Strategy Brisbane Lions Coaching and Staff Thread

[Gadzorks]

Can't keep a secret on that scale. Can't setup interviews for multiple candidates for each of multiple assistant coaching roles without someone involved wondering why these candidates are speaking with Bomber or Ratten or whomever rather than Leppa. It would get out and the club would look stupid for trying. The club's not that stupid.

100% certain now that Leppitsch will be senior coach next year.

Agree. Hope he can cope with the pressure on him. Going to be immense and make this year look like a holiday if things go arse up early.

The afl really need to give us an appropriate draw next year. For something different.

 

[bato]

Word is that David Noble may be heading our way. Channel 10 in SA mentioned something. Anyone know more about this?

 

[CarterS]

Word is that David Noble may be heading our way. Channel 10 in SA mentioned something. Anyone know more about this?

Worth a read:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport...s/news-story/825b049844884e46a73f953b63df67a3

Reports have suggested that ex-Carlton coach and 255 game premiership player Brett Ratten, who is a current Hawthorn assistant, is the likely replacement for Leppitsch at the Lions. That’s if the Brisbane board want to play it safe with the biggest name option again. Take it as fact that the name David Noble has also reached Brisbane’s radar.

The Crows have been the masters at finding intelligent senior coaches that no other club had considered.

Both Phil Walsh and Don Pyke have helped Adelaide achieve above fan expectation in the past two seasons and it would be ironic if another club stole David Noble from Adelaide.

But expect them to try. And if the right senior coaching job was offered, I would expect him to go.

Article certainly pumps him up as a potential gun. Like the sound of him.

Played 2 games for the Roys too.

 

[Skoob]

Can't keep a secret on that scale. Can't setup interviews for multiple candidates for each of multiple assistant coaching roles without someone involved wondering why these candidates are speaking with Bomber or Ratten or whomever rather than Leppa. It would get out and the club would look stupid for trying. The club's not that stupid.

100% certain now that Leppitsch will be senior coach next year.

I agree, it's highly unlikely. However, if there was only one candidate for senior coach, and he let it be known to the Lions, a list of desirable assistants, they could have done the rest.
This was mostly tongue in cheek, but possibilities are endless. Not much surprises me these days and I don't think there is a single conclusion that can be drawn from any of these developments, least of all that Leppa is safe.

 

[Gadzorks]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...eppitsch-set-to-lose-job-20160816-gqu1oj.html

Wow. I'm not surprised a hell of a lot, but that's still pretty big.

Leigh has politically aligned himself completely with leppa, and 100% backed him in for 2017. If leppa is sacked there is no way Leigh can work harmoniously with those responsible for giving leppa the boot.

If leppa goes, Leigh goes.

Leigh's comments re the difficulty of managing the media role smells of setting up an ego saving out if he doesn't win (leppa doesn't stay).

 

[Ironmonger]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...eppitsch-set-to-lose-job-20160816-gqu1oj.html

Wow. I'm not surprised a hell of a lot, but that's still pretty big.

Some pretty scary stuff in there. This line gave me chills:

...league bosses have become disenchanted with Brisbane's perceived victim mentality...

Not much you can do once you've been labeled as having a victim mentality. Any complaint you make, no matter how legitimate, gets dismissed as a symptom of the victim mentality.

Wilson appears to be meshing some opinion in with actual leaked news. The leak could be from the AFL, maybe from Matthews, maybe a bit of both. The tone of the piece isn't really sympathetic to anyone.

 

[Squizz89]

Some pretty scary stuff in there. This line gave me chills:



Not much you can do once you've been labeled as having a victim mentality. Any complaint you make, no matter how legitimate, gets dismissed as a symptom of the victim mentality.

This scares the **** out of me and has been probably my only real worry about moving Leppa on:

'One sensitive issue remains: the future of Craig Lambert, who was brought back to the club from GWS to assist his close friend Leppitsch. Lambert is contracted for a further two seasons'.

 

[CarterS]

• Shows how gutsy Leppa has been for aggressively criticising the AFL in public after the Adelaide game. Legend.
  
  
• If ever we get a favourable draw it will be next year.

 

[POBT]

Don't think Lamby's personal values would allow him to walk away with the job barely started.

Plus he has family reasons to be in Brisbane.

 

[Lionheart182]

This scares the **** out of me and has been probably my only real worry about moving Leppa on:

'One sensitive issue remains: the future of Craig Lambert, who was brought back to the club from GWS to assist his close friend Leppitsch. Lambert is contracted for a further two seasons'.

Yeah what's that about. Surely he stays for the life of his contract?

 

[Lionheart182]

Shows how gutsy Leppa has been for aggressively criticising the AFL in public after the Adelaide game. Legend.

Probably knew he was on the way out.

 

[CarterS]

Probably knew he was on the way out.

If it's the AFL pushing Leppa to be moved on and Leigh wants to keep him then it makes perfect sense that Leigh would walk out. If true then his departure would be more of a reflection of the amount of control the AFL has over our club than anything else.

Leigh hasn't exactly endeared himself to AFL admin over the years anyway.

 

[irish]

http://www.examiner.com.au/story/4098183/zane-set-for-lions-afl-job/

 

[Milk Steak]

http://www.examiner.com.au/story/4098183/zane-set-for-lions-afl-job/

Sounds promising. Although he's never played for Brisbane so that could be and issue....

 

[The Flying Belgian]

Simultaneously a great acquisition and an indictment on the state of the club. We truly are moving forward / a rabble.

 

[Grizzly86]

Posted this last Monday in the Leppa thread.

Just taking a step sideways into the realms of assistant coaches (mostly due to being unsure where this belongs).

My old man was talking about the club flying up a coach for a visit, from a team in Tasmania's north. He isn't a huge footy person, but said the bloke in question has spoken to a team in Perth and Adelaide already.

A quick scout of the coaches of teams in the Tassie State League that fit the bill: Paul Dodds, Zane Littlejohn, Chris Hills, Clinton Proctor and most interestingly Mitch Thorp...

Have tasked my old man with shaking a tree or two for a name when he is back at work. He tended to think it was for an assistant role, but Mitch Thorp opens a few more lines of thought.

Any of our Tasmanian correspondents have any details on the suitability of the aforementioned blokes?

There was obviously some interest from a few other clubs, and he has met our criteria. Good luck to him, his appointment may not be as far outside the box as it seems on face value.

 

[lioninthesand]

Call me negitive or cynical, because I suppose I am. But at first thought, with the massive focus and intel required to get our devalopment up to AFL standard, Zane Littlejohn from Tassie state leagues is not the appointment I was hoping for. I am sure others will find positives and who knows, he might be a future AFL head coach and this may be a masterstoke, just not the appoimtment I thought we would make for our first devalopment coach.

 

[snooplions]

Posted this last Monday in the Leppa thread.



There was obviously some interest from a few other clubs, and he has met our criteria. Good luck to him, his appointment may not be as far outside the box as it seems on face value.

Found this on his Twitter, so it seems he's had a small level of contact with the club with what looks like a coaching course or information session with an academy manager of ours. Might've put him on our radar.

 

[SizeMatters]

Call me negitive or cynical, because I suppose I am. But at first thought, with the massive focus and intel required to get our devalopment up to AFL standard, Zane Littlejohn from Tassie state leagues is not the appointment I was hoping for. I am sure others will find positives and who knows, he might be a future AFL head coach and this may be a masterstoke, just not the appoimtment I thought we would make for our first devalopment coach.

We've still got a few months to employ more coaches. I'm actually glad we have someone this early TBH as I was worried we might have trouble attracting anyone.

 

[James North]

Don't have to be an AFL player to be able to develop, I don't think. Just because he's not a big AFL name doesn't mean he isn't well qualified and impressive.

 

[lioninthesand]

We've still got a few months to employ more coaches. I'm actually glad we have someone this early TBH as I was worried we might have trouble attracting anyone.

Yeah just as an assistant, fine, but devalopment is our most important signing this off season, suppose I was hoping for a name more than anything (rightly ir wrongly) - watched some of his videos and he reminds me of that guy who does the comedy vids on facebook about being the coach of the 'prestigious 9as'.. haha.. not sure if you have seen it? narr I am sure he'll do fine, good luck Zane, go devalop the s**t out of us... please!!!!

 

[lioninthesand]

Don't have to be an AFL player to be able to develop, I don't think. Just because he's not a big AFL name doesn't mean he isn't well qualified and impressive.

Yeah I agree, I do. Feel like I just want a name though. LOL

 

[lioninthesand]

View attachment 277604 Found this on his Twitter, so it seems he's had a small level of contact with the club with what looks like a coaching course or information session with an academy manager of ours. Might've put him on our radar.

Hmmm again, does this mean we head hunted the BEST devalopment footy brain / person in the country, or sign up a Guy who did some PD with us 12 months ago who was pretty presentable, willing to take a reasonable wage, has coached a bit and want ask too many questions?

Much like schwab is invited to join our coaching selection panel and gets offered a job in the process?.

Sometimes appointments can be exciting and its great we get behind them, but we need to ask these questions now, rather than in 3 years time retrospectively when it all goes wrong.

Is this the safest, most effective appointment of a person highly likely to devalop our kids into finals calibre AFL players, at 28 years of age with no AFL experience, it begs the question.

Im not being blindly cynical because its not a name, just.. i dunno.

 

[lionshine]

Hmmm again, does this mean we head hunted the BEST devalopment footy brain / person in the country, or sign up a Guy who did some PD with us 12 months ago who was pretty presentable, willing to take a reasonable wage, has coached a bit and want ask too many questions?

Much like schwab is invited to join our coaching selection panel and gets offered a job in the process?.

Sometimes appointments can be exciting and its great we get behind them, but we need to ask these questions now, rather than in 3 years time retrospectively when it all goes wrong.

Is this the safest, most effective appointment of a person highly likely to devalop our kids into finals calibre AFL players, at 28 years of age with no AFL experience, it begs the question.

Im not being blindly cynical because its not a name, just.. i dunno.

Why do we need to ask these questions now? We are nothing but fans on a football forum. Whether we ask questions now or in three years time means stuff all. If you are referring to the club I'd imagine they would have asked those questions before appointing him so no need to worry there. And as for us head hunting this guy as one of the best footy brains in the country or just signing a guy who did some PD with us 12 months ago, Grizzly86 has some pretty convincing evidence above that at least two other clubs were interested which bodes well for us having secured him and it goes to show that he was highly rated and therefore we didn't just sign him due to the fact that he spent some time with us last year developing his skills.

 

[lioninthesand]

Why do we need to ask these questions now? We are nothing but fans on a football forum. Whether we ask questions now or in three years time means stuff all. If you are referring to the club I'd imagine they would have asked those questions before appointing him so no need to worry there. And as for us head hunting this guy as one of the best footy brains in the country or just signing a guy who did some PD with us 12 months ago, Grizzly86 has some pretty convincing evidence above that at least two other clubs were interested which bodes well for us having secured him and it goes to show that he was highly rated and therefore we didn't just sign him due to the fact that he spent some time with us last year developing his skills.

As fans.. we need to question these decisions now, so as to obtain a better understanding at our club - that has been victim of poor decision making for the last 15 years, which saves 200 pages of arguments about how and why it went wrong. Even if we just take up a cautios mind set.

We are members mostly, it's kind of like saying, as voters theres zero need to question or understand political decisions or the political process at the time, its out of our control.

This may be great, but my biggest concern is, IF.. we are bringing in a new head coach - as is widely believed.. why is this incredibly important appointment being made prior to the end of season review? And why when devalopment is such an important area is such a speculative appointment being made? Arnt we in desperate need of safe hands ATM?

I might be wrong, but all these questions should be raised now, as opposed to just gleefully singing this Guys praises.

However, good luck to him, he might be awesome.. just hope if Leppa is replaced our incoming coach doesent have a different development plan in mind.