Coach NMFC Senior Coach Rhyce Shaw - Ben Buckley announces NMFC & Shaw will part ways immediately

shimaburnsgrieg

Premiership Player
Apr 1, 2017
4,357
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So,
Kennett insinuating that Clarkson’s days are over at the end of his current contract. And the heir apparent Mitchell is ready to go.
I’m sure Clarko won’t be too happy with this being played out in the media.
My question...
Do we start planting the seed?


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If Hawthorn continue to suck - which I expect - this will come to a head well before the end of 2 years - potentially even the end of this year but more likely next year.

Buckley and Clarko would've been team mates in the 80's - nothing wrong in organising a 30 something year reunion and seeing how everyone is travelling.
 
Buckley and Clarko would've been team mates in the 80's - nothing wrong in organising a 30 something year reunion and seeing how everyone is travelling.

Buckley’s mates with Clarko, remains in contact with him, and HAS sounded him out about coaching North in the past. Facts!

Needless to say Clarko’s stated clearly he’s fully committed to Hawthorn but he has provided advice when asked for his opinion on things at Hardon St.
 
Let me preface this by stating that I think those people who are already putting a clock on Shaw's tenure as coach are jumping the gun far too prematurely, and in my view are probably reacting to a run of bad losses that are made worse by what appears to be an inability to play entertaining, high-scoring football. That's probably fair enough because not only are we not seeing wins, we're not seeing goals or anything that looks like we can win games if we want to. I understand that frustration and I was one of the many of us who sat on the couch on Saturday night and sat through two goals in a game

  • He is 18 games into his coaching career. Let's compare him to some dudes:
CoachWinsLossesWinning PercentageLadder Position18 games coached
Clarkson4140.2215thRd. 18, 2005
Simpson7110.3811thRd. 18, 2014
Malthouse6120.3314thRd. 18, 2000
Shaw6120.3316thRd. 7, 2020

Nobody is claiming that Shaw will end up being as good as any of the above coaches. However, I think you have to take into account that those guys were coaching in full seasons, with full football departments, at three big clubs that were able to splash and spend money and hire the best. And they still failed. Because they were learning. Shaw is leading a team that has had to cut its spending in the football department because the club can't afford it, that has an injury list to rival any other club in the competition, during a once-in-a-generation global pandemic that has affected every developed country in the world, uprooted the club from its headquarters and forced it into a hub in unfamiliar territory for the foreseeable future

We have a garbage team that has been cobbled together in a mistaken attempt to push for finals where we probably needed to bottom out. Even then, the majority of those players are either injured or unavailable for selection because they're too young and inexperienced.

My best 22 looks as such, with everyone at full fitness and capability:

FBVICKERS-WILLISTARRANTWILLIAMS
HBMCDONALDDAWATLEY
CPOLECCUNNINGTONDUMONT
HFGARNERLARKEYTHOMAS
FFZURHAARBROWNTAYLOR
RGOLDSTEINHIGGINSSIMPKIN
IDAVIES-UNIACKEZIEBELLJACOBS
IW.WALKER

For completeness, those who miss out:

BAILEY SCOTTPAUL AHERNAIDEN BONARDOM TYSONJOSH WALKERSAM DURDIN
JED ANDERSONKAYNE TURNERCHARLIE COMBENMASON WOODJAMIE MACMILLANJACK MAHONY
JOEL CROCKERKYRON HAYDENTRISTAN XERRIFLYNN PEREZTOM MURPHYMATT MCGUINESS
TOM CAMPBELLAARON HALLLACHIE HOSIE

I've bolded and italicised the ones that are currently unavailable or under injury clouds and thus not performing at their peak. That's 11 of our best 22 that are currently either not playing, or playing but not at 100%. In an ideal world we would move on from Atley and Williams; there's another two that are currently playing that shouldn't be.

There is a long hard road ahead of Shaw and Rawlings. They need to replace two best 22 players, then find replacements for Garner and Jacobs, who are Done, probably find one for EVW who is fighting an uphill battle every day, work out a succession plan for Ziebell, Cunnington and Higgins (because Simpkin alone cannot do it all), and hope that injury-plagued midfielders like LDU and Will Walker come good. We desperately need Xerri to be good because Goldy can't play forever. We have no fast small forwards (Turner and Mahony need not apply). This is all, to the best of my knowledge, out of Shaw and Rawlings' control, as they inherited this list and the issues it has.

Things they've done which they deserve to be rightly criticised for:

  • The Ziebell and Cunnington selections - rightly or wrongly both of these men bleed for North and would have put their hands up as ready to go. They probably just want to play footy and would have stepped on field with legs hanging off and backs out of place. I feel as though Shaw, as a rookie coach, would have deferred to Ziebell who would have demanded to play, and hopefully this is a learning experience for him. It is as much on Ziebell declaring himself fit when he probably hasn't ever been fully fit. We need to make a decision on him because as previously discussed elsewhere, the cliff is approaching at a rate of knots - he is not getting any younger or any fitter. The Cunnington one - I would be of the mind to sit him for the whole year and get his back 100% right. Too often we have seen degenerative conditions ruin people at this club (Garner, Wood, maybe LDU), so let's not let it happen to our premier midfielder. The problem is that we don't win without him and I can see how Shaw would have viewed Cunners as his safety blanket, therefore wanting to rush him back. Full pace AFL footy is not training though and it was clear within 3 minutes of the game starting that he wasn't right. Again, let's hope this is a learning experience
  • Cutting the line coaches (Rivers and Whitecross) - I see the club is now starting to cop some heat for this decision and probably rightly so. I think as an inexperienced coach who is learning the caper in a really tumultuous time, the decision - whoever made it - is a wrong one. Shaw needs people around him, senior thinkers who have been there and done that and held those roles for longer than he has. It's stretching yourself too thin to go "oh well, we'll just have the senior coach (an ex-defensive line coach and AFL defender) handle the senior role and the defensive line coach role". It might also partially explain why we're going so defensive across the ground - we have our senior coach acting as our defensive coach and we have no forward coach as far as I'm aware, unless it's Mr Fix It Crocker in which case... good grief, Man of Many Hats. We need to somehow figure out a way to get them back or to fix those responsibilities so that we have experienced people handling them, because the current set-up ain't working
  • Not having an experienced assistant to Shaw - sort of goes hand in hand with the above - an 18 game veteran coach who is literally coaching a team with no line coaches during a global pandemic. And we expect miracles. He needs a Neeld, a Lyon, a dare I say it, Malthouse, someone with years of experience to guide him. Not to make decisions or anything like that, but to review his performance and to challenge him on his decisions, to maybe steer him on the right path. Obviously he will learn by himself in time but we are already seeing that, unless there's something going on behind the scenes that we are not privy to, he is being given a baptism of fire and arguably he is failing that test by himself at the moment

I think the gameplan sucks. But I also think the fault lies with the fact that we don't have the players to carry it out. I'd be very surprised if the ultimate plan for North Melbourne football is to rely on Cunnington and Ziebell to bash and crash at the stoppage, chunk it long to woefully out of form Brown who takes a contested park mark and goal. Rinse and repeat. Or to bomb it long down the line to contests where Xerri, Goldstein or Brown bring the ball to ground for Cunnington, partially injured Simpkin and Higgins, or some of our other talented yet currently unavailable players. I'd be staggered if it was part of the plan to have Mahony and Xerri playing this year. Or to have the defensive quartet of Williams, Pittard, Atley and Macmillan playing important defensive roles every week.

I think it comes down to the following:

  1. We do not have the cattle to do what we want to do, and the cattle we do have are poorly skilled and football-illiterate;
  2. We have a coach who is learning on the go effectively from himself and the football manager's brother;
  3. We're playing in one of the most unprecedented environments in the history of this competition

Who needs to go?

I think the following:

Williams - just not up to it disposal wise and has been really poor since he has come back from suspension. Good on his day but If We Are Fair Dinkum We'd Be Moving On (IWAFDWBMO)
Jacobs - in all honesty it is one of the sadder stories you'll hear but we cannot afford to keep him around anymore. He has to be let go it's not healthy for him or for us to expect him to come back and play league football again
Garner - seriously come on
Atley - IWAFDWBMO
Tyson - has contributed effectively nothing and is acceptable depth but IWAFDWBMO
Durdin - has shown nothing in the chances he's been given. We could give him one more go but IWAFDWBMO
Turner - has shown zero improvement since the day we drafted him. Hard as a cat's head and love him for it but IWAFDWBMO
Wood - nno
Macmillan - IWAFDWBMO
Campbell - clearly one of the greatest clubmen you could hope for but IWAFDWBMO
Hall - adds an obvious need but might be the least football-smart midfielder when running forward in the competition, holy Moses, IWAFDWBMO
Hosie - sorry for ruining your Glenelg career

But we simply cannot cut twelve players from the list in one off-season. We just can't. Chances are pretty good most of those blokes will be on the list next year. Maybe even the year after. This is not a quick fix, there is no magical antidote, we are going to have to put up with this until either the competition goes back to normal or Shaw and co can cut deep enough into the list to fix it. Bad luck. This is where we are. We're a bad football with a cacophony of bad players and crap decision makers. We're starting to prepare to come out of the other side of it but it is going to take the one thing apparently not everybody either in the football world or on BigFooty has: time

We're going to cop it in the media because its fashionable to punch down. Flogs and clowns like Healy and Whateley and Robinson and Wilson are going to have a field day with this club for a while yet. It's already started this week with Whateley and Barrett digging the claws in. I guess my hope is that the club, as always, are immune to the noise and will just go about the plan I hope Rhyce has. We can't and won't bail on him now, at the end of the year, or even at the end of next year, which is my hope

TLDR: Shaw's not going that bad, our team is woeful and needs to be pared back to the bone, this will take time we don't have, he won't be sacked, hope they get some experienced coaches in as assistants
 
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Buckley’s mates with Clarko, remains in contact with him, and HAS sounded him out about coaching North in the past. Facts!

Needless to say Clarko’s stated clearly he’s fully committed to Hawthorn but he has provided advice when asked for his opinion on things at Hardon St.



Wonderful. I'm sure his advices(sic) were as genuine as this guy's.
 
Let me preface this by stating that I think those people who are already putting a clock on Shaw's tenure as coach are jumping the gun far too prematurely, and in my view are probably reacting to a run of bad losses that are made worse by what appears to be an inability to play entertaining, high-scoring football. That's probably fair enough because not only are we not seeing wins, we're not seeing goals or anything that looks like we can win games if we want to. I understand that frustration and I was one of the many of us who sat on the couch on Saturday night and sat through two goals in a game

  • He is 18 games into his coaching career. Let's compare him to some dudes:
CoachWinsLossesWinning PercentageLadder Position18 games coached
Clarkson4140.2215thRd. 18, 2005
Simpson7110.3811thRd. 18, 2014
Malthouse6120.3314thRd. 18, 2000
Shaw6120.3316thRd. 7, 2020

Nobody is claiming that Shaw will end up being as good as any of the above coaches. However, I think you have to take into account that those guys were coaching in full seasons, with full football departments, at three big clubs that were able to splash and spend money and hire the best. And they still failed. Because they were learning. Shaw is leading a team that has had to cut its spending in the football department because the club can't afford it, that has an injury list to rival any other club in the competition, during a once-in-a-generation global pandemic that has affected every developed country in the world, uprooted the club from its headquarters and forced it into a hub in unfamiliar territory for the foreseeable future

We have a garbage team that has been cobbled together in a mistaken attempt to push for finals where we probably needed to bottom out. Even then, the majority of those players are either injured or unavailable for selection because they're too young and inexperienced.

My best 22 looks as such, with everyone at full fitness and capability:

FBVICKERS-WILLISTARRANTWILLIAMS
HBMCDONALDDAWATLEY
CPOLECCUNNINGTONDUMONT
HFGARNERLARKEYTHOMAS
FFZURHAARBROWNTAYLOR
RGOLDSTEINHIGGINSSIMPKIN
IDAVIES-UNIACKEZIEBELLJACOBS
IW.WALKER

For completeness, those who miss out:

BAILEY SCOTTPAUL AHERNAIDEN BONARDOM TYSONJOSH WALKERSAM DURDIN
JED ANDERSONKAYNE TURNERCHARLIE COMBENMASON WOODJAMIE MACMILLANJACK MAHONY
JOEL CROCKERKYRON HAYDENTRISTAN XERRIFLYNN PEREZTOM MURPHYMATT MCGUINESS
TOM CAMPBELLAARON HALLLACHIE HOSIE

I've bolded and italicised the ones that are currently unavailable or under injury clouds and thus not performing at their peak. That's 11 of our best 22 that are currently either not playing, or playing but not at 100%. In an ideal world we would move on from Atley and Williams; there's another two that are currently playing that shouldn't be.

There is a long hard road ahead of Shaw and Rawlings. They need to replace two best 22 players, then find replacements for Garner and Jacobs, who are Done, probably find one for EVW who is fighting an uphill battle every day, work out a succession plan for Ziebell, Cunnington and Higgins (because Simpkin alone cannot do it all), and hope that injury-plagued midfielders like LDU and Will Walker come good. We desperately need Xerri to be good because Goldy can't play forever. We have no fast small forwards (Turner and Mahony need not apply). This is all, to the best of my knowledge, out of Shaw and Rawlings' control, as they inherited this list and the issues it has.

Things they've done which they deserve to be rightly criticised for:

  • The Ziebell and Cunnington selections - rightly or wrongly both of these men bleed for North and would have put their hands up as ready to go. They probably just want to play footy and would have stepped on field with legs hanging off and backs out of place. I feel as though Shaw, as a rookie coach, would have deferred to Ziebell who would have demanded to play, and hopefully this is a learning experience for him. It is as much on Ziebell declaring himself fit when he probably hasn't ever been fully fit. We need to make a decision on him because as previously discussed elsewhere, the cliff is approaching at a rate of knots - he is not getting any younger or any fitter. The Cunnington one - I would be of the mind to sit him for the whole year and get his back 100% right. Too often we have seen degenerative conditions ruin people at this club (Garner, Wood, maybe LDU), so let's not let it happen to our premier midfielder. The problem is that we don't win without him and I can see how Shaw would have viewed Cunners as his safety blanket, therefore wanting to rush him back. Full pace AFL footy is not training though and it was clear within 3 minutes of the game starting that he wasn't right. Again, let's hope this is a learning experience
  • Cutting the line coaches (Rivers and Whitecross) - I see the club is now starting to cop some heat for this decision and probably rightly so. I think as an inexperienced coach who is learning the caper in a really tumultuous time, the decision - whoever made it - is a wrong one. Shaw needs people around him, senior thinkers who have been there and done that and held those roles for longer than he has. It's stretching yourself too thin to go "oh well, we'll just have the senior coach (an ex-defensive line coach and AFL defender) handle the senior role and the defensive line coach role". It might also partially explain why we're going so defensive across the ground - we have our senior coach acting as our defensive coach and we have no forward coach as far as I'm aware, unless it's Mr Fix It Crocker in which case... good grief, Man of Many Hats. We need to somehow figure out a way to get them back or to fix those responsibilities so that we have experienced people handling them, because the current set-up ain't working
  • Not having an experienced assistant to Shaw - sort of goes hand in hand with the above - an 18 game veteran coach who is literally coaching a team with no line coaches during a global pandemic. And we expect miracles. He needs a Neeld, a Lyon, a dare I say it, Malthouse, someone with years of experience to guide him. Not to make decisions or anything like that, but to review his performance and to challenge him on his decisions, to maybe steer him on the right path. Obviously he will learn by himself in time but we are already seeing that, unless there's something going on behind the scenes that we are not privy to, he is being given a baptism of fire and arguably he is failing that test by himself at the moment

I think the gameplan sucks. But I also think the fault lies with the fact that we don't have the players to carry it out. I'd be very surprised if the ultimate plan for North Melbourne football is to rely on Cunnington and Ziebell to bash and crash at the stoppage, chunk it long to woefully out of form Brown who takes a contested park mark and goal. Rinse and repeat. Or to bomb it long down the line to contests where Xerri, Goldstein or Brown bring the ball to ground for Cunnington, partially injured Simpkin and Higgins, or some of our other talented yet currently unavailable players. I'd be staggered if it was part of the plan to have Mahony and Xerri playing this year. Or to have the defensive quartet of Williams, Pittard, Atley and Macmillan playing important defensive roles every week.

I think it comes down to the following:

  1. We do not have the cattle to do what we want to do, and the cattle we do have are poorly skilled and football-illiterate;
  2. We have a coach who is learning on the go effectively from himself and the football manager's brother;
  3. We're playing in one of the most unprecedented environments in the history of this competition

Who needs to go?

I think the following:

Williams - just not up to it disposal wise and has been really poor since he has come back from suspension. Good on his day but If We Are Fair Dinkum We'd Be Moving On (IWAFDWBMO)
Jacobs - in all honesty it is one of the sadder stories you'll hear but we cannot afford to keep him around anymore. He has to be let go it's not healthy for him or for us to expect him to come back and play league football again
Garner - seriously come on
Atley - IWAFDWBMO
Tyson - has contributed effectively nothing and is acceptable depth but IWAFDWBMO
Durdin - has shown nothing in the chances he's been given. We could give him one more go but IWAFDWBMO
Turner - has shown zero improvement since the day we drafted him. Hard as a cat's head and love him for it but IWAFDWBMO
Wood - nno
Macmillan - IWAFDWBMO
Campbell - clearly one of the greatest clubmen you could hope for but IWAFDWBMO
Hall - adds an obvious need but might be the least football-smart midfielder when running forward in the competition, holy Moses, IWAFDWBMO
Hosie - sorry for ruining your Glenelg career

But we simply cannot cut twelve players from the list in one off-season. We just can't. Chances are pretty good most of those blokes will be on the list next year. Maybe even the year after. This is not a quick fix, there is no magical antidote, we are going to have to put up with this until either the competition goes back to normal or Shaw and co can cut deep enough into the list to fix it. Bad luck. This is where we are. We're a bad football with a cacophony of bad players and crap decision makers. We're starting to prepare to come out of the other side of it but it is going to take the one thing apparently not everybody either in the football world or on BigFooty has: time

We're going to cop it in the media because its fashionable to punch down. Flogs and clowns like Healy and Whateley and Robinson and Wilson are going to have a field day with this club for a while yet. It's already started this week with Whateley and Barrett digging the claws in. I guess my hope is that the club, as always, are immune to the noise and will just go about the plan I hope Rhyce has. We can't and won't bail on him now, at the end of the year, or even at the end of next year, which is my hope

TLDR: Shaw's not going that bad, our team is woeful and needs to be pared back to the bone, this will take time we don't have, he won't be sacked, hope they get some experienced coaches in as assistants
Who's this Malthouse dude who started coaching in 2000? Any relation to Mick?
 
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1EC5F318-D341-4CDB-A0E3-F9B3CA6F54D5.png
 

David King dismisses Rhyce Shaw ‘cheap seat’ critics amid club’s losing streak


Two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King has staunchly defended club coach Rhyce Shaw and the footy department amid scathing criticism of the club’s on-field failings this season.

North sit second-last on the ladder heading into Round 8, which has led to questions surrounding their list profile and decision to not trade veteran stars in 2019 to help rebuild for their next premiership tilt.

Speaking on AFL 360 on Wednesday night, King said criticism of the club’s new arrivals, including Shaw, was ridiculous.


“Everyone wants to bash the Kangaroos at the moment. The people they’re bashing have been there five minutes,” he said.

“Some of them haven’t even been there for one draft and they’re asking them to correct a football club, correct a list. They haven’t had the chance yet. Give these guys a chance to warm their seats.

“God, the conversation has gone too far too quickly.”

King noted that, while the club is in a horror rut of form, Rhyce Shaw was and remains the right choice for the club as its long-term coach.



“They’re in horrible form and they put their hand up for that, but the guy they’ve got in charge down there, Rhyce Shaw, is the right man for this job,” he said.

“You can say what you like today, you can say what you like tomorrow, but going forward this is the guy for the role. There’s no doubt about that from anyone that matters.

“Those from the cheap seats can say what they like. Give him time and give the new guys behind the scenes an opportunity to get their seats at least warm.”
 

Ether

Club Legend
Oct 21, 2019
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David King dismisses Rhyce Shaw ‘cheap seat’ critics amid club’s losing streak


Two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King has staunchly defended club coach Rhyce Shaw and the footy department amid scathing criticism of the club’s on-field failings this season.

North sit second-last on the ladder heading into Round 8, which has led to questions surrounding their list profile and decision to not trade veteran stars in 2019 to help rebuild for their next premiership tilt.

Speaking on AFL 360 on Wednesday night, King said criticism of the club’s new arrivals, including Shaw, was ridiculous.


“Everyone wants to bash the Kangaroos at the moment. The people they’re bashing have been there five minutes,” he said.

“Some of them haven’t even been there for one draft and they’re asking them to correct a football club, correct a list. They haven’t had the chance yet. Give these guys a chance to warm their seats.

“God, the conversation has gone too far too quickly.”

King noted that, while the club is in a horror rut of form, Rhyce Shaw was and remains the right choice for the club as its long-term coach.



“They’re in horrible form and they put their hand up for that, but the guy they’ve got in charge down there, Rhyce Shaw, is the right man for this job,” he said.

“You can say what you like today, you can say what you like tomorrow, but going forward this is the guy for the role. There’s no doubt about that from anyone that matters.

“Those from the cheap seats can say what they like. Give him time and give the new guys behind the scenes an opportunity to get their seats at least warm.”
Are any seats cheaper than BF?
 
Jun 9, 2001
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David King dismisses Rhyce Shaw ‘cheap seat’ critics amid club’s losing streak


Two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King has staunchly defended club coach Rhyce Shaw and the footy department amid scathing criticism of the club’s on-field failings this season.

North sit second-last on the ladder heading into Round 8, which has led to questions surrounding their list profile and decision to not trade veteran stars in 2019 to help rebuild for their next premiership tilt.

Speaking on AFL 360 on Wednesday night, King said criticism of the club’s new arrivals, including Shaw, was ridiculous.


“Everyone wants to bash the Kangaroos at the moment. The people they’re bashing have been there five minutes,” he said.

“Some of them haven’t even been there for one draft and they’re asking them to correct a football club, correct a list. They haven’t had the chance yet. Give these guys a chance to warm their seats.

“God, the conversation has gone too far too quickly.”

King noted that, while the club is in a horror rut of form, Rhyce Shaw was and remains the right choice for the club as its long-term coach.



“They’re in horrible form and they put their hand up for that, but the guy they’ve got in charge down there, Rhyce Shaw, is the right man for this job,” he said.

“You can say what you like today, you can say what you like tomorrow, but going forward this is the guy for the role. There’s no doubt about that from anyone that matters.

“Those from the cheap seats can say what they like. Give him time and give the new guys behind the scenes an opportunity to get their seats at least warm.”

Kingy gets dismissed for his views at times, but history shows he got calls on the dogs and richmond right.

I'm willing to hitch my wagon to his view right now. Mostly in hope.
 
Kingy - smashes Ben Brown because he can, it invites others to do the same. Leading to knobhead Barrett saying we’re shopping him around.

Also Kingy - hey now now don’t bash the kangas.

You are not a trustworthy source when it comes to your opinions about us. You’re hypocritical too often.
 

nicko74

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Kingy - smashes Ben Brown because he can, it invites others to do the same. Leading to knobhead Barrett saying we’re shopping him around.

Also Kingy - hey now now don’t bash the kangas.

You are not a trustworthy source when it comes to your opinions about us. You’re hypocritical too often.
I think the Brown criticism is warranted at the moment. Senior player, well down on form and output for whatever reason.

Potting the club for reasons largely out of the current regimes control, not so much. I believe Kingy has got this one right.
 
I think the Brown criticism is warranted at the moment. Senior player, well down on form and output for whatever reason.

Potting the club for reasons largely out of the current regimes control, not so much. I believe Kingy has got this one right.
Brown isn't a first year player running around in a half fit body trying to hold down a key position either.

I'm not saying I entirely agree with all of the Brown criticism either, just that the 2 situations are very different overall.
 
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The fact Shaw coached some games in 2019 really worked for and against his perception.

It more or less formed his application presentation to get him the job.

But it also partially masks that he's a completely rookie coach and set expectations a little high, going off his preseason comments.

I applauded his aggressive mindset and still appreciate why he did it. But I think the short term lift he got from the troops last season had thinking we were nearer to the big dance than we were.

His affable but strong communication style probably helped mask his rookie status too. Now reality has sat him on his arse and he'll rightfully set out and be judged as a young coach learning the caper.
 
The fact Shaw coached some games in 2019 really worked for and against his perception.

It more or less formed his application presentation to get him the job.

But it also partially masks that he's a completely rookie coach and set expectations a little high, going off his preseason comments.

I applauded his aggressive mindset and still appreciate why he did it. But I think the short term lift he got from the troops last season had thinking we were nearer to the big dance than we were.

His affable but strong communication style probably helped mask his rookie status too. Now reality has sat him on his arse and he'll rightfully set out and be judged as a young coach learning the caper.

As a club I also think we've made two moves that have had a flow on given the current unprecedented events.

1) he has no senior mentor
2) we removed 2 line coaches

I am pretty willing to forgive this year entirely just to see how Things improve next year with a more stable run at it.
 

big_e

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As a club I also think we've made two moves that have had a flow on given the current unprecedented events.

1) he has no senior mentor
2) we removed 2 line coaches

I am pretty willing to forgive this year entirely just to see how Things improve next year with a more stable run at it.
FWIW, we're not the only club to let go of coaches. Granted this is a couple of months old now but clubs stood down or let go of development coaches, line coaches, analysts, etc. The fact we chose to move on the two we did probably had more to do with the fact we could most easily replace their roles with existing staff.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/435419/how-your-coaching-team-will-look-after-covid-19-changes
 
FWIW, we're not the only club to let go of coaches. Granted this is a couple of months old now but clubs stood down or let go of development coaches, line coaches, analysts, etc. The fact we chose to move on the two we did probably had more to do with the fact we could most easily replace their roles with existing staff.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/435419/how-your-coaching-team-will-look-after-covid-19-changes

What's interesting is it seems that those that stood down line coaches over dev coaches are now holding up the ladder with the one exception being the dogs.
 
Clarkson did pretty well with a list full of great players, Now his list is slightly above average and he is struggling. Their list is better than ours as of right now, we have some players that are better but overall you'd likely go with them, yet they still suck.

Whilst you can say a coach is dependant on the list you could also look to a coach for direction. Rhyce and Brady haven't had the time to chart that course but it does look like we will be going very defensive and rely on players kicking out of defense.
 
Does anyone feel like Shaw has maybe put too much structure on how he wants us to play? That was always brads downfall is that he was so strict with his gameplans and structure

I feel like at the start he took off the shackles and gave confidence to our boys to play to our strengths. Now it looks like 95% of us look completely shot of any confidence

Now, it’s almost like he is worried to take any risks due to our copious amounts of injuries and our bad form.

I feel bad for him. This is a ******* nightmare to watch. I can’t imagine the amounts of pressure he would be feeling as a first year coach with everything that has happened in 2020

Need to support him through this!

I feel the opposite. I don't see any structure to how we attack.
 

big_e

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What's interesting is it seems that those that stood down line coaches over dev coaches are now holding up the ladder with the one exception being the dogs.
It will be interesting to see what happens long-term as a result of not having development coaches around.

I guess what I'm mostly saying is that I wonder if it's more a case of deciding who we want most in the club and then figuring out what to do with them. As opposed to "you know what? We don't need a defensive coach this year!", which is how a lot of people, particularly the media folks who should know better, seem to have taken it.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens long-term as a result of not having development coaches around.

I guess what I'm mostly saying is that I wonder if it's more a case of deciding who we want most in the club and then figuring out what to do with them. As opposed to "you know what? We don't need a defensive coach this year!", which is how a lot of people, particularly the media folks who should know better, seem to have taken it.

Pretty much. If the view from Rawlings and the people that matter is that eggs were put in the 2020 basket to hit the draft and we were at least 2-3 seasons away then decisions made for the long term are absolutely the right ones - however unpleasant to watch on field.
 
''The people they’re bashing have been there five minutes,”

From what I've seen.....people are questioning the efficiency skill set and game style the team are playing. No one is putting the blame on people (footy staff/players) that are new to the club. King has made that bit up to justify his rant on the tele.

Stick to the 'Lab' where you critique teams by pointing at stats.
 
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