Brendan McCartney

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Tulip said:
I recall Talia being pretty poor last season in his three games, but some talls just take longer than others. Odds are that the extra year of development under a coach who believed in him was the catalyst for his improvement, rather than being frozen out.

Happy to have McCartney at the Demons because he'a a great development coach, but he really shouldn't be a senior coach.
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Think Talia was more a personality clash than development most dogs fans were stunned he was continually not selected given his VFL form
 
Tulip said:
I recall Talia being pretty poor last season in his three games, but some talls just take longer than others. Odds are that the extra year of development under a coach who believed in him was the catalyst for his improvement, rather than being frozen out.

Happy to have McCartney at the Demons because he'a a great development coach, but he really shouldn't be a senior coach.
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This is one of these chicken and the egg scenarios - did the extra year assist or would have the extra games at senior level assist more ?? Very difficult to answer conclusively.

I'm very greatful to Macca for all the development and hard work he put in, but this wouldn't be a thread if we were 0-5 or 1-4... People would have been in the exact opposite camp - he lost Cooney, Griff, Higgins, Jones etc - look what a hole he left them in...

Which also, wouldn't be a fair reflection on him either. IMO, there has been a fair bit of revisionist history about how poor we were and how bad he was. He seems to have lacked creativity and flexibility compared to his successor, but there is no doubt he was very important in laying foundations, but poor in some other areas....
 

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Just know I would love to have him back at Geelong working in the developmental roll he was set to take before he got poached to the Bombers
 
Heard an interesting story this morning that related to the reasons why both Griffin & McCartney left the Bulldogs. If true, it makes a lot of sense as to why they have kicked on this season.

I won't repeat the story but it isn't anything sordid, more political than anything but involved the leadership group & playing list sticking together strongly.
 
Footy Smarts said:
Looking at the Bulldogs team that beat Sydney on the weekend and virtually every player was either recruited while McCartney was coach or developed massively during his time at the club. The team was also conspicuously absent of guys like Minson, Griffen, Cooney, Jones, Tutt and Higgins who were the most obvious leaders of the revolt against McCartney last year. Not to play down what Beveridge has been able to achieve but he's been handed one of the best, most committed young groups of players you'll ever find.

Given he was a key man in developing Geelong's great era and the Bulldogs look like they could be anything, surely he gets another crack at a senior coaching gig. Could Carlton do any better for their rebuild than a guy who has twice done it unbelievably well? What about a team like Richmond if they bite the bullet on Hardwick? The way I see it there's no other assistant coach out there with anything like the history of success and for a team looking to rebuild he'd be a no-brainer choice. Thoughts?
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Would he want after the treatment he copped at WB? He deserves a lot of credit for the success this young team is enjoying. Coaching is for mugs, though. Not worth the money it pays.
 
Adz said:
Will go down as one of the worst in VFL\AFL history.
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Worst what? Coach? Does he deserve that infamy? The guy was hired because he was widely regarded as one of the finest mentors of young up and coming footballers, i.e., a coach of a team that was rebuilding. Certain players didn't like his style, complained to Peter Gordon who gutlessly sacked McCartney because the coach is always in the wrong. The OP pointed out that many of the "ringleaders" have left WB or can't get a game. What does that tell you?
 
BorisDawg said:
I don't think you'll find a Bulldogs fan that would disagree with the idea that McCartney was a quality development coach.

His problems stemmed from match day and seemingly playing favourites. Look at the way Michael Talia has been performing this year, couldn't get a game to save his life last season.
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This is interesting, my cousin was taught by Macartney back in the mid eightees - he was a high school teacher way before his AFL days. Said that if you were a good athlete - McCartney loved you and gave you the world, if you were average (as he was) you got donuts and he would barely acknowledge your existence. Way back then in another profession he polarised people, they either loved him and thought he was a top bloke or they hated him and thought he was an arrogant prick.
 

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Footy Smarts said:
Looking at the Bulldogs team that beat Sydney on the weekend and virtually every player was either recruited while McCartney was coach or developed massively during his time at the club. The team was also conspicuously absent of guys like Minson, Griffen, Cooney, Jones, Tutt and Higgins who were the most obvious leaders of the revolt against McCartney last year. Not to play down what Beveridge has been able to achieve but he's been handed one of the best, most committed young groups of players you'll ever find.

Given he was a key man in developing Geelong's great era and the Bulldogs look like they could be anything, surely he gets another crack at a senior coaching gig. Could Carlton do any better for their rebuild than a guy who has twice done it unbelievably well? What about a team like Richmond if they bite the bullet on Hardwick? The way I see it there's no other assistant coach out there with anything like the history of success and for a team looking to rebuild he'd be a no-brainer choice. Thoughts?
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Au contrare. I think Footscray's current good form reflects badly on McCarthy, Beveridge has lost Higgins, Cooney, Griffen and Liberatore and yet he's got them playing a much better game style than before. McCarthy may have drafted well but he needs to be able to get the team to win before he can be seen as a good coach. Drafting is done for a purpose. He's also helped improve a number of players like Jong and Johannisen.
 
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Footy Smarts said:
While I don't agree, even if you're correct...who cares? So you put up with 3 years of s**t football. And the end result is you've got a group of young players the envy of the competition. He completely changed the way scouting and recruitment was done and he shaped those players into what they are today. Even if you need to switch to a different coach to finish the job (again I don't agree) then it makes complete sense for a team rebuilding to get him in for a few years before replacing him.
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You clearly either didn't watch many bulldogs games 2012-2014 or your obsessed with giving McCartney credit because he came from Geelong. Or as I suspect, both.
 
Cat Attack08 said:
Just know I would love to have him back at Geelong working in the developmental roll he was set to take before he got poached to the Bombers
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Seems to have sorted that nose skin.
 
He's found his coaching ceiling. Great development coach, god awful communicator and match day coach.
 
When all is said and done, McCartney has pedigree at a development coach level only - the giant step up to senior coach, and the increased accountability on man management, effective communication between all areas of the footy dept, and match day tactical performance, found him to be completely and utterly out of his depth. I honestly haven't seen a more inept senior coach in my lifetime at the kennel (which includes Peter Rohde and Royce Hart). "Cracking in" is not an entire game plan, and he only succeeded in lowering the bar of performance and output for the playing group by having such a narrow focus on one aspect of the game. He certainly has friends in high places in the media (hello Lingy, Roosy), who are all very proactively pumping his tyres and lavishly praising him for the outcomes of season 2015 to date - I don't share the same level of gratitude, having seen our club descend into a game style that was equal parts boring, predicable, unskilled, and unsuccessful. And he did this with a better and far more experienced list that what we have in 2015.

None of that should take away from his player development legacy elsewhere, particularly at Geelong.
 
A good man for telling players hard truths and teaching them to win the ball, but his match day coaching is so F**king boring, the Bulldogs were a nightmare to watch last year. Losing and losing cluelessly.

He is happy to develop players in the 2s which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but imagine if he hadn't promoted Talia or Jong this year and they decided to seek pastures new - he could have set our club back 5 years.

He's an assistant principal - gets his hands dirty, tells the players off when they don't pull their weight and teaches the basics.
 
Have to learn to crawl before you can walk.

I used the same anology when Ross Lyon first took over at St Kilda, it was the Mr Miyagi approach to coaching.

Play in a style that to a player or supporter, makes no real sense. Focus only on certain aspects and have them play that way until it's habit. Once that's done, focus on another part of the game and so on and so on. (paint the fence, wax the car, sand the deck)

Once that's done, put it all together and let 'er rip.
 
Richo83 said:
McCarthy may have traded well but he needs to be able to get the team to win before he can be seen as a good coach.
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Would you say the same if we got Chris Dawes instead of the pick used to get Nathan Hrovat? Mathew Bate instead of the pick used to select Michael Talia? What if we got Scott Gumbleton to the club for a 2nd rounder? A 31yo Tom Lonergan for 4 years on 500k a season? McCartney pushed very hard for all of these trades, and only luck (and stupidity from the other clubs) prevented these unmitigated trade disasters from occurring under his watch.
 
Sedat! said:
Would you say the same if we got Chris Dawes instead of the pick used to get Nathan Hrovat? Mathew Bate instead of the pick used to select Michael Talia? What if we got Scott Gumbleton to the club for a 2nd rounder? A 31yo Tom Lonergan for 4 years on 500k a season? McCartney pushed very hard for all of these trades, and only luck (and stupidity from the other clubs) prevented these unmitigated trade disasters from occurring under his watch.
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Sorry I meant drafting, I thought his drafting, especially in the first round was particularly sharp. Stringer, Macrae, Hrovat, Bontempelli were all great picks. I also thought the Boyd pick made a lot of sense, although I don't know how much role he had in it. Overall McCarthy's best efforts were in drafting and teaching players the basics of football. Strategy wise he was rubbish and while he was teaching the basics to the team off field well he was nevertheless holding their development back with a lack of gameplan. Footscray made the right decision IMO.
 
Richo83 said:
I also thought the Boyd pick made a lot of sense, although I don't know how much role he had in it.
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Not much as he resigned before it happened.
 
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