Hyphen, yes, I’ve seen loads of poor play before from Freo, but far less between 2012-2015. Speaking of 2015, the congested game plan came unstuck when we had no solution to the Richmond tap/kick ball out to space when we wanted to play a congested ball style. Remember three players tackling (e.g., Sydney prelim? Turns out that if there are three tacklers, there’s at least two players tied up) meaning greater numbers out in space, which is where the taps go to. Watch Conca, his quick taps into space are in his DNA.
Grub, I’m not saying RoLy isn’t responsible for the environment and culture, but from all accounts - yes, unless anyone can spill the beans and tell us all what is happening in clubland and do so with some specificity - then we can only go on what past players say: there’s heaps of past players who put in a good word for RoLy. Tell us specifically how RoLy destroys environment and culture of a club.
Shane, who says the senior coach doesn’t prepare players well enough? The players are prepared as well as they can be, from week-to-week given injuries, availability, match ups. You can say if a team loses, they weren’t well prepared, but there’s more to it than that.
Yeti, the senior coach dictates decisions about training, player development, but some players fail to ‘develop.’ Some are moved on, but on balance, if there’s been enough ‘development,’ they’re offered contracts. It’s a brutal business, and some, for whatever reason, are just not good enough. You bring up Mark Harvey as a good development coach? OK, sure. But there were reasons why Harvey wasn’t as good a coach as you might think, even as a ‘development’ coach. Check out Pav’s Purple Heart book. I know many on this board think that players toe the company line, but Pav was brutal and scathing about Harvey as coach. (Set aside for a minute how Harvey was sacked. Now, that was brutal.)
Suker, a coaching pattern repeated year after year? Sure, from 2016-2018, for sure. But consider the fact that we pretty much turned over more than half the list in that space of time. And, the improvements this year, though cruelled by some key injuries, are pretty clear to me, notwithstanding the derby loss and the annual send-them-down to Tassie debacle.
I’m off to dinner now, but before I go, re-read my posts. I’m not afraid of change, but only if it’s not a let’s-get-Damien-Drum kind of howler, which from it’s history, is something that FFC has the potential for. Who’s to say that this club won’t make a similar kind of mistake? Longmuir? Why not? He seems to be doing a reasonable job at Collingwood and people speak highly of him. Brad Scott? You’ve got to be kidding. Ratten? Proven record, would make a good choice as a senior coach; Freo would do well to at least sound him out, I haven’t heard that he’s a Melbourne-only coach. Bolton? No. Voss? Gee, it’s taken the Lions a few years to get back into the 8 after his stint. Would he travel to be a senior coach again? Why not? He’s at Port Adelaide now. I hear Richo from the Saints might be available soon…
Don’t get me started on Sumich and his Hagdorn/Hardie campaign. Press types rely on and value someone talking to them for intel, and the get-Sumich campaign has no bigger backers than those two. Talk to Weagles supporters why Sumich wasn’t wanted as a Weagles head coach, despite him being a premiership player. Sumich has coached WAFL in his own right, but his South Fremantle team lost the GF.
Right now, FFC has said that they’ll hold Lyon to his contract, and won’t enter into any discussion about his future. Lyon has also stated that he’s the man for the Freo job, though as I said in a previous post, I reckon this is a coded message to his suitors. Hagdorn said on 6PR this morning that Lyon’s pressers were coded messages to the Freo board. But, this is ludicrous; Lyon knows where he stands with Freo (win well by 2020 or he’s gonski), but if another club (Carlton) wants him, then he’ll take a multiyear contract since he’s had a history of jumping when he’s not offered an extension. Want to know why Lyon comes across as arrogant? I reckon it’s because he knows he holds the cards he wants.
PS. Cletus, I’ve really got to go to dinner, but about Ethan Hughes: “probably lives in fear and trepidation …affects his performance.” Since his debut in the last game of 2015, he’s shown continuous improvement and that’s why he’s in the team. His positives outweigh his negatives at the moment (think B. Hill, Fyfe, Mundy, etc.), and he’ll stay in the team until they aren’t, on a consistent basis. Besides, who’s taking his place from Peel? No one at the moment.