Search the Community

Was lucky enough to go to the AFL National Coaching Conference on the weekend and thought I would share where AFL people think coaching is at and where it is going. Keynote Speakers: Alistair Clarkson, Brendan Bolton, Leigh Russell (http://www.leighrussell.com.au/), Shane Pill (West Adelaide) and Matt Jones (Dandenong Stingrays) There were a couple more that I didn't attend for the sake of relevance and time management but the clift notes to what they said: Clarkson - 'Fun and Games' Apparently, the higher you go in the elite pyramid of footy, the less enjoyment the players seem to have playing the game. At the Hawks, they have a focus on playing games at training that look at game sense and spatial awareness and less on the usual drills that we have all grown up with in our footy lives. The games would include anything from a handball game to some soccer to some head tennis with the soccer ball to anything they can think of. He cited James Frawley as one player that was surprised to see how many 'games' they were playing at training... Bolton - 'Creating a Learning Environment' 'Challenge the comfortable, and comfort the challenged' was the message from Bolton about how he works with the players at the Hawks. In relation to the games they play at training - he reiterated that that is how one learns quicker - not by being told what to know, but to work it out themselves. The players would then take those basic lessons into games of where to run, when to block, when to help, when to corral and not tackle etc. He noted that both Clarkson and himself have a background in teaching and it shows through in how they approach teaching the players as a participant in the knowledge gathering rather than a recipient. Russell - 'Emotional Intelligence' This is something that we will know a great deal about and something that I have seen the importance of since Roos has taken over. We have all seen the failure of coaches that do not have a balanced approach to those under their charge with their emotions and empathy. She said that EI stems out of self-awareness and that those that can control their emotions and display a level of empathy and build relationships can then begin to coach - before that happens, you have nothing. Pill and Jones - 'Practical Coaching of Game Sense drills' We were treated to a training session from the Dandenong Stingrays on Etihad on Saturday (some big boys, I think TGR was there as he mentioned he saw Jake Lovett, I saw some very solid units...). The kids did their warm up and got their skills sorted and then we saw Jones take them through a handball game that is fairly simple, then incorporated some kicking and then moved into a 'zone ball' game that looked a little like an NFL-AFL-Free Jazz hybrid. Now I have done these games before with my boys, but the difference here was that these 'drills' were the focus of the sessions that they do. There is no 'coned' drill where blokes trudge from cone to cone and stand behind a line - its all free style games with a few well define rules. Another thing is that some of these games can be AFL styled but with 12v12, or 6v6, or 3v5. etc. Another thing to note was the way the coach talked to the players - never told them what he thought they were doing wrong - he asked them what they were doing right and what they could do better and he asked specific individuals rather than the same bloke every time. I also had a chance to hear Nathan Basset (Ball movement and transition), Darren Crocker (Stoppage work), Stan Alves (effective training sessions), and Peter Schwab (building a game plan). I will add a bit more on these later but I can expand on anything that anyone has particular interest in.

Unfortunately, anyway you look at it, we have gone backwards under Neeld. Backwards in talent, personell, enthusiasm, gameplan, excitement, fun and most importantly ON THE LADDER!!! Until he and Schwab goes the Melbourne Football Club are without a chance of moving forward. Follow this if you will; 2011 we won 8.5 games - Surely Neeld would back himslef to take that as a baseline and build up from there?? We already had a young list so just develop them beyond what they had performed the year before. We are sooooooooooooooo much worse than 8.5 now. What I'd give for 8.5 wins. In 2011 we often looked fast, competitive dynamic: When we won, we won big - thrashed Adelaide (watch this! ), 94 points, thrashed Freo. Look at them now and then look at us? When we lost we looked spirited yet outgunned and leaky like many a young team does. Our list was good enough to beat teams like the Swans until Neeld disempowered and traded half the talent out and got spuds in. With the talent drain since 2011, even the best gameplan in the world we would still lose uncomfortably. Rethinking 186 - Cats pummelled 2011 runners-up Collingwood by 96 points two weeks later. This is THE Collingwood guys! You know the team that won a flag? The fully grown list and club lost by 100 to the Cats straight after we did. There was a well known power struggle behind the scenes at Melbourne which leaked out onto the field for 186. We were riven with internal tension and flogged by one of the best teams of all time, in top form, on their home turf. The Pies were at their peak and thrashed on the G. Can never be pretty but how is this equation? 186 = 96 (what the pies lost by two weeks later) + 30 (Cats at Kardinia Park toll) + 30 (internal politics leaking onto the field) + 30 (inexperienced and fatigued team). 148 is so much worse than that. In 2011 Brent Moloney came 7th in the Brownlow: The list turnover and spiralling performance of our best talent has been the biggest crime of the Neeld/Schwab gutting. Do they know how many losses we had to suffer to get those talented young players??? Back yourself to make them players, don't just trade out Gysberts for Pederson, Petterd for Byrnes. Moloney for Rodan. Bring more out of players! Furthermore it's well documented that all our AA talent has gone backward Frawley, Jamar, Davey. AFL standard - I am sick of hearing people write about the Neeld as though he picked up a failed rebuild basket case! We were stuttering but definitely on our way up. We were running out games fine. Neeld himself constantly sinks the boot in saying that he is trying to get to AFL standard. What disrespectful rubbish to a peer in Bailey to divert the spotlight from his own dismal performance. We have slipped so far backwards on any tangible scale since Neeld joined. I blame Garry Lyon, Mclardy and the board for supporting snake Schwab over the senior players in the wake of 186. It takes a lot of resentment for senior players to stand up to a bully CEO. (Pavlich vs Schwab at Freo is a happy example of where the players won the day! bye bye Schwabbie!) At the Dees, Schwab had put tanking in place, shelved a 'trust exercise' report and force cut their beloved Captain Jnr Mac! For them to defy the players by sacking Bailey while we were still a chance to make the 8 was just plain weak, reactive and horrible. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying Bailey was definitely going to last the distance, maybe we swap him for Malthouse after his contract was up in 2012 ala Ratts. But one thing is for sure, we have never looked as pathetic and hopeless as we do now under Neeld. But apparently our pre-season GPS data is up to AFL standard so I might be wrong

People talk about how the board should be voted out due to the last 5 odd years of underperformance/total disaster. This is something I do not disagree with. However, the one thing I think that should have sealed their fate already is that after 186, Cameron Schwab was supposedly given his head and told to stay out of football department matters. Yet Peter Jackson comes out this week and says there were FOUR people who were still answering to him (they weren't named but I've heard that they are Mark Neeld, Tim Harrington, Neil Craig and Josh Mahoney). I thought it was highly likely that he was behind the disenfranchising of blokes like Moloney and Rivers, the selection of the pair of Jacks, getting Grimesy to wear number 31 (let the kid make his own history FFS!) but I never thought there was actual proof. It was all here-say. I'm not going to get too caught up in Peter Jackson as a man just yet. He has some runs on the board but whether or not he can apply his skill set to the MFC remains to be seen. However, I am a HUGE fan of the brief he has been given: a non-partisan, clean-skin efficiency expert who is here to do a job and when it is done, he will leave. I believe he has been fair (less calmer heads would have sacked Neeld after last week) and I support his call for people to operate in 'clean air'. The fact that he revealed that Schwab was STILL sticking his hooter into the FD shows that the board is essentially toothless. What did they actually do after 186? Give him a 'naughty naughty' speech but not actually redraw his contract to redefine who was answerable to him? Shouldn't there have been clauses in his new deal that clearly spelled out duties entailed? And termination clauses that indicated if there was non performance then he would be sacked? It just seems they told him to keep his head out of media street but that he could do whatever the hell he liked. I felt the club needed to protect our employees in the wake of the tanking inquiry but hearing what PJ said pizzes me off no end. It's not like CS is Rick James and you are dazzled by his aura when you meet him.

Date with disaster Quite a detailed account. She's actually quite fair to Schwab later in the article too, which was surprising. Worth a read for any Demon supporter.