Sando sacked - confirmed **** crows only ****

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After having time to think about it my thoughts are these.
On the face of it, this is a harsh decision. Sanderson had a great year in 2012, some of it due to a good draw, but the players seemed to like playing for him. Then we lost Tippett, the draft picks, and Walker to a recon early in 2013. We also have had a pretty bad run with injuries to key players such as Crouch and Lynch. This made it really tough for Sando.
Dean Bailey’s unfortunate death obviously removed an extremely good resource.
2013 and 2014 were poor years but can be explained for the above reasons to some degree.
Many of us however have noted that Sando’s game day coaching, tactics and indeed selection have fallen far short of what we (experts that we are all) consider to be optimal.
Even more frustrating from my perspective is that in parts of games we could play awesome football, but in other parts, diabolical football, which led to our terrible inconsistency.
I put this down to mental weakness when the pressure was on. Is this a coaching issue or a players issue?
This is now informed by the knowledge that it seems several senior players had lost confidence in the coach and told at least Roo of this and possibly other board members.
For mine, a lot of the responsibility lies at the players door. Their performances have been unacceptable, and soon as the heat comes on, they run to the board and complain about the coach. They need to take some responsibility.
Having said that, we have no idea about what is happening internally and how Sando’s coaching and communication have affected the playing group.
The unfortunate reality is that at the end of the day, you can’t replace the players but you can replace the coach. Whether we have someone lined up is almost irrelevant if the decision has been made that Sando has lost the players and can’t do the job (no matter how much the players are also responsible).
Any replacement however will need to lay down the law to the players, and many of them will be on notice. We must be very careful not to have a club where the players make all the decisions, as which coach would want to go there?
This leaves the Board. They reappointed Sando in March and have now sacked him. Someone needs to take the bullet for that, and it can’t be Trigg. Mr Chapman is surely on borrowed time, his ineptitude has been there for all to see.
 

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After having time to think about it my thoughts are these.
On the face of it, this is a harsh decision. Sanderson had a great year in 2012, some of it due to a good draw, but the players seemed to like playing for him. Then we lost Tippett, the draft picks, and Walker to a recon early in 2013. We also have had a pretty bad run with injuries to key players such as Crouch and Lynch. This made it really tough for Sando.
Dean Bailey’s unfortunate death obviously removed an extremely good resource.
2013 and 2014 were poor years but can be explained for the above reasons to some degree.
Many of us however have noted that Sando’s game day coaching, tactics and indeed selection have fallen far short of what we (experts that we are all) consider to be optimal.
Even more frustrating from my perspective is that in parts of games we could play awesome football, but in other parts, diabolical football, which led to our terrible inconsistency.
I put this down to mental weakness when the pressure was on. Is this a coaching issue or a players issue?
This is now informed by the knowledge that it seems several senior players had lost confidence in the coach and told at least Roo of this and possibly other board members.
For mine, a lot of the responsibility lies at the players door. Their performances have been unacceptable, and soon as the heat comes on, they run to the board and complain about the coach. They need to take some responsibility.
Having said that, we have no idea about what is happening internally and how Sando’s coaching and communication have affected the playing group.
The unfortunate reality is that at the end of the day, you can’t replace the players but you can replace the coach. Whether we have someone lined up is almost irrelevant if the decision has been made that Sando has lost the players and can’t do the job (no matter how much the players are also responsible).
Any replacement however will need to lay down the law to the players, and many of them will be on notice. We must be very careful not to have a club where the players make all the decisions, as which coach would want to go there?
This leaves the Board. They reappointed Sando in March and have now sacked him. Someone needs to take the bullet for that, and it can’t be Trigg. Mr Chapman is surely on borrowed time, his ineptitude has been there for all to see.

Could not happen quick enough for mine!

How this Teflon clad idiot has remained in charge of the AFC is beyond me.

He should be next in the clean out. Somebody hand him a sword!

images
 
The unfortunate reality is that at the end of the day, you can’t replace the players but you can replace the coach. Whether we have someone lined up is almost irrelevant if the decision has been made that Sando has lost the players and can’t do the job (no matter how much the players are also responsible).
Spot on. If Sando lost the players and it was decided that the bridge couldn't be mended, then we absolutely needed to move on, regardless of whether we had a replacement coach ready or not.
 
This leaves the Board. They reappointed Sando in March and have now sacked him. Someone needs to take the bullet for that, and it can’t be Trigg. Mr Chapman is surely on borrowed time, his ineptitude has been there for all to see.
Good post. Just on this bit, most people at the club (Sando excluded) don't seem to take bullets for mistakes. Chapman has definitely outstayed his welcome though.

My hope is that he will will step down as Chairman the next time his position is up for re-election (end of next year I think?). Maybe the last few years have been enough for him and he can "give the club a fresh start with a new CEO and a new coach blah blah".

Wishful thinking?
 
Back in mid season I wrote about a conversation I had with one of the Crows youngsters. For this who are trying to understand what the players said, this might help.

The Crows youngster (no names) mentioned that he hadn't spoke with Sando. I dug a little deeper. He spoke with Sanderson the day he was confirmed as being on the crows list. He bumped in to him in January and Sanderson said hello - but the player said to me he wasn't even sure that Sando knew his name - it was just a 'hey how you doing' type of conversation.
Some months later he hadn't had a single conversation with Sanderson about his football or how he was going. Not one. He spoke with a youngish player that was playing in the AFL team (and played every game this year), he mentioned that he was worried he had done something wrong. The player said "get used to it. I've played every game and he hasn't spoken to me yet either".

The next time the coach spoke with the players was the week of the second showdown. That was the FIRST time this youngster had had a one on one conversation with the coach. Go back and check, there were media reports about him doing it that week like it was something special.

I also mentioned that I know one of the Port youngsters who played every game in the SANFL. He speaks with Hinkley every week about his game, how he is feeling and what to work on. Every week.

You can imagine how far apart the two guys were on how they felt about their football this year...
 

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Looking at win/loss would definitely be a factor in the sacking, of course, but I reckon just as big would be that perception floating around that the Crows have become "a team to enjoy playing against". That is simply not good enough.
 
Then can I ask who you would like? Be real - Clarkson is a no, Lyon is a no, Hinkley is a no, the Scott brothers are nos, Voss, Primus and Harvey are all failed coaches... and can I remind you that Hinkley did not have stature or presentation as an AFL Coach in 2012...

Not sure how Hinkley gets a guernsey here and likewise not sure about how many years experience he had prior to PAFC (not AFL) but at least he had some coaching experience. My comment on stature and presentation was not about AFL coaching but about how I see Dew's personal qualities. I am being real - and what I will repeat is that I think Dew would be a disaster for AFC. We surely are better than that.
 
Back in mid season I wrote about a conversation I had with one of the Crows youngsters. For this who are trying to understand what the players said, this might help.

The Crows youngster (no names) mentioned that he hadn't spoke with Sando. I dug a little deeper. He spoke with Sanderson the day he was confirmed as being on the crows list. He bumped in to him in January and Sanderson said hello - but the player said to me he wasn't even sure that Sando knew his name - it was just a 'hey how you doing' type of conversation.
Some months later he hadn't had a single conversation with Sanderson about his football or how he was going. Not one. He spoke with a youngish player that was playing in the AFL team (and played every game this year), he mentioned that he was worried he had done something wrong. The player said "get used to it. I've played every game and he hasn't spoken to me yet either".

The next time the coach spoke with the players was the week of the second showdown. That was the FIRST time this youngster had had a one on one conversation with the coach. Go back and check, there were media reports about him doing it that week like it was something special.

I also mentioned that I know one of the Port youngsters who played every game in the SANFL. He speaks with Hinkley every week about his game, how he is feeling and what to work on. Every week.

You can imagine how far apart the two guys were on how they felt about their football this year...

I also remember Roo pointing this out ...
 
Spot on. If Sando lost the players and it was decided that the bridge couldn't be mended, then we absolutely needed to move on, regardless of whether we had a replacement coach ready or not.

First you get rid of the coach who's lost the players
Then you get rid of the player or two who might think they're bigger than any coach and are emboldened by the coach being sacked
Then you bring in a coach who has the respect of the rest
Need to weed out the sources of the problem then restore the balance between coach and players so everyone can get back to business
 
Back in mid season I wrote about a conversation I had with one of the Crows youngsters. For this who are trying to understand what the players said, this might help.

The Crows youngster (no names) mentioned that he hadn't spoke with Sando. I dug a little deeper. He spoke with Sanderson the day he was confirmed as being on the crows list. He bumped in to him in January and Sanderson said hello - but the player said to me he wasn't even sure that Sando knew his name - it was just a 'hey how you doing' type of conversation.
Some months later he hadn't had a single conversation with Sanderson about his football or how he was going. Not one. He spoke with a youngish player that was playing in the AFL team (and played every game this year), he mentioned that he was worried he had done something wrong. The player said "get used to it. I've played every game and he hasn't spoken to me yet either".

The next time the coach spoke with the players was the week of the second showdown. That was the FIRST time this youngster had had a one on one conversation with the coach. Go back and check, there were media reports about him doing it that week like it was something special.

I also mentioned that I know one of the Port youngsters who played every game in the SANFL. He speaks with Hinkley every week about his game, how he is feeling and what to work on. Every week.

You can imagine how far apart the two guys were on how they felt about their football this year...

I hope everyone reads this post before they go on about how unlucky Sando was, draft sanctions, Tippett, Bailey blah blah! This is what Sanderson could control.
 
So now they are saying it's a PR disaster. Why is it that nobody within here seems to see it like that?

Give it some time Jen.

The announcement was only last night. Let the club be judged by its actions this morning.

I am giving them the benefit of the doubt at the moment.
 
So now they are saying it's a PR disaster. Why is it that nobody within here seems to see it like that?
Media probably get more mileage out of it to send that out. I wonder how many of them who are criticizing the Crows have actually seen the majority of the games Sando has coached over his 3 years here and not just when they were playing their team in Victoria.
 
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