If just for the moment we can put aside WHO the next coach is/will be. WHAT is it that needs addressing ?

Is there an urgency or priority to one element more than others ?

We once had a very effective, ne daunting, midfield. It , when on song, powered many a victory. It provided a blitzkrieg kind of tide out of the square that overwhelmed many opponents. We relied on its force more than skill. ( I think )

FF to today.. in fact just cast back to yesterday and tbh we were comprehensively beaten in centre clearances. Their midfield seemed much better as a unit.

Max might win a lot of the rucking but it doesn't translate any longer

Who ever takes the reigns has to also get onside those who'll be developing our new midfield , as we need one.

For mine that's the first glaring deficiency in our arsenal. There's aspects of skill and football intelligence that need looking at but winning out of the guts will by effect change how we need to play elsewhere .

Not only will the coaching change but the old guard in the middle needs overhauling. I can only see Max battling on for 2-3 seasons ( barring injury )

Windsor is a start. Needs to keep going.

But if not the middle...

Where does Coach X focus his attention 🤔

Interesting Kane Cornes said on SEN whoever the new coach will be needs to deal with the senior players Oliver, Viney, Tracc and Gawn. He is very critical saying they have been mollycoddled by coach and club to the detriment of the team. Interestingly he agreed that any new coach prospect putting that to the board of course won’t get the job.

I think he has a valid point although it’s a bit too extreme. Gawn is going nowhere but if there was any trade value, we should look at Oliver or Tracc.

Lost you at interesting and Kane cornes in one sentence

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by Rocknroll

A couple of things:

• skills - improve our kicking yesterday by about 10% and we win that game. So many times we miss a kick, not just by a step but by 10m or so or we give a handball that just causes a bit of a fumble and that is enough to stop the play

  • You can even see it in the warm up. When we were going well, their first kick at goal after running through the banner, I reckon maybe 90% of them kicked the goal, come to now and it would be lucky to get half the team kicking that goal. It is a little thing but shows the drop off. If we do end up with Buckley, just have him spending his whole time teaching us how to kick

• Put at least one person with speed in the midfield. When we had either Windsor or Pickett in the middle yesterday we either won or halved the centre clearance. Every time they went back to 'big 3' of Petracca, Oliver and Viney I reckon we lost it. As someone else said, as soon as we had those 3 at the final centre bounce I knew we couldn't at least draw it

• Tell our forwards to constantly move. The amount of time we have the ball 70m out and we all just stand there pointing to a spot. If we move, we can then have options or at the very least, we draw some defenders away from where we are about to bomb it!

14 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

Interesting Kane Cornes said on SEN whoever the new coach will be needs to deal with the senior players Oliver, Viney, Tracc and Gawn. He is very critical saying they have been mollycoddled by coach and club to the detriment of the team. Interestingly he agreed that any new coach prospect putting that to the board of course won’t get the job.

I think he has a valid point although it’s a bit too extreme. Gawn is going nowhere but if there was any trade value, we should look at Oliver or Tracc.

Cornes' analysis is usually pretty spot on. He can overcook things for the sake of clicks and engagement (which he does extremely well), but generally the gist and context of what he says is excellent and on the mark.

From a positional sense:

1. Balancing the usage of Pickett, Windsor, Rivers, Lindsay, Langford in the inside mid mix versus Petracca, Oliver, Viney

2. Unleash the shackles on McVee......should he stick around

1st of all we need players for the new coach to work with,the gap between the young and old is to big,need some 24 to 27 year olds. Our older players have fallen off the cliff and the recruitment has been shizzen,the kids from the draft have been pretty good

The aging and predictable midfield combination is our biggest handbrake.

I think we are still 2-3 mids short and don’t agree that Rivers or McVee are the answer.

Koz and Windsor go some way to helping it but Windsor needs lots of kicking work over summer.

We desperately need another highly skilled, running mid.

Once we can make the opposition defend more, things will open up and the forwards will find space.

15 minutes ago, doomsday dee said:

1st of all we need players for the new coach to work with,the gap between the young and old is to big,need some 24 to 27 year olds. Our older players have fallen off the cliff and the recruitment has been shizzen,the kids from the draft have been pretty good

I was thinking about that gap last week, we seem to have an ageing brigade and then a group of youngsters on the up. Then when I checked the age profile the real problem is our once highly rated 28/29 year olds, who should be playing their best football are all playing below par, Oliver, Tracc, Langdon, Lever for various reasons but I think hunger, or lack of it, is a major part of the problem. Those 4 playing their best footy would provide great cover to allow the growth of our youngsters.

Basic skills focus, get the simple things right more often. I know McRae does basic skills every session....we do not have great kickers, or handballers...every player can improve on their skill set, we should dictate at least 15 minutes every session on upping our skills. Scrap the soccer as a regular gig...occasionally, sure.

Flexibility.?...I know we have midfield, backs and forward groups. Is it possible to move players into other groups to promote versatility? Pigeon holing blokes into one role does not help development. Including players in different groups would see our overall synergy improve.

Freedom....to play exciting footy without fear of making mistakes. This one is on the incoming coach. Demand them to take the game on. Ie Salem I do not care if you have 90+% disposal efficiency. Want you to take the metres gained, roll off the mark, play on lot more often.

More areas that I think that needs to be addressed, maybe in another post.

Basic skills should be our focus though, it is where we would get our biggest bang for buck.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by NeveroddoreveN

5 hours ago, BW511 said:

Once we can make the opposition defend more, things will open up and the forwards will find space.

The forwards don’t just need to find space, they need to make space and use space. An ongoing problem for years.

Skills and pride in playing a reliable brand of footy every week, for 4 quarters. No more brain fades/no-shows etc

Win or lose, you should know which team is going to turn up to play footy and have a crack.

The rest will follow from the above.

Roos thinks we can win the flag next year. He must think we've seriously underperformed !

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1229315285667442

3 minutes ago, frankie_d said:

Roos thinks we can win the flag next year. He must think we've seriously underperformed !

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1229315285667442

Saw this - wowee. Love Roos, I'll take any positivity we can get right now!

In simple terms just get more comfortable playing in space. Attacking and defending.

We’ve come along way already but there were some glaring moments against the dogs in the first half and by the end of the game Windsor did a hammy, Disco went off with cramp.

That’s tied in to transitioning our midfield but it has to happen even if we stick with our current guys.

The list.

Better skills and smarts.

Get that in place and the rest will follow. Without it in place, everything else is just rearranging the deck chairs.

ONE - Improve basic skills across the entire squad - handball, kick, contested marking

TWO - Improve set shot goal kicking by minimum 20%

THREE - Our forward line system including movement, KPF personnel, repeat leading, roving contested marking, the whole lot.

FOUR - sort out a new and broader midfield mix.

Drop players who are not up to scratch and not to promote them if they don't perform in the reserves. In other words make them work harder. Reward reserve players who constantly play well.

Find a way to transition reserve players so that they can play seniors. Pick up young midfielders who were not selected in the 24 and 25 draft. Get a decent FF coach.

12 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

Interesting Kane Cornes said on SEN whoever the new coach will be needs to deal with the senior players Oliver, Viney, Tracc and Gawn. He is very critical saying they have been mollycoddled by coach and club to the detriment of the team. Interestingly he agreed that any new coach prospect putting that to the board of course won’t get the job.

I think he has a valid point although it’s a bit too extreme. Gawn is going nowhere but if there was any trade value, we should look at Oliver or Tracc.

I listened to this and while he amped it up his actual point was irrefutable:

There’s a lot of love given to Gawn, Viney, Oliver and Tracc (including the interim coach in his post game conversation with the players) but if you look at the numbers we won that game everywhere on the ground - except at clearance.

Something ain’t right.

1 hour ago, Maldonboy38 said:

ONE - Improve basic skills across the entire squad - handball, kick, contested marking

If you want to improve basic skills across the whole squad, bring in players with better skills.

The kicking of the likes of Petracca and Viney is not going to improve. Some of the younger players will improve with experience and maturity (disposal under pressure), but apart from that ... not how it works.

1. For me it’s transitioning from defence to the forwards.

2. To fix point 1, we need to fix our forwards leading patterns

3. To fix point 2, we need to learn to stop just bombing the ball into the forward pocket.

4. Unrelated to those first three points, we need our mids to improve their roving to Max’s hit outs and centre bounces. Clearances are going the opposition’s way far too often.

Mid-Forward connection is the biggest gaping hole.

Whether that is Forward craft that opens up leading channels or our mids honouring the guys in the right places and nailing them. Or having the skill level to do so.

The hardest thing in football and the easiest thing in football. Get that connection right - we shoot for goal im better positions allowing easier shots and a better return.

Nothing more deflating for the team when our forwards get = or more looks at goals but dont convert. The goal conversion has been dismal. Where we shoot feom helps dramatically (although the number of 30-40m straight in front shots that are sprayed is unforgivable)

Back line is at the level required generally. Our midfield mix requires more speed on the ball - kossie Lindsay Windsor help address this. Tracc as a 70/30 Forward mid instead of 8020 the other way allows it to happen. Avoiding a dominant mid structure of 1 paced brutes and mixing in the speed and polish is the required trick here.

A bona fide KPF to partner jvr. Can't rely on 4 mid sized forwards... need the spread of tall, short, mid, speed and marking prowess intertwined.

Clone kossie for 2 more of him.... one deep forward, one mid and one as the roaming defensive half forward....