Brad Scott's overarching legacy

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I think Brads greatest failing was to misread the 2015 season.
After finishing 8th and winning two final and being competitive in Perth before the rub of the green took the game away.
Brad should have started a rebuild instead opted to top up and go again.
While we had some good wins that year, we also had some bad loses and the deficiencies of the side were there for all to see.
Instead of missing the finals for a couple of years and building a new squad, Brad choose to keep the current team.
Had he moved some players on and brought in fresh talent in 2016, we would be far better in the last few years.

The other thing that always disappointed me about Brad, was his total lack of plan B when the A game was not working.
 
What is the desire to re-litigate the past?

He could have done plenty to prevent our slide into shitness.

The board could have done plenty.

Yet here we are because instead of arresting the momentum we built during the free fall of 2020 we embraced it released the brake careened directly into back to back spoons.

I am incredibly hopeful that we can climb off the bottom next year and the worst period of my lifetime will be behind us (hopefully for another 50 odd years).
 
BigRedRoo said:
I think Brads greatest failing was to misread the 2015 season.
After finishing 8th and winning two final and being competitive in Perth before the rub of the green took the game away.
Brad should have started a rebuild instead opted to top up and go again.
While we had some good wins that year, we also had some bad loses and the deficiencies of the side were there for all to see.
Instead of missing the finals for a couple of years and building a new squad, Brad choose to keep the current team.
Had he moved some players on and brought in fresh talent in 2016, we would be far better in the last few years.

The other thing that always disappointed me about Brad, was his total lack of plan B when the A game was not working.
Click to expand...
Plan B was to stick fat with plan A no matter what.
 

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Is anyone aware of Scott's current situation?

He will commence as * coach on November 1st like everyone else I guess, but will he stay on as AFL Operations manager until then?
 
Who else has this uneasy feeling that not only is he gonna win them their first final in decades, at some point in the next few years he'll take them all the way.
 
ferball said:
Who else has this uneasy feeling that not only is he gonna win them their first final in decades, at some point in the next few years he'll take them all the way.
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Ha by round 3 next season he’ll be into his 11th as coach and have a sub 50% w/l record.

If he still controls the club they’re not climbing the ladder anytime soon
 
The acurate one said:
Ha by round 3 next season he’ll be into his 11th as coach and have a sub 50% w/l record.

If he still controls the club they’re not climbing the ladder anytime soon
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Yeah yeah, logic.

Nonetheless, the universe is a perverse place and s**t like this happens all the time if you open your eyes and look.
 
ferball said:
Who else has this uneasy feeling that not only is he gonna win them their first final in decades, at some point in the next few years he'll take them all the way.
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Not a single speck of fear. If I had to guess I think he's going to take an 'underperforming' team, expose them as just being mediocre at best, then ask the board for permission for a 'minor' rebuild/reset so he can shape them the way he wants.
 
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As painful as it was, I went back and watched a combination of games from 2012 and 2013. I know, I should let it go but it was really intriguing.

What I noticed pretty clearly was that Scott can coach. Pretty well actually. Players were mostly in-sync transitioning into attack (our backline really needed Tarrant 2015 on the defensive of things as Luke Delaney sucked), Atley was actually pretty good with the ball and we rarely dropped our heads in the games that we won. However, there were some clear confidence issues when we lost a few games and that made its way into how we were playing. We stopped attacking, stopped defending the corridor as well and we looked really lethargic. It took a really bad loss in both seasons to finally show something and respond. In those wins, it was like we didn't really take opposition momentum as a threat and stuck to what we did well. We kept going with our game style even though it hurt us at times and even though it made us predictable, it meant our players knew where to be because of that predictability.

In the remarkable 2nd half of 2012 where we won 10 and lost 2 games, I don't think I have seen a more exciting brand of football until we played Port @ Marvel in 2019. We were relentless with the attack, we had the inside bulls for stoppages and clearances plus we knocked off some bloody good teams and made good teams look second rate. Not easy to do! I think a pretty good example of how damaging we were was the win against Carlton on a Friday night or the win against Collingwood after conceding the first 4 goals. Wells gets some credit for being on the end of some very exciting plays. What a player he was along with Boomer! Dynamic Duo!

In the loss to the Eagles, it was a pretty ugly game of football with both sides fumbling and being wasteful with the ball. In the Freo loss, we capitulated pretty much on every front and lost because we sucked for most of the game then gave up in the last (after we kicked the first 2). Bad game.

My favourite playbook was Atley receiving the release handball, putting the afterburners on and hitting Petrie lace out who would give it off and it goes through for a goal. Beautiful football to watch that we just didn't see often enough. Some of those playbooks feature some average footballers as well. They just couldn't reach a level high enough to reproduce Richmond 2017-eque performances. It just wasn't going to happen even though we smashed said Richmond team repeatedly through those years.

Was it bad luck? The team just not fit enough? Near enough is good enough? Who knows. All I can say is that the team was capable, but it had blatantly obvious inconsistencies which would've been easier to mitigate rather than go into 2014 playing ugly-scrappy football then turning it on in the 3rd quarter.
 
Brad stuck to his stuff even though opposition knew how to setup. I think he changed game styles to accommodate the players rather than push them further.

Ultimately, that probably denied him a flag.
 
amaz199 said:
Brad stuck to his stuff even though opposition knew how to setup. I think he changed game styles to accommodate the players rather than push them further.

Ultimately, that probably denied him a flag.
Click to expand...

Brad was broadly good at structure and at having a singular plan/method of playing.

Brad was terrible at making game day changes that were not pre meditated and bringing in players performing in the VFL when they were hot.

So he has clear elements that he can coach.

What will be interesting is how he adapts with a bunch of outside players rather than the team of inside grunt he had with us.

I have little doubt that Brad will make them better.

I also have little doubt that his downfall is going to be ego. Big egos on their board, big egos in the coaching ranks, they won’t be able to play happy families forever, and when it explodes it’ll be significant.
 
amaz199 said:
As painful as it was, I went back and watched a combination of games from 2012 and 2013. I know, I should let it go but it was really intriguing.

What I noticed pretty clearly was that Scott can coach. Pretty well actually. Players were mostly in-sync transitioning into attack (our backline really needed Tarrant 2015 on the defensive of things as Luke Delaney sucked), Atley was actually pretty good with the ball and we rarely dropped our heads in the games that we won. However, there were some clear confidence issues when we lost a few games and that made its way into how we were playing. We stopped attacking, stopped defending the corridor as well and we looked really lethargic. It took a really bad loss in both seasons to finally show something and respond. In those wins, it was like we didn't really take opposition momentum as a threat and stuck to what we did well. We kept going with our game style even though it hurt us at times and even though it made us predictable, it meant our players knew where to be because of that predictability.

In the remarkable 2nd half of 2012 where we won 10 and lost 2 games, I don't think I have seen a more exciting brand of football until we played Port @ Marvel in 2019. We were relentless with the attack, we had the inside bulls for stoppages and clearances plus we knocked off some bloody good teams and made good teams look second rate. Not easy to do! I think a pretty good example of how damaging we were was the win against Carlton on a Friday night or the win against Collingwood after conceding the first 4 goals. Wells gets some credit for being on the end of some very exciting plays. What a player he was along with Boomer! Dynamic Duo!

In the loss to the Eagles, it was a pretty ugly game of football with both sides fumbling and being wasteful with the ball. In the Freo loss, we capitulated pretty much on every front and lost because we sucked for most of the game then gave up in the last (after we kicked the first 2). Bad game.

My favourite playbook was Atley receiving the release handball, putting the afterburners on and hitting Petrie lace out who would give it off and it goes through for a goal. Beautiful football to watch that we just didn't see often enough. Some of those playbooks feature some average footballers as well. They just couldn't reach a level high enough to reproduce Richmond 2017-eque performances. It just wasn't going to happen even though we smashed said Richmond team repeatedly through those years.

Was it bad luck? The team just not fit enough? Near enough is good enough? Who knows. All I can say is that the team was capable, but it had blatantly obvious inconsistencies which would've been easier to mitigate rather than go into 2014 playing ugly-scrappy football then turning it on in the 3rd quarter.
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Needed psychological help - we were fragile under pressure not resilient, otherwise yeah not quite fit enough and needed more skills work.
 
ferball said:
Needed psychological help - we were fragile under pressure not resilient, otherwise yeah not quite fit enough and needed more skills work.
Click to expand...


IMO the biggest gap that the sides he had was they lacked composure in a lot of moments that really mattered.
 
BigRedRoo said:
I think Brads greatest failing was to misread the 2015 season.
After finishing 8th and winning two final and being competitive in Perth before the rub of the green took the game away.
Brad should have started a rebuild instead opted to top up and go again.
While we had some good wins that year, we also had some bad loses and the deficiencies of the side were there for all to see.
Instead of missing the finals for a couple of years and building a new squad, Brad choose to keep the current team.
Had he moved some players on and brought in fresh talent in 2016, we would be far better in the last few years.

The other thing that always disappointed me about Brad, was his total lack of plan B when the A game was not working.
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly, we won our first 9 or 10 games in 2016, then copped some injuries (most notably Jacobs who might just have been our most important player then).

I suspect if the team stayed healthy we could have gone on an older list run in 2016 as Geelong this year.

I have no issue with what we did there, the real issue was when we chased the Polecs of this world from 2017 when we should have been fixing the list age profile.

The other major issue that impacts us now is that we badly stuffed the 2014 AFL Draft and didn't do enough with our opportunities in the draft when we got McDonald at F/S and Thomas at NGA. Particularly the 2014 and 2015 drafts we should be benefiting from the players then which should be the backbone of our 26-29 yo senior talent now.

Fortunately, we have picked up our socks in more recent drafts (although we also had the benefit of what should be can't miss first round picks).
 
BigRedRoo said:
I think Brads greatest failing was to misread the 2015 season.
After finishing 8th and winning two final and being competitive in Perth before the rub of the green took the game away.
Brad should have started a rebuild instead opted to top up and go again.
While we had some good wins that year, we also had some bad loses and the deficiencies of the side were there for all to see.
Instead of missing the finals for a couple of years and building a new squad, Brad choose to keep the current team.
Had he moved some players on and brought in fresh talent in 2016, we would be far better in the last few years.

The other thing that always disappointed me about Brad, was his total lack of plan B when the A game was not working.
Click to expand...
I think you are being a little harsh on Brad, we started 2016 winning our first nine games and were still in first place at the end of Round 12, but by that time the injuries had really started to take their toll, five weeks in a row we lost at least one player to injury, including Thomas and Wright (rd 6), Higgins, Wells and Firrito (rd 7), Jacobs and Wood (rd 8), Mullet (rd 9) and Goldstein (rd 10) and by round 13 Cunnington, Waite, Swallow and McDonald were also missing or had missed games. Brad McKenzie played 14 games in a row during that period, thats how hard up we were for fit players.
 
DEVO said:
I think you are being a little harsh on Brad, we started 2016 winning our first nine games and were still in first place at the end of Round 12, but by that time the injuries had really started to take their toll, five weeks in a row we lost at least one player to injury, including Thomas and Wright (rd 6), Higgins, Wells and Firrito (rd 7), Jacobs and Wood (rd 8), Mullet (rd 9) and Goldstein (rd 10) and by round 13 Cunnington, Waite, Swallow and McDonald were also missing or had missed games. Brad McKenzie played 14 games in a row during that period, thats how hard up we were for fit players.
Click to expand...
WE had no forward line against the Bulldogs the second time and lost by two goals, Ben Browns average at the time.
 
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