Coach Alastair Clarkson - NMFC Senior Coach - Coaching & Football Discussion

[tazaa]

Just don't know what were trying to do out there.

Bailey Scott

8

Bailey Scott

Age

23

Ht

186cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.6

3star

K

5.8

2star

HB

4.9

4star

M

3.1

3star

T

1.5

3star

MG

155.6

2star

D

8.0

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.0

2star

M

2.5

3star

T

1.8

3star

MG

114.8

2star

D

11.8

3star

K

6.0

3star

HB

5.8

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

1.2

3star

MG

171.6

3star

is not a defender. STOP PLAYING THE campaigner IN DEFENCE FFS

Drop Stephens and Tucker.

Fisher is not a defender either so get him out of the backline.

Move Sheezel into the middle and forward of centre.

Keep Comben back.

Drop Corr and McDonald and you may as well play kids if were going to leak 120 points a game.

Just subtle changes but the reality is the list is shithouse.
No one is coaching this list to success. No one.

 

[Merlin007]

The zone defence got picked apart badly. So many gaps.

We got demolished on transition. We cant score because our entries are garbage and our forwards don't chase so we are always defending on transition.

Exactly right, when the game turned the gap between our lines was a yawning chasm allowing the ball to go over the back on multiple occasions. I wasn't at the game, so it's hard to see on TV where the zone fell down, but that's where I'd be starting the review

 

[Roosurgence]

Agree… and our decent players won’t re sign. I’m not sure if he’s getting too cute, or has lost the pot

McKercher is never going to be an AFL defender and the same with Bailey Scott. It’s just idiotic to keep the stupid experiment going.

Drop Dylan “Cat” Stephen’s and get Bailey back on the wing. Mcakercher either plays up the ground or in the VFL, but I’m sick of watching the ball go into the D50 and he is hopelessly outgunned by bigger players.

Comben was actually working, so what was the point of moving him. You had a player playing his role and getting confident and you heck that up in a half of footy.

Xerri is having a crack, but how is a midfield meant to work to a guy that tries to grab it out of the ruck 75% of the time? Start hitting it to your on ballers. At the moment he grabs it and gets wrapped up or drops it to his feet. It must be frustrating for mids to not have a ruckman trying to hit it to the space for them to work in.

Everything is broken. Sellers was a fail. Simpkin has turned into a turd of a player.

 

[Roosurgence]

To be fair McK was high half fwd and wing today.

He was later, but there were so many times he was having to defend against bigger bodies. Having to defend Chol was comical.

Dylan Stephens is a big reason for a lot of the imbalance. Bloke shits himself at the contest and is not accountable for his opponent. I watched Morrison torch him continuously and run to dangerous areas where he was used when Stephens jogged way behind. For a guy that is there to run, he is a lazy campaigner. Morrison had it 26 times directly opposed to the spud.

 

[Only Forwards]

We cant score because our entries are garbage and our forwards don't chase so we are always defending on transition.

Or lead.

Our forwards simply do not lead.

None of them.

They point for the ball to be kicked on their head and none of them take contested marks.

We’re broken on every line.

We’re broken at selection committee.

we’re broken in how we line up.

Our players are devoid of cohesion, confidence, desire.

 

[Nylex]

McKercher is never going to be an AFL defender and the same with Bailey Scott. It’s just idiotic to keep the stupid experiment going.

Drop Dylan “Cat” Stephen’s and get Bailey back on the wing. Mcakercher either plays up the ground or in the VFL, but I’m sick of watching the ball go into the D50 and he is hopelessly outgunned by bigger players.

Comben was actually working, so what was the point of moving him. You had a player playing his role and getting confident and you * that up in a half of footy.

Xerri is having a crack, but how is a midfield meant to work to a guy that tries to grab it out of the ruck 75% of the time? Start hitting it to your on ballers. At the moment he grabs it and gets wrapped up or drops it to his feet. It must be frustrating for mids to not have a ruckman trying to hit it to the space for them to work in.

Everything is broken. Sellers was a fail. Simpkin has turned into a turd of a player.

 

[RossHenshaw]

Sounds like a politician.
Clarko isn’t even playing the players in their best spots?
When something is working, he changes it?
How do we build confidence and get improvement with this tripe?

 

[perplexed]

Yes, our skills were woeful today. But so were Hawthorn's.

From about ten minutes into the first quarter they started killing us in transition. When the ball was turned over they always a wide player to switch to whilst ours were always covered. We were defending the centre of the ground but getting torched wide. This was a simple fix. Get the runner out and tell the opposite side wings and flankers not to get sucked forward and to defend the switch on turnover. What happened? Absolutely, ......ing nothing until Hawthorn had kicked nine goals in a row. We didn't start defending this until after half time when the game was over.

 

[amaz199]

Left field one here…
I was at the game today early, a good hour before play started… and the players were out on the ground warming up.
George Wardlaw was on the ground as well in his runners, having shots at goal from 50m whilst the team was warming up?
A player with hamstring history like George has, is having random pings at goal from 50m on a slippery Marvel deck… I absolutely question the coaching and leadership of our club.
My local footy coaches would have blasted a local player for anything similar.

Reading too much into it. He's emergency on the day.

 

[Horizons_00]

"Um" every 2 seconds and the repeated comment "we know were we are at a club and we got hard work to do?"

So we've accepted we are s**t and we are going to lose? No standards? No disappointment? No expected standards? Just accept we aren't going to win hey

And we got hard work to do? Cool, so we will just wait for the players will do that one day?

Clarko looks like he has no emotion left tbh its sad to see

 

[Makeshift Park]

The way we were exiting from defence was so predictable and utterly unlike what we were attempting in round one it was like the coaching staff had been lobotomised.

 

[Rod Stroker]

I've been asking myself this question:
if he walked or was released tomorrow, who would we replace him with?
Who is the obvious choice to become head coach and turn this around?
I honestly don't know. No one comes to mind.

I'm not sure there's anyone better credentialed or suited to pull us out of our malaise

 

[Private Hudson]

I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaves on his own accord before the end of the season. The racism saga has absolutely cooked him.

 

[Mixed Results]

For a lot of reasons, we have no choice but to retain Clarkson for next year. That said, this is an incredibly important week for him.

This is the second year now that we've embarassed ourselves trying to make his high defensive press work. It's time for Clarkson to admit to himself that it doesn't work, and allows the opposition to transition for an easy goal should they break it. The return on causing a turnover further up the field, which is the goal of the scheme, seems to be the opportunity to launch the ball into a heavily congested forward 50. We looked a lot more dangerous at the start of the year with our daring transition game.

I mentioned in another thread that I expected us to drop the Hawks game, but win three of the next four. You could see us being outworked by the Hawks from a mile away, but it's to be seen whether Clarkson will be able to use that as motivation to have his players work harder and in a scheme that gives us more chance of winning. If we are outworked again next Saturday, it illustrates a complete lack of urgency from Clarkson.

 

[leighlee13]

I want to know where the exciting team that bet Collingwood in pre season has gone. I am aware it was only pre season but I had hope for a better year ahead based on what I was seeing. We are so far from that now and I want to know what has changed.

 

[ReverseKanga]

I want to know where the exciting team that bet Collingwood in pre season has gone. I am aware it was only pre season but I had hope for a better year ahead based on what I was seeing. We are so far from that now and I want to know what has changed.

Coleman jones went down

 

[leighlee13]

Coleman jones went down

If only it was that simple!

 

[Horizons_00]

I want to know where the exciting team that bet Collingwood in pre season has gone. I am aware it was only pre season but I had hope for a better year ahead based on what I was seeing. We are so far from that now and I want to know what has changed.

The players have lost belief in the system or game-plan.

They know even "northball" doesn't work and win games anymore, so Clarko decides to change it up against Geelong and we still get smashed. I feel like the narrative was different back then because we actually wanted to win, plus pies were awful at the begging of the season.

 

[Spud11]

I feel like the racism saga has burnt him. I worry that, even subconsciously, there’s a question mark over him in the minds of the players and because of the unknown/unresolved factor of that investigation and/or the way Clarko seems to be a husk of himself, they don’t fully trust or invest in his ideas or system. Even if it’s not on purpose, they don’t commit somehow.

Honestly, if his addresses are as uninspiring as his press conferences, I’m not running through a bit of crepe paper for him… let alone brick walls.

 

[justroyal]

I guess he had enough time to watch last year to know exactly what these guys were capable of. If any of this is a surprise well, s**t, I don’t know what to say.

 

[giantroo]

 

[gokangas]

I'm clutching on to my last shred of hope re Clarko. I want to believe but we have not improved 1% since last season and that raises red flags galore to me. I'm still living in hope, sorta.

 

[Caracas]

McKercher is never going to be an AFL defender and the same with Bailey Scott. It’s just idiotic to keep the stupid experiment going.

Drop Dylan “Cat” Stephen’s and get Bailey back on the wing. Mcakercher either plays up the ground or in the VFL, but I’m sick of watching the ball go into the D50 and he is hopelessly outgunned by bigger players.

Comben was actually working, so what was the point of moving him. You had a player playing his role and getting confident and you * that up in a half of footy.

Xerri is having a crack, but how is a midfield meant to work to a guy that tries to grab it out of the ruck 75% of the time? Start hitting it to your on ballers. At the moment he grabs it and gets wrapped up or drops it to his feet. It must be frustrating for mids to not have a ruckman trying to hit it to the space for them to work in.

Everything is broken. Sellers was a fail. Simpkin has turned into a turd of a player.

At the ground, when McKercher did that 60 metre run through the middle and set up Curtis, I thought “This is it, this is our Sammy Wright moment in 2024”. Not a bit of it. That run was exhilarating, though.

 

[Souup]

Something I'm confused about regarding Clarkson's gameplan is the difference between our performances in the AFL vs. VFL.

We're implementing the same thing in both competitions, with one side looking solid and the other perhaps the worst side in the competition's history.

These things are never as simple as they seem, so there very well may be issues with the gameplan itself, but for whatever reason, our VFL team is tracking nicely while the AFL team is, well... not.

I haven't been able to catch one of our VFL games so I can't comment.

 

[Flawed Genius]

Something I'm confused about regarding Clarkson's gameplan is the difference between our performances in the AFL vs. VFL.

It's being deployed against tradies and blokes who don't mind a sneaky go on the see-through saxophone every other Saturday night in the VFL. The AFL has six coaches and oppo analysts whos jobs are solely to pick apart our game plan, and 22 professionals taking the field to implement counters