Midfield-Stoppages Coach

[wolftone57]

This year we were 11th for clearances. In centre clearances we were 12th. We are 7th for stoppages. This is worrying. During George Stone's time here we had a far better record. Stewie Dew has to be regarded on these figures as a weak link. The whole mids coaching staff have to be regarded this way. It is unfortunate that Power picked up Vossy because he would have been the perfect coach for our boys. Lukie plays his footy in a Voss like way.

I think we have to get a new Mids & Stoppages coach for next season. We also need a tactical coach. In other words a coach to look at the tactics employed by opposition coaches and devise methods of countering each move. This coach would be entirely focused on opposition tactics and would give guidance to the Senior coach on ways to counter. Today's footy involves so many tactics being used in a game. Clarkson has two coaches working on counter tactics. We have nobody except the specialist coaches working on their own tactics. We need someone who can identify quickly the problem and devise a tactic to combat it. The senior coach looks at game strategies and game plan but in Longmire's case is not a coach on the run. In other words he can't make it up and change tack in a short amount of time. We need someone who can do that for him.

I think there are several ex coaches who fir the bill & I think bringing Jared Crouch in as either Mids Coach or Stoppages Coach is necessary.

[Ampersand]

I watched the midfield setups reasonably closely leading up to the GF because it was a big area of concern for me - we would sometimes nearly go whole quarters without an effective centre clearance in the last couple of months.

For me the issue came down to our defensive setup and mindset which is essentially "if there's an opposition player with the ball go tackle him" (this was horribly exposed in the GF). While this meant we often locked the ball in and had a high tackle count, it also meant that we had two, sometimes three, midfielders effecting tackles on a single opposition player. When the ball dribbled from these mauls we had a numbers mismatch in terms of "players on their feet" and opposition teams were able to easily clear the area through overlapping handballs.

In the midfield we play with Ross Lyon-style defensive intensity but without the discipline. The main message should be "one player, one tackle". Given there is little reward in the modern game for forcing incorrect disposal or holding the ball, the main aim should be one-on-one pressure and forcing a rushed turnover.

[tasmania60]

Agree with Crouch keep it Sydney,chase all ex swans. One in Purple pretty good example?

[wolftone57]

Agree with Crouch keep it Sydney,chase all ex swans. One in Purple pretty good example?

Still think we could go for an experienced coach. Look what Ratten has done at Hawks. Their rotations killed us. We need a good strategist as ours are crap. I see Dew is turning all the coaching positions down. I wish he wouldn't. We also need a strategies annalist. Clarkson has an assistant who's job it is to analyse the opposition tactics and to suggest counter-measures. It works. We had no such thing and in the GF our coach was floundering. He had no idea what to do. If we had someone like that then we would have another mindset in the box who could influence the flow of the game and advise the coach.