Ken was directly given exactly this piece of advice by someone at the club. He was told, "have you considered sometimes telling the players what they are good at, rather than always what they need to get better at?"All of Ken's strategies are based around defence and, more specifically, stopping the opposition.
We've tagged Rance, we've tagged Laird, we've actually taken a delistee in the midseason draft for the specific role of tagging an opposition player.
He talks publically about how we're not the most skilled side out there. He talks about how tough and even the competition is all the time. He's not selling belief to these players.
They go out there and win when there's nothing to play for but when the pressure is on, they revert back to thinking that they're not good enough because it's been drilled into them. By the time we click into gear we've already been blown off the park and that translates into entire wasted seasons.
A good coach will make the players think they're unbeatable. He'll make them want to run through walls. The only evidence you need of Ken's motivational skills are our first quarters this year.
John Cahill made even the most average footballer believe they were unbeatable.