David Rath

[BarryGrogan]

Apparently a big deal....


"In his new role, Rath will oversee St Kilda's assistant coaches, development coaches and football analysts. He will also be in charge of game plan, coach education and development, training, player skill acquisition, training analytics, game analysis and IT, leadership and player development.

Danny Sexton moves into the newly created role of head of football operations after 13 seasons in various coaching roles at the club. He will be in charge of football operations for the AFL, AFLW, VFL and VFLW operations.

The Saints have also hired Ben Robbins from North Melbourne to be the club's head of mental health and wellbeing, while former defender Sean Dempster joins the club as a part-time strength and conditioning coach.

Brendon Lade will replace new Saints senior coach Ratten as forward line and team offence coach, Adam Skrobalak will be midfield coach and Aaron Hamill will oversee the club's backline and team defence. Ben McGlynn will coach Sandringham in the VFL and Robbie Chancellor has been promoted to assistant and development coach looking after stoppages."

[saintsRrising]

Looks to be an excellent non "L-Plater" pick up. Ratten would know his capabilities very well.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/sai ... 52t1k.html

St Kilda have poached the AFL's top football guru David Rath to spearhead their football program, opening the door for former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott to join the league's football operations team.
Rath will become "head of football program" at the Saints and in doing so leave his role as the AFL's coaching innovation and education manager.

Prior to his time at the AFL he was Hawthorn's head of coaching services, where he implemented a ground-breaking kicking program among other lauded innovations, that made him a key influence in the club's recent premiership era.

"David is a really important appointment for the football club," Saints general manager of football Simon Lethlean said.

"We believe his knowledge, innovative thinking and strategic ability will give our football program a genuine edge moving forward.
"There are very few people in the industry with his level of experience and skill set.
"He will play a key role in shaping our football program alongside Brett Ratten and identifying areas for improvement across our coaching and football analysis team."

The exit of Rath makes it easier for the AFL to go ahead and hire former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott.

In his new role, Rath will oversee St Kilda's assistant coaches, development coaches and football analysts. He will also be in charge of game plan, coach education and development, training, player skill acquisition, training analytics, game analysis and IT, leadership and player development.

[goods]

HUGE!!!

[chook23]

He was the buzz man 10 -15 yrs ago.......at club level

recently did not work at a club

was part of the afl bullsh.t jobs for the boys

[saintkid]

He was the buzz man 10 -15 yrs ago.......at club level

recently did not work at a club

was part of the afl bullsh.t jobs for the boys

Sure was part of the afl bullsh.t jobs for the boys which started off with the appointment of McLachlan.

[Leo.J]

So what’s Ratts going to do?

[stevie]

Nice get Alex and Eddie in and the place will really jump

[Scollop]

Nice get Alex and Eddie in and the place will really jump

[Jacks Back]

"In his new role, Rath will oversee St Kilda's assistant coaches, development coaches and football analysts. He will also be in charge of game plan, coach education and development, training, player skill acquisition, training analytics, game analysis and IT, leadership and player development.

Is that all? Easy Peasy!

[Wayne42]

Prior to his time at the AFL he was Hawthorn's head of coaching services, where he implemented a ground-breaking kicking program among other lauded innovations, that made him a key influence in the club's recent premiership era.

If Rath implements a kicking program at the Saints, can we flick Dixon.

[BackFromUSA]

Seek ... and ye shall find. A fantastic appointment. Off field recruiting is top notch under the new Pres.

[BackFromUSA]

Prior to his time at the AFL he was Hawthorn's head of coaching services, where he implemented a ground-breaking kicking program among other lauded innovations, that made him a key influence in the club's recent premiership era.

If Rath implements a kicking program at the Saints, can we flick Dixon.

Field kicking is different to goal kicking (just FYI)

[Wayne42]

Prior to his time at the AFL he was Hawthorn's head of coaching services, where he implemented a ground-breaking kicking program among other lauded innovations, that made him a key influence in the club's recent premiership era.

If Rath implements a kicking program at the Saints, can we flick Dixon.

Field kicking is different to goal kicking (just FYI)

Doesn't mean the Rath method won't work for set shots, the Dixon method has a poor yield so it wouldn't take much to beat it.

[Spinner]

The kicking king!

Seems to be a very positive appointment.

[ss1986]

Healthy dose of scepticism whenever I see Lethlean quoted on something being good for the club.... but then dig deeper...... and one of his mates magically benefits from it - oooold B.Scott.

[The Linton Street Flash]

This is a great read from the Hun in 2012...

Hawthorn's secret weapon - a mad scientist in shorts - pushes the boundaries
Jay Clark, HeraldSun
September 20, 2012 10:00pm
Subscriber only
Ads by Kiosked

HE will walk around the MCG boundary line tomorrow night, almost unrecognisable to even the most ardent Hawthorn fan.
But in the context of the Hawks' phenomenal field kicking, there may be no more important figure than David Rath.

The man this week affectionately dubbed "a mad scientist in running shorts" has had the club under his biomechanical spell since his appointment to Alastair Clarkson's original coaching panel in 2005.

Almost in secret, the Hawks' high-performance coach has analysed, and largely perfected the players' techniques, sometimes at the painstaking rate of 200 frames a second.

Using a specially designed football simulator in the bowels of Waverley, players would kick into a soft screen, showing recordings of real-game situations.

"It was like one of those indoor golf simulators where you look up and the screen is showing the first fairway at Augusta," a source said.

"Instead, they would be kicking out from full-back and you'd see 30 blokes from both teams running all over the place. The player would kick into the field and be asked why they picked that target and what they saw."

Captured on film, each movement could later be pored over, helping mould the Hawks' legion of left footers, such as Matthew Suckling, Grant Birchall and Luke Hodge into what one analyst described this week as "probably the most lethal kicking side the game has ever seen".

Midfielder Brad Sewell and key forward Jarryd Roughead were other project players.

"For all his strengths," an insider said. "Brad was a poor kick when he came into the AFL.

"But Rathy helped him become an acceptable kick at AFL level."

As uncompromising as his sides have been around the hard ball, Clarkson identified immediately when he took over Hawthorn that kicking efficiency was vital to premiership success.

In the past 13 years, nine of the flag-winners had a kicking efficiency ranked in the top four. In 2004, Hawthorn's was ranked last.

But in four years under Rath and Co, was top of the AFL.

Remarkably, Hawthorn has maintained the No.1 position in three of the past five campaigns.

"Early on we were good at getting the ball. We just kept giving it back," Hawthorn legend Shane Crawford recalled.

"But when Clarko came in we looked at a lot of video analysing how to fix things.

"Whether it was through your core, or ball drop or over-balancing, those little things obviously work.

"Hawthorn has gone from a side which turned the footy over a lot to a side quite amazing the way it uses the footy and dissects the opposition."

The Hawks declined the Herald Sun's requests to speak to Rath this week.

After eight years at the Australian Institute of Sport, Rath joined the Hawks as one of four assistant coaches.

Gradually, his role began to span into game analysis. With Clarkson, the biomechanics guru is understood to have played a key role developing Clarko's Cluster - the rolling defensive grid that was a cornerstone in the 2008 premiership.

"He is a very lateral thinker," former skipper Richie Vandenberg said.

"He would go over with Clarko to the UK to the Bolton soccer club and that's where the whole press came from.

"It was extraordinary you could pull that from another sport, implement into our game and see where it is now."

Crawford said: "He's Clarko's right-hand man. The way they look at the game and attack certain things, because he was heavily involved in the way Hawthorn zoned in 2008."

Luke Hodge's sweeping defensive role that year was partly inspired by Rath's study of 1960 and '70s German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer.

"He looked at other sports so closely," someone close to Rath said.

The short, accurate passing in lacrosse and the repeat contests in rugby union were also examined.

"He was talking about rolling mauls, like what you see in rugby union, two years before anyone else was in the AFL," a colleague said.

His bond with Clarkson is said to be incredibly close.

"He has a good ability to challenge Clarko and to be able to challenge him constantly and still maintain a good relationship," Vandenberg said.

More recently, the low-profile specialist has invested heavily in computer game-tracking and analytics, resulting in some "outstanding" work around the game's future direction.

But, as familiar as the Hawks' masked man is with the kicking analysis technology, the beauty of Rath's teaching to the players was its simplicity, an observer said.

"He was just very meticulous in the degrees of improvement in his kicking analysis with the guys," he said.

"He wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel. It might just be a 1cm or 2cm change in your elbow position or something like that.

"A lot of the time he was just stating the obvious and repeated behaviours became habitual."

[stkfc1]

Great get. Ratts obviously knows he was a big part of Hawthorns success and has made it a priority to get him to the club. I remember reading an article about how he was instrumental in upskilling the Hawks kicking game. Desperately needed. Fantastic Saints. Keep the good news coming.

[The Linton Street Flash]

This too is worth a squiz...

[magnifisaint]

Healthy dose of scepticism whenever I see Lethlean quoted on something being good for the club.... but then dig deeper...... and one of his mates magically benefits from it - oooold B.Scott.

Always a conspiracy theory!

[BarryGrogan]

"He was just very meticulous in the degrees of improvement in his kicking analysis with the guys," he said.

"He wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel. It might just be a 1cm or 2cm change in your elbow position or something like that.

"A lot of the time he was just stating the obvious and repeated behaviours became habitual."

This could be the making of Jade Gresham.



He has such obvious flaws with his kicking action, that for whatever reason have not been addressed.

[Stjohn]

So, Jamie Cox gone?

[barneyboyz]

"He was just very meticulous in the degrees of improvement in his kicking analysis with the guys," he said.

"He wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel. It might just be a 1cm or 2cm change in your elbow position or something like that.

"A lot of the time he was just stating the obvious and repeated behaviours became habitual."

This could be the making of Jade Gresham.



He has such obvious flaws with his kicking action, that for whatever reason have not been addressed.

I'll tell you one reason why. When kids are at junior clubs, the coaches might have many many kids to babysit. They don't necessarily get much time to help improve any kid with deficiencies, even if they knew how? (there's many thoughts on this alone).

You'll find that at say, any average U/12 - 15 side, there will be kids that have it on a string i.e. just natural, and you'll have kids that are uncoordinated.

All of a sudden you get a kid that was uncoordinated at 15 can now run rings around his mates at 17, but, due to the fact his coaches haven't been able to teach him or have the time for him, he cannot kick well. He might be reasonably effective aka Seb Ross, but not elite like Brad Hill

Also, with Gresh at least, I reckon he was such a great goal sneak in juniors, he was never far from goals OR he played midfield, just not under anywhere near the pressure he finds himself in AFL.

[Linton Lodger]

A friend of mine (Geelong supporter) who is connected to AFL people, including Rath, contacted me today saying we've pulled off a major coup.

Claims that Rath was the gameplan genius behind Clarkson.

[st.byron]

A friend of mine (Geelong supporter) who is connected to AFL people, including Rath, contacted me today saying we've pulled off a major coup.

Claims that Rath was the gameplan genius behind Clarkson.

I wonder if appointing Ratts is in any way connected to Rath coming on board. Ratten is appointed, then a couple of weeks later Rath. And Roughy just before Ratts. A core of Hawthorn people from when they were top dog. I like it.

[chook23]

A friend of mine (Geelong supporter) who is connected to AFL people, including Rath, contacted me today saying we've pulled off a major coup.

Claims that Rath was the gameplan genius behind Clarkson.

that one has been used though.............

we need to appoint the genius with the next one

does he have another