Don Pyke: The Next Blight or Neil Craig?

[Vhaluus]

Again I can't agree

We have had 6 players in the AA squad and 7 players in the U/22 AA squad and even our elite players in Betts, Sloane and Talia have improved, you don't win 17 games and have these nominations unless your squad is developing and improving

Counting the number of players who debut is not the only KPI in determining if you list is developing

Like I have said previously the main criticism I have is that Wigg did not got games ahead of DMac, this in my mind was a lost opportunity

you're giving the numbers for the 40 man squads, not the final ones.. just FYI.

 

[adelaidecrows]

This thread is classic. Already so many stupid comments. Pyke is pyke.

 

[simmo97]

Geelong R8, R18
West Coast R23
Sydney SF

Selection R1, R9, R19-21

You chose our 5 worse performances and we won 17 games the same as 2006 with a less superior midfield and defence.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Rubbish. If he rewarded SANFL performance by dropping players from winning teams and we lost and even missed the finals people would be calling for his head. Nothing wrong with selection this year except for Hartigan missing round 1 and vb selected for gc game other than that you just cant change for the unknown in a winning team. Hallmarks....please! Get a grip. The club can now make a decision 5 or 6 players may not be in the best 22 moving forward based on the sample size and make adjustments. Which i am sure they will. This team was new to pyke and made a semi last year. Wholesale changes were never going to happen. Its a reality.

Wigg should have been rewarded in my opinion especially when DMac has stunk it up for the majority of the season

 

[Murray2503]

Time will tell but so far don is a clone of craig. We need a vision and brutal honesty, two things Blighty and Walsh had. Time for our club to face reality. He's got 18 months

 

[adelaidecrows]

Wigg should have been rewarded in my opinion especially when DMac has stunk it up for the majority of the season

Wigg may not be seen as a replacement for dmacs position. Thats a variable to team balance. Wigg may not be meeting some KPIs either.

 

[1970crow]

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

That's just plain wrong. They admitted not selecting Hartigan in round 1 was an error. There woukd be numerous other failings. Selecting VB again when he's a known quantity and ruining Wigg's continuity by taking him as a travelling emergency with an SANFL bye to follow was poor. Playing a clearly still injured Sauce against Port and then West Coast. Playing an injured Bown and JJ last night. Stubbornly trusting the system during games and not reverting back to the preferred structure because it meant dropping Thommo are both very poor actions.

"Everything well", that's straight up wishful thinking.

 

[Bovo]

How would we know though? We've never done anything like it since.

What we know definitively is that persisting with the same group of players that have fallen short is an ironclad guarantee of failure.

First statement: That is a game of hindsight though. That is like Richmond picking Tambling over Franklin....or us picking McGregor over Pav (yeah I know we weren't the only one). I reckon you have a better chance of winning the lotto.

Second statement: I won't be arguing with that. Besides maybe Seeds, we had our "best" team in the park. We got blown away....so perhaps our best is not good enough. What now, grow within or go get an experienced player?

I tell you who has done well this year.....Geelong. They identified that they needed another Ruckman (Smith), mids (Danger/Selwood) and forward (Henderson). Coup of the century. They are sitting pretty for a flag.

Totally different style to Blight....looking like a similar result. Go figure.

 

[Golumless]

Time will tell but so far don is a clone of craig. We need a vision and brutal honesty, two things Blighty and Walsh had. Time for our club to face reality. He's got 18 months

Exactly this. 3 years is the perfect assessment time of a coach. By then you truly know if they are premiership capable or a dud.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

you're giving the numbers for the 40 man squads, not the final ones.. just FYI.

I understand that but even making the 40 many squad is recognition that your players are playing at a level to be considered

My point is though when considering the development of the list it's not just based on who has not been selected, we also need to considered that how many of those U/23 in particular have improved Lever, Laird, Cameron, M. Crouch, Hartigan, Shooter and Rat have all improved and other player such as Sloane, Betts, JJ and Talia have also had career best seasons

For a club that has not been gifted with a host of top 10 picks our development of players has been the reason why we are at least competing in the finals

 

[Vhaluus]

I understand that but even making the 40 many squad is recognition that your players are playing at a level to be considered

My point is though when considering the development of the list it's not just based on who has not been selected, we also need to considered that how many of those U/23 in particular have improved Lever, Laird, Cameron, M. Crouch, Hartigan, Shooter and Rat have all improved and other player such as Sloane, Betts, JJ and Talia have also had career best seasons

For a club that has not been gifted with a host of top 10 picks our development of players has been the reason why we are at least competing in the finals

Our top end talent is class, no doubt. But our 18-22 is arguably one of the worst in the top 8.

 

[1970crow]

Wtf? What evidence do you have for such a stupid assessment

What evidence do you have that he's not? Much more similarities on display than points of differences. List a couple of points of difference that you've noticed? Bet you have none and will just refuse to answer and deflect.

 

[Murray2503]

I really don't like comments like this. There seems to be this pattern thought that if we do what we did once we will get the same result. Blight did not come in to cull us. He came in to make us a better team....it is just the culling was one of the side affects of making us a better team.

I don't think that is the magic pill for all scenarios. I think if we were able to keep Danger we would have been an even better team this year.....honestly that probably would have made the difference this year. Now Geelong can reap the rewards of his years of service.

Danger cannot fix a team. Cats will find that out on grand final day against gws and ive got to say the look on his smug face will be worth it.

 

[adelaidecrows]

What evidence do you have that he's not? Much more similarities on display than points of differences. List a couple of points of difference that you've noticed? Bet you have none and will just refuse to answer and deflect.

After craigs first year what was he then?

 

[Murray2503]

Our top end talent is class, no doubt. But our 18-22 is arguably one of the worst in the top 8.

Steven Trigg anyone?

 

[GreyCrow]

April Fool me

 

[Bovo]

Time will tell but so far don is a clone of craig. We need a vision and brutal honesty, two things Blighty and Walsh had. Time for our club to face reality. He's got 18 months

That is harsh and totally unfair. You can't give every coach a couple of years and if they don't perform they are out. We would have more coach changes then player changes over a decade. Like it or not, these things can take time. You have to suck it up....what we all want to see is changes that look to be going in the right direction. Thus far the direction is okay. We just need to work on some of our cattle.

 

[Vhaluus]

After craigs first year what was he then?

Craigs first full year as coach was 18-7
Second year it was 17-7

Under his tenure we were 3 wins 6 losses from finals.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Our top end talent is class, no doubt. But our 18-22 is arguably one of the worst in the top 8.

We have finished where we deserve to finish and hopefully next year we will see players like Wigg, Hampton, Seed, Menzel and Knight improve the quality of our last 4-6 spots

Injuries to some of these players has really hurt us IMO

 

[Bovo]

Danger cannot fix a team. Cats will find that out on grand final day against gws and ive got to say the look on his smug face will be worth it.

I think we would have been better with him. That is not "fixing" a team. We need a burst mid like him

 

[1970crow]

Agree

Craig was robotic in the way he wanted us to play however Pyke was the players to play the game that is in front of them

I think this is a basic misunderstanding. Craig wouldn't have wanted players to stick to a certain action if it wasn't on. All players would be told to play what's in front them, it's not a training drill where there's no opposition getting in the way. But rigidly sticking to the same plan is a common theme between them both so far.

 

[SugarShane]

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 love to be a fly on the wall when the selection committee watches the tapes back. Do they not notice the same players letting us down over and over, or are they seeing it but are in some weird form of denial where they consider every one of Thommo's and Mackay's mistakes to be the minor exceptions to an otherwise great game?

I can't remember who posted it but a few weeks back the Mackay nail was hit on the head. It's not his fault. Mackays gonna Mackay and Thommos gonna Thommo. It's our fault for picking them and expecting them not to.

 

[FAITH]

ive heard pyke wants to implement a few things next season that he couldnt this season, with nobes leaving i think it should be easier for him.

 

[Scorpus]

Injuries to some of these players has really hurt us IMO

Has it? Would we have even selected those guys when we had Douglas and Mackay absolutely dominating the senior side?

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

First statement: That is a game of hindsight though. That is like Richmond picking Tambling over Franklin....or us picking McGregor over Pav (yeah I know we weren't the only one). I reckon you have a better chance of winning the lotto.

Second statement: I won't be arguing with that. Besides maybe Seeds, we had our "best" team in the park. We got blown away....so perhaps our best is not good enough. What now, grow within or go get an experienced player?

I tell you who has done well this year.....Geelong. They identified that they needed another Ruckman (Smith), mids (Danger/Selwood) and forward (Henderson). Coup of the century. They are sitting pretty for a flag.

Totally different style to Blight....looking like a similar result. Go figure.

Geelong moved on Chapman, Stokes, Kelly, Johnson