that this year. The ‘bees to a honeypot’ problem has not been an issue this year for mine. We have stopped committing too many at the ball in the midfield. I think he was way off with that point. 
 

we have found ourselves out in plenty of space, with run, but continually choose the wrong option and/or poorly execute the final kick inside 50. 

[Deesprate 1,162]

As much as I am no fan of Goodys pretty poor form of Jennings. It hard for Goody to defend himself

[dazzledavey36 48,708]

Lol Jennings..

This is the same guy that said he wanted to coach his own team in the VFL only to instead get overlook for coaching gigs and then picked up a got a director of coaching at... VAFA level...

Same bloke that didn't see eye to eye with highly respected development guru Brendan McCartney  because he had high opinions of himself and how things should have ran.

The dude is as sour as they come honestly 

Ship off back to the VAFA Jennings where you belong.

[Skuit 9,166]

2 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

As much as his comments are great for fans like us, I agree they do come across as a little unsavory.  As much as an interview like this is good for his profile he may have burnt his bridges at AFL level as a result.

I also find his comments about StKilda strange given that when he was at Melbourne we could never beat Saints and their simplistic gamestyle.

Going back to our early-season fixture in 2016, the Saints probably created one of the templates which has been replicated since to beat us on numerous occasions, most notably by Collingwood in our pre-bye thrashing in 2018 and more widely referenced by Jennings - sitting players outside and wide of the contest ready to either block or spread.

As far as my memory stretches, Jennings came to us in 2017, or was it in 2016? Before that the Bulldogs, right? And then he and McCartney were reportedly hostile with each other while at the Demons. There's a lot going on here. McCartney at one stage in 2018 was reported as seriously out of favour - banished from the box to the bench.

Was Jennings weaseling in the workplace and later found out? It's all baseless speculation. But the available evidence suggests that Jennings behaves quite big for his boots and is a troublesome employee. And to your point - if defeating the Saints was so simple, why wasn't he apparently capable of getting that supposedly simple message across? 

[chookrat 3,776]

16 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

Listened to this analysis for the first time tonight. He seems fairly bitter and there is evidence that he has bad blood with Goody. 
 

while I agree with the disconnect argument and that each line is out of sink, he made a few observations that seemed more relevant to last season that this year. The ‘bees to a honeypot’ problem has not been an issue this year for mine. We have stopped committing too many at the ball in the midfield. I think he was way off with that point. 
 

we have found ourselves out in plenty of space, with run, but continually choose the wrong option and/or poorly execute the final kick inside 50. 

I'm with you on this Leoncelli that we aren't playing the same as last year and have fixed alot of deficiencies. A bit more composure to pick the right option in our forward half and executing better will make a massive difference.

[binman 37,968]

5 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Wasn't that Jennings role? Strategy and opposition analyst

Yes.

Strange comment from him then in that context. Sort of 'since I've gone they dont seem any food at analysing opposition teams or developing strategies to combat them, you know like I was so brilliant at"

[Earl Hood 5,788]

10 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Lol Jennings..

This is the same guy that said he wanted to coach his own team in the VFL only to instead get overlook for coaching gigs and then picked up a got a director of coaching at... VAFA level...

Same bloke that didn't see eye to eye with highly respected development guru Brendan McCartney  because he had high opinions of himself and how things should have ran.

The dude is as sour as they come honestly 

Ship off back to the VAFA Jennings where you belong.

Well we can all put [censored] on Jennings I suppose, what would he know except we are what,  6 wins and 26 losses since 2018 to 2020? I mean like our top bloke has a clue. Not! 

[DurriePirate 97]

25 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

Listened to this analysis for the first time tonight. He seems fairly bitter and there is evidence that he has bad blood with Goody. 
 

while I agree with the disconnect argument and that each line is out of sink, he made a few observations that seemed more relevant to last season that this year. The ‘bees to a honeypot’ problem has not been an issue this year for mine. We have stopped committing too many at the ball in the midfield. I think he was way off with that point. 
 

we have found ourselves out in plenty of space, with run, but continually choose the wrong option and/or poorly execute the final kick inside 50. 

They may have reduced the "bees to a honey pot" by still happens at crucial moments.

What kills me is watching the forward 50 get absolutely swamped by our player instead if keep that arc of 4-6 player across the centre just 60-70m out. Stopping the exit and creating space for the forwards.

[Skuit 9,166]

24 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

while I agree with the disconnect argument and that each line is out of sink, he made a few observations that seemed more relevant to last season that this year.

Or the year prior. His big-up of TMac suggests as much to me. Tomald looks completely cooked, along with the majority of our few senior players. I think Goodwin is aware of this, and is unfortunately back to a mini rebuild/refresh for a run in the year after next. TMac may not currently be being used to his best attributes, and doesn't have much support, but he's not going to become a world-beater again if given the right role. 2018, along with Jennings' world-view, is gone. 

[Skuit 9,166]

28 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

Well we can all put [censored] on Jennings I suppose, what would he know except we are what,  6 wins and 26 losses since 2018 to 2020? I mean like our top bloke has a clue. Not! 

You want me to give you you the figures for how many of those 26 losses Jennings was at the club for, including the West Coast prelim catastrophe, before being dismissed a year later? Yeah - bordering on 90 percent.