early days still, but King's energy is good stuff. love how he communicates. some humour, approachability, but also clearly demands respect. look forward to seeing him hopefully hand out the new guernseys on wednesday night to our new young fellas.

Good stuff. Great to see Jared Rivers back at the club.

11 hours ago, Mt. Dee-Maaan said:

early days still, but King's energy is good stuff. love how he communicates. some humour, approachability, but also clearly demands respect. look forward to seeing him hopefully hand out the new guernseys on wednesday night to our new young fellas.

Yeah well I thought King was underwhelming to be honest. Reminded me of a first day teacher in front of a class. Didn't see anything inspiring!

Edited Friday at 21:251 day by picket fence

13 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Yeah well I thought King was underwhelming to be honest. Reminded me of a first day teacher in front of a class. Didn't see anything inspiring!

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Yeah well I thought King was underwhelming to be honest. Reminded me of a first day teacher in front of a class. Didn't see anything inspiring!

Would youhave preferred this?

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Yeah well I thought King was underwhelming to be honest. Reminded me of a first day teacher in front of a class. Didn't see anything inspiring!

That’s his Ace up the sleeve, he is letting the boys see him as excited and relaxed, barriers are down, I’m approachable I want to get to know you all, you are the ones making the decisions out on the ground, if you aren’t making mistakes you are playing to safe, he is offering them some control and encouraging interaction. Plenty of time for the stressful, anxious and menacing figure when things go wrong or the boyant strong leader when the occasion is required.

13 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

Plenty of time for the stressful, anxious and menacing figure when things go wrong or the boyant strong leader when the occasion is required.

Psychological safety isn’t some soft, fluffy HR buzzword. On the field it’s actually a neurobiological performance tool. When players feel like they won’t cop it for making an error, their nervous system stays in mobilisation, not protection. Same behaviour—kicking, decision-making, taking the game on—but it feels completely different inside the body. One version is “I can try things,” the other is “I don’t want to stuff up.” The first one creates creativity and speed. The second one creates hesitation.

That’s why good coaches let players take positive risks. You want your half-backs and mids reading the play, not overthinking whether the runner will be in their ear. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re playing too safe. You can’t win modern footy that way.

And off the field, psychological safety is just leadership. Imagine if your boss was unpredictable, menacing, or only rocked up in a good mood after a win. You’d be walking on eggshells. Footy players are no different—they’re humans with nervous systems. Consistent, approachable leadership actually makes them consistent on game day.

He’s giving them a sense of control and encouraging interaction. There’ll be time for the stronger, more demanding version when it’s needed—but if you skip the safety piece upfront, that louder version just becomes noise.

This is how high-performance environments are actually built in 2025. Not fear. Not intimidation. Clarity + safety + challenge. In that order.

This video was made by Trent, a new staffer who only started the job on Monday. He’s very young and rather shy and looked so nervous. Yesterday he asked me what I thought of this video. I told him I love it, it’s so well-made and on Monday I’m gonna tell him it’s been well-received on here.

Thanks for posting, DD.

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

Yeah well I thought King was underwhelming to be honest. Reminded me of a first day teacher in front of a class. Didn't see anything inspiring!

You looking for a bit of the old Alan Killigrew 'picket'?

Loosen the screws and knock the door down...

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Would youhave preferred this?

Um no that is WORSE!

14 minutes ago, rjay said:

You looking for a bit of the old Alan Killigrew 'picket'?

Loosen the screws and knock the door down...

Getting closer to it. I always responded best to coaches who made the hairs on my back to stand up.Damien Hardwick is the type of coach I am referring to. Never had time for blamange or fakers. Mark Neeld fitted the epitome of the latter IMO.

Edited yesterday at 00:271 day by picket fence

Gee this Mark Neeld bloke sounds like he can really coach

38 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Getting closer to it. I always responded best to coaches who made the hairs on my back to stand up. Never had time for blamange or fakers. Mark Neeld fitted the epitome of the latter IMO

I’m imaging you are a similar vintage to me. Listen to Rocky - Eye of the Tiger on the way to the game, smash the opposition was the mindset!

We are the Dinosaurs a different age, today’s youth are motivated very differently! The age of suck it up, put your head down and get on with it, isn’t how it works, or what works!

I come to this topic and first thing I see is an ad saying "come to this site for screwing". I hope this isn't meant to be subliminal. 🙄

EDIT: "Local site for screwing" actually. Oh, dear.

Edited yesterday at 01:231 day by Go Ds

10 hours ago, kallangurdemon said:

Gee this Mark Neeld bloke sounds like he can really coach

Spoiler alert - he couldn't.

12 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

This video was made by Trent, a new staffer who only started the job on Monday. He’s very young and rather shy and looked so nervous. Yesterday he asked me what I thought of this video. I told him I love it, it’s so well-made and on Monday I’m gonna tell him it’s been well-received on here.

Thanks for posting, DD.

I don’t have to wait ‘til Monday, I saw Trent at the game today and told him what folks on here have been saying about his first project with the MFC. It quite clearly made his day. He was delighted to hear it.

11 hours ago, D4Life said:

The age of suck it up, put your head down and get on with it, isn’t how it works, or what works!

Thankfully.

14 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Would youhave preferred this?

That is so uncomfortable to watch.

I hope he is reminding them to not only display their skills but to get to know their teamates skills intimately.

Know how far they can kick , How fast they can move, how strong they are in a contest ,etc.

This is the time to really find out how everyone fits together, and where they fit.

11 hours ago, BoBo said:

That is so uncomfortable to watch.

You watched it?!?

DD36 put it there as a jump scare

You weren’t supposed to click the link

It’s like knowing what happens with the Ark and then just popping the top off as soon as Indiana drops it off at the warehouse…