Coaching Staff Brendon Bolton - Senior Coach - Locked in until end of 2020 (23/5/18)

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An observation.

Some of the questions that are getting asked about Bolts; is he the right coach for us going forward, how much is he to blame for our current predictament, would another coach have done better in the same circumstances, are unanswerable.

These questions are really not possible answer without having a crystal ball. It is entirely possible that another coach could’ve done a better job thus far. We just don’t know.

The reason I’ve backed Bolts on here in the past is not so much blind faith in him but given the unique circumstances for our club (a complete ground up rebuild) I am willing to give him time to prove himself. I feel like if we are going to all the trouble of a total rebuild, it wouldn’t be doing the process (or the club as a whole) justice if we were to sack him when we hit a rough patch. One thing I’d acknowledge is that I genuinely have no idea if Bolts will work out for us. But I’m willing to stick with him and give him more time to get things right.
 
mediumsizered said:
I'm sure I read in the Game Day & Autopsy threads last Sunday that he had lost the players. It is a mighty effort to have them galvanised again by mid-week. How good is he? ;)
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james Dean said:
The injury thing is really getting tiresome. Every single player on our list this year with the exception of Cripps, Simpson and Curnow have looked at best average
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Yes it is. Its also not getting any better. And any players coming back from injury are underdone and nowhere near there best.

Eg current Marchbank isnt as capable as he was before his shoulder injury last year when he was flying after stringing a few games together.

Its going to take him a while to get back to that level before he can surpass it. So having his name on the teamsheet doesn't automatically mean we get the expected output and that his injury isnt affecting the team in some way. It still is.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Chookie said:
An observation.

Some of the questions that are getting asked about Bolts; is he the right coach for us going forward, how much is he to blame for our current predictament, would another coach have done better in the same circumstances, are unanswerable.

These questions are really not possible answer without having a crystal ball. It is entirely possible that another coach could’ve done a better job thus far. We just don’t know.

The reason I’ve backed Bolts on here in the past is not so much blind faith in him but given the unique circumstances for our club (a complete ground up rebuild) I am willing to give him time to prove himself. I feel like if we are going to all the trouble of a total rebuild, it wouldn’t be doing the process (or the club as a whole) justice if we were to sack him when we hit a rough patch. One thing I’d acknowledge is that I genuinely have no idea if Bolts will work out for us. But I’m willing to stick with him and give him more time to get things right.
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can't ask anymore than that
 
Mr_Plow said:
Y'all seen our injury list?

All our offensive ball-movers are finished for the year. Going offensive now would be a disaster; Shaw, Thomas, Graham, Rowe, Casboult et al are incapable and we'd see the ball slingshot in the other direction.

Play it safe, keep possession, flood back in numbers and just ******* see out 2018 without any more long-term injuries.
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Injuries not withstanding, i’d Be happy with an offensive game style and still being smashed by 10 goals per week.

Play it safe :D:D:D Gee, that’s worked well for us
You can stick your 7. 10 . 52’s where the sun don’t shine
:)
 
mediumsizered said:
I'm sure I read in the Game Day & Autopsy threads last Sunday that he had lost the players. It is a mighty effort to have them galvanised again by mid-week. How good is he? ;)
Click to expand...
Galvanising is not cheap....although we probably got a group discount
 
ITCHY EYEBALLS said:
Injuries not withstanding, i’d Be happy with an offensive game style and still being smashed by 10 goals per week.

Play it safe :D:D:D Gee, that’s worked well for us
You can stick your 7. 10 . 52’s where the sun don’t shine
:)
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all things considered I'd say our game-style is pretty offensive.........
 
Vincent B said:
Understood, but they have many premiership players still running around in that team. A system that is tried and true and is ingrained into their style of play that we are just starting to learn. We are down in confidence with really, not much to play for at this point of the year and they're playing for a top 8 spot. I realize that was similar to last year but we were in a far better spot in terms of injuries and form. There are many factors. I mean, with 10 minutes left we were around 6 goals down. Fatigue ****** us and they piled on 5 goals in that last 10.
As for the pies getting to top 4 with their injuries like someone mentioned earlier, once again i'll say it- a tried and true formula that Bucks has implemented for 7 years now is FINALLY working and ALL players are aware of what needs to be done. They have depth and so those players that come in know exactly what needs to be done. In time that will happen with us, but we are almost 3 years into a massive plan, whereas Hawks are over 10 years into it and Pies 7 years. I don't need to remember too far back people on talkback radio (pies supporters) complaining Bucks doesn't have a game plan. If things go wrong Pies don't have a 2nd game plan. He's recruiting the wrong players (all midfielders when they "needed" forwards. Bucks needs to go. He's Eddie's love child... This was as recent as round 2 this year! Things change...
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Too much sense mate they wont get it .
 

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I can't see many if any of our assistants going. We had big changes last year and most are contracted.

Those thinking Bolton needs a "mature" type coach are wrong. A top shelf Football Manager will really help and Bolton already has a Senior Coach/Mentor that he speaks with weekly.

Like Bolton the other coaches can't be blamed for the injuries/issues this year. The club and playing list is happy and from the outside seem to be working well. I think is will virtually remain the same in 2019.
 
Chookie said:
An observation.

Some of the questions that are getting asked about Bolts; is he the right coach for us going forward, how much is he to blame for our current predictament, would another coach have done better in the same circumstances, are unanswerable.

These questions are really not possible answer without having a crystal ball. It is entirely possible that another coach could’ve done a better job thus far. We just don’t know.

The reason I’ve backed Bolts on here in the past is not so much blind faith in him but given the unique circumstances for our club (a complete ground up rebuild) I am willing to give him time to prove himself. I feel like if we are going to all the trouble of a total rebuild, it wouldn’t be doing the process (or the club as a whole) justice if we were to sack him when we hit a rough patch. One thing I’d acknowledge is that I genuinely have no idea if Bolts will work out for us. But I’m willing to stick with him and give him more time to get things right.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'm the same. Well said :thumbsu:
 
Soapy V said:
I can't see many if any of our assistants going. We had big changes last year and most are contracted.

Those thinking Bolton needs a "mature" type coach are wrong. A top shelf Football Manager will really help and Bolton already has a Senior Coach/Mentor that he speaks with weekly.

Like Bolton the other coaches can't be blamed for the injuries/issues this year. The club and playing list is happy and from the outside seem to be working well. I think is will virtually remain the same in 2019.
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Mitchell isn't a mature type coach. There's no doubt he's played a significant role in West Coast's climb.

Barker is likely to be going.
 
gbatman said:
I think expecting us to be vastly improved next season is a little premature. Yes it's possible. But injuries are a part of football and when you pick up a lot of talent cheap because they have had injuries and when you are a weaker and shallower side you have more injuries. Second year blues for a few. We may not be that much better off.

People are forgetting that this is a full rebuild, you rarely see a full rebuild. Not just that, it's the most difficult time in the history of the game to rebuild.

Draft picks are 18 picks apart. Priority picks are not given out often and are not after the first pick. The physicality of the game and running requirements mean young players take longer to have an impact. We aren't just rebuilding for talent we are also rebuilding culture which also limits who we can bring in.

Imagine how much talent we would have and how far ahead we would be if priority picks were a given and after your first pick and draft picks were only 16 picks apart? God, it sounds like heaven. We've done well to trade and get extra early picks but wow could we be ahead. But that was then and this is now so comparing us to any other rebuild is pointless. We have it tougher than any other club has and that's the reality of it.

It's going to take a long long time. We probably have 2021 before we have a crack at finals really and if we stick at the draft and not blowing the budget like we probably will there will be no quick fix.

Murphy, Simpson, Kreuzer, Thomas, Rowe, these guys may not have a lot more left and they will take a little replacing.

The rebuilds I have seen take around 7 years but have not been as invasive as ours and those clubs have been better resourced. We're not very far in.

Buckley at Collingwood and Hardwick at Richmond have had some pretty solid rebuilds. They never really got as bad as us and probably better used the free agent system. Wouldn't really call them full rebuilds but not far off it.


Our game plan is good for where we are at at the moment, we aren't good enough to have an attacking game plan. We can't defend without pushing numbers back for a start. With our best back 6 and a decent midfield we can play numbers forward of the ball and use less of the midfielders to defend and not have to use the forwards to defend but we aren't good enough. When you see everyone inside Defensive 50 it's because that's what it takes for us to stop goals. Footy is a funny game, to give yourself more opportunity to score you have to give the opposition a better opportunity to score too and if we do that we'll get hammered. We've opened the game up a few times and have been smashed.

Our forwards don't apply great pressure, look slow, don't outrun their opponents and don't lead hard into space and aren't looking real dangerous because they are spent from defending so deep and for so long. Probably see Wright and Silvagni suffering the most. Nothing in the tank for forward play. Ok so to fix that you have to win more ball in the midfield and control it well and apply really great pressure there. You also have to have a really good and quick defence who can intercept, run off but mostly can defend without help from the other 18 players pushing in there. We can't do those things. We aren't winning the ball and applying manic midfield pressure and our defence can not defend without help because most of our backling is out. So there goes your game plan. There's plan A gone. So instead of getting belted by 100-150 points you push numbers back, kick up the boundary, play slow and ugly, defend first and don't leave much space or energy to attack.

It's clear to me we want to attack and we want to be playing a good rebounding game and have numbers fresh and forward of the ball but the fundamentals of footy just aren't there yet and that comes down to player ability.

Fix the game plan by having the players in who can do these things. Well we are going through the draft so most of them will but not right now, plus we haven't seen enough draft/trade/free agent periods yet, plus injuries.

As a coach there isn't that much you can do apart from defend in these situations. Hopefully next year we get to play a bit more attacking footy. It's going to come down to who is in the team, who is fit and the quality of the opposition though.
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I expect significant improvement next year if we have a decent run with injuries.

The reasons are simple. A key number of players we have drafted will be into their 3 & 4th years and that's the time where players start to really make an impression. Others will continue to improve. I also believe some of the players we have are more than just good. Charlie Dow SPS Weitering Williamson Fisher McKay Pickett could be anything

Cohesion and playing together consistently means a lot. The pain of this year will bring benefits in development

I'm certainly not expecting finals but 4-8 wins and some exciting football will happen. A good trade/draft period and it may be even better
 
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Soapy V said:
I expect significant improvement next year if we have a decent run with injuries.

The reasons are simple. A key number of players we have drafted will be into their 3 & 4th years and that's the time where players start to really make an impression. Others will continue to improve. I also believe some of the players we have are more than just good. Charlie Dow SPS Weitering Williamson Fisher McKay Pickett could be anything

I'm certainly not expecting finals but 4-8 wins and some exciting football will happen. A good trade/draft period and it may be even better
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Injuries being the key.

Our full backline and midfield depth will go a long way for us. Perhaps jump 3-5 ladder positions. I still think 2019 will be another significant building season. Even with our best 22 there are a lot of holes where those players just aren't good enough. Though we haven't had the opportunity to see what our forward line can do with an attacking game plan and a team good enough to execute it.

I've had 2020 bookmarked as a big year for us as the talls we drafted in 2015 will have had the 5 seasons it usually takes them to really get going plus the 2016-2018 draftees should be producing by then as well. Also we should have come into a period where free agents and higher profile trades have been an option.

I still think that we hit the draft this season with early picks anyway and from then on look to trade for high profile players. Try and get the list or at least the best 25-30 players between the ages of 22-27 in 2020.

By my guess 2022 will be when we really fire, having players in that 22-27 year old age group is crucial.

Silvagni (24), Dow (22), O'Brien (22), SPS (23), Kennedy (24), Cripps (27), McKay (24), DeKoning (22), Lang (26), Schumacher (22), Plowman (27), Garlett (25), Marchbank (25), Weitering (24), Fisher (23), Macreadie (23), Cuningham (24), Polson (23), Curnow (24), Williamson (23), Graham (27), Pickett (25), Kerr (23), Byrne (27) are all going to be in this age group by 2022. Docherty will be 28.

We will have had 4 draft/trade/free agent periods. We could have a hell of a list/team by then. 2020 and 2021 should be good positive years but I think 2022 is prime time.

It's nice to think that we have so much time to work with and all these drafts and in 4 years time these guys who we are rebuilding with will still be young men and in the prime of their careers.

This is what you get by going through the draft, doing it slow and not going the fix quick method. You get loads of time to build one hell of a list.

Unless we have problems with player retention, injuries or what have you, this should be about the time we challenge for a premiership

Just how much the decline of a few older players effects us plus injuries, I don't know. Time will tell.
 
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gbatman said:
Injuries being the key.

Our full backline and midfield depth will go a long way for us. Perhaps jump 3-5 ladder positions. I still think 2019 will be another significant building season. Even with our best 22 there are a lot of holes where those players just aren't good enough. Though we haven't had the opportunity to see what our forward line can do with an attacking game plan and a team good enough to execute it.

I've had 2020 bookmarked as a big year for us as the talls we drafted in 2015 will have had the 5 seasons it usually takes them to really get going plus the 2016-2018 draftees should be producing by then as well. Also we should have come into a period where free agents and higher profile trades have been an option.

I still think that we hit the draft this season with early picks anyway and from then on look to trade for high profile players. Try and get the list or at least the best 25-30 players between the ages of 22-27 in 2020.

Just how much the decline of a few older players effects us plus injuries, I don't know. Time will tell.
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Agree
 
james Dean said:
It's a cop out, and in a way it's a criticism of the coaching staff. It's basically saying that this team can't operate unless we have all of our best 22 out there. A strong defensive structure and game plan should continue like clockwork when a player drops out. Have you seen Collingwood fall apart with their injuries? They were expected to struggle this year, have been ravaged by injury and now look likely to finish top 4. Why? Because their gameplan is built around structures and systems, not individuals.
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Every year but this one. And they havent been hit that bad this year.
 
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