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New Head of Strength & Conditioning

Demonland
Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

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12 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

Do this mean Burgo is gone???

I think Burgo is Performance manager, not strength and conditioning. For memory, this role was filled by someone who left earlier in the year (Alex Sakadjian?)

Edited by Mickey

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    18 minutes ago, Mickey said:

    I think Burgo is Performance manager, not strength and conditioning. For memory, this role was filled by someone who left earlier in the year (Alex Sakadjian?)

    Yes.  But I thought the budgets were cut right back and he’d probably not get replaced. Big win here for the Dees. 

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    25 minutes ago, Mickey said:

    I think Burgo is Performance manager, not strength and conditioning. For memory, this role was filled by someone who left earlier in the year (Alex Sakadjian?)

    Phil Merriman was promoted to Freo's main man.

    So we needed a second guy, whether that's as part of a Burgo succession plan or not time will tell. 

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    Darren Burgess is such a huge asset to the club - I get Hogan/Scully level stress about him leaving.

    Welcome to the MFC Selwyn!

     

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    14 minutes ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

    Darren Burgess is such a huge asset to the club - I get Hogan/Scully level stress about him leaving.

    Welcome to the MFC Selwyn!

     

    As important as he is, give me a good psychologist any day.

    it’s all mental with this group.

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    We lost our elite strength and conditioning coach at the end of 2018, Rob Jackson I think it was... who went on to train the AFL umpires. By all reports he was highly respected within the industry and Alex Sakadijan was his apprentice but obviously lacked experience. It's good to see the MFC board has noticed this deficiency and addressed our needs accordingly. 

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    7 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

    As important as he is, give me a good psychologist any day.

    it’s all mental with this group.

    Burgess improved our fitness out of sight this year. We were running over the top of teams in the 4th quarter which is a huge tick and validation of his methods and impact.

    You're right though, the lapses in concentration and in-game drop-offs have killed us and its been a recurring theme. I don’t know if its structural, game plan, game-day coaching or what but with characters like Maxy, Viney, Clarry, May it shouldn’t be on-field leadership. Those blokes are mentally tough and should have the wherewithal to rally the troops and reverse momentum.  

    In individual sports like golf I know psychology coaching is well established. You would think goal kicking would be an obvious area to apply in an AFL context. I haven’t heard of an example in the AFL where psychology has been mentioned as being successful or helped improve the overall team performance. Do you know of any?

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    I read where the Tigers have emphasised the importance of using mindfulness techniques to reduce anxiety, improve focus on the present etc. They also promoted the importance of enjoying the experience with their light hearted joking in the pre-start huddles when opposition teams are doing the opposite, revving themselves up as if they are going into battle. Whatever the Tigers are doing psychologically, it is working a treat. 

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    44 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

    I read where the Tigers have emphasised the importance of using mindfulness techniques to reduce anxiety, improve focus on the present etc. They also promoted the importance of enjoying the experience with their light hearted joking in the pre-start huddles when opposition teams are doing the opposite, revving themselves up as if they are going into battle. Whatever the Tigers are doing psychologically, it is working a treat. 

    As opposed to mindlessness which has been our default position in the past.

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    1 hour ago, Better days ahead said:

    Burgess improved our fitness out of sight this year. We were running over the top of teams in the 4th quarter which is a huge tick and validation of his methods and impact.

    You're right though, the lapses in concentration and in-game drop-offs have killed us and its been a recurring theme. I don’t know if its structural, game plan, game-day coaching or what but with characters like Maxy, Viney, Clarry, May it shouldn’t be on-field leadership. Those blokes are mentally tough and should have the wherewithal to rally the troops and reverse momentum.  

    In individual sports like golf I know psychology coaching is well established. You would think goal kicking would be an obvious area to apply in an AFL context. I haven’t heard of an example in the AFL where psychology has been mentioned as being successful or helped improve the overall team performance. Do you know of any?

    Ricmond utilised a psychologist with great results.  Many of their players credit it with making a huge difference. 3 Premierships in quick time.  I been saying we need psychologist at club for at least 10 years. I don't believe we will win a Premiership until we work out how to get the best out of our players more consistently. Most of them seem to not be able to work it out themselves.  We seem to play more like bunch of individuals than a team imo.  A psychologist could solve a lot of our issues. We have the ability just weak mindset over the journey.  It needs to be a collective, team effort, much more often!

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    Well it seems we are getting all good people around Goodwin to support him. 
     

    Now it’s up to Goodwin to step up and perform. 

    NO MORE EXCUSES. 

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    21 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

    Ricmond utilised a psychologist with great results.  Many of their players credit it with making a huge difference. 3 Premierships in quick time.  I been saying we need psychologist at club for at least 10 years. I don't believe we will win a Premiership until we work out how to get the best out of our players more consistently. Most of them seem to not be able to work it out themselves.  We seem to play more like bunch of individuals than a team imo.  A psychologist could solve a lot of our issues. We have the ability just weak mindset over the journey.  It needs to be a collective, team effort, much more often!

    I'm pretty sure we've had a psychologist at the club for the last ten years and more. Some players use them, others don't. I would like to think they have input into improving the mindset/resolve of the group, but it's not leaping out at me. The woman at Richmond was/is something like a mindfulness coach or whatever they're called.

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    51 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

    Ricmond utilised a psychologist with great results.  Many of their players credit it with making a huge difference. 3 Premierships in quick time.  I been saying we need psychologist at club for at least 10 years. I don't believe we will win a Premiership until we work out how to get the best out of our players more consistently. Most of them seem to not be able to work it out themselves.  We seem to play more like bunch of individuals than a team imo.  A psychologist could solve a lot of our issues. We have the ability just weak mindset over the journey.  It needs to be a collective, team effort, much more often!

    Not sure how psychology works collectively but I reckon coaching, game plan, buy-in and having a decent list of players were just as important factors in Tiges success.

    I’d be interested to know whether the doggies used a psychologist in 2016?

    I understand from an individual perspective how it has a big role in helping better execution. Fritsch should have a psychologist working with him this off-season for instance. Plus it was interesting to hear BB talk about the visualisation techniques he employs as part of this goal kicking routine.

    But collectively I don’t know. If you take the doggies game this year where we dropped off badly in the 3rd quarter, was it due to lack of pressure from our forwards allowing the doggies to rebound unimpeded, was it lack of response from Goodwin to Beveridge’s switches allowing their midfield to get on top, was it poor effort and intensity to man-up and chase down (maybe this is where the psychologist can play a role).

    An interesting topic and one I can’t profess to be any kind of an expert in but I would be interested to know what techniques a psychologist would employ for our group.

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    16 minutes ago, Better days ahead said:

    Not sure how psychology works collectively but I reckon coaching, game plan, buy-in and having a decent list of players were just as important factors in Tiges success.

    I’d be interested to know whether the doggies used a psychologist in 2016?

    I understand from an individual perspective how it has a big role in helping better execution. Fritsch should have a psychologist working with him this off-season for instance. Plus it was interesting to hear BB talk about the visualisation techniques he employs as part of this goal kicking routine.

    But collectively I don’t know. If you take the doggies game this year where we dropped off badly in the 3rd quarter, was it due to lack of pressure from our forwards allowing the doggies to rebound unimpeded, was it lack of response from Goodwin to Beveridge’s switches allowing their midfield to get on top, was it poor effort and intensity to man-up and chase down (maybe this is where the psychologist can play a role).

    An interesting topic and one I can’t profess to be any kind of an expert in but I would be interested to know what techniques a psychologist would employ for our group.

    Aside from techniques working on the individuals schemas, and the notion of 'experiential avoidance' (i can explain more if you are interested) - I would hope that overall the psych and coaches are working on ways of creating a safe psychological space (a la @Earl Hood reference earlier about Richmond) for players to take risks and make errors., which actually creates competence under stress and a greater ability to execute difficult actions, time and time and time again, so that then they don't become difficult (eg: grand finals) 

    Too much of the time supporters see players laughing and interpret it as 'they don't care'... 

    It's about stress reduction to get back more quickly to focus on task.

     

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    6 minutes ago, Better days ahead said:

    Not sure how psychology works collectively but I reckon coaching, game plan, buy-in and having a decent list of players were just as important factors in Tiges success.

    I’d be interested to know whether the doggies used a psychologist in 2016?

    I understand from an individual perspective how it has a big role in helping better execution. Fritsch should have a psychologist working with him this off-season for instance. Plus it was interesting to hear BB talk about the visualisation techniques he employs as part of this goal kicking routine.

    But collectively I don’t know. If you take the doggies game this year where we dropped off badly in the 3rd quarter, was it due to lack of pressure from our forwards allowing the doggies to rebound unimpeded, was it lack of response from Goodwin to Beveridge’s switches allowing their midfield to get on top, was it poor effort and intensity to man-up and chase down (maybe this is where the psychologist can play a role).

    An interesting topic and one I can’t profess to be any kind of an expert in but I would be interested to know what techniques a psychologist would employ for our group.

    How mindfulness gives Richmond the edge (afr.com)

    Really interesting what Richmond feels it has done for them.  Why would you not try to get every possible edge in a highly competitive game!?  So many posters here seem to think our problems are "up top" not due to our lack of quality.  Goodwin is oldschool and probably would not see the benefits.  I would love to see us all on the same page, busting their absolute guts over course of a full season with Premiership being the goal.  They would all love to win one of course, but would they do anything for it? 

    *Great post btw...The overall impression i get when watching Melbourne is we play scared and not many seem to be having fun.  Richmond is the complete opposite, laughs/jokes/ busting guts for each other. The sooner we get minfulness involved the sooner we get out of our rut of being perennial underachievers. A game plan would help too of course!

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    4 hours ago, DemonOX said:

    Well it seems we are getting all good people around Goodwin to support him. 
     

    Now it’s up to Goodwin to step up and perform. 

    NO MORE EXCUSES. 

    He’s had plenty of time to prove his mettle and be found wanting. He ran out of excuses after 2019, as everyone had to deal with pretty much the same problems this year. He may prove me wrong, but I strongly believe that with Goodwin at the helm, we won’t be going anywhere meaningful and he has overstayed his welcome (thank you MFC board ?).

    This group has continually shown throughout Goodwin’s tenure that they are prone to serious lapses in concentration within games, and he still hasn’t been able to correct this in their heads or in the coaches box.

    No one can expect any team to go at 100% each game, every game, but concentration and effort as a team 100% of the time surely must be a simple non-negotiable.

    Edited by Demon Disciple

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    4 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

    I would hope that overall the psych and coaches are working on ways of creating a safe psychological space (a la @Earl Hood reference earlier about Richmond) for players to take risks and make errors., which actually creates competence under stress and a greater ability to execute difficult actions, time and time and time again, so that then they don't become difficult (eg: grand finals) 

     

    1 hour ago, Demon Disciple said:

    This group has continually shown throughout Goodwin’s tenure that they are prone to serious lapses in concentration within games, and he still hasn’t been able to correct this in their heads or in the coaches box.

    Goodwin needs a safe place too. He's part of the group. My observation is that the stubbornness and inflexibility we perceive is the outer manifestation of an inability/unwillingness to admit errors, make corrections and move on because he feels unsafe to do so. 

    Time to bend, Simon, and grow....

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