Assistant Coach Decisions???

[TheDon35]

At the beggining of the year I was shocked when Knights selected 3 rookie assistant coaches to join GOD and himself (a Rookie AFL senior coach).

Was very suprised that someone coming into senior coaching ranks wouldn't have bolstered his coaching armory by adding a couple of outside experienced AFL assistant coaches. The decision on Campo, Hickmont and Prescott just seemed odd given the job in front of them and the lack of AFL coaching experience between these 3 plus Knights.

Always hard to tell from the outside but I still get the feeling that a couple of more experienced assistants would have really helped Knights improve himself as a coach but also, enabled a better development environment for some of our youngsters.

Thoughts.

 

[TheDon35]

I should add that i'm not knocking Knights here and won't be making a judgement on him until the middle to end of next year as clearly our list is a long way off.

 

[Big Blow Hard]

Strongly agreed with the addition of Prescott. Very dubious on Hickmott, and disgusted with Campo.

We need a defensive specialist coach type. Where is Sean Wellman. someone like him would be awesome.

 

[efcboy]

my biggest worry is that as coach of midfield etc camporeale is also the ruck coach. what the hell would campo know about rucking?! surely there's a ruckman out there who would be available - club legend simon madden or brownlow medallist scott wynd. something along those lines to teach the likes of hille and moreso laycock, bellchambers and ryder if they persist with him there.

 

[Spikey]

Strongly agreed with the addition of Prescott. Very dubious on Hickmott, and disgusted with Campo.

We need a defensive specialist coach type. Where is Sean Wellman. someone like him would be awesome.

G'OD does it...

 

[Johnnyprinias]

Agree Don. I had the same thought when those three were named as coaches. You could argue Knights who is headcoach is not experienced, but Hickmott, Presscott and Camporeale dont impress me at all, we need someone like a Robert Shaw type with plenty of experience to assist with O'Donnell. I am a big fan of former greats to help at the club. They seem to have disappeared.

 

[The_Young_Gun]

We should have kept Gary Ayres or Dean Wallis at the very least for this season...

Gary O'Donnel was a no brainer to keep but Prescott and Hickmont... Where did Matty Knights pull them from. I know Knighta's best friends with one of them which pisses me off because signing up your best mate as Assistant coach of the club doesn't sound selfish at all to Matty Knights.

Dean Wallis knows a lot of the guys at the club and had some experience with our players, at the very least 'Deno' could have been a good left hand man for Knighta this season.

Gary Ayres was an ex-coach of a very good defensive side in Adelaide and then moved to Essendon after his departure.... We struggled with defending last year with Gary as defensive coach but at least he got the job done and gave our backline some advise other than "Stand 3 metres behind your opponent", but since he's gone, our defence has collapsed into a heap of shit!

This just adds more and more crap into Matty Knight's Shenanigans.

 

[bomber69]

Should have inquired about Grant Thomas and weather he would of been interested at all.

 

[THOMO_31]

We should have kept Gary Ayres or Dean Wallis at the very least for this season...

Gary O'Donnel was a no brainer to keep but Prescott and Hickmont... Where did Matty Knights pull them from. I know Knighta's best friends with one of them which pisses me off because signing up your best mate as Assistant coach of the club doesn't sound selfish at all to Matty Knights.

Dean Wallis knows a lot of the guys at the club and had some experience with our players, at the very least 'Deno' could have been a good left hand man for Knighta this season.

Gary Ayres was an ex-coach of a very good defensive side in Adelaide and then moved to Essendon after his departure.... We struggled with defending last year with Gary as defensive coach but at least he got the job done and gave our backline some advise other than "Stand 3 metres behind your opponent", but since he's gone, our defence has collapsed into a heap of shit!

This just adds more and more crap into Matty Knight's Shenanigans.

gary ayres wouldnt b our saviour. thats why he is only coachin port this year. if he had of been anygood somone else would of got him. prescott ive heard some good things about him. but yeh not sure about campo and hickmont.

 

[The_Young_Gun]

gary ayres wouldnt b our saviour. thats why he is only coachin port this year. if he had of been anygood somone else would of got him. prescott ive heard some good things about him. but yeh not sure about campo and hickmont.

Their ex-carlton players.... that's why!

 

[THOMO_31]

Their ex-carlton players.... that's why!

yeh that prob doesnt help. but u can see why, he wants 2 put his stamp on it. if he keeps ex essendon players there. who were with sheedy it could cause problems. so dont blame him in that regard but yeh hickmont lol

 

[efcboy]

neale daniher would have been a handy offsider if he was willing to do it.

 

[ant555]

We should have kept Gary Ayres or Dean Wallis at the very least for this season...

Gary O'Donnel was a no brainer to keep but Prescott and Hickmont... Where did Matty Knights pull them from. I know Knighta's best friends with one of them which pisses me off because signing up your best mate as Assistant coach of the club doesn't sound selfish at all to Matty Knights.

Dean Wallis knows a lot of the guys at the club and had some experience with our players, at the very least 'Deno' could have been a good left hand man for Knighta this season.

Gary Ayres was an ex-coach of a very good defensive side in Adelaide and then moved to Essendon after his departure.... We struggled with defending last year with Gary as defensive coach but at least he got the job done and gave our backline some advise other than "Stand 3 metres behind your opponent", but since he's gone, our defence has collapsed into a heap of shit!

This just adds more and more crap into Matty Knight's Shenanigans.

They offered Ayres a position but he did not feel it was in his best interest to take on a different role if he wanted to coach senior AFL footy again.
Funny that someone is actually saying our defence has gone to shit since Ayres left yet for the first two years he was hear everyone was complaining about our poor defence.
I guess you have a short memory. A lot of the stuff you mentioned we are doing has been a problem for a few years now.

 

[ant555]

Just out of interest why is naming Hickmott as development coach a poor decision ?
Here is a guy that coached an under 18's side into a few finals series. How exactly is it that someone with some sucess at coaching under 18's is not a good choice for development coach ?
He has no definitive match day role as he is not always available on match day.

 

[Johnnyprinias]

Just out of interest why is naming Hickmott as development coach a poor decision ?
Here is a guy that coached an under 18's side into a few finals series. How exactly is it that someone with some sucess at coaching under 18's is not a good choice for development coach ?
He has no definitive match day role as he is not always available on match day.

Thats why, coaching men is different to coaching boys. I heard his three quarter time address when Bendigo played Sandringham a couple of weeks ago and it was like a grade 2 primary school teacher talking to his pupils. We need some experienced hard nuts to show our kids the right way to go about playing football.

 

[TheDon35]

Just out of interest why is naming Hickmott as development coach a poor decision ?
Here is a guy that coached an under 18's side into a few finals series. How exactly is it that someone with some sucess at coaching under 18's is not a good choice for development coach ?
He has no definitive match day role as he is not always available on match day.

Performing as a coach in an under 18 competition is very different from developing young players at AFL standard. Not saying he's neccessarily a bad decision. I just would have thought it would have been a good idea to have at least one experienced AFL assistant to accompany GOD and Knights as an inexperienced AFL coach.

Of all the appointments, I was most displeased with Campo. With Knights and GOD already having a strong connection with the current players I just think it was a cheap and unneccessary decision to appoint another insider who was connected to the players as an assistant coach. There are obviously pro's and cons with appointing a bloke who has played with the group as well. I just reckon a hard nosed experienced coach from outside the club is what we needed.

Time will tell.

 

[Spikey]

Just out of interest why is naming Hickmott as development coach a poor decision ?
Here is a guy that coached an under 18's side into a few finals series. How exactly is it that someone with some sucess at coaching under 18's is not a good choice for development coach ?
He has no definitive match day role as he is not always available on match day.

Cause it's fun to blame to everyone...

 

[Johnnyprinias]

Cause it's fun to blame to everyone...

Were just asking questions because our side is going nowhere fast. Ofcourse time will tell and we are not blaming anyone. Would you like for us to stand back and let this proud club go down the gurgler?

 

[Spikey]

Were just asking questions because our side is going nowhere fast. Ofcourse time will tell and we are not blaming anyone. Would you like for us to stand back and let this proud club go down the gurgler?

If you could come up with some good reasons as to why Prescott & Campo are bad choices then I might start listening. But it seems to me we are blaming them for no real reason other then becuase we can...

Last year Wallis & Ayres were getting bagged too so I find this topic kinda ironic BTW...

 

[Johnnyprinias]

If you could come up with some good reasons as to why Prescott & Campo are bad choices then I might start listening. But it seems to me we are blaming them for no real reason other then becuase we can...

Last year Wallis & Ayres were getting bagged too so I find this topic kinda ironic BTW...

Fair enough. Time will tell. At the end of the day i hope they become successful.

 

[ant555]

Performing as a coach in an under 18 competition is very different from developing young players at AFL standard. Not saying he's neccessarily a bad decision. I just would have thought it would have been a good idea to have at least one experienced AFL assistant to accompany GOD and Knights as an inexperienced AFL coach.

Of all the appointments, I was most displeased with Campo. With Knights and GOD already having a strong connection with the current players I just think it was a cheap and unneccessary decision to appoint another insider who was connected to the players as an assistant coach. There are obviously pro's and cons with appointing a bloke who has played with the group as well. I just reckon a hard nosed experienced coach from outside the club is what we needed.

Time will tell.

Sorry but your first line is completly wrong. The whole basis of the TAC Cup under 18 comp is about preparing kids to be drafted. I have done some work in that area and i can tell you that TAC clubs will always look at player types that are suggested to them by AFL recruiters and the whole comp is about getting kids drafted.
There are a lot of kids that never really get a look in becasue the are considered too small or not athletic enough etc
Those that are are coaching in the TAC Cup have ready made experience at developing young players to AFL level.

As far as having someone experienced around to help Knights well thats where you should be questioning the appointment of Campo or Prescott. Hickmott does not have a match day role so his lack of AFL experience as a coach does not really come into it.
I really can't see how anyone can knock Precott"s record as far as coaching goes. No he hasn't got AFL experience in coaching but he has a pretty good coaching record at other levels.
I am not really sold on GOD as a coach. He was in charge of our most under performing group , the midfield , previously and i did not think he did such a great job there. I suspect that Gary may have been better suited to a football operations or managers job and we should have gone with someone else more experienced to fill his role.

 

[TheDon35]

Sorry but your first line is completly wrong. The whole basis of the TAC Cup under 18 comp is about preparing kids to be drafted. I have done some work in that area and i can tell you that TAC clubs will always look at player types that are suggested to them by AFL recruiters and the whole comp is about getting kids drafted.
There are a lot of kids that never really get a look in becasue the are considered too small or not athletic enough etc
Those that are are coaching in the TAC Cup have ready made experience at developing young players to AFL level.

As far as having someone experienced around to help Knights well thats where you should be questioning the appointment of Campo or Prescott. Hickmott does not have a match day role so his lack of AFL experience as a coach does not really come into it.
I really can't see how anyone can knock Precott"s record as far as coaching goes. No he hasn't got AFL experience in coaching but he has a pretty good coaching record at other levels.
I am not really sold on GOD as a coach. He was in charge of our most under performing group , the midfield , previously and i did not think he did such a great job there. I suspect that Gary may have been better suited to a football operations or managers job and we should have gone with someone else more experienced to fill his role.

Because I haven't been coached by Hickmont nor met the bloke, I can't judge him only to say that I was dissapointed with the full package of assistant coaches this year. Not Hickmont as an individual. Infact I actually loved him as a player.

I would suggest though that because someone has succeeded in preparing kids at under age level doesn't automatically mean that they will be successful in developing young players within a senior list and senior team environment.

In fact more often than not, players drafted are the big fish at their club and are fine tuned at under 18 level so they can be best prepared to enter senior footy. This is vastly different to coaching a small fish at a new club and integrating them into a new club environment, often a new state and enabling them to succeed within this environment.

I take your point on his success at junior level but again wasn't pinpointing Hickmont in particular, just the overall coaching pannel which was assembled which when you compare to other clubs looks inexperienced. An inexperienced coaching panel coupled with an inexperienced playing list seems an odd fit.

 

[The Donners]

Their ex-carlton players.... that's why!

We also had an ex-Carlton player pick our coach, McKay.

 

[The Donners]

Can someone tell me what Gary O'Donnell is doing? I know what he is being paid for and what he is employed for but what is he actually doing? Apart from skill, the defensive aspects of our game have been the most frustrating as a supporter, is that not his job?

 

[stander]

I would suggest though that because someone has succeeded in preparing kids at under age level doesn't automatically mean that they will be successful in developing young players within a senior list and senior team environment.
.

There are no guarantees for success, but Pagan stood out. One of the best in the business at under age level at North, and made the jump to senior level for 2 flags. And coached a number of our own young up and coming stars who went on to grand things. It does happen.