Coach Craig McRae

[76woodenspooners]

Didn't the AFL go through a whole drugs scandal with a particular club or did I dream that?

Competent people really should have known what they were doing in the moment. Clearly they didn’t. Definitely mistakes made. Lots. On so many levels.

Good example

And what about Petracca? Do you think he thinks sure no worries that was just a 'judgement'.

If doctors pulled every player who through a heavy on-field action is at any risk of having suffered a grade 5 lacerated internal organ, we’d need double the size of the interchange bench.

Sure, the media went to town on it.

But are any doctors dealing with medical malpractice as a result of it? Would other doctors have handled it any differently? Have the rules of the game changed to deal with it? No to all of the above.

On the available evidence this one was just a really unfortunate case of shit happens.

 

[ElliottsMaggies]

Wasn’t his first. Or even his second.

I didn't say it was.

 

[Gabbo64]

What has Fly ever done for us.
OK, besides winning us a final in his first year, what else has he done?
Yes, well besides winning us a flag in his second year, what else has he done?

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Swans were coming home like a house on fire, why change that?

Richards was unlikely to do anything in the 40 seconds he was on.

I believe it was an error on the coach. Not sure why defend that.

It's one of my pet peeves on this board and it seems to be worse here than other boards from what I've observed

Our club seems to be immune to criticism even at the worst of times, let alone after a flag.

Not bringing Richards on for Schultz far earlier was an objectively terrible decision. Doesn't mean anyone hates Fly or thinks he's a terrible coach.

Like any human he made a mistake which potentially cost us a game and in turn might have cost us finals. Oh well. Shit happens.

 

[OniAu]

Longmire only gave Cleary 7%tog (about 4 minutes). Clearly both coaches thought their starting 22 were best placed to get the job done. But of course you know better than both.

Using fresh legs in a season defining game isnt leaving it all out there. We have seen what Richards is capable of with his leg speed in creating and tackling.

 

[gerryg400]

What has Fly ever done for us.
OK, besides winning us a final in his first year, what else has he done?
Yes, well besides winning us a flag in his second year, what else has he done?

Brought peace?

 

[OniAu]

It's one of my pet peeves on this board and it seems to be worse here than other boards from what I've observed

Our club seems to be immune to criticism even at the worst of times, let alone after a flag.

Not bringing Richards on for Schultz far earlier was an objectively terrible decision. Doesn't mean anyone hates Fly or thinks he's a terrible coach.

Like any human he made a mistake which potentially cost us a game and in turn might have cost us finals. Oh well. Shit happens.

Schultz actually was found wanting in a few spots through the game also, i love the guy and think he gives it his all. But his composure in certain situations has been questionable. Was evident in about three passages of play the other night.

 

[Robroy22]

Fly has been the one person at the club most impacted by Graham Wright's sabbatical.
Wright diffused so many media situations for us and took the load from all of the coaches not just Fly. Without him this season (in a year that has been particularly difficult in terms of draw and player availability) a lot has fallen back on Fly.
He needs support atm, not criticism from unqualified "supporters".

 

[OniAu]

Fly has been the one person at the club most impacted by Graham Wright's sabbatical.
Wright diffused so many media situations for us and took the load from all of the coaches not just Fly. Without him this season (in a year that has been particularly difficult in terms of draw and player availability) a lot has fallen back on Fly.
He needs support atm, not criticism from unqualified "supporters".

No one gets better in their job without feedback or opinions/views. No one is immune from making mistakes. No one's criticising his coaching as a whole, certain decisions are allowed to be dissected.

I'm sure you've been down on players at times for their output/performance. No different here

He is an amazing coach. Person. All that in spades. Pointing out we gave a player 44 seconds of game time isnt criticising ,its asking why? What is the benefit of that , why not 5 minutes earlier, why not half a quarter earlier

 

[76woodenspooners]

He is an amazing coach. Person. All that in spades. Pointing out we gave a player 44 seconds of game time isnt criticising ,it’s asking why? What is the benefit of that , why not 5 minutes earlier, why not half a quarter earlier

It’s a fair question, a reasonable question, an obvious question.

If a mistake was made it was by the reporters not asking Fly about it in the post match presser.

 

[Robroy22]

No one gets better in their job without feedback or opinions/views. No one is immune from making mistakes. No one's criticising his coaching as a whole, certain decisions are allowed to be dissected.

I'm sure you've been down on players at times for their output/performance. No different here

He is an amazing coach. Person. All that in spades. Pointing out we gave a player 44 seconds of game time isnt criticising ,its asking why? What is the benefit of that , why not 5 minutes earlier, why not half a quarter earlier

Why not play him at FF???
We're not coaches (AFL anyhow) and whilst it might have seemed strange at the time (and difficult to explain to the boy himself) we've all been there and done that. They made a call, you (and others don't like it) move on?

 

[FromTheBoundaryLine]

No one gets better in their job without feedback or opinions/views. No one is immune from making mistakes. No one's criticising his coaching as a whole, certain decisions are allowed to be dissected.

I'm sure you've been down on players at times for their output/performance. No different here

He is an amazing coach. Person. All that in spades. Pointing out we gave a player 44 seconds of game time isnt criticising ,it’s asking why? What is the benefit of that , why not 5 minutes earlier, why not half a quarter earlier?

I’m not sure how long there was to go when we lost the lead but up until that time I can only assume Fly thought others were more capable of holding on. Once we got behind it would seem he thought Joe would be more useful than Frampton. We may also not have been able to interchange him when we we wanted due to where the play was on field. Having said that who we’ve selected as sub and how we’ve used them has perplexed me as well during the year.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Schultz actually was found wanting in a few spots through the game also, i love the guy and think he gives it his all. But his composure in certain situations has been questionable. Was evident in about three passages of play the other night.

Many here won't want to admit it but it's pretty clear to this point in time that we didn't get the same Schultz Freo had

Hopefully it turns around but as of this moment, yeah...this has been the first real trade/recruiting blunder of the Graeme Wright era.

 

[Fat Jesus]

Many here won't want to admit it but it's pretty clear to this point in time that we didn't get the same Schultz Freo had

Hopefully it turns around but as of this moment, yeah...this has been the first real trade/recruiting blunder of the Graeme Wright era.

Don't be ridiculous
Stats do not lie. Quit bagging him.

 

[Kes1984]

Many here won't want to admit it but it's pretty clear to this point in time that we didn't get the same Schultz Freo had

Hopefully it turns around but as of this moment, yeah...this has been the first real trade/recruiting blunder of the Graeme Wright era.

Biggest thing I think - hes a confidence player, more than the average footballer.
He came with great expectations, to the biggest club in Australia. He didn't perform to the expectations and was heavily criticized early.

Confidence took a major hit and he's not been able to recover any form since.

I take from it, he is not suited to a big club where everything is under the microscope. Where there is a massive fan base. It's just not going to work.

 

[Fat Jesus]

Biggest thing I think - hes a confidence player, more than the average footballer.
He came with great expectations, to the biggest club in Australia. He didn't perform to the expectations and was heavily criticized early.

Confidence took a major hit and he's not been able to recover any form since.

I take from it, he is not suited to a big club where everything is under the microscope. Where there is a massive fan base. It's just not going to work.

He has performed much better than many people here think.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Biggest thing I think - hes a confidence player, more than the average footballer.
He came with great expectations, to the biggest club in Australia. He didn't perform to the expectations and was heavily criticized early.

Confidence took a major hit and he's not been able to recover any form since.

I take from it, he is not suited to a big club where everything is under the microscope. Where there is a massive fan base. It's just not going to work.

I'm not quite willing to completely give up on him yet.

Given how shit our entire season has been, I'm ok with giving him a mulligan on 2024.

But if we get a similar next season? Then yeah it's definitely a bust

 

[ElliottsMaggies]

Biggest thing I think - hes a confidence player, more than the average footballer.
He came with great expectations, to the biggest club in Australia. He didn't perform to the expectations and was heavily criticized early.

Confidence took a major hit and he's not been able to recover any form since.

I take from it, he is not suited to a big club where everything is under the microscope. Where there is a massive fan base. It's just not going to work.

I'm not sure about 'its just not going to work'

It was his first year with us where the whole team was down on form, consistency, connection & confidence.

 

[NMBB]

.......We still have faith in you McRae !!

Glad you finished with that - didn't sound like it from the rest of the post

 

[sr36]

It's one of my pet peeves on this board and it seems to be worse here than other boards from what I've observed

Our club seems to be immune to criticism even at the worst of times, let alone after a flag.

Not bringing Richards on for Schultz far earlier was an objectively terrible decision. Doesn't mean anyone hates Fly or thinks he's a terrible coach.

Like any human he made a mistake which potentially cost us a game and in turn might have cost us finals. Oh well. Shit happens.

When would you have subbed him in?

At the 13 minute mark of the final quarter, we were 26 points up, and well on top with our defensive system well and truly nullifying them.

They then got one against the run of play from a contested mark by Hayward and then immediately another from a clearance with a hack kick from stoppage that fell fortuitously for McDonald. Game on. But the goals weren't about run.

Considering our game plan for the best part of 3 years has been to lock down and play for a nil all draw to protect the lead in that situation, would you have subbed out a defensive beast in Schultz to bring in Richards then? Or who else would you have subbed out and why? I suppose you could have subbed out a ruck to play the defensive strategy more effectively - risky in terms of aerial balls though. And imagine the melts if he had have subbed in Richards and then Richards fresh into the game wasn't fully with it and made a defensive error. Or would you have done what has served us well and not panicked and trusted the defensive strategy?

To me, the writing has been on the wall for a while in terms of keeping teams from scoring when they're rolling the dice for a comeback. Fly's error was sticking to that strategy for too long into the season. Not a game day error. The sub situation wasn't an issue.

 

[Roverjg]

Many here won't want to admit it but it's pretty clear to this point in time that we didn't get the same Schultz Freo had

Hopefully it turns around but as of this moment, yeah...this has been the first real trade/recruiting blunder of the Graeme Wright era.

You are possibly right to a degree. Freo play with an open forward line. There is usually 4-5 deep instead of 10-12 in ours. He was probably sold on the chaos kick into forward line of c. 2022. Our game for large portions reflected 2017 instead of 2023. Our movement was often slow and a long bomb to a congested forward line. He was expecting to be our tallest or main forward but he was for 5 weeks with the best defenders on him. Probably wasn't expecting to play large portions of time in defence because we couldn't get the ball out of D50 then have to continually sprint 100m to present a forward option. So you are right. He was sold a lemon

On SM-N975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[barrackers]

Considering our game plan for the best part of 3 years has been to lock down and play for a nil all draw to protect the lead in that situation, would you have subbed out a defensive beast in Schultz to bring in Richards then? Or who else would you have subbed out and why? I suppose you could have subbed out a ruck to play the defensive strategy more effectively - risky in terms of aerial balls though. And imagine the melts if he had have subbed in Richards and then Richards fresh into the game wasn't fully with it and made a defensive error. Or would you have done what has served us well and not panicked and trusted the defensive strategy?

Cox an option, but with McDonald we may been wanting to stretch them. Perhaps Quaynor instead of shifting him to a wing or Lipinski.

 

[Kes1984]

He has performed much better than many people here think.

Don't disagree on that. Think the expectations from many were unrealistically high. He came out and talked about the messages he was getting on his social media from Collingwood "fans". His confidence was shot early on.

 

[Kes1984]

I'm not sure about 'its just not going to work'

It was his first year with us where the whole team was down on form, consistency, connection & confidence.

no that's a big statement I've made there. Not really accurate. But think a big club environment isn't ideal for him. It would be helpful if people backed off a bit and let him be! Too many eyes on him playing for us - look at the media we get. Too many fans being harshly critical.

 

[Kes1984]

I'm not quite willing to completely give up on him yet.

Given how shit our entire season has been, I'm ok with giving him a mulligan on 2024.

But if we get a similar next season? Then yeah it's definitely a bust

The whole team is down on confidence this season. Let's see if we can regain it and it'll rub off on him.

He does plenty of good work so some confidence would do him wonders I think.