News Phil Walsh - New AFC Coach and Art Critic

King Elvis

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He was a crap coach, simple as that.

Crap during the week. Crap during the match. Crap at leading and establishing a disciplined culture.

We have an enormously talented list; I'd argue our top 18 is close to the best in the competition; we almost made the 8 despite poor selections, poor tactics, poor player management, poor structures and poor gameplans; we almost made the 8 due to the quality of our list and individual brilliance.

If Walsh is the real deal, which he appears to be, then we will make the top 4 this year, and people will realise how dysfunctional everything was under Sando.
 

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Peter J

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He was a crap coach, simple as that.

Crap during the week. Crap during the match. Crap at leading and establishing a disciplined culture.

We have an enormously talented list; I'd argue our top 18 is close to the best in the competition; we almost made the 8 despite poor selections, poor tactics, poor player management, poor structures and poor gameplans; we almost made the 8 due to the quality of our list and individual brilliance.

If Walsh is the real deal, which he appears to be, then we will make the top 4 this year, and people will realise how dysfunctional everything was under Sando.
And to be fair, you made that assessment very early on
 

cmndstab

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He was a crap coach, simple as that.

Crap during the week. Crap during the match. Crap at leading and establishing a disciplined culture.

We have an enormously talented list; I'd argue our top 18 is close to the best in the competition; we almost made the 8 despite poor selections, poor tactics, poor player management, poor structures and poor gameplans; we almost made the 8 due to the quality of our list and individual brilliance.

If Walsh is the real deal, which he appears to be, then we will make the top 4 this year, and people will realise how dysfunctional everything was under Sando.
The problem is this is classic fan bias towards players.

We're all guilty of overrating our own players, and yet we're not winning all of our matches. What gives, I thought we had the best team? It MUST be the coaching staff! They've taken the best playing group in the league and squandered it! They must be the worst group of coaches ever!!

You may be right, but I think it's much more likely that we just have a somewhat run-of-the-mill playing group who has thus far been coached to perform at roughly their expected level.
 

King Elvis

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The problem is this is classic fan bias towards players.

We're all guilty of overrating our own players, and yet we're not winning all of our matches. What gives, I thought we had the best team? It MUST be the coaching staff! They've taken the best playing group in the league and squandered it! They must be the worst group of coaches ever!!

You may be right, but I think it's much more likely that we just have a somewhat run-of-the-mill playing group who has thus far been coached to perform at roughly their expected level.
When the players don't know their roles, when we constantly make poor selections, when the side lacks discipline, when we make the same mistakes every week, when the structure and the gameplan doesn't work and nothing is done to address it over two years - and we still come within ~3 games of being a top 4 side, then I think it's fair to attribute the majority of the blame to the coaching staff, while acknowledging the quality of our playing group.
 

cmndstab

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All we can really say is that we were only good enough to get within 3 games of the top 4 sides.

Is it the coaching staff's fault? Or are the players just not good enough?

Was the game plan just incomprehensible/poorly communicated? Or were the players just not good enough to implement it? Was the lack of discipline a coaching issue, or do we just have undisciplined players? Is it perhaps possible that we make the same mistakes week in and week out because our players lack basic footy smarts?
 

Big Gazoongas

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The problem is this is classic fan bias towards players.

We're all guilty of overrating our own players, and yet we're not winning all of our matches. What gives, I thought we had the best team? It MUST be the coaching staff! They've taken the best playing group in the league and squandered it! They must be the worst group of coaches ever!!

You may be right, but I think it's much more likely that we just have a somewhat run-of-the-mill playing group who has thus far been coached to perform at roughly their expected level.
No... just no!!

If this was even half correct Sando would still be our coach.

King Elvis is right Sando was shit.... That's why the club sacked Sando.
 

King Elvis

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Was the game plan just incomprehensible/poorly communicated? Or were the players just not good enough to implement it? Was the lack of discipline a coaching issue, or do we just have undisciplined players? Is it perhaps possible that we make the same mistakes week in and week out because our players lack basic footy smarts?
All possible, but I think it's pretty obvious that, in this case, the issue was the coaching, not the players.

I'm confident that it will become even more obvious this year.
 

skoobydoo

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I don't care much for his winning %

we missed the finals two years running

winning % was skewed with wins against expansion teams

bottom line is our list has under achieved even with the assistance of favorable fixtures
Our 2012 draw was an absolute gift to the AFC and particularly Sando. And usually a club is in there one year (2012), and then pushing it the next. Unfortunately our race , and Sando's race was run (2012), particularly after our disastrous 2013 pre-season.
 

King Elvis

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Our 2012 draw was an absolute gift to the AFC and particularly Sando. And usually a club is in there one year (2012), and then pushing it the next. Unfortunately our race , and Sando's race was run (2012), particularly after our disastrous 2013 pre-season.
I don't think our fixture was the main factor; Craigy left a team that was super fit and ultra disciplined, when Sando came in and backed things off a bit, they thrived - unfortunately, he backed off too much, and our discipline disappeared and out fitness went to shit.
 

skoobydoo

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I want to add to this thread here that it is not all Sando's, or the team's fault, we didn't kick on post 2012. But now the decks have been cleared significantly and we have cast off a lot of inertia/same old-same old. It will get better.
 

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Sanders

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The winning percentage is a pretty meaningless stat considering it's over such a short period of time, with uneven fixtures and brand new teams coming in.
Oh come on, that's terrible analysis. It's a plain fact, interpret it how you want but don't lower the tone by talking about irrelevancies.

The reason that fact has been quoted across the media the last 3 months is because of the time frame not in spite of it

All it really boils down to is that we had one year where we very obviously overperformed, and two where we very obviously underperformed.
2012 was a fluke but 13/14 were reversion to the mean. Not underperformance.



I don't think Sando was a poor coach as such, but he clearly wasn't a great one.
Now that's the point. What likelihood that a complete disaster as some revisionists have painted him, would have the highest winning % before he was sacked. Does Neeld have this at the Dees?
 

skoobydoo

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I don't think our fixture was the main factor; Craigy left a team that was super fit and ultra disciplined, when Sando came in and backed things off a bit, they thrived - unfortunately, he backed off too much, and our discipline disappeared and out fitness went to shit.
Yep to some degree I agree, but credit to Sando he did improve our contested ball sit. and we as supporters and particularly the AFC board were sold on, and employed him thereon. Sando knew that a spike would come from a redirection of the players toward contested ball, but unfortunately beyond that he seemed to present nothing. You know, I have these recurring images of how (initially)we could win/move the ball so well from centre clearances during Craigy, and I long for some of that methodology to reappear. But my love for old fashioned exciting breakaway football is destined to fade away as the game devolves into the modern dour defensive 'stop them scoring' soccer mentality.

Anyway I agree with you re discipline - the coach must be, and seen to be, a total disciplinarian.
 

Messiah

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All we can really say is that we were only good enough to get within 3 games of the top 4 sides.

Is it the coaching staff's fault? Or are the players just not good enough?

Was the game plan just incomprehensible/poorly communicated? Or were the players just not good enough to implement it? Was the lack of discipline a coaching issue, or do we just have undisciplined players? Is it perhaps possible that we make the same mistakes week in and week out because our players lack basic footy smarts?
Good to see someone agrees it is all Rendell's fault.
 
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Can't see the similarity myself.

Hopefully more like Shaw to blight...
Shaw was a proven coach at Fitroy. He came to Adelaide with all the credentials to do well.

That was the theory. But looking back it's easy to say the Crows got it wrong but not everyone agreed with his departure. He was arguably the architect of our later success. Too easy to forget this.


Walsh may be the greatest assistant coach of all time but he is yet to face game day.
 

Sanders

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Cornes had lost the players (allegedly), no defensive focus, not fit enough. The players ran the show. Lost close games, mentally weak?

Shaw was the old school, hard task master. He'd sort them out with his no bullshit approach. Everyone thought he'd toughen em up. Good tactician for the suburban war fare of Melb footy.

Cornes = soft
Shaw = hard bastard with a bit of mongrel

And I think walsh will do alright, but it will take more than just flogging them and telling em whose boss. Which is what everyone seems to be lauding him for
 

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And I think walsh will do alright, but it will take more than just flogging them and telling em whose boss. Which is what everyone seems to be lauding him for
I think (hope) he offers more than this. For mine the hardening up is pleasant, but I'm most excited with the talk of his game day ability. By accounts this was what got him the job, coaching that quarter of footy with Roo, Nobes and Fages supposedly sealed the deal and blew the other candidates out of the water. We can do all the posturing and what not in the world in the pre-season and during the week but having experience and nous in the coaches box on gameday and wielding them effectively is where I see we can most improve.
 
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