Cairnsman wrote: ↑Mon 06 Aug 2018 2:35pm
dragit wrote: ↑Mon 06 Aug 2018 1:59pm
Cairnsman wrote: ↑Mon 06 Aug 2018 1:42pm
The players stuffed up on Saturday and putting the blame on anyone else is not holding the players to account when they deserve it.
So who's responsibility is the ongoing performance of the selected players ?
This isn't one bad week.
I agree, it's a thing, the players have turned up thier toes on multiple occassions after playing good patches of footy. The team just needs to find an answer because it's thier clear weekness and not even Alastair Clarkson being head coach will make a difference to that aspect of player control out on the ground.
And I suspect opposition clubs know they can take the game away from us quickly.
We are easily pushed aside.
Desperately need players to come off the injury list and also desperately need to recruit some additional experienced players that can show us how to role up the sleeves.
I do not buy players as a group 'turn their toes up'. Never have, hope I never do. A few, and I emphasise "few", might, from time to time, but the reasons are generally discoverable
What I do know is groups can get demoralised, lose confidence in their ability, purpose and their 'environment'.
I've spent a lot of time watching what goes on in front of and behind the ball - the 'what next and what if' method of watching games. It's not difficult to discern how well oiled the machine is, by watching players move when they're not involved in the immediate passage of play. When Lyon coached, you could see how everyone was on the same page, irrespective of talent - they knew what they were supposed to do, in most unfolding scenarios on the ground.
People bang on, a lot, about on field leadership, but many have a narrow conception of the breadth of what it is that constitutes leadership.
Last year, when we won, what, 10 or 11 games, Montagna's leadership was absolutely vital. Never ran through brickwalls to 'lead' - he organised, he watched and knew who needed to go where, whether they had the ball, or might become needed or involved.
Another facet that gets seriously effected when demoralisation sets in, is decision making, whether, again, a player is involved in a passage of play, or might become involved, or needed. The game has never been quicker, the players never fitter, and that cuts into the available time to make decisions. In groups, demoralised individuals tend to hesitate, or abrogate, and that has a compounding effect on the group's cohesion.
It's never as simple as 'these blokes chuck it in'. People are looking in the wrong places for solutions, if they think it's even close to being fixable by just getting hold of a couple of 'tough nuts'.
This list didn't arrive with little or no talent. How many 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th year players have we got that appeared more capable in the early parts of their careers, than they do in the latter parts?
What is 'management's' job, if not to design a method best able to exploit and integrate whatever talent is available, and develop that talent to continually improve the individual and collective performance.
It sure as hell won't happen if ya tell 'em they're no good, PILE ON STYLE!
'I have no new illusions, and I have no old illusions' - Vladimir Putin, Geneva, June 2021