Coach Alastair Clarkson - NMFC Senior Coach - Coaching & Football Discussion

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I have been in thought over our coaching situation for a while now. I would say the internal worry on our coaching is probably warranted.

Jed Adcock, X clarke and Patch just arent up to it. Far too inexperienced, our back line and forward line is mud, defensive pressure pox, likewise forward pressure.

In previous eras in Alistair’s coaching he would have senior people to push back against some of his decisions in game and he produced some great coaches underneath him that went on for success on their pat malones.

I ask myself, out of the coaches underneath him right now.. who could walk out tomorrow and coach their own AFL team? None, thats the answer.

We should have an experienced assistant coach in that mix. Someone to challenge Clarkson in the box. It may have happened when we saw Sheezel moved and some other sneaky little changes mid 2024 but too little too late.

Personally, I believe its not good enough.. Too budget driven and cheap.
Proof will be in the pudding this year.
Too early to say one way or another.
No great on-field leadership last year really impacts performance.
Young team still learning their craft.
Mick Barlow feels like a steal if I’m honest.
 
I have been in thought over our coaching situation for a while now. I would say the internal worry on our coaching is probably warranted.

Jed Adcock, X clarke and Patch just arent up to it. Far too inexperienced, our back line and forward line is mud, defensive pressure pox, likewise forward pressure.

In previous eras in Alistair’s coaching he would have senior people to push back against some of his decisions in game and he produced some great coaches underneath him that went on for success on their pat malones.

I ask myself, out of the coaches underneath him right now.. who could walk out tomorrow and coach their own AFL team? None, thats the answer.

We should have an experienced assistant coach in that mix. Someone to challenge Clarkson in the box. It may have happened when we saw Sheezel moved and some other sneaky little changes mid 2024 but too little too late.

Personally, I believe its not good enough.. Too budget driven and cheap.
X Clarke not up to it? Didn't he win assistant coach of the year??
 

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I have been in thought over our coaching situation for a while now. I would say the internal worry on our coaching is probably warranted.

Jed Adcock, X clarke and Patch just arent up to it. Far too inexperienced, our back line and forward line is mud, defensive pressure pox, likewise forward pressure.

In previous eras in Alistair’s coaching he would have senior people to push back against some of his decisions in game and he produced some great coaches underneath him that went on for success on their pat malones.

I ask myself, out of the coaches underneath him right now.. who could walk out tomorrow and coach their own AFL team? None, thats the answer.

We should have an experienced assistant coach in that mix. Someone to challenge Clarkson in the box. It may have happened when we saw Sheezel moved and some other sneaky little changes mid 2024 but too little too late.

Personally, I believe its not good enough.. Too budget driven and cheap.
What "internal worry"?

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I have been in thought over our coaching situation for a while now. I would say the internal worry on our coaching is probably warranted.

Jed Adcock, X clarke and Patch just arent up to it. Far too inexperienced, our back line and forward line is mud, defensive pressure pox, likewise forward pressure.

In previous eras in Alistair’s coaching he would have senior people to push back against some of his decisions in game and he produced some great coaches underneath him that went on for success on their pat malones.

I ask myself, out of the coaches underneath him right now.. who could walk out tomorrow and coach their own AFL team? None, thats the answer.

We should have an experienced assistant coach in that mix. Someone to challenge Clarkson in the box. It may have happened when we saw Sheezel moved and some other sneaky little changes mid 2024 but too little too late.

Personally, I believe its not good enough.. Too budget driven and cheap.
Does the name Michael Barlow ring a bell?
 
I have been in thought over our coaching situation for a while now. I would say the internal worry on our coaching is probably warranted.

Jed Adcock, X clarke and Patch just arent up to it. Far too inexperienced, our back line and forward line is mud, defensive pressure pox, likewise forward pressure.

In previous eras in Alistair’s coaching he would have senior people to push back against some of his decisions in game and he produced some great coaches underneath him that went on for success on their pat malones.

I ask myself, out of the coaches underneath him right now.. who could walk out tomorrow and coach their own AFL team? None, thats the answer.

We should have an experienced assistant coach in that mix. Someone to challenge Clarkson in the box. It may have happened when we saw Sheezel moved and some other sneaky little changes mid 2024 but too little too late.

Personally, I believe its not good enough.. Too budget driven and cheap.
Pretty sure Viney is in the box game day,,,,,doubt he's there just cause he likes the view!
 
No. Daniel Pratt did at the Bulldogs. Jed Adcock was second though and Mick Barlow was Development Coach of the year.
Thanks for the clarification mate. I knew one of our coaches won an award. I think I got confused with the talk around X potentially coaching the indigenous team.
On Mick Barlow, I think he will have as much, if not more to do with us achieving our 5th flag than anyone else at the club. When most people hear development coach they think of the younger players on list. However having him overseeing a comprehensive development plan for every player on our list that takes in the short, medium and long term is going to be invaluable. This year I think we will really start to see the benefits of this.
On a related note, I'm stoked we have spent our soft cap $ on the 4 development coaches so the day to day work can be done to ensure the development plans can be fully implemented. As well as extra time being spent with the younger guys that need it.
I'd hate for us to waste money on the Senior Assistant position. That's just a classic middle management position where they end up trying to find things to justify their role and potentially create an unnecessary barrier for direct communication from the head coach to the line and specialist coaches.
 
Thanks for the clarification mate. I knew one of our coaches won an award. I think I got confused with the talk around X potentially coaching the indigenous team.
On Mick Barlow, I think he will have as much, if not more to do with us achieving our 5th flag than anyone else at the club. When most people hear development coach they think of the younger players on list. However having him overseeing a comprehensive development plan for every player on our list that takes in the short, medium and long term is going to be invaluable. This year I think we will really start to see the benefits of this.
On a related note, I'm stoked we have spent our soft cap $ on the 4 development coaches so the day to day work can be done to ensure the development plans can be fully implemented. As well as extra time being spent with the younger guys that need it.
I'd hate for us to waste money on the Senior Assistant position. That's just a classic middle management position where they end up trying to find things to justify their role and potentially create an unnecessary barrier for direct communication from the head coach to the line and specialist coaches.
Then dont expect wins. You dont need 4 development coaches. And there is no chance in hell we are spending the entirety of the soft cap
 
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Thanks for the clarification mate. I knew one of our coaches won an award. I think I got confused with the talk around X potentially coaching the indigenous team.
On Mick Barlow, I think he will have as much, if not more to do with us achieving our 5th flag than anyone else at the club. When most people hear development coach they think of the younger players on list. However having him overseeing a comprehensive development plan for every player on our list that takes in the short, medium and long term is going to be invaluable. This year I think we will really start to see the benefits of this.
On a related note, I'm stoked we have spent our soft cap $ on the 4 development coaches so the day to day work can be done to ensure the development plans can be fully implemented. As well as extra time being spent with the younger guys that need it.
I'd hate for us to waste money on the Senior Assistant position. That's just a classic middle management position where they end up trying to find things to justify their role and potentially create an unnecessary barrier for direct communication from the head coach to the line and specialist coaches.
Given the age profile of the list, they've very deliberately gone heavy in the player development area. It was a focus last off season.

When the age profile becomes more normalised in the next few years, they might change focus.

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Then dont expect wins. You dont need 4 development coaches. And there is no chance in hell we are spending the entirely of the soft cap
You're right. I was crazy to think a quality development program built around a highly talented but youngest and most inexperienced list in the the competition could possibly lead to improved on field performance. Leading to possibly, some wins??
As Passmore said in his post, I'm sure in 2 - 3 years as the list matures and the results improve we will adjust our coaching structure accordingly.
 

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You're right. I was crazy to think a quality development program built around a highly talented but youngest and most inexperienced list in the the competition could possibly lead to improved on field performance. Leading to possibly, some wins??
As Passmore said in his post, I'm sure in 2 - 3 years as the list matures and the results improve we will adjust our coaching structure accordingly.
What can 4 do that 2 cant?
 
What can 4 do that 2 cant?
When you're thinking of it in terms of the development program being for the entire list and not just the young guys there is plenty for 4 coaches to do. That's 47 players between 4 coaches, working on individual programs if you wanted to split it that way. 26 players 22 years and under. Only 4 0ver 30.
You then have the line coaches making sure the development goals of each player integrates with the needs of their role within each line group.
Then it's up to Clarko to ensure that all of that comes together to service our overall game plan to enable us to win games.
Finally it comes back to Micky Barlow to continually assess the team results and progress of individual players and adjust their development plans accordingly.

For so many years we've bemoaned the lack of development in both skills and strength and conditioning. Now we have finally addressed that and poured serious resources into it. I don't see how anyone could see that as a bad thing.
 
X Clarke not up to it? Didn't he win assistant coach of the year??
No. I've got misgivings about Clarke too. Forward line was utter dogshit last year. No movement when we did have the ball, no blocks laid for leading players, no apparent plan to keep the ball inside the 50 when it made it in there either. Part of that is list management, for sure, so a red cross for both Brady and Luffs there. I also get an entirely evidence-less feeling from Clarke that he's not as good as he's been made out to be, separate to the on-field stuff. Most coaches look switched on. He generally looks like he's daydreaming about kebabs, and I don't like that
 
For so many years we've bemoaned the lack of development in both skills and strength and conditioning
Senior coaches can do majority of that. Dont need 4 development coaches. Then whats the point of having line coaches? 😂 So the entire year where a game plan couldn’t hold up, we are paying 4 senior coaches to do 4 fifths of **** all?
 
For what seemed like an eternity we were lamenting the lack of development in young players coming through the system. I'm about to hit you with some PTSD shit right here. Strap yourselves in.

  1. Kieran Harper.
  2. Brad McKenzie.
  3. Aaron Mullet.
  4. Ryan Bastinac.
  5. Curtis Taylor.
  6. Joel Tippett.
  7. Ed Vickers Willis.
  8. Cam Delaney.
  9. Cam Richardson.
  10. Cruize Garlett.
  11. Tom Murphy.
  12. Daniel Currie.
  13. Daniel Nelson.
  14. Sam Durdin.
  15. Kayne Turner.
  16. Jack Mahony.
  17. Phoenix Spicer.
  18. Charlie Lazzaro.
  19. Aaron Black.
  20. Taylor Garner.
  21. Mason Wood.
  22. Will Fordham.
  23. Mitch Hibberd.
  24. Declan Mountford.
  25. Declan Watson.
  26. Josh Williams.
  27. Kyron Hayden.
  28. Flynn Perez.
the list goes on and on...

We desperately needed development resources and had to address it. How many times did we look at a first year kid and go 'far out he goes alright' then 3-4 years down the line he gets in at game 40-50 (if he's lucky to get near that) because we resorted to topping up and he plays like shit? What was our plan? We completely ****ed whatever possibility of stabilising the list by clinging onto opposition club discards. That's great list management and development 🤦‍♂️.

DuckYeah, this isn't a '**** yeah, I'm right' moment for you it's a '**** no, this is flat out wrong' type moment. Respectfully, don't complain we've put in the $$$ for development because when every other club can turn pick 75 or rookie pick ******** into a bonafide star it shits me just as much as the rest of us. We want a slice of that cake. Make it ****ing happen. Find the diamonds in the rough when we've used a bazillion high draft picks already and put some ****ing resources to develop them!

The last thing I want is a Luke Urquhart type to be let down by a lack of development resources like we had in the past and we get rid of him because we have a surprised pickachu face moment wondering why he couldn't develop his strengths and mitigate his deficiencies on his own.

Every single player needs development time and attention. Every single one. That's what gives you the best possible chance of improving. You put in, the performances back it up.
 
and how much did we stifle Lmac's development? Pick 8 is a pretty serious investment.

I'm sure playing him as a lockdown defender stuck in the back pocket helped catapult his career. Yep, it catapulted him into a dumpster fire that's what happened.

One best and fairest medal in a horrible year during the pandemic. That's all we got.

Shaun Atley suffered from the same problem. Electric pace and disposal but chuck him at half back because that makes sense. We only had the slowest midfield ever at our disposal so it made sense to not play him in the guts from the get go because two-way running doesn't exist.
 

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Coach Alastair Clarkson - NMFC Senior Coach - Coaching & Football Discussion

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