Unmasking the Assistants

[Sanctorum]

I came across an interesting article last week by Wayne Carey in his weekly column in The Age which made a lot of sense, he is discussing tactics and strategies and the role of assistant coaches on game day:

"No longer are senior coaching roles the dictatorships they once were. Decisions are often made as a group, and line coaches are given far more responsibility.

It means assistants can have a far greater impact on performance – good or bad.

Could Michael Voss’ departure be a factor in Port Adelaide’s sluggish start to the season? How much of an impact has Ash Hansen’s absence had at the Whitten Oval?

As a highly respected assistant, Hansen had coached the Dogs’ forwards for five years, including to last year’s grand final.

Has that affected the synergy of that forward line this season?

They are questions that are really difficult to quantify because unless you’re in the inner sanctum you don’t know how much influence they have over the senior coach or the game plan, overall.

But a team of “yes” men won’t work.

When a senior coach presses for an answer on a match-up or a positional change at a crunch time, the response must be measured and assured.

While these assistants, bar a few high-profile exceptions, are often footy’s faceless men, I think it’s time they are unmasked - especially in times of need.

So, why can’t we get these assistants front and centre for post-game media conferences? Even if it is alongside the senior coach.

We regularly follow the US sporting landscape and over there I’ve seen line coordinators front the music.

They can often better answer questions more specifically on structure, play calls, or training during the week.

Not only does it give the viewer greater insight, but it also gives the senior coach some well-earned respite.

Looking at North a fortnight ago against Adelaide, who made the call for Ben McKay to stay forward when he should have been shifted back to play on Taylor Walker after quarter-time?

Who at the Bulldogs made the call to keep Anthony Scott on Charlie Cameron when he was running riot last week?

Was it the coach, or was his assistant firm on persisting?

Another example would be if a team kicks 5.15.

The forwards coach can provide greater context on how their set-up affected where they were having shots from, or how much of a focus goalkicking was during the week for certain individuals.

We often hear about the need to ease the burden on senior coaches who are under enormous mental strain. This could be an option for how to do that.

Most will argue the senior coach must own the decisions of his coaching team, and this is simply blame shifting, but there is upside for the assistants.
It gives them an opportunity to shine, to prove their credentials.
It also gives the fans a better chance to understand their philosophy.

If you can’t articulate it in that setting, how could you be expected to do it well day-in and day-out with your players?

When Sydney have a big win, Don Pyke’s impact on the attacking intent of their game plan is often spoken about. When they get opened up and results go the other way, it’s John Longmire taking responsibility."

All of this makes a lot of sense in my view because there's no denying that all coaches boxes adopt a collegial approach to decision making, it's not simply Brett Ratten calling the shots.

I think it would be really good if supporters could hear what the assistant coaches have to say when the team gets flogged, because they need to be held to account no less than the players and the senior coach! Only then can we be in a position to judge them on their abilities.

[Yorkeys]

And then what Wayne.
We know who are bad coaches and have to live with it, or
We know those who are good coaches but don't have the players to win over the long haul and/or
We know there is group think or
We know the chemistry between some is not good.

What do the long suffering supporters do with all that knowledge, other than fret more or take cold comfort.

Seems a vacuous puff piece, maybe he wanted to pump up the tyres of Hansen or Voss; backhand Bevo and Hinkley?
Make the point that some coaching seems faulty? Well I never!
Unmask the media hacks, I say.

[Selhurst Saint]

The most shocking thing I took from that article is becoming aware that Wayne Carey actually has a weekly column.

[bigcarl]

Thing is the buck stops with the senior coach.

He tends to be assigned responsibility for the win-loss ratio - even if he has not a lot to work with.

[WellardSaint]

The media understands the human attention span isn't very long.
Adding another coach or two will muddy the waters and get boring.

It's like a Formula 1 team will have the director answering a few questions, but bring in the engine guy and the suspension engineer, and Joe Public will switch off.

Humans like keeping things very simple.
A 2.5 hour Marvel movie will always earn millions, but an arthouse movie with twists and turns will befuddle most people.
An amazing movie is Ex Machina wirh Oscar Isaac, all about robots and AI. People tune out.

Sure the land of school shootings has assistant coaches front the media, but let's avoid copying those morons

[D.B.Cooper]

I thought it was Covid related from the subject title and I was waiting for the medical opinions of Dr’s Google & YouTube to highjack the thread

[WellardSaint]

I thought it was Covid related from the subject title and I was waiting for the medical opinions of Dr’s Google & YouTube to highjack the thread

Are you really Dr Spaceman under a different nic?