Malcolm Blight

[adelaidecrows]

After a decade of thought about him I am starting to remember him more for negative reasons then winning us two premierships. I also beleive the more you here from players who were in those squads around that time that perhaps the great messiah was in fact far from it.

I beleive he over thought everything and in fact I also beleive he was a lazy coach who refuses to take the good with the bad. Its either all good or nothing. I cant beleive that after just one bad season he quit.

The reason I beleive he quit was because of his biggest mistake, getting rid of Modra. That surely gutted the moral of the side as great full forwards simply dont grow on trees. He thought he could revolutionise the forward line with having rotations and part timers in there and in the end it proved to be the worst decision in the history of the adelaide football club. If he kept the squad together we probably could have come close to winning 3 in a row.

Bottom line is he f*&ked up big time and was to lazy to fix the problem after he realised what he had done. instead walked out on the crows. That to me just gets me more frigged off every time I see him or hear people in media circles harp on about how good he was. I am yet to hear any players from that era really say how good he was. They tend to really harp on about that year in 1999 more then the two premiership years.

 

[Dujon11]

After a decade of thought about him I am starting to remember him more for negative reasons then winning us two premierships. I also beleive the more you here from players who were in those squads around that time that perhaps the great messiah was in fact far from it.

I beleive he over thought everything and in fact I also beleive he was a lazy coach who refuses to take the good with the bad. Its either all good or nothing. I cant beleive that after just one bad season he quit.

The reason I beleive he quit was because of his biggest mistake, getting rid of Modra. That surely gutted the moral of the side as great full forwards simply dont grow on trees. He thought he could revolutionise the forward line with having rotations and part timers in there and in the end it proved to be the worst decision in the history of the adelaide football club. If he kept the squad together we probably could have come close to winning 3 in a row.

Bottom line is he f*&ked up big time and was to lazy to fix the problem after he realised what he had done. instead walked out on the crows. That to me just gets me more frigged off every time I see him or hear people in media circles harp on about how good he was. I am yet to hear any players from that era really say how good he was. They tend to really harp on about that year in 1999 more then the two premiership years.

Back to back flags.

End thread.

 

[srv23]

There may well have been some negative aspects to his tenure, particularly getting rid of Mods leaving us searching for a forward line fix for the next 7 or 8 years.

But ultimately mate - he delivered us 2 flags. Many club supporters have never seen their club win a flag in their lifetime. My 3 year old son may (God i hope this is not true) never see the crows win a flag but I got to see 2 - back to back. I got to see the city go crazy in 97/98, and the team at Wayville the day after. It was unbelievable. Whatever Blight did or did not do, the flags make up for everything.

 

[exit]

Only positive memories for me.

 

[SugarShane]

I've disliked him ever since he got rid of Mods, and detested him ever since (as the OP said) halfway through a bad season he announced he was too chickensh*t to hang around and clean up his mess, leaving a trail of destruction behind.

He played a big part in the flags, but at the end of the day the players won the game, not him.

 

[adelaidecrows]

Mark Williams and John Worsefold have both won flags. Look at how they will be remembered.

What I am getting at is try and look past the flags. I was as happy as anyone when we won the flags but it sounds like according to your arguments if he didnt quit we should have kept him on for the next decade regardless of results.

I am talking more about the year after. I think you saw with the saints when he got sacked less than a year into the job that he does not have what it takes to develope a squad.

 

[Pariah]

I'm grateful for the flags but he treated some of our players like crap.
He destroyed Matt Connell.
Sometimes I can't stand him when he does special comments on 10.
After he left the club when things were starting to get tough I always thought he was a quitter.

 

[Big Gazoongas]

After a decade of thought about him I am starting to remember him more for negative reasons then winning us two premierships. I also beleive the more you here from players who were in those squads around that time that perhaps the great messiah was in fact far from it.

I beleive he over thought everything and in fact I also beleive he was a lazy coach who refuses to take the good with the bad. Its either all good or nothing. I cant beleive that after just one bad season he quit.

The reason I beleive he quit was because of his biggest mistake, getting rid of Modra. That surely gutted the moral of the side as great full forwards simply dont grow on trees. He thought he could revolutionise the forward line with having rotations and part timers in there and in the end it proved to be the worst decision in the history of the adelaide football club. If he kept the squad together we probably could have come close to winning 3 in a row.

Bottom line is he f*&ked up big time and was to lazy to fix the problem after he realised what he had done. instead walked out on the crows. That to me just gets me more frigged off every time I see him or hear people in media circles harp on about how good he was. I am yet to hear any players from that era really say how good he was. They tend to really harp on about that year in 1999 more then the two premiership years.

Youre kidding. You can have your own opinion/perception of him but the facts are:
1) Coached North got sacked, no GF
2) Coached Geelong to 3 GF in 6 years, won 0
3) Coached Adelaide to 2 GF in 3 years, won 2
4) Coached Saints for 15 games then got shafted

So in 11years he has coached in 5 GF's...not bad for the dud you make him out to be.

He might not be perfect but who cares, we have 2 Flaggs that he delivered.

 

[Big Gazoongas]

Mark Williams and John Worsefold have both won flags. Look at how they will be remembered.

What I am getting at is try and look past the flags. I was as happy as anyone when we won the flags but it sounds like according to your arguments if he didnt quit we should have kept him on for the next decade regardless of results.

I am talking more about the year after. I think you saw with the saints when he got sacked less than a year into the job that he does not have what it takes to develope a squad.

So you have based your assessment on 1 year

 

[Big Gazoongas]

I've disliked him ever since he got rid of Mods, and detested him ever since (as the OP said) halfway through a bad season he announced he was too chickensh*t to hang around and clean up his mess, leaving a trail of destruction behind.

He played a big part in the flags, but at the end of the day the players won the game, not him.[/quote]

Oxymoron!!

 

[Smoooothy]

if it wasn't for blighty, we'd be in the same position as freo

for that alone, i thank him!

 

[adelaide_40]

Only positive memories for me.

Same here

 

[beartoo]

Good motivator of men.
Had blind spots (who doesn't?).
Treated some players harshly.
Delivered two flags.
Burnt out 99.

 

[moogerfooger]

Jesus, just when you thought people had found everything to complain about, someone comes up with something new.

 

[craig crowing]

Jesus, just when you thought people had found everything to complain about, someone comes up with something new.

Could not agree more .
Since we have had better player for player teams but alas no cigars.
Blighty dragged that team into GF and gave the players clear direction and confidence to win the premierships.
Look in those premiership teams there was some average players in there but Blighty got the best out of group.
He didnt fluke 1 mate he gave us 2.
Only mistake he made was going to Saints and yes he had run race at Crows and did what was best for all.
Malcolm the Messiah

 

[Slippery Pete]

This is a terrible thread. The Crows wouldn't have won those premierships without Blight. It was his foresight, selection, gameplan and genius that won those two flags.

I'll concede that he is a flawed genius in many ways, but this comes from being such a big risk taker.

Even though he coached Geelong for a few years, I always thought of him as an impact coach rather than a career coach. I think he was the type of bloke that had limited patience for people who didnt understand the game as well as he did.

 

[Vessel]

Reminds me of Guss Hiddink. People have made them out to be better than they are. They have both had a few strokes of luck and at the same time made sure they coached teams who were on the cusp of future success.

All that being said do not hear me wrong. They are both very smart coaches and good at what they do. They handle no nonsense though, you either buy in to what they are doing or get lost. It makes them polarising but effective.

Personally I have good memories of Blight's reign, though I think he left us a bit worst off and the end there then he needed to. Two flags = no complaints however. Even if you do everything right flags are still a long shot.

 

[RoosterLad]

Anyone who criticises Blighty should be aborted post-birth. That great man took us to two flags in a row, Smoothy's comments are pretty damn good and scary at the same time!

 

[PCORF]

We could have had 5 premierships by now. But then again we could have had 0 premierships if we didn't win the 1997 preliminary final.

 

[Firewalker]

recommended Gary Ayres... TWICE!!!!!!

thats how he ruined two clubs

 

[KUNG FU]

The whole basis of the argument is Modra. Have you ever considered the fact that Modra played a massive part in his departure. And that Adelaide won both Grand Finals without him in the side?

 

[Crow-mo]

i believe this is about the 10th thing in a row from the OP that has left me shaking my head

 

[aneale]

After a decade of thought about him I am starting to remember him more for negative reasons then winning us two premierships. I also beleive the more you here from players who were in those squads around that time that perhaps the great messiah was in fact far from it.

I beleive he over thought everything and in fact I also beleive he was a lazy coach who refuses to take the good with the bad. Its either all good or nothing. I cant beleive that after just one bad season he quit.

The reason I beleive he quit was because of his biggest mistake, getting rid of Modra. That surely gutted the moral of the side as great full forwards simply dont grow on trees. He thought he could revolutionise the forward line with having rotations and part timers in there and in the end it proved to be the worst decision in the history of the adelaide football club. If he kept the squad together we probably could have come close to winning 3 in a row.

Bottom line is he f*&ked up big time and was to lazy to fix the problem after he realised what he had done. instead walked out on the crows. That to me just gets me more frigged off every time I see him or hear people in media circles harp on about how good he was. I am yet to hear any players from that era really say how good he was. They tend to really harp on about that year in 1999 more then the two premiership years.

He came in on a 1 Year contract and said if we come first or last that's it. We came first, he had to be talked into coaching in 1998, he then virtually had to be held down and bound and cajoled to coach into 1999, which he never wanted to do.

He wanted Modra to be more than a one dimensional player, sound familiar, Modra was reluctant to do so and wasn't suited to playing much other than FF and that was it. Blight's point being when Modra wasn't having a good day he couldn't do anything with him out on the ground.

There is no guarantee that if we had him in the team for 99,00,01 and Blight was coaching that we would have won more, especially after Blight achieved everything he set out to do and his motivation was shot after 97.

A) Connell wasn't much chop and was no loss

B) McLeod speaks very highly of him.

 

[The Karma Bus]

I know there was more to it, but he was apparently annoyed with Modra from the final vs Melbourne at the G when he moved Mods to half back and Mods responded with a bad attitude to it.. Dropped him for the rest of finals..

Blight does/did what is/was required to get results.. He's not interested in the crap.. Comes from the old school, eg he said when asked something about difficulty of playing in Melbourne - it's some grass with white posts down each end..

No Blight = No flags.. You can say the players won it which is true on the field, but if all it takes is players on the field, why are there even coaches at all?? Why do people say get rid of Craig, keep Craig, sack Choco etc?

Bet you couldn't find a player that says they'd rather have no flags and never had Blight there..
He was burnt out, was never going to stay long.. He came with a mission and job to stop the joke that the AFC was becoming under Shaw and he knew he could do it.. Took a team that was starting to have a bit too much fun poked at it under Shaw and finished 11th and 12th in the previous years to 2 flags in a row..

Playing list alone didn't do this..

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Ahh Blighty. Just had an unbelievable feel for the game. He knew football inside out in a technical and tactical sense.

He knew when to chop and change and also when to stick to your plans.

I remember one game where he said that things weren't working before half time so he basically threw all the names up in the air and where they landed they played. "If it's not working, change it."

Another time though he experimented with inconsistent, roaming forward Peter Caven at CHB. At half time Caven was getting a bath from Nick Holland and he came to Blighty and admitted that he was struggling big time and didn't know what to do. "Well," replied Blight, "you'd better think of something because I'm not moving you." Sure enough Caven worked it out and played CHB in two premierships.

Throughout most of 1997 we had a half back line that you could set your watch by. McLeod, Caven, Smart. Once settled they basically played every minute of every game together... then we get to the prelim and grand final and all of a sudden McLeod's on ball and Smart up forward!

Such an enigma. Always seemed to bring such a positive, attacking game plan to the table and encouraged players to display their flair. But at the same time was unbelievably brutal on them. Ricciuto has said before that Blighty was the most intimidating person he has ever met.

Don't think he could have been a long term coach at Adelaide. That line about the brightest flames burning out the quickest springs to mind.