ferbs, we've had chats before about linguistic constructionism. I wouldn't take Kayne's comments too literally. He's no rocket surgeon and he's speaking to his experience through the inadequacy of (his) language that doesn't necessarily reflect Brad's (whole) thinking.
I'd imagine Brad could well be adopting a strengths-based approach with Kayne, seeking to highlight what he does do well when he's playing well (tackling, one-per centers) and that his focus is on the whole forward group/mix. The article also refers to disappointment with the (numerical) ranking for forward pressure - "The stats showed we were down near the bottom in that area, so we sort of had it put on us as the forwards." - so clearly numbers do have a relevance.
I could imagine a situation in which Brad focuses on, for example, his goal assist stats, not his goal stats. I can also imagine Brad leaves the 'stats' side of things to the line coaches when it comes to communication with players and that he could well be looking over stats and giving his input and take on things in coaches meetings, leaving it to them to communicate what's necessary. Doesn't mean that if the player isn't experiencing a focus on numbers directly from the senior coach, that he isn't concerned about it. The quarter-time interviews that Brad does shows quite clearly that he is well aware of key statistics and the implications.
"The coaches never put pressure on numbers, especially Brad (Scott) – he's not a numbers sort of coach – so that's massive for us."
I do get that stats aren't everything and that they are used at the club, and also with a low possession game, which we've had for most of Brad's time its not as important. And that whatever comes up in meeting the line coaches will be the ones focusing on it. Its a chain of command sort of thing.
(And equal 7th for scoring assists (not his fault the others can't kick straight) is a genuinely good stat.)
What do the coaches put pressure on tho? Especially at the moment considering how shit we're playing.
Also this is what really got me:
"We've seen we had a poor start to the year … (and) out on the field, we might discuss how we're feeling and 'Let's try and step it up now', but we sort of don't want to speak about it.
"It's better if we don't have to speak about it and it's just happening."
Possibly out of context and what have you but that to me reinforces what I see on field.
A lack of leadership.
No one prepared to stand up onfield and drive a change in what is happening. Noone able to identify what's going wrong and act on it. That "act on it" bit includes communicating with/yelling at your teammates. Yelling is important on a footy field cos of the noise and the intensity of the situation. It gets attention and conveys urgency. It doesn't have to be a sign of disrespect.
You can't just hope things will magically click. You've got to do things to make that happen. You have to identify why it isn't clicking then adjust the situation accordingly - observe where and why the opposition are winning then act on that. For example against Essendon in the first quarter when Essendon were dominating the ball movement out of our 50 by simply keeping space open in the defensive corners of the centre square. Especially on the right hand side looking toward their goal. They took multiple uncontested marks there on their way out. And they were doing it easily.
It happened repeatedly and didn't cost us at that point but no one field acted on that (and obviously no coaching messages were passed on to bench players.)
When it started costing us they went thru there repeatedly.