Don Pyke: The Next Blight or Neil Craig?

[Rory Walkerfield]

Pykey, now it is the off season, you have the opportunity to implement some change that you didn't have the time or opportunity to do last year. Which path do you choose?

What would Blight do:
- Thommo: please retire
- Mackay: your AFL days at the AFC are over, either seek a trade or play SANFL
- Douglas: you're playing SANFL until you demonstrate to me you are worthy of regular afl level performances again
- Lyons: thanks for your hard work this year but you'll never be more than a fourth string mid so we're cashing you in while you have currency
- CEY: as per Lyons but fifth string
- Milera, Knight, Menzel, Hampton: you're all playing seniors until you demonstrate to me that you won't make it
- B Crouch: extract the digit this preseason. I didn't see you get one possession in space this year which tells me you're not working hard enough off the ball. Heck, even your brother the elite extractor gets uncontested touches around the ground
- Campo: goodbye
- Doc Clarke: goodbye

What would Craig do:
- none of the above, or maybe just items four and five because they're not that tough
- trust the system

 

[Iron]

It's understandable given we have only had one premiership coach. However, Blight is not the only type of coach to win a premiership.

Craig was a good coach when he started. Just didn't adapt over time. That was his main fault. That is NOT an assessment anyone can make of Pyke after 1 bloody year.

 

[Vhaluus]

It's understandable given we have only had one premiership coach. However, Blight is not the only type of to win a premiership.

Craig was a good coach when he started. Just didn't adapt over time. That was his main fault. That is NOT an assessment anyone can make of Pyke after 1 bloody year.

Isn't it? Craigs gameplan got found out but he persisted with it towards the end of the home and away, carrying it into finals.

Seem similar to recent history?

Honestly even the type of gameplan is very reminiscent of how we used to play under Craig.. just with less skill and silk through the midfield.

 

[Red mist]

Don't know.

 

[Ozzie]

He needs more than one year to make an assessment. People we were predicted to finish around 12th by nearly every pundit before the season started. To finish where we did is a credit to him and the team.

 

[Vhaluus]

He needs more than one year to make an assessment. People we were predicted to finish around 12th by nearly every pundit before the season started. To finish where we did is a credit to him and the team.

You realize that under estimation at season start was something that occured under Craig as well?

 

[Iron]

Isn't it? Craigs gameplan got found out but he persisted with it towards the end of the home and away, carrying it into finals.

Seem similar to recent history?

Honestly even the type of gameplan is very reminiscent of how we used to play under Craig.. just with less skill and silk through the midfield.

Honestly. The only thing that links Pyke to Craig is romanticism and pessimism.

The only similarity people have come up with was that they were in the same coaches box once upon a time.

We're scared that we're going to have another long spell of getting close but not close enough. That's all this comparison is.

1 year.

 

[Bob Neil]

Was just thinking this morning it's twenty years since Blight's infamous cull. Wonder if Pyke has it in him to make the tough call.

 

[Ozzie]

You realize that under estimation at season start was something that occured under Craig as well?

Who freakin cares? I don't live in the effing past like you do.

 

[1990crow]

Pyke has to sit down and review why we failed.
Unless he comes up with the right reasons he has no hope. It's up to him whether he realises who we keep backing fails us eg Campo, McKay, Douglas, Thommo, Clarke

 

[1990crow]

Was just thinking this morning it's twenty years since Blight's infamous cull. Wonder if Pyke has it in him to make the tough call.

Given selection this year I don't have a lot of faith

 

[Vhaluus]

Pyke has to sit down and review why we failed.
Unless he comes up with the right reasons he has no hope. It's up to him whether he realises who we keep backing fails us eg Campo, McKay, Douglas, Thommo, Clarke

I'd like to see him be honest with the fan base about it as well. One thing I really liked about Walsh is despite his dislike of media engagements he was really honest with the fans about what he was doing and why.

Need to see Pyke stop hiding behind the little soundbites given to him by the PR team and actually have an honest conversation with fans about what his vision for the future is.

 

[Vhaluus]

Given selection this year I don't have a lot of faith

It remains to be seen if Pyke was part of the problem or overruled. If he was overrruled then the cull has to start in the coaching box with his assistants.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Our record in big matches in the second half of the year tells a pretty consistent story.

Oppositions shut down our rebound, our turnovers lead to easy scores, and we were utterly unable to score.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

He wreaks of Neil Craig at the moment but it's early days. I'm not willing to write him off just yet. I think we had a very good year considering but we need to rethink the midfield. More of the same is not going to deliver us anything better than 5th or 6th.

 

[billy fragos]

Neither, he will have his own philosophies.

 

[George 13]

Pyke was very conservative this year which was frustrating, but overall as a first year coach did an amazing job.

I for one will wait to see if that was just him learning the group and the ropes, year two will be a better indicator of whether he has learnt anything from this year.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Pyke has to sit down and review why we failed.
Unless he comes up with the right reasons he has no hope. It's up to him whether he realises who we keep backing fails us eg Campo, McKay, Douglas, Thommo, Clarke

Not just identifying why he failed, but having the fortitude to implement the change required not to fail again.

This is the why I made this thread. The coach's voice needs to be the loudest and they must have the character/will to see their/others faults and implement the necessary change.

Blight was able to do this, we got a glimpse that Walsh was this man (Tex was his captain - wtf said the footy world).

Craig couldn't see his own faults let alone correct them.

Pyke? For me, I voted "ask me in April after the rd 1 team is selected". By then both on and off field changes should have been implemented (or at least commenced) for all to see and judge.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

It remains to be seen if Pyke was part of the problem or overruled. If he was overrruled then the cull has to start in the coaching box with his assistants.

This is my concern. Do you think blight or Walsh were ever overruled?

 

[Vhaluus]

This is my concern. Do you think blight or Walsh were ever overruled?

I spoke about it in the good bad and ugly thread. But my view is that Walsh was bought in with a mandate for change that no-one was allowed to get in the way of. After his passing the good old boys set about undoing his work.

Now one of two things are occuring, either Pyke doesn't see the need for cultural change (huge red flags if this is the case), or he does but doesn't have the mandate like Walsh did and is being overruled.

 

[adelaidecrows]

This thread is stupid. Pyke took a list that made a semi and lost its best player. Pyke has done everything well so far.

 

[Vhaluus]

This thread is stupid. Pyke took a list that made a semi and lost its best player. Pyke has done everything well so far.

We can't entirely hide behind 'lost their best player'. The age demographic of our list says there's a certain amount of assumed improvement, which is what we saw.

 

[Apsaalooke]

He seems to be a steady as she goes coach. We have a plan, let's implement it and if it isn't working then try harder. That's OK to a point but like football teams, a coach needs to have a 2nd gear too.

The other problem is selection, selection, selection. He keeps picking cooked or out of form veterans over and over again. And taking injured players into finals is and always has been a disaster as we re-learnt last night. Either he doesn't get it or he's being rolled by the Campo/Noble faction, both of which are a major concern.

 

[Scorpus]

I think Campo is more like Craig, rather than Pyke.

Too early to say with Pyke. If he makes changes next season that will be a win

 

[TrainRoo32]

Pyke has already answered this mate...
Craig 2.0 that's it, will consistently get us in the 8, maybe a prelim or two, but he will follow the same path