Goody 2010 Captain

[ringo200]

If you mean Thompson I would suggest no. I could be wrong but I don't think he is even in the leadership group. Everything the club has said suggests that Van Berlo will be our next captain as long as he can get himself on the field and put together a decent season of footy next year.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Im very very sick of this logic.

Why do people think that these sorts of examples can be used to justify any particular hair brained scheme they're pulling for now?

We're really scraping the bottom of the Hair Brained Scheme Barrel if introducing some new leaders qualifies as one.

The Blightisms listed weren't just random acts of crazy. On the surface they defy logic but there was method behind the madness in all of them. Even the Shane Ellen to full forward move was based upon some football Blighty had seen him play at South Adelaide that season - filed away for use at a later stage.

How does this work for you?

I like very much

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Scotty the next captain?

Looking in from the outside (as we all do) he would seem the best, most logical choice. By a significant distance too. Perfect age, perfect type of player, tough, courageous, wins the hard ball, durable, leads by example...

For whatever reason though he is never mentioned by the club as a leader in any capacity. So we can only surmise that he either doesn't work hard enough on the track, doesn't seek out leadership opportunities within the club, doesn't participate enthusiastically in team meetings or has slept with someone he shouldn't have.

 

[cmndstab]

Or more realistically he just doesn't have many leadership qualities.

Seriously. Being a great player and being a great leader don't necessarily coincide every time, and "leading by example" is an extremely small part of being a leader.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Or more realistically he just doesn't have many leadership qualities.

Seriously. Being a great player and being a great leader don't necessarily coincide every time, and "leading by example" is an extremely small part of being a leader.

What are the other qualities that he's lacking do you think? I know you see a few trainings, does he lack a bit of intensity, voice or presence out on the track?

What a shame that a system we've implemented that is supposed to develop leaders has failed so dismally in this case.

 

[cmndstab]

What are the other qualities that he's lacking do you think? I know you see a few trainings, does he lack a bit of intensity, voice or presence out on the track?

What a shame that a system we've implemented that is supposed to develop leaders has failed so dismally in this case.

I see him at training but it's difficult to really determine much about their leadership qualities from afar. He hasn't done anything that's stood out in that regard but to be fair, very few players have. (With a few notable exceptions such as Knights, and interestingly McLeod who takes all the indigenous players under his wing and does extra work with them, and they clearly look up to him - it was worth keeping him on the list for an extra year just for that since Armstrong, Petrenko and Jacky are at really crucial stages in their young careers. I hope we find a way to keep him around once his playing career is over, even if only for another year or two, so he can keep doing this).

"Leadership qualities" is a fairly broad blanket term though, and one that would receive ten different definitions if you asked ten different people. On-field performance and voice at the training track would be two fairly important parts of it but I'm sure their attitude to training, their ability to "take players under their wing", their ability to cope with pressure, their on-field and off-field discretion record, their ability to handle the media, and so on, all of these sorts of things would be rated at a similar level I would imagine. The club also seems to rate very highly intelligence, the ability to understand the game plans, and so on.

For whatever reason, Thompson must be lacking in some of these areas or else, I agree, he's as natural a choice as there is in our side as a successor to Goodwin. Himself and Bock are the two actually that are the right ages and are performing to a very high level, but neither are seriously considered leaders by the club.

The types of names that get suggested as potential captains seem to be those that are fanatical about their footy - the type for which no day goes past without them picking up a footy. I remember hearing a story about Craig's attitude to the new kids to the club. He'll ask them what they did during their days off (ie not training) and they might say something like, went for a run around a park to keep in shape or whatever. He'll ask them if they brought a footy, and if they say no, he's not happy. He wants them to live and breath footy, and would rather that they were running and bouncing the footy and practising a few kicks than pushing an extra km into the legs.


This post has made me think, next time Craig is on 5AA and people can ring up to ask him questions, it would be a really good question to ask him what the criteria is at the Crows to be considered a good leader.

As for the system failing Thompson, perhaps he was settled into his ways by the time we traded for him? It is a pity because he's a gun player.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Thanks for that. Would certainly be interesting to hear NC asked about leadership and also about Thompson/Bock specifically.

I guess another way to look at things is if you asked the younger players at the Crows which players do you go to for advice, to ask questions and to seek counsel from then perhaps Thompson and Bock aren't the ones.