Coach Fages and the coaching group

[lionsrules]

The essence of dew created this win

 

[The Flying Belgian]

View attachment 2014024

Does this mean we'll win 60% of the time 100% of the time?

 

[cotter101]

We had a plan and the players executed it. Our players and coaches are definitely capable - the dees game, this game and the last couple of years have proven that.

Dew and Cotchin coming in I think shows that we’ve realised we probably lacked on some of the tactical decisions and on field leadership.

Dew has always been highly regarded and even Dimma is finding just how hard it is trying to turn the Suns around. He’s great to provide advice to Fagan and obviously knows him well.

Cotchin is a great addition to the boundary and would be providing some incredible directions and feedback to the guys. Is he our non playing Luke Hodge?

Great to see the club actively seeking and implementing new things to drive us forward.

 

[martinson]

It's just my impression that Daly is the coach of the football side of things and Fagan is the HR man , public face , and builds the culture inside the club.

I know Hardwick was desperate to get Daly to the Suns .

 

[Nathan Barley]

It's just my impression that Daly is the coach of the football side of things and Fagan is the HR man , public face , and builds the culture inside the club.

I know Hardwick was desperate to get Daly to the Suns .

It was interesting on Roaming Brian when he spoke to Daly, Daly said something along the lines of not having to speak too much to Fages this week

I think Daly is still just a sounding board for him

 

[martinson]

It was interesting on Roaming Brian when he spoke to Daly, Daly said something along the lines of not having to speak too much to Fages this week

I think Daly is still just a sounding board for him

It's not what I hear from sources at other clubs. They seem to think Daly is the footy man.

It's also unusual that Fagan is always on his own either in the box or on the bench. I don't think Fagan gets too involved with training either. Either way nothing leaks from the club re this but it's interesting that we've brought Dew and Cotchin on board to some extent in recent weeks and we could see some changes in 2025.

 

[McIvor]

It's not what I hear from sources at other clubs. They seem to think Daly is the footy man.

It's also unusual that Fagan is always on his own either in the box or on the bench. I don't think Fagan gets too involved with training either. Either way nothing leaks from the club re this but it's interesting that we've brought Dew and Cotchin on board to some extent in recent weeks and we could see some changes in 2025.

It was interesting to note that Fages said on 3AW on Saturday afternoon that he’d been in Melbourne since the Hawthorn game and only met up again with the team on the Thursday when the team flew down a day before and was staying on to watch the Saints v Suns game, which isn’t out of the ordinary.

Great to see he has that much faith in Daly and his assistants in that they obviously prepared the team for the Dogs game (of course Fages could’ve been having Zoom meetings with players / the group throughout that time) and also of note is that it was Daly making the announcements to the group about McCluggage / Reville’s extensions.

 

[briztoon]

Daly replaced Noble, when he left. So has a very large off field role.

Not sure how much time he would have to be actively involved with day to day coaching.

 

[Grasshopper17]

also of note is that it was Daly making the announcements to the group about McCluggage / Reville’s extensions.

I'm 95% sure it is always Danny Daly who makes these announcements to the playing group. I can't remember anyone else doing this since, well, ever really.

Fages made a couple of announcements to the squad a couple of weeks ago but that was about blokes making their debut, which is obviously a different conversation to contract arrangements etc.

 

[GEEitLONG]

We had a plan and the players executed it. Our players and coaches are definitely capable - the dees game, this game and the last couple of years have proven that.

Dew and Cotchin coming in I think shows that we’ve realised we probably lacked on some of the tactical decisions and on field leadership.

Dew has always been highly regarded and even Dimma is finding just how hard it is trying to turn the Suns around. He’s great to provide advice to Fagan and obviously knows him well.

Cotchin is a great addition to the boundary and would be providing some incredible directions and feedback to the guys. Is he our non playing Luke Hodge?

Great to see the club actively seeking and implementing new things to drive us forward.

Necessary to being inconsistent, is that you need to win, as well as lose..

Suns are unbeaten at home this season, and were recently in the 8. I think thats big progress made very quickly. Dont know why you think Dimma is finding it hard?

Suns have some good kids coming through, and hopefully a crowd drawing superstar at the end of the year.

Would be great for QLD footy to have both clubs going well, and some real local rivalry.

 

[BuntonRules]

Necessary to being inconsistent, is that you need to win, as well as lose..

Suns are unbeaten at home this season, and were recently in the 8. I think thats big progress made very quickly. Dont know why you think Dimma is finding it hard?

Suns have some good kids coming through, and hopefully a crowd drawing superstar at the end of the year.

Would be great for QLD footy to have both clubs going well, and some real local rivalry.

So, you live in Queensland?

 

[Grasshopper17]

Bit of a brickbat and a bouquet this week.

Fages gave an interview on SEN on Saturday and Dermott asked a couple of pointed questions which basically, in a roundabout and tactful way, amounted to "did you realise your players had become complacent?"

(It's interesting how Derm and others are able to get away with questions like this that Mike Whiting and other journos could not, mainly I presume because of their prior relationship with Fages)

Fages' response was interesting, in that he thought in hindsight he probably should have spotted it earlier.

Here's the full interview:



I must say it was a bit of a disconcerting comment. I mean, from my point of view (Joe Blow sitting in the top tier of the Gabba) I saw actions from the players that matched this mindset during the 2nd quarter of the Carlton game. Several of us have mentioned this so I know I was not alone in having this view. The time to stamp it out was at half time in that game. It's classic Leigh Matthews' "tip of the iceberg" areas.

I mean the knee jerk reaction is "heck, if I can see it why can't the coaches!?" But it got me thinking, maybe the coaching group is so close to the players that it becomes a bit of "can't see the forest for the trees". Maybe our coaching/playing personnel would benefit at times from a bit of structured external feedback. Obviously clubs from time to time undertake extensive end-of-season reviews where they get someone in who's not aligned with the club. Maybe it would be beneficial to have something like this happen more regularly, on a smaller scale and less intrusively of course.

Also I wonder if there is sometimes an over-focus on data and statistical analysis from the coaches, where if someone watching for the old fashioned "vibe" of the game might have picked up things were amiss before the numbers indicated that.

Having said that, we do have to give our coaching group at least some credit for what has essentially been problem solving on the run. We couldn't score to save ourselves early in the season, but to this point we have been able to turn it around to have one of the best attacks in recent weeks. It hasn't just been the volume but also the method which has improved. So credit to the coaches for that.

The next challenge will be can we improve our defence to how it was earlier in the season, if not better, without compromising our attack. Fages mentions in the interview above his desire to really go hard at the game, I sense with reference to attack, which is admirable and a mindset I absolutely applaud, but we can't neglect our defensive intent and it dropped away noticeably on Friday night.

Seems a bit like we play whack-a-mole at times with holes in our games. As I daresay do the majority of clubs. Tis the joys of coaching.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Bit of a brickbat and a bouquet this week.

Fages gave an interview on SEN on Saturday and Dermott asked a couple of pointed questions which basically, in a roundabout and tactful way, amounted to "did you realise your players had become complacent?"

(It's interesting how Derm and others are able to get away with questions like this that Mike Whiting and other journos could not, mainly I presume because of their prior relationship with Fages)

Fages' response was interesting, in that he thought in hindsight he probably should have spotted it earlier.

Here's the full interview:



I must say it was a bit of a disconcerting comment. I mean, from my point of view (Joe Blow sitting in the top tier of the Gabba) I saw actions from the players that matched this mindset during the 2nd quarter of the Carlton game. Several of us have mentioned this so I know I was not alone in having this view. The time to stamp it out was at half time in that game. It's classic Leigh Matthews' "tip of the iceberg" areas.

I mean the knee jerk reaction is "heck, if I can see it why can't the coaches!?" But it got me thinking, maybe the coaching group is so close to the players that it becomes a bit of "can't see the forest for the trees". Maybe our coaching/playing personnel would benefit at times from a bit of structured external feedback. Obviously clubs from time to time undertake extensive end-of-season reviews where they get someone in who's not aligned with the club. Maybe it would be beneficial to have something like this happen more regularly, on a smaller scale and less intrusively of course.

Also I wonder if there is sometimes an over-focus on data and statistical analysis from the coaches, where if someone watching for the old fashioned "vibe" of the game might have picked up things were amiss before the numbers indicated that.

Having said that, we do have to give our coaching group at least some credit for what has essentially been problem solving on the run. We couldn't score to save ourselves early in the season, but to this point we have been able to turn it around to have one of the best attacks in recent weeks. It hasn't just been the volume but also the method which has improved. So credit to the coaches for that.

The next challenge will be can we improve our defence to how it was earlier in the season, if not better, without compromising our attack. Fages mentions in the interview above his desire to really go hard at the game, I sense with reference to attack, which is admirable and a mindset I absolutely applaud, but we can't neglect our defensive intent and it dropped away noticeably on Friday night.

Seems a bit like we play whack-a-mole at times with holes in our games. As I daresay do the majority of clubs. Tis the joys of coaching.

On the Carlton game comment, couldn't you of said the same in the round 1 game last year? Or most of our round 1 games?

 

[Grasshopper17]

On the Carlton game comment, couldn't you of said the same in the round 1 game last year? Or most of our round 1 games?

Yes of course. But the feedback after Round 1 last year was on the scoreboard - a crushing 9 goal defeat. By the following Friday night those issues had largely been addressed - a 40+ point lead by the time the lights went out against Melbourne was evidence enough of that.

But the feedback after the Opening Round game was "oh well, we lost by a point, yes we had a poor 20 minutes, but Carlton are a good team and it could have gone either way". To me that was pretty underwhelming by comparison, and at odds with Fages' comments in his interview on Saturday. There is no way known that Carlton being a good team had anything to do with us losing that game.

And you only had to look at the Round 1 game against Freo to know that the issues we identified in Opening Round had not been addressed.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Yes of course. But the feedback after Round 1 last year was on the scoreboard - a crushing 9 goal defeat. By the following Friday night those issues had largely been addressed - a 40+ point lead by the time the lights went out against Melbourne was evidence enough of that.

But the feedback after the Opening Round game was "oh well, we lost by a point, yes we had a poor 20 minutes, but Carlton are a good team and it could have gone either way". To me that was pretty underwhelming by comparison, and at odds with Fages' comments in his interview on Saturday. There is no way known that Carlton being a good team had anything to do with us losing that game.

And you only had to look at the Round 1 game against Freo to know that the issues we identified in Opening Round had not been addressed.

I think there's quite a few large assumptions going on here

We've had many slow starts to seasons and there's many reasons why the team would lack energy without getting ahead of themselves

We also had a short off season

 

[Jim Stynes11]

Here's the full interview:

Slightly OT, but how hard is it to produce this radio show to have audio sources present with similar volume levels?
Listening at work with sh1t headphones on, turn it way up to hear the clips at the start from Fages (and Ross Lyon) and Gerard Whateley's voice came in and nearly blew the ears off my head!
Major gear grinder

 

[M Malice]

Slightly OT, but how hard is it to produce this radio show to have audio sources present with similar volume levels?
Listening at work with sh1t headphones on, turn it way up to hear the clips at the start from Fages (and Ross Lyon) and Gerard Whateley's voice came in and nearly blew the ears off my head!
Major gear grinder

Yes it's annoying, another gripe of mine is the press conferences... you can rarely hear the question asked by the pundits, surely it can't be too hard to have someone with an extendable microphone who can move it around for each question.

 

[mpal6]

Bit of a brickbat and a bouquet this week.

Fages gave an interview on SEN on Saturday and Dermott asked a couple of pointed questions which basically, in a roundabout and tactful way, amounted to "did you realise your players had become complacent?"

(It's interesting how Derm and others are able to get away with questions like this that Mike Whiting and other journos could not, mainly I presume because of their prior relationship with Fages)

Fages' response was interesting, in that he thought in hindsight he probably should have spotted it earlier.

Here's the full interview:



I must say it was a bit of a disconcerting comment. I mean, from my point of view (Joe Blow sitting in the top tier of the Gabba) I saw actions from the players that matched this mindset during the 2nd quarter of the Carlton game. Several of us have mentioned this so I know I was not alone in having this view. The time to stamp it out was at half time in that game. It's classic Leigh Matthews' "tip of the iceberg" areas.

I mean the knee jerk reaction is "heck, if I can see it why can't the coaches!?" But it got me thinking, maybe the coaching group is so close to the players that it becomes a bit of "can't see the forest for the trees". Maybe our coaching/playing personnel would benefit at times from a bit of structured external feedback. Obviously clubs from time to time undertake extensive end-of-season reviews where they get someone in who's not aligned with the club. Maybe it would be beneficial to have something like this happen more regularly, on a smaller scale and less intrusively of course.

Also I wonder if there is sometimes an over-focus on data and statistical analysis from the coaches, where if someone watching for the old fashioned "vibe" of the game might have picked up things were amiss before the numbers indicated that.

Having said that, we do have to give our coaching group at least some credit for what has essentially been problem solving on the run. We couldn't score to save ourselves early in the season, but to this point we have been able to turn it around to have one of the best attacks in recent weeks. It hasn't just been the volume but also the method which has improved. So credit to the coaches for that.

The next challenge will be can we improve our defence to how it was earlier in the season, if not better, without compromising our attack. Fages mentions in the interview above his desire to really go hard at the game, I sense with reference to attack, which is admirable and a mindset I absolutely applaud, but we can't neglect our defensive intent and it dropped away noticeably on Friday night.

Seems a bit like we play whack-a-mole at times with holes in our games. As I daresay do the majority of clubs. Tis the joys of coaching.

You can see that whack-a-mole approach even in Saints game.

In the 4th Quarter Saints got on a run, camera pans to Fagan and he's instructing something to the runner or player - before the runner could go on ground, he is screaming at him and you can lip read him saying "don't say anything" with a hand gesture doing like a X. I could almost bet he has come up with a bunch of instructions earlier and ditched everything at the very last moment so he can avoid adding to the confusion already going on in the middle.

 

[martinson]

You can see that whack-a-mole approach even in Saints game.

In the 4th Quarter Saints got on a run, camera pans to Fagan and he's instructing something to the runner or player - before the runner could go on ground, he is screaming at him and you can lip read him saying "don't say anything" with a hand gesture doing like a X. I could almost bet he has come up with a bunch of instructions earlier and ditched everything at the very last moment so he can avoid adding to the confusion already going on in the middle.

We need help in certain areas to get us up a notch. But if no one thinks we need it then its not a problem is it.

 

[Nunez]

We need help in certain areas to get us up a notch. But if no one thinks we need it then its not a problem is it.

We have brought in external people and most recently Dew. To suggest Fagan doesn't have a desire to improve - win or lose - would be false (not saying you are suggesting this).

The coaches and the board are very hellbent on improvement and are leaving no stone unturned to go all the way this season. While many here were happy to focus on changing focus after the Hawks loss, the club was not. Even if we lose this week and have no impact in finals, we won't die wondering.

 

[martinson]

We have brought in external people and most recently Dew. To suggest Fagan doesn't have a desire to improve - win or lose - would be false (not saying you are suggesting this).

The coaches and the board are very hellbent on improvement and are leaving no stone unturned to go all the way this season. While many here were happy to focus on changing focus after the Hawks loss, the club was not. Even if we lose this week and have no impact in finals, we won't die wondering.

No I wasn't suggesting anything about Fagan in particular.

I'm more thinking about the players . The lapses in concentration ,nap time ,whatever else they need to take responsibility for.

I'm sure we do the best with the resources we have . Off field and on field improvement is required . That probably applies to all clubs.

Re Fagan he's probably the right person to be giving the message but he's been in the job a while and it doesn't matter who you are it can get a bit tiring for the playing group sometimes. Without knowing what the thinking is we need some tweaks and a bit of energy coming from someone different to freshen everyone up.

That's not criticism of us per se , it's just a natural progression in every organisation. We've brought in Cotch and now Dew so obviously we're aware.

 

[mpal6]

We have brought in external people and most recently Dew. To suggest Fagan doesn't have a desire to improve - win or lose - would be false (not saying you are suggesting this).

The coaches and the board are very hellbent on improvement and are leaving no stone unturned to go all the way this season. While many here were happy to focus on changing focus after the Hawks loss, the club was not. Even if we lose this week and have no impact in finals, we won't die wondering.

There is a definite shift in Fagan's approach over last 2 weeks. I saw him chatting to Fletcher then n there when he came off for his rotation which I've usually never seen him do from the sidelines. He's pushing hard to unlock that cohesion again this season. Fingers crossed for Fages.

 

[martinson]

There is a definite shift in Fagan's approach over last 2 weeks. I saw him chatting to Fletcher then n there when he came off for his rotation which I've usually never seen him do from the sidelines. He's pushing hard to unlock that cohesion again this season. Fingers crossed for Fages.

To me ,and this is just imo , we're playing like a team that knows it should be doing better but just can't find the energy and cohesion to get to the level we want to be at.

There's a hangover from last year that's been hard to shake .

 

[Dalions]

To me ,and this is just imo , we're playing like a team that knows it should be doing better but just can't find the energy and cohesion to get to the level we want to be at.

There's a hangover from last year that's been hard to shake .

To be honest, last week, I actually thought we saw the Lions of last year.
Just doing what we had to do to win.
We have never really been a team to blow others away.
Just do what was required on any given day.

 

[BangyBangy]

To be honest, last week, I actually thought we saw the Lions of last year.
Just doing what we had to do to win.
We have never really been a team to blow others away.
Just do what was required on any given day.

We're a funny team aren't we. I just hope we don't go into any game as favourites (edit: like this week, classic example).

The harder the challenge the better as far as I'm concerned for this team now.

The injuries at the start of the year might turn out to be a blessing, this year & moreso long term.