Analysis What a difference a year makes

Jafo

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Oct 12, 2016
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I’m wondering what everyone else’s take on our turn around on field along with most people’s view and expectation of our team vs this time last year.

I’m sure this time last year, most if not all of us were setting up to be ready to put Bucks back on the chopping block and give him a mighty shove out the door as our coach. Especially after our 1st & 2nd round losses.

But what happened? What changed from there that propelled us into the Grand Final? Understanding injuries and other teams fortunes played a part in ours.

What in our control though put us a kick away from the ultimate Glory and why all of a sudden are we contenders?

We added some more to our coaching team, didn’t add much to our list (remembering lots kicking and screaming about our trade/draft period in 2017).

This year, mainly adding Beams and not too much more on or off the field. Not including our prospective drafted talent and depth Ruck/Defender in Roughead.

So, how did we succeed last year to be runners up and how do we keep that momentum this year and not be like Crows circa 2018?
 
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JC83

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I have it on good word that a big factor in our success was Buckley giving more power to assistant coaches and becoming much less involved in certain aspects of the club.

An ex player likened Buckley to Voss in the way they both managed and demanded their expectations on players however struggled to build relationships, basically a dictator rather than a mentor/coach. My understanding is Bucks was very demanding of the players and there was no balance.

Just like any workplace there needs to be some fun and people need to feel valued. Theres clearly a job to do involving KPIs and minimum expectations however when you're constantly smashing people for outcomes morale is usually affected causing performance issues as well as employee absence or turnover, which we saw in our 2010 premiership team clean out to some extent.

I think we saw some of that more relaxed attitude with some of the training bets/activites throughout the year as well as Buckleys beard as a couple of examples. Clearly a much more enjoyable place to be and that showed in the way the group gelled and played for each other.

Credit to Bucks for making the change, not sure to what extent the change was and I'm not implying it was drastic as I honestly believe Bucks genuinely wants what's best for his players. Seems to be a lot more love within the group of players and coaches as one.
 
Feb 27, 2017
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This... plus an extra year and marked improvement / development from Grundy, De Goey, Adams, Maynard, Phillips, Crisp, Thomas, Langdon and Cox. Plus throw in first year revelations Stevo, Sier and Mihocek and there’s your answer...
Though again, assistant coaches need to take a bow for the development of players in ‘18. Has been absent for too long, but back with a bang in the past 12 months.
Credit also to Hine. Lots of his gambles paid off last year... from the wilderness to industry guru once again
 

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Horaceg

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Whilst I did not expect a GF appearance I was always expecting a top 8. I think belief and a solution, whilst not traditional to our forward woes was the answer.

We found a way to convert opportunity
 

MarkT2

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The most important thing that changed was Buckley. from the outside it looked like he changed a lot in terms of his approach. I'1d say he learned the lessons he had to learn as captain all over again as coach in terms of how he related to teammates/his players. Apart from that personal changes made a difference. We swapped a few poor kicks for a few better users. That allowed a game plan to develop and be executed better. There is still upside in skill execution and deficiencies down back which is encouraging.
 
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It started withe review, then bringing in some very good assistants, plus delegation by the coach, bring the footys out at the start of training. Players enjoying there footy and playing for one another, increase knowledge of the game plan. Playing to our strengths
Belief.
There will be other factors as well.
A happy club goes a long way.
 

Jafo

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Oct 12, 2016
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It started withe review, then bringing in some very good assistants, plus delegation by the coach, bring the footys out at the start of training. Players enjoying there footy and playing for one another, increase knowledge of the game plan. Playing to our strengths
Belief.
There will be other factors as well.
A happy club goes a long way.
I certainly hope it continues and a flag is just around the corner. I remember a lot of people saying the review was merely puppet strings being pulled by Eddie to keep Bucks on board and because he was staying put, the review was worth well, sfa.

For mine, i’m Glad whatever happened that it worked out barring the last goal in the gf.

We’ll also see how Buck’s 3mths off went too.
 
Feb 13, 2017
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Bucks and systems and coaching staff the big ones. Player improvement was very significant from dead man's Mayne being very handy to one of the best in GF to the Bear and all in between. Nothing less than 3 to 7% more across all boards club wise is needed to bag a flag...
 

Jafo

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Bucks and systems and coaching staff the big ones. Player improvement was very significant from dead man's Mayne being very handy to one of the best in GF to the Bear and all in between. Nothing less than 3 to 7% more across all boards club wise is needed to bag a flag...
Still haven’t watched GF (was called into work) and never will, but would you say Beams plays in 2018 GF would’ve helped?

Got not much of our finals series heroes Sidey and Grundy, along with Pendles from what I hear. Would they have come into it all on a hypothetical?
 
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A difference?
A year?
2017, no silverware....
2018.... you know wher I’m going with this.

Yes, certainly more short term celebrations on an almost weekly basis. But the record books, once again, list no silverware in our cabinet. And even more embarrassing, another “almost did it” runners up gong.

I fear the opportunity may again have slipped through our fingers. Rule changes, and the inevitable step up from other clubs makes 2019 all that much harder.

I know I sound pessimistic, but 55 years of following the greatest club in the world, for the “reward” of two Premierships, has made me steel myself against any positive expectations.
 

Jafo

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Oct 12, 2016
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A difference?
A year?
2017, no silverware....
2018.... you know wher I’m going with this.

Yes, certainly more short term celebrations on an almost weekly basis. But the record books, once again, list no silverware in our cabinet. And even more embarrassing, another “almost did it” runners up gong.

I fear the opportunity may again have slipped through our fingers. Rule changes, and the inevitable step up from other clubs makes 2019 all that much harder.

I know I sound pessimistic, but 55 years of following the greatest club in the world, for the “reward” of two Premierships, has made me steel myself against any positive expectations.
Happen to agree. For such a “Great” club, we’ve lost too many Premierships at the big dance. Hence my still haven’t watched last year and never will.

My thread was more born off the back off the marked improvement from the team on field and peoples’ opinions Of what happened and come this year, all of a sudden there’s more optimism versus high doubt of last year this time that we are on the edge of something great.

So I wanted to know why people think this given out list stayed fairly much the same, the coach stayed put and added a few new assistant coaches.

Will momentum continue to take us upward or will we be Adelaide circa 2018?
 

jonbe54

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More a case of critical mass being achieved I believe - general improvement from a fairly large percentage of the younger playing group - plus Stevo and a Coxy coming through big time.
Bux stepping back and allowing his assistants to handle the chores they should have been doing all along made a big difference too.
 
The reality was that in 2017 we were competitive with all of the best sides in the competition. We dropped games we shouldn’t have.

In 2018 we won all the games we should have and didn’t drop matches to absolute jokes like St Kilda and Carlton and made up the 6 wins difference that way.
 
Bucks and systems and coaching staff the big ones. Player improvement was very significant from dead man's Mayne being very handy to one of the best in GF to the Bear and all in between. Nothing less than 3 to 7% more across all boards club wise is needed to bag a flag...
This is on the money too.
 
Most obvious would be player improvement. We had gone a bit stale with the usual suspects, injection of new blood ( not Essendon style ) in the fwd line created a chemistry of unlikely heroes and that carried over to the rest of the team. Coaching also has to be lauded for somehow instilling the belief in the group, especially the defense, that irrespective of the personnel, the job can be done.
FWIW, I think this is only the beginning, we got a good group with still a lot upside and improvement from within to come. Less shocking injuries ( as we have wished since 2012? ) and I don't see why we can compete again.
 

Sea fog

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Most obvious would be player improvement. We had gone a bit stale with the usual suspects, injection of new blood ( not Essendon style ) in the fwd line created a chemistry of unlikely heroes and that carried over to the rest of the team. Coaching also has to be lauded for somehow instilling the belief in the group, especially the defense, that irrespective of the personnel, the job can be done.
FWIW, I think this is only the beginning, we got a good group with still a lot upside and improvement from within to come. Less shocking injuries ( as we have wished since 2012? ) and I don't see why we can compete again.


I hope we can compete again.
 

JC83

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Happen to agree. For such a “Great” club, we’ve lost too many Premierships at the big dance. Hence my still haven’t watched last year and never will.

My thread was more born off the back off the marked improvement from the team on field and peoples’ opinions Of what happened and come this year, all of a sudden there’s more optimism versus high doubt of last year this time that we are on the edge of something great.

So I wanted to know why people think this given out list stayed fairly much the same, the coach stayed put and added a few new assistant coaches.

Will momentum continue to take us upward or will we be Adelaide circa 2018?

I think the Adelaide drop off was largely due to the internal issues between the playing and coaching groups stemming from the well documented preseason camp debacle, compounded by injury to key players exposing some lack of depth. I'd expect them to bounce back fairly strongly in 2019.

I'd really like to believe that we have the list to contend again, particularly with a fit Wells, Dunn, Moore and Elliot to add to the back and front halves, plus Beams and further improvement in others. Coaching and tactics will be very important and the teams that can adjust fastest to the new rules will have an advantage. Only negative is the draw which will definitely be more challenging and there will be no where to hide given all the prime time games.
 

MarkT2

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Still haven’t watched GF (was called into work) and never will, but would you say Beams plays in 2018 GF would’ve helped?

Got not much of our finals series heroes Sidey and Grundy, along with Pendles from what I hear. Would they have come into it all on a hypothetical?
I think we were beaten by the WCE midfield twice when it matterred in the finals. On that basis Beams could have mede the difference. That said May or a simialr player could alos have mede the difference because their tall forwards had influence. Even with all of that there were still only a few individual acts that WERE the difference. Their last goal - McGovern and Shed's kick for goal where earlier De Goey didn't kkcik his from the boundry. Adams' turnover at half back was crucuial. There wasn;t much in it so a player like Beams could have been the difference. That doesn't make him the difference in 2019 but it should improve our midfield.
 
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