John is a good bloke.
https://twitter.com/sydneyswans/stat...109683201?s=19
John is a good bloke.
https://twitter.com/sydneyswans/stat...109683201?s=19
Great stuff by John and the club.
For his so called 'failings' in terms of game plan and the like that many of us have raised at various times, if I was given the choice to have a beer with 1 person in the club and 1 person only, he'd be the number 1 choice. The way he handles difficult issues all the time makes me very proud that he is our senior coach and key representative of our footy club. As a person, I can only have but admiration for how he isn't one to shirk difficult questions, and to stand up in tough times (Think the way he handled the Buddy mental issues a few years ago for example). And the little things like this adds to my impression of him as a gentleman worthy of great respect and admiration.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
Just thinking about it today, especially in light of the issues Collingwood are having, I think John Longmire may currently be the best coach in the league. In fact our whole coaching set-up for this season inspires me with confidence - I hope they gel.
There are other good coaches (Simpson, Hinkley, Fagan come to mind) but there's none I'd rather have than Horse just at the moment. Clarko may be the best strategist, but that is only part of what a coach does. Even when Hawthorn were winning and I considered Clarko the best coach, I never wanted him at our club. While Clarko has some classy moments and is an excellent coach, he also has other less savoury qualities which are prominent from time to time (e.g. whingeing, thuggishness). Besides, you can recruit assistants to help with tactics and strategy more than you can to help with values and culture (hence why we've done so well to grab Pyke).
I likewise feel pretty positive about our Board and management - but not complacent. I think you need to keep on striving to improve and I'm pretty sure our Board and Club still have plenty of room to improve. While the club struggles a little bit to attract the best players, coaches and support staff, the same issue does not apply to the Board. With so many of Australia's biggest businesses based in Sydney, we have a lot of talent to choose from. Richard Colless did us a huge favour brining Andrew Ireland to the club, and Andrew handpicked and groomed Harley to succeed him and all in all we have been blessed with good administration for a long while. Thank goodness.
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated, and well supported in logic and argument than others. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001)
I totally agree. I wouldn't want the club in any other hands.
The key people over the past 25-27 years were in my opinion (in no particular order) Richard Colless, Ronald Dale Barassi, Weinart, Mike Willesee, Andrew Ireland, Paul Roos, John Longmire, Pridham and now Tom Harley. Particularly without the first 5 mentioned, we would not have a thriving team which is devoid of the major issues that other clubs such as Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, West Coast etc have had over that time.
I will also add Kinnear Beatson, Stuart Maxfield, Paul Kelly to that group which had a profound impact on moulding the club to where it is today.
There are ofcourse others such as the majority of 2005/06 playing group which have taken the club forward, but those individuals above I think are the key ones. Have I missed anyone out?
It is no coincidence that good people attract good people. Long may it continue.
I do hope you are right. Your opinion will definitely be worth revisiting at the end of this season. Expectations of improvement are high for the Swans this year.
I crossed paths with someone who’d been inside the Adelaide bubble for months working on the AFL doco. He said the Crows players were NOT huge fans of Don Pyke. Admittedly that’s a complicated situation, due to the camp etc.
That's interesting, MW. Presumably that speaks to Pyke not being a great man-manager, which hopefully won't matter so much in the role that he does for us. He helped the Eagles a lot as an assistant and got the Crows playing powerful, attractive footy too on their way to a minor premiership and grand final. It is noteworthy that, at the Eagles, he was tasked with "strategy, stoppages and structures" - these seem to be his strengths: Pyke rejoins West Coast - westcoasteagles.com.au (archive.org). And someone strong in these areas is just what we need to bolster our coaching team.
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated, and well supported in logic and argument than others. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001)
Agreed. John is a good person, a leader, courageous, exhibits perspective and humility, cares for people and is always looking to improve as a coach.
There are few coaches that appear to share those qualities. Justin Longmuir at Freo is impressive. I don't mind Simpson. Ratten seems ok.
Quite possibly, I guess it depends on what you want in a coach.
The only real knock on Horse's performance on RWO has been a suggestion of having a weakness when it came to tactics, that he can be out-coached.
That shouldn't be a problem if he can manage (and listen to) his coaching team in order to generate good outcomes.
Past performances suggest sometimes he hasn't.
It'll be interesting to see whether he can do this in the upcoming season.
I'm not so sure on this, part of Ireland's legacy was his heavy involvement in the recruitment of the "bondi billionaires" - so I think it'll be at least another season before his legacy can be evaluated.
Loose translation from the Latin is - I am tall, so I hit out.
This new series coming up looks promising: 'Longmire': New series coming soon.
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated, and well supported in logic and argument than others. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001)
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