Coaching Staff Senior Coach: John Worsfold - Thank you John

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Mr Mojo Risin said:
Yeah they were shocking like that last night, like Huddo just wanted to talk to his Geelong mate and couldn't help himself cutting Woosha off.
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I could almost read Woosh's mind I reckon. He was like sweet I'm happy to just sit here and let you talk makes no difference to me. Same as when he was asked a question that just goes on forever. No chance he'll cut you off to answer early. Please, fill as much air time as you like chaps.
 
Beerfish said:
I could almost read Woosh's mind I reckon. He was like sweet I'm happy to just sit here and let you talk makes no difference to me. Same as when he was asked a question that just goes on forever. No chance he'll cut you off to answer early. Please, fill as much air time as you like chaps.
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Just don't fill the air time with exposure to our sponsors. Thanks.
 

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Beerfish said:
I could almost read Woosh's mind I reckon. He was like sweet I'm happy to just sit here and let you talk makes no difference to me. Same as when he was asked a question that just goes on forever. No chance he'll cut you off to answer early. Please, fill as much air time as you like chaps.
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It's like Geoffrey Boycott in interview form
 
Beerfish said:
I wouldn't bother. He said nothing of interest. It was mostly dorothy dixers about the coaching biz in general. Was mildly annoying a few times when he tried to expand on an answer he was cut off by others.
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I watched it anyway :p

There's a bit from 6.30 that's actually interesting, about game plans and communicating with the players.

Scott was saying you can't change a game plan in a week, it takes years to build it up and learn to execute it. In his case last week they did think the Geelong coaching group got it wrong, not because the game plan was bad but because they didn't coach the execution of the game plan well enough. And then you have Worsfold making the comparison with Hooker forward or back and whether you take on Kennedy or Parker, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

They were both giving examples about how they say something to the players about tweaking something minorly against this opponent this week and then the players really want to please the coach and do what the coach says but their take away from the whole meeting is that one thing that was meant to be a minor tweak but then you get to game day and it's like 'why the heck are we playing like this?!' and end up having to tell them 'you know what I said pregame... forget that, go back to how you normally play'.

So it's not just the game plan itself, but also whether the players are getting the nuance of the message that the coaches are trying to communicate, and whether they're actually able to execute it. (Credit sometimes to the opponent for preventing execution too!) Would be a rough job getting 30+ people on the same page every week too, I guess you can't get it right all the time. More often than not would be nice though.

The rest of it pretty much looks like "can we get a soundbyte from each of you about these 3-4 hot topics in the 24h news cycle?" which amounts to;

The skills are worse than ever, game has lost entertainment factor:
  • Highest ever boundary usage out of defensive fifty.
  • Lowest mark play on percentage (not taking the game on).
  • Highest kick to handball ratio ever (kick-mark game plan which is slow)
  • Second worst kicking efficiency ever recorded (pressure?).
Woosha says it sounds like West Coast, lots of copy cats?

The rest of that segment is basically summarised in this article:
www.foxsports.com.au

AFL 2019: Chris Scott says modern-day player skills are ‘much better’ than 20 years ago

‘Skills are much better’: Cats coach’s extraordinary claim
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

Bit of junk about Gold Coast applying for priority picks and other ways of helping Gold Coast without priority picks. Woosh with the straight bat "they have a right to do that, AFL has a process". Scott "no I don't agree with giving them a priority pick, but it's a competitive environment and I have a clear bias". More interesting in the different ways they answered than the answers themselves imo.

Bit more junk about Fantasia. Raz was a bit disappointed "I haven't asked for a trade so how can they write that". Scott asked Robbo about journalistic ethics, Robbo says you'd be pretty shaken to have an emphatic denial so soon after publishing your story, but it's a story they can't get wrong for two years and if he does leave in three years they can turn around and say 'see I said that'. blahblahblah

Plugged our game against North, bums in seats, etc.

And that's all she wrote.
 
Beerfish said:
I could almost read Woosh's mind I reckon. He was like sweet I'm happy to just sit here and let you talk makes no difference to me. Same as when he was asked a question that just goes on forever. No chance he'll cut you off to answer early. Please, fill as much air time as you like chaps.
Click to expand...
Yep exactly what I thought too, he seemed very happy about it. I was almost proud of him, played it perfectly. However it would be nice to know his thoughts at times.
 
Mr Mojo Risin said:
Yep exactly what I thought too, he seemed very happy about it. I was almost proud of him, played it perfectly. However it would be nice to know his thoughts at times.
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Yep. He's very guarded with saying what he thinks. The priority pick question was the perfect example really. He could easily have said "I'm biased but" and it would not have had any blowback whatsoever. Instead he says "that's their right, there's a process for that" and it's a complete non-story but it's also really ****ing boring.
 
Lore said:
Yep. He's very guarded with saying what he thinks. The priority pick question was the perfect example really. He could easily have said "I'm biased but" and it would not have had any blowback whatsoever. Instead he says "that's their right, there's a process for that" and it's a complete non-story but it's also really ******* boring.
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I think he revels in being boring. It means he gets less requests for appearances/comments outside the minimum required.
 
If Woosh wants to go home to family I don’t blame him - but if his heart is in it I’d like to keep him for next year - I buy into his philosophy, not the watered down version he gives to the media about building a great team or whatever - the goal of empowering players to play for themselves - he seems to be a true teacher in that sense, helping people come to their own answers rather than being dictatorial.

It seems however that this strategy isn’t built for short term success - more so foundations, which is what we needed after the drugs saga. he and the club might already have an agreement on his bowing out, I think this is probable since it’s seemingly what happened at WCE.

However long Woosha stays around I feel like the belief he’s put in players will stick around for a long time, no matter who the coach is.
 
Blood Bomber said:
I really haven't listened to John since about rd3. Just not good for my love of ❤🖤
It's not that I hate him I just find him sooooooooooooooo frustrating.
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Yep. Reckon I was a good chance of having listened to every press conference given by a coach from 2011.

Cant remember the last 1 I listened to this year.

Got sick of listening to incoherent bullshit delivered so dead pan it doesnt even seem like a deflection.
 
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Bowakawa said:
If Woosh wants to go home to family I don’t blame him - but if his heart is in it I’d like to keep him for next year - I buy into his philosophy, not the watered down version he gives to the media about building a great team or whatever - the goal of empowering players to play for themselves - he seems to be a true teacher in that sense, helping people come to their own answers rather than being dictatorial.

It seems however that this strategy isn’t built for short term success - more so foundations, which is what we needed after the drugs saga. he and the club might already have an agreement on his bowing out, I think this is probable since it’s seemingly what happened at WCE.

However long Woosha stays around I feel like the belief he’s put in players will stick around for a long time, no matter who the coach is.
Click to expand...
There is a discernible improvement in our ability to stay in games from defending alone. Even Zaharakis who had shown no defensive improvement in 10 years has shown improvement. Woosha frustrates me with his public persona but I think we are starting to see something sustainable for the long term system wise and it will be interesting to see what we can do with a functional ruck and a stable forward line.

Regardless of whether Woosha is the right man going forward, I'm really starting to see what he is building (the foundation as you call it).
 
Bowakawa said:
If Woosh wants to go home to family I don’t blame him - but if his heart is in it I’d like to keep him for next year - I buy into his philosophy, not the watered down version he gives to the media about building a great team or whatever - the goal of empowering players to play for themselves - he seems to be a true teacher in that sense, helping people come to their own answers rather than being dictatorial.

It seems however that this strategy isn’t built for short term success - more so foundations, which is what we needed after the drugs saga. he and the club might already have an agreement on his bowing out, I think this is probable since it’s seemingly what happened at WCE.

However long Woosha stays around I feel like the belief he’s put in players will stick around for a long time, no matter who the coach is.
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He can go to WA and let the players coach themselves. What better way to test the system?
 

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BrunoV said:
Yep. Reckon I was a good chance of having listened to every press conference givem by a coach from 2011.

Cant remember the last 1 I listened to this year.

Got sick of listening to incoherent bulls**t delivered so dead pan it doesnt even seem like a deflection.
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I don’t know if there’s anybody in footy who gives less to the media. Certainly no senior coach.

It’s a balance they’ve got wrong. I mean, if that’s the approach he’s going to take, ok, but they should get more info direct to members in videos etc. That’s why we have a club “media” dept. But even that stuff has no real insight whatsoever.

They need to improve it, the membership deserve a bit.
 
Lore said:
I watched it anyway :p

There's a bit from 6.30 that's actually interesting, about game plans and communicating with the players.

Scott was saying you can't change a game plan in a week, it takes years to build it up and learn to execute it. In his case last week they did think the Geelong coaching group got it wrong, not because the game plan was bad but because they didn't coach the execution of the game plan well enough. And then you have Worsfold making the comparison with Hooker forward or back and whether you take on Kennedy or Parker, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

They were both giving examples about how they say something to the players about tweaking something minorly against this opponent this week and then the players really want to please the coach and do what the coach says but their take away from the whole meeting is that one thing that was meant to be a minor tweak but then you get to game day and it's like 'why the heck are we playing like this?!' and end up having to tell them 'you know what I said pregame... forget that, go back to how you normally play'.

So it's not just the game plan itself, but also whether the players are getting the nuance of the message that the coaches are trying to communicate, and whether they're actually able to execute it. (Credit sometimes to the opponent for preventing execution too!) Would be a rough job getting 30+ people on the same page every week too, I guess you can't get it right all the time. More often than not would be nice though.

The rest of it pretty much looks like "can we get a soundbyte from each of you about these 3-4 hot topics in the 24h news cycle?" which amounts to;

The skills are worse than ever, game has lost entertainment factor:
  • Highest ever boundary usage out of defensive fifty.
  • Lowest mark play on percentage (not taking the game on).
  • Highest kick to handball ratio ever (kick-mark game plan which is slow)
  • Second worst kicking efficiency ever recorded (pressure?).
Woosha says it sounds like West Coast, lots of copy cats?

The rest of that segment is basically summarised in this article:
www.foxsports.com.au

AFL 2019: Chris Scott says modern-day player skills are ‘much better’ than 20 years ago

‘Skills are much better’: Cats coach’s extraordinary claim
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

Bit of junk about Gold Coast applying for priority picks and other ways of helping Gold Coast without priority picks. Woosh with the straight bat "they have a right to do that, AFL has a process". Scott "no I don't agree with giving them a priority pick, but it's a competitive environment and I have a clear bias". More interesting in the different ways they answered than the answers themselves imo.

Bit more junk about Fantasia. Raz was a bit disappointed "I haven't asked for a trade so how can they write that". Scott asked Robbo about journalistic ethics, Robbo says you'd be pretty shaken to have an emphatic denial so soon after publishing your story, but it's a story they can't get wrong for two years and if he does leave in three years they can turn around and say 'see I said that'. blahblahblah

Plugged our game against North, bums in seats, etc.

And that's all she wrote.
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My favourite bit was Scott talking about how frustrating the narrative is that when they lose one week it's because the game coaching was crap and when they win it was because it was good.
Would be nice if this was repeated every day for a year. Maybe then the football public would understand it and the coach threads on boards wouldn't bungee rope up and down message boards after wins and losses.
Maybe I'm asking too much though.
 
There’s no maybe about it, you’re definitely asking too much.
 
Lore said:
I watched it anyway :p

There's a bit from 6.30 that's actually interesting, about game plans and communicating with the players.

Scott was saying you can't change a game plan in a week, it takes years to build it up and learn to execute it. In his case last week they did think the Geelong coaching group got it wrong, not because the game plan was bad but because they didn't coach the execution of the game plan well enough. And then you have Worsfold making the comparison with Hooker forward or back and whether you take on Kennedy or Parker, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

They were both giving examples about how they say something to the players about tweaking something minorly against this opponent this week and then the players really want to please the coach and do what the coach says but their take away from the whole meeting is that one thing that was meant to be a minor tweak but then you get to game day and it's like 'why the heck are we playing like this?!' and end up having to tell them 'you know what I said pregame... forget that, go back to how you normally play'.

So it's not just the game plan itself, but also whether the players are getting the nuance of the message that the coaches are trying to communicate, and whether they're actually able to execute it. (Credit sometimes to the opponent for preventing execution too!) Would be a rough job getting 30+ people on the same page every week too, I guess you can't get it right all the time. More often than not would be nice though.

The rest of it pretty much looks like "can we get a soundbyte from each of you about these 3-4 hot topics in the 24h news cycle?" which amounts to;

The skills are worse than ever, game has lost entertainment factor:
  • Highest ever boundary usage out of defensive fifty.
  • Lowest mark play on percentage (not taking the game on).
  • Highest kick to handball ratio ever (kick-mark game plan which is slow)
  • Second worst kicking efficiency ever recorded (pressure?).
Woosha says it sounds like West Coast, lots of copy cats?

The rest of that segment is basically summarised in this article:
www.foxsports.com.au

AFL 2019: Chris Scott says modern-day player skills are ‘much better’ than 20 years ago

‘Skills are much better’: Cats coach’s extraordinary claim
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

Bit of junk about Gold Coast applying for priority picks and other ways of helping Gold Coast without priority picks. Woosh with the straight bat "they have a right to do that, AFL has a process". Scott "no I don't agree with giving them a priority pick, but it's a competitive environment and I have a clear bias". More interesting in the different ways they answered than the answers themselves imo.

Bit more junk about Fantasia. Raz was a bit disappointed "I haven't asked for a trade so how can they write that". Scott asked Robbo about journalistic ethics, Robbo says you'd be pretty shaken to have an emphatic denial so soon after publishing your story, but it's a story they can't get wrong for two years and if he does leave in three years they can turn around and say 'see I said that'. blahblahblah

Plugged our game against North, bums in seats, etc.

And that's all she wrote.
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Isn't this all just a reason to do nothing? You could look at it as pure stubbornness or pigheadedness.

Teague can change a plan in a week and is 2 from 2 with a healthy percentage. So what I'm hearing is that Bolton would rather cling to failing plans than he would admit he was wrong and be successful.

It might sound stupid but it's quite common and coaches always come up with a reason to do nothing, to support the original planning.

Coaching the execution of the game plan, which takes "years to build" in any given week is also more drivel but I assume that is a deflection. The reality is that Geelong couldnt go with the Dogs when they turned the heat up around the ball which is what has plagued Geelong for years.

There are 18 teams in the competition. 1 team (Hawthorn) regularly changes. In fairness to Scott he is good too. In any given year there are 4 teams which are good. What are the rest doing? Years 1 to 4 of trying to implement failed game plans?

It would be funny if there wasnt so much truth to what Scott and Worsfold are saying.

Isnt pinning the psychological conditioning and expectations of players on 1 game plan just poor man management? They paint themselves into a corner and then pretend like there was never any other choice.

The results, for about 14 teams a year who are no where near the pace, speak for themselves.

Almost all the teams play the same way and the game looks like a dogs breakfast. I'd say the level of coaching probably needs to be called into question.

The coaches deserve a zone. That's the only thing that will change anything. Stretch the game across the whole ground by having 4 to 6 players inside 50 at all times.
 
Bowakawa said:
If Woosh wants to go home to family I don’t blame him - but if his heart is in it I’d like to keep him for next year - I buy into his philosophy, not the watered down version he gives to the media about building a great team or whatever - the goal of empowering players to play for themselves - he seems to be a true teacher in that sense, helping people come to their own answers rather than being dictatorial.

It seems however that this strategy isn’t built for short term success - more so foundations, which is what we needed after the drugs saga. he and the club might already have an agreement on his bowing out, I think this is probable since it’s seemingly what happened at WCE.

However long Woosha stays around I feel like the belief he’s put in players will stick around for a long time, no matter who the coach is.
Click to expand...

Hence the calls from Heppell preseason for patience. So it's fairly clear that along with Woosha's comments, there was a limit on expectations this season. & if so I would assume the Essendon board was aware as well which to me equates to Woosha being given the time he needs to fully implement his strategy & baring total disaster, seeing out his contract.

This season was looking like a total disaster there for a minute there, now not so much. See you again next year Woosh;)
 
BrunoV said:
Isn't this all just a reason to do nothing? You could look at it as pure stubbornness or pigheadedness.

Teague can change a plan in a week and is 2 from 2 with a healthy percentage. So what I'm hearing is that Bolton would rather cling to failing plans than he would admit he was wrong and be successful.
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Yes because Carlton are now successful. It's just that binary.
 
Beerfish said:
Yes because Carlton are now successful. It's just that binary.
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If it worked everyone would be doing it. And then of course it wouldn’t work.
 
Hey Woosh! Coach differently this week please! So we may be better forever from this week on.
 
Beerfish said:
Yes because Carlton are now successful. It's just that binary.
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Isn't it?

What do you think "letting the boys play with more freedom" means?

It sure as hell isnt coaching the existing game plan better.

You think it's that hard to revert to playing 1v1?

Didn't we change in a week before the Geelong game last year and then blame it all on Neeld?
 

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