Coach Fages and the coaching group

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I'm happy for Fagan to continue as long as he starts showing he's willing to throw away what has worked for him in the past and build something new. He built the damn 3 tall forward / Neale-Lyons 2 punch midfield combo. I know he can do it, it's just that I've not seen him move away from his set ways of operating with his preferred players.
Will be interesting to see if he has it in him to drop Cam in a couple of weeks. On todays performance and over the course of the year he certainly deserves to be, but the bye probably comes at a good time for Fages having to make that decision, as any noise around Cam having (another) bad game will have died by then.
 
Kingy’s been trying to get rid of Fages for a while. He’s gone all in tonight and says we should go all in on getting Chris Scott back. First time anyone in the media has actually put Fages’ spot under the pump.

Joey actually didn’t disagree, whilst Huddo probably made most sense saying just how difficult that would actually be for a number of reasons.
 
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The last time we dumped a coach with a set target was disastrous so yeah let’s go for it
Is it possible that Fagan's lost the players ?

It happens. Seen it happen to a lot better coaches than Fagan.

Nonetheless for a club in our situation there's no hope of us dumping Fagan and nor should we. His greatest legacy will be if he finds a successor who can rejuvenate the group and Fagan can mentor him for a year or two as we get our list reset for the next 5 years.
 
Is it possible that Fagan's lost the players ?

It happens. Seen it happen to a lot better coaches than Fagan.

Nonetheless for a club in our situation there's no hope of us dumping Fagan and nor should we. His greatest legacy will be if he finds a successor who can rejuvenate the group and Fagan can mentor him for a year or two as we get our list reset for the next 5 years.

I’m still blaming the preseason. Maybe tried to introduced too much. Lost any system we once had and can’t get that back plus the confidence is shot

Fagan in the press conference though did say we focussed on not giving up quality clearances and not allowing them to break tackles. Both massive fails so clearly a disconnect there. Not that it can’t be fixed
 
I’m still blaming the preseason. Maybe tried to introduced too much. Lost any system we once had and can’t get that back plus the confidence is shot

Fagan in the press conference though did say we focussed on not giving up quality clearances and not allowing them to break tackles. Both massive fails so clearly a disconnect there. Not that it can’t be fixed
Whilst clearly injuries haven’t helped us and who knows if and what the GF loss did to us mentally, I think one would be a bit naive to think there is nothing to whatever occurred during the break having some type of effect on the group. Whether that be everyone who knows, but the group certainly doesn’t seem as tight this year as they were, albeit they’re losing more than they were too obviously.
 
I’m still blaming the preseason. Maybe tried to introduced too much. Lost any system we once had and can’t get that back plus the confidence is shot

Fagan in the press conference though did say we focussed on not giving up quality clearances and not allowing them to break tackles. Both massive fails so clearly a disconnect there. Not that it can’t be fixed
Plus I don't think we were as good as we thought we were . Struggled through a lot of 2023 but came good at the right time with 2 home finals . Collingwood struggled in its 2 finals and were very lucky to get there.

Maybe it was a below par year and we therefore overrated ourselves as far as 2024 goes.

Our prep was obviously a massive fail. We played the first bit of the Carlton game fresh as daisies and as soon as it became a scrap we started to struggle. A theme repeated through the first half of this season.

We can fix a lot of things but first up we need to get belief ,confidence and desperate effort going and then maybe we'll see whether we're actually good enough or not.

Ain't happening this year and I don't think Fagan's the man any more but he can still be a big part of it.
 
Kingy’s been trying to get rid of Fages for a while. He’s gone all in tonight and says we should go all in on getting Chris Scott back. First time anyone in the media has actually put Fages’ spot under the pump.

Joey actually didn’t disagree, whilst Huddo probably made most sense saying just how actual difficult that would be for a number of reasons.

He's still upset that Fages directly called him out that time. He is such a simpleton old Kingy.
 
Will be interesting to see if he has it in him to drop Cam in a couple of weeks. On todays performance and over the course of the year he certainly deserves to be, but the bye probably comes at a good time for Fages having to make that decision, as any noise around Cam having (another) bad game will have died by then.
Fagan won’t drop Rayner. As I’ve posted a bit; in Fagan’s tenure he has not once dropped a name player and it’s largely the same group of players that are dropped such as the likes of Prior, Robertson, Lyons, Lester and in fact the biggest name in his tenure was Payne after round one.

So bank on it coming from the likes of Ryan (who’s should be dropped), Reville, Morris or Sharp. It clearly won’t be anyone else.
 
It is really frustrating how we use the sub. Feels like the panel were a bit stung by the questions about Fort as sub and have just abandoned thinking about the sub as a tactical play and just gone to using it as a spot to dump the 23rd best player.

Which, uh, isn't great and also accounts for the unwillingness to employ the sub tactically in a game.

But, yeah, it makes no sense to use Sharp as a sub given the thing he brings - very well, is being both willing & able to run all game. An attribute not enough of our players have. It's an active decision to neutralise our own strengths.
 

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It is really frustrating how we use the sub. Feels like the panel were a bit stung by the questions about Fort as sub and have just abandoned thinking about the sub as a tactical play and just gone to using it as a spot to dump the 23rd best player.

Which, uh, isn't great and also accounts for the unwillingness to employ the sub tactically in a game.

But, yeah, it makes no sense to use Sharp as a sub given the thing he brings - very well, is being both willing & able to run all game. An attribute not enough of our players have. It's an active decision to neutralise our own strengths.

If he was the 10th fittest at the club would it have been a good choice?
 
Whilst clearly injuries haven’t helped us and who knows if and what the GF loss did to us mentally, I think one would be a bit naive to think there is nothing to whatever occurred during the break having some type of effect on the group. Whether that be everyone who knows, but the group certainly doesn’t seem as tight this year as they were, albeit they’re losing more than they were too obviously.

100% what happened in the US is having an affect. Been clear as day since round one regardless of what the club and players said. No coincidence Charlie has been down - it is affecting him in some way.
 
100% what happened in the US is having an affect. Been clear as day since round one regardless of what the club and players said. No coincidence Charlie has been down - it is affecting him in some way.

Could it just be as simple as Charlie is getting older and as a result is losing his one asset in speed?
 
Could it just be as simple as Charlie is getting older and as a result is losing his one asset in speed?

He's missing regulation goals - nothing to do with speed.
 
He's missing regulation goals - nothing to do with speed.
Think he’s definitely carrying something, which is affecting his kicking. Think it’s now mental with him too.

I also think he’s just starting to slow down though, which is only natural once you get to 30 odd. I’ve said before but I think when the end comes, it comes quickly for Charlie given how reliant he has been on speed. We should really enjoy the next 18 months, as it wouldn’t totally shock me if he pulled up stumps at the end of this contract.
 
Throw everything, including the kitchen sink at Chris Scott.
Said it yesterday.

David king said it last night. Joey agreed. Brisbane need ruthlessness.

Fages is a good bloke, but certainly not ruthless enough. At the press conference yesterday he seemed happy. Said they played well except for a few minutes in 2 quarters. Fages, they lost mate. And probably wrote their season off.

Rayner was all smiles after the game, chatting and laughing with the Hawks players, despite being worst on ground in the rankings. (not including subs or subbed off). Obviously Rynor was as unconcerned as the coach, or not scared of reprisals. Raynor gets a game next week. No worries Cam.
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I think we are feeling the ripple from Noble leaving more than we were expecting, but this is the first season where we have also experienced a proper injury list. We have been incredibly fortunate in the past few seasons when we have been competitive. I feel like it's really messing with our game plan because we aren't adapting away from having those players on the field. Neale surprisingly less, but we do have a bunch of players that can pitch in like him. Hipwood though? No, that's quite a big loss, for example.
Injury list doesn’t explain why our full forwards are missing 30 out. WTF is happening over there!!
 

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