His ingame stuff hurst at times but overall he is a good coach. I think with the kids we will see even less tactical flexibility because the 'teaching' mantra will be in full effect. And by teaching I mean "this is our structure, you need to learn it".
Skills, ****, where do you start. Handballing to feet, handballing to where blokes were, not where they are going, yada yada yada.
I've been thinking about skills.
I think its actually JZ's responsibility.
Lets face it. None of those people are gonna be on an AFL list with even something like actual average skills. They all have way better skills than most people. Its a matter of implementing them during the game. If that is not happening and the most obvious culprit is the captain (and was the last captain) then the captain needs to fix it. He needs to spend time outside official training honing his skills. They are not good enough right now. They need to be much better - he needs to set the example that things change now, with him in charge.
He obviously needs more passing practise. He needs to work at being cooler and lowering his eyes. Over and above what he already does as part of his official training. other players need to see him doing it and then it needs to have results. Does he want to lead a flag winning team or just be an AFL captain in a mediocre team? Its all in front of him right now and if he does that he could lead the team to a flag.
That is what leadership is all about.
Setting the required standard, and when necessary doing the work required to improve to meet that standard.
Its not all about the coach. He can't drop Jack after one game where he got 30+ possessions. But if Jack were honest with himself he'd know he should have done better with his kicking into the forward line. All that said - If Jack isn't capable of that level of self assessment and criticism and Scott or someone else senior isn't prepared to to deliver it then that is an indictment on Scott's coaching and his seeming lenient attitude toward under performing players.
But its one game in and we haven't even seen the response to the loss against the WC. Given the last 2 seasons its too early to assume Scott will be doing that, or that its all about his unwillingness to change. That might have been a product of a particular tilt at the flag and the injuries that ended it. Its also a bit pessimistic to assume that its all about to go to shit. It was heaps worse in r1 2015 and that season turned out alright. This season we blooded 4 players and had 1 new captain who played a courageous game but (as we learned watching or listening to the game) needs to play more thoughtful ones. Hopefully he can learn.
I agree Scott is a good coach. I hope we see more tactical flexibility, that I'm wrong and he felt the best tactical response over the last 2 seasons was what he actually did (with a bit of luck and some straight kicking it might have been,) and things are different now but also agree we might not because he has young kids to mold, or just can't be flexible. He has his weaknesses but everyone does.