Coach Men's Senior Coach: Brad Scott

[ant555]

It’s roles/functions but it’s also belief & entrenched values

I think we suck mainly because at heart, deep down, players and officials believe we suck and that an incredible, life changing season would see us one day, somehow, win one final

Under rated post this. Richmond and Melbourne the most recent teams to go through it . Gold Coast living it now as well .
You just have to keep bringing new players through and have a strong off field team and even then they have to limit the mistakes as much as they can as no matter how good you are you will make personal mistakes along the way.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Under rated post this. Richmond and Melbourne the most recent teams to go through it . Gold Coast living it now as well .
You just have to keep bringing new players through and have a strong off field team and even then they have to limit the mistakes as much as they can as no matter how good you are you will make personal mistakes along the way.

Yeah i am not inclined to pile on the players and coach or the trip to Arizona. I don’t think that “it’s been 20 years of this crap” type reaction helps us get where we need to. If we are to improve any time soon the players need to see this season as a step forward, not just another year of evidence of how terrible we are.

Personally no matter how it ends I think it’s already a better year than last year.

People can say the list is experienced and we should be better but the fact is we have serious holes at multiple positions

I thought team defense buy in was good at the start of the year, and our performance while never amazing was most consistent week to week that I had seen in ten years.

My main criticism of Scott is that we have varied our game style too much

The best we have looked is the games when we used a very hard forward press. That’s the most edge-like look.

No coincidence that this usually involved ADJ playing. But when you can’t pick the few players we have with genuine speed because their form isn’t good enough, maybe you have to vary the style of defending.

You can see Scott trying next year to do basically the same stuff with hopefully two small forwards, a confident Caddy, Reid, Ridley and McKay, Roberts at half back etc (and imagine some of Perkins, Cox or Tstatas actually stepping up) and that being another solid step forward.. hopefully enough to get over that threshold where they can actually believe in themselves.

 

[Old Campaigner]

I don’t think that “it’s been 20 years of this crap” type reaction helps us get where we need to.

The best melts are where this "it's been 20 years" line is bought up to argue we need to get it done quicker as if the normal challenges and hurdles suddenly don't apply.

 

[thepokey]

The best melts are where this "it's been 20 years" line is bought up to argue we need to get it done quicker as if the normal challenges and hurdles suddenly don't apply.

Or "I've been through 20 years of this but THIS is the worst I have seen, I'm out" and it's just some random ass loss to like, Port, or something

 

[yodellinhank]

Or "I've been through 20 years of this but THIS is the worst I have seen, I'm out" and it's just some random ass loss to like, Port, or something

Port?! This ****ing club

 

[supportyourteam]

May have this fact wrong. Others closer to the club can correct.
Mid 2000's the board passed a resolution to make the finals every year. Something like that.
If so Brad needs to tell the board to vote that sort of nonsense out. Then the club can move forward as a football club. Not simply as a board of directors.

 

[yodellinhank]

May have this fact wrong. Others closer to the club can correct.
Mid 2000's the board passed a resolution to make the finals every year. Something like that.
If so Brad needs to tell the board to vote that sort of nonsense out. Then the club can move forward as a football club. Not simply as a board of directors.

Are you thinking of Peter Jackson's win a flag every 6 years?

 

[supportyourteam]

No. I will have to do research to re-find. It was the board trying to make it part of the Essendon constitution that they make the finals every year. It seemed silly at the time to me. GB2U

 

[CBombers17]

Would be very happy with the response by the boys today. Not only did we come out firing We stared into the abyss and refused to give in. We aren't a great side and there are obvious holes to fill but the baseline has to be effort and resilience and today they got that right against a significant trend.

 

[Zach Package]

He cut the shit and went back to what was working at the start of the season and got a good result. A modern day Tom Landry.

Cox and Jones at either end but using their mobility to push into the middle third to be a marking option, a couple of extra running players and contested ball mids at half forward to assist with the ground ball and pressure in the front half.

A truly infuriating man.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

He cut the shit and went back to what was working at the start of the season and got a good result. A modern day Tom Landry.

Cox and Jones at either end but using their mobility to push into the middle third to be a marking option, a couple of extra running players and contested ball mids at half forward to assist with the ground ball and pressure in the front half.

A truly infuriating man.

I tagged you in a post in the Saints autopsy thread re the Don the Stat interview with Tapping post bye, they also touched on it again and said similar in this weeks preview podcast, both are worth a listen.

Tapping was talking about our lack of forward connection and efficiency inside 50 after the suns/blues games.
He was talking about there being such a thing as too many forward half turnovers and that theres a sweet spot that you aim for and we went way past it against Blues which led to a crowded 50 and too many dirty entries. Might explain why theyve made the changes they have since the early season results.

At the time I thought it was really insightful and a good sign of the coaching team being on top of things. It also looked like the tweaks worked against eagles and then pies. But in hindsight I wonder if theyve tweaked too much in-season and confused a playing group still learning the initial game plan. Hopefully they stick with the yesterdays style for rest of season regardless of results.

At end of day IMO the main reason we dont have the connection inside 50 is because of list balance, we still need more good users of the footy up the ground and better contested grab KPFs and better crumbing smalls, but the building blocks of a sustainable style is there and we just need to be patient and add players to the list that fill those needs / wait for young guys like caddy/davey to develop. The tweaks now seem like shortcuts because we sniffed a top 4 finish. We flew too close to the sun and got burnt haha.

 

[P Money]

Cops a lot of flack on here for 'not playing the kids', deserves credit when he finally does bring them in (a la Roberts, also Caddy) when they're actually at the level and can perform from their debut game.

Bit of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' about it for Scott. Bring them in and they're not up to the level, criticism for blooding them too early. Bring them in when they're at the level and ready to perform, why didn't you bring them in earlier?

 

[Old Campaigner]

Cops a lot of flack on here for 'not playing the kids', deserves credit when he finally does bring them in (a la Roberts, also Caddy) when they're actually at the level and can perform from their debut game.

Bit of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' about it for Scott. Bring them in and they're not up to the level, criticism for blooding them too early. Bring them in when they're at the level and ready to perform, why didn't you bring them in earlier?

It was always just lazy criticism, the only two kids who were really looking like they deserved a senior game were Roberts and Hayes.

 

[FlyingV]

Might not be popular but I just don’t think the effort of our playing group is to blame for our failures this season. In fact at times I think it paints over the game plan/structural issues that we have when Merrett, Caldwell, Martin and Durham seemingly single handedly arm wrestle us wins through sheer determination.

I would love to see us develop an identity - ie organised defensively, great on the rebound, defends transition well etc… each week it feels like we rely on individual brilliance to get the win.

I don’t really want to hear Scott talk about ‘effort’. I want him to select some specific areas that we think wins us a game of footy and talk about why it did or didn’t work (like Hawthorn with the winning the first contest outside of a stoppage). This freo game doesn’t change that for me.

 

[jdstorm]

Might not be popular but I just don’t think the effort of our playing group is to blame for our failures this season. In fact at times I think it paints over the game plan/structural issues that we have when Merrett, Caldwell, Martin and Durham seemingly single handedly arm wrestle us wins through sheer determination.

I would love to see us develop an identity - ie organised defensively, great on the rebound, defends transition well etc… each week it feels like we rely on individual brilliance to get the win.

I don’t really want to hear Scott talk about ‘effort’. I want him to select some specific areas that we think wins us a game of footy and talk about why it did or didn’t work (like Hawthorn with the winning the first contest outside of a stoppage). This freo game doesn’t change that for me.

We’re aiming to be a front half pressure team and to get intercepts/turnover ball to create open transition opportunities.

Game has failed because teams don’t turn the ball over when they don’t feel rushed int making mistakes aka pressured….

 

[Old Campaigner]

Might not be popular but I just don’t think the effort of our playing group is to blame for our failures this season. In fact at times I think it paints over the game plan/structural issues that we have when Merrett, Caldwell, Martin and Durham seemingly single handedly arm wrestle us wins through sheer determination.

I would love to see us develop an identity - ie organised defensively, great on the rebound, defends transition well etc… each week it feels like we rely on individual brilliance to get the win.

I don’t really want to hear Scott talk about ‘effort’. I want him to select some specific areas that we think wins us a game of footy and talk about why it did or didn’t work (like Hawthorn with the winning the first contest outside of a stoppage). This freo game doesn’t change that for me.

We had an identity, it was front running downhill skiing that didn't stand up in finals.

Now we're working on a new one but we don't have the players capable of executing it consistently.

 

[ant555]

Might not be popular but I just don’t think the effort of our playing group is to blame for our failures this season. In fact at times I think it paints over the game plan/structural issues that we have when Merrett, Caldwell, Martin and Durham seemingly single handedly arm wrestle us wins through sheer determination.

I would love to see us develop an identity - ie organised defensively, great on the rebound, defends transition well etc… each week it feels like we rely on individual brilliance to get the win.

I don’t really want to hear Scott talk about ‘effort’. I want him to select some specific areas that we think wins us a game of footy and talk about why it did or didn’t work (like Hawthorn with the winning the first contest outside of a stoppage). This freo game doesn’t change that for me.

He has commented on the fact we do create plenty of opportunity to score but the execution has let us down.
It is pretty simple. Not saying Scott has not made any wrong moves as he has but we just are not at the level to establish an identity and the way the game is currently being played you can quickly lose any identity and confidence.
Collingwood are not the confident attack at all cost team they where last year . Sydney have lost confidence in their precision kicking game and sides are shutting them down. Carlton have been all over the place this year .
To develop an identity is not really a 1 or 2 or 3 year thing . When you have been average for ever then you have to slowly build it like Richmond and Melbourne did . Gold Coast are the same. Hardwicke was not just going to ride in and change a culture of never playing finals in 1 season despite having a half decent list and Dimma saying he had 80% of the list in place.
The only sides that take a sudden leap are sides like Collingwood or Sydney that have had a winning culture. Sides like GWS who have a recent history of playing finals or even the Hawks who despite Clarkson trying to top up when he should have gone draft still had a recent winning history.
Winning has painted over some issues for sure but how can we be great on the rebound if we do not have the playing stock to do it ? when we have to shift Martin from a spot he dominated to try and fix the next line back ?
Right now it is about effort. When they play with more effort the team defense is better . Yesterday was one of the lowest scores from turnover games we have had in 3 years. It was because there where a couple / personal structural changes but also because there was effort from a few guys that have been bog average recently.

 

[bombreys]

Cops a lot of flack on here for 'not playing the kids', deserves credit when he finally does bring them in (a la Roberts, also Caddy) when they're actually at the level and can perform from their debut game.

Bit of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' about it for Scott. Bring them in and they're not up to the level, criticism for blooding them too early. Bring them in when they're at the level and ready to perform, why didn't you bring them in earlier?

Which player(s) has this happened with?

 

[joey_jo_jo]

Which player(s) has this happened with?

There were a lot of comments about ADJ/Tsatas/Hobbs earlier in the year knocking their selection, and at the moment its Menzie (fair enough he isnt performing but I guess if people want to see us give kids a go then we need to be patient with him too dont we?)

 

[Zach Package]

The other thing I’ll tack onto the above is that we know our mids aren’t natural endurance animals, so the extra rotations into the middle are absolutely necessary so guys like Durham and Caldwell can absolutely redline, then get a rest and go again, asking them to play big minutes means they blow up and their efficacy drops as well.

Like I said 4 months ago, the layers of the midfield is the strength of this side, he needs to lean into it, not go away from it.

 

[P Money]

Which player(s) has this happened with?

ADJ, Tsatas and Bryan come to mind. I'm more making the point that the whole 'Scott doesn't play the kids' thing doesn't really stand up. He's clearly got a mantra of making young players earn their stripes and develop their games in the VFL, to bigfooty's chagrin when more experienced players are in the seniors and not performing.

 

[dank420_]

The other thing I’ll tack onto the above is that we know our mids aren’t natural endurance animals, so the extra rotations into the middle are absolutely necessary so guys like Durham and Caldwell can absolutely redline, then get a rest and go again, asking them to play big minutes means they blow up and their efficacy drops as well.

Like I said 4 months ago, the layers of the midfield is the strength of this side, he needs to lean into it, not go away from it.

This is why Shiel was red hot in the last

 

[yodellinhank]

ADJ, Tsatas and Bryan come to mind. I'm more making the point that the whole 'Scott doesn't play the kids' thing doesn't really stand up. He's clearly got a mantra of making young players earn their stripes and develop their games in the VFL, to bigfooty's chagrin when more experienced players are in the seniors and not performing.

So he... doesn't play the kids?

 

[P Money]

So he... doesn't play the kids?

Other than all the kids he's played, he hasn't played a single one

 

[Squeaky]

We had an identity, it was front running downhill skiing that didn't stand up in finals.

Now we're working on a new one but we don't have the players capable of executing it consistently.

We need to draft more Alberto Tomba types!!