Chadwiko
@ChadwikoTWW
- Sep 25, 2004
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- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
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- Washington Commanders, Boston Celtics
With all the attention focused on the performance of the Head Coach, I wanted to create a thread to discuss what I think is a severely overlooked issue plaguing our club in 2022;
A complete lack of on-field leadership.
As a reminder, our leadership group consists of;
Now, obviously Ben Cunnington
gets excused from this conversation given his health issues, but in my opinion every other name on that list has failed to consistently demonstrate any sort of on-field leadership this year. And I'm not solely talking about their own individual performances on-the-field. I'm not talking about 'kicking a captain's goal'. I'm talking about things like setting the tone for your team-mates. I'm talking about things like standing up for the jumper and playing with pride.
It's hard to define as leadership is intangible, but you know it when you see it, and NMFC supporters haven't seen much of it this year at all.
Goldstein, McKay, Hall, and even JHF have shown a bit of leadership at different points this year, but not in any sort of consistent manner, and the fact that none of them are in the leadership group is noteable.
Meanwhile, Ziebell has been largely MIA on the field all year, and McDonald and Larkey have demonstrated terrible body language and accountability multiple times this season.
I know many people here want a new coach for 2023 (if not sooner, but let's leave that discussion for the other threads). But to me, we also desperately need new on-field leaders in 2023 and beyond. And in my opinion, giving it to Simpkin or McDonald would be the wrong move. I understand that they're considered the favourites for the gig after Ziebell, but I really think they do not demonstrate the leadership qualities we need to see from our next Captain.
The problem is there aren't a huge amount of other candidates putting their hands up for the job. Maybe McKay? Maybe LDU if he finishes 2022 strongly?
It's a tough situation and one that we should be acknowledging more than we perhaps do, as a supporter base.
A complete lack of on-field leadership.
As a reminder, our leadership group consists of;
- Jack Ziebell - Captain
- Jy Simpkin - Vice Captain
- Luke McDonald - Vice Captain
- Kayne Turner
- Aidan Corr
- Nick Larkey
- Ben Cunnington
Now, obviously Ben Cunnington
PLAYERCARDSTART
10
Ben Cunnington
- Age
- 32
- Ht
- 185cm
- Wt
- 88kg
- Pos.
- M/F
Career
Season
Last 5
- D
- 21.4
- 5star
- K
- 9.0
- 3star
- HB
- 12.4
- 5star
- M
- 2.9
- 3star
- T
- 4.7
- 5star
- CL
- 5.6
- 5star
- D
- 17.7
- 4star
- K
- 6.0
- 2star
- HB
- 11.7
- 5star
- M
- 2.0
- 2star
- T
- 4.0
- 5star
- CL
- 4.0
- 5star
- D
- 15.8
- 4star
- K
- 6.4
- 3star
- HB
- 9.4
- 5star
- M
- 2.4
- 3star
- T
- 6.2
- 5star
- CL
- 3.0
- 5star
PLAYERCARDEND
It's hard to define as leadership is intangible, but you know it when you see it, and NMFC supporters haven't seen much of it this year at all.
Goldstein, McKay, Hall, and even JHF have shown a bit of leadership at different points this year, but not in any sort of consistent manner, and the fact that none of them are in the leadership group is noteable.
Meanwhile, Ziebell has been largely MIA on the field all year, and McDonald and Larkey have demonstrated terrible body language and accountability multiple times this season.
I know many people here want a new coach for 2023 (if not sooner, but let's leave that discussion for the other threads). But to me, we also desperately need new on-field leaders in 2023 and beyond. And in my opinion, giving it to Simpkin or McDonald would be the wrong move. I understand that they're considered the favourites for the gig after Ziebell, but I really think they do not demonstrate the leadership qualities we need to see from our next Captain.
The problem is there aren't a huge amount of other candidates putting their hands up for the job. Maybe McKay? Maybe LDU if he finishes 2022 strongly?
It's a tough situation and one that we should be acknowledging more than we perhaps do, as a supporter base.