Analysis The Coach – Simon Goodwin: "Working incredibly hard" until at least 2026

While we are winning i don't care who's doing the baulk of what, or if the assistants deserve most of the shine. If I'm going to bag him when we are losing its only fair to give him credit when we are winning.

Good job, friend. 🤗
 
Just as importantly has been sticking with the smalls. ANB and Spargo who 80% of posters on here would have delisted are both huge for our forward pressure.
Giving Jackson heaps of ruck time etc.
I always like ANB when others bagged him but tbf I didn't think Spargo was good enough but his defensive pressure up forward is immense

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Topkent

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I always like ANB when others bagged him but tbf I didn't think Spargo was good enough but his defensive pressure up forward is immense

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It is kinda funny that everyone said we needed smart ball users and 🤮 outside speed and class

ANB and Spargo are smart ball users and their work rate and desire to tackle is fantastic
 

Xhoquelin

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It is kinda funny that everyone said we needed smart ball users and 🤮 outside speed and class

ANB and Spargo are smart ball users and their work rate and desire to tackle is fantastic
Nibbler might be a smart ball-user but the weighting of his kicks is clearly far inferior to Spargo. Pressure and workrate really popped though have to say.
 

Xhoquelin

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Fair to say that's the most complete Dees performance in 15 years?

Not been all perfect and I still see a few weak spots in our best 22 that make me coy about declaring us genuine contenders, but that's a bloody ******* good modern blueprint game. The defense was simply insane, and sometimes dominating defense is enough to be a contender.

And Goody deserves credit for all that. He's clearly identified, along with Mahoney and assistants and co. our needs over the last few years. Some solutions have been external(Lever/May/Lingers/Kozzie) but more impressively internally we've converted Gussy, and Spargs is finally sticking tackles now.

Jacko giving us a 2nd mobile tall is huge too. I wouldn't play Weed at all honestly if Jacko is fit. Jacko somehow reads the flight of the ball in the air much better than Weed anyway and is probably more mobile too. So that was a simply awesome draft pick when it would've been easy to draft for need there and pick Lachie Ash or Hayden Young(who probably will both be ******* guns too).

Only a premiership can fully repent his last few years which haven't been great, but there's some semblances of genuine good coaching decisions, and tough ones, over the last few years.

One day we'll look back at Harmes at half back with a smile, hopefully(didn't even think it was that bad but that's the only one I can think of ATM)
 
He looks a different character since his split with his wife. Far more relaxed.

new assistants are making a huge difference, but credit to him for his overall management
 
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He’s coaching a heck of a lot from the bench. Obviously a lot of responsibility and trust with the coaches in the box overlooking how the game is playing out.
 

CTHORANGE

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I am probably his biggest critic on here but the coaches box were brilliant last night. There was pretty clearly a message from the coaches box halfway through the first quarter to stop the forward handball as it was killing us and we switched straight into a more possession based game.

This was one of the best things about the game wasn't it, the maturity our players showed to realise that fast play on and long kicking was not working at all and changed to the short chipping possession game was brilliant, it very slowly turned the tide until we got the game onto our terms, great signs
 

Topkent

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Remember when everyone was saying Chaplin was a bad coach for no reason other than we were crap and I was on me pat Malone saying no one has any idea if he can coach or not. Now he's the coach of the best defence in the league and hasn't gotten a single mention from anyone?

I honestly believe the coaches make up about 29-30% of performance. The players control the rest.
 
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Been thinking Chaplin deserves a little shout out. We've been very good there.
That said, defence does feel a bit like a "team" thing- the mids need to carry a bit of it and they've been great.
I think coaches can help, but you do need the "cattle".
Vintage Pig, Salem in "career-best", Lever, May, that guy we recruited as a wing but is not a wing... all very strong so far.
 

stEdy

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Remember when everyone was saying Chaplin was a bad coach for no reason other than we were crap and I was on me pat Malone saying no one has any idea if he can coach or not. Now he's the coach of the best defence in the league and hasn't gotten a single mention from anyone?

I honestly believe the coaches make up about 29-30% of performance. The players control the rest.
I feel this.

Head coach has to keep everyone happy, playing for him/the club and working well together, also has to NOT lose the core group of players. Goody has always had the players on side and has made the right call filtering out players that weren't going to work (Watts, Hogan etc).

Then you essentially keep tinkering with the assistants until you get the right mix. There's always such a churn with assistants around the different clubs it's hard to keep them all together, especially if you become a gun club and other clubs pay big $$$ for your assistants.

Yze/Choco coming in has had some distinct difference in the way we set up which has made us much more balanced. But the big win has been the maturity of our core group coming together/combined with our elite fitness and lack of injuries to key players.
 

Topkent

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I feel this.

Head coach has to keep everyone happy, playing for him/the club and working well together, also has to NOT lose the core group of players. Goody has always had the players on side and has made the right call filtering out players that weren't going to work (Watts, Hogan etc).

Then you essentially keep tinkering with the assistants until you get the right mix. There's always such a churn with assistants around the different clubs it's hard to keep them all together, especially if you become a gun club and other clubs pay big $$$ for your assistants.

Yze/Choco coming in has had some distinct difference in the way we set up which has made us much more balanced. But the big win has been the maturity of our core group coming together/combined with our elite fitness and lack of injuries to key players.
Yep exactly
Bernie Vince was saying on the Ms that Trac decided he wanted to be a good player 2 years ago and that why he is now. He fixed his diet, he trained harder and he became more disciplined. If you get 15 players to decide to do that then you don't need a great coach per say
 

The Dr

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Remember when everyone was saying Chaplin was a bad coach for no reason other than we were crap and I was on me pat Malone saying no one has any idea if he can coach or not. Now he's the coach of the best defence in the league and hasn't gotten a single mention from anyone?

I honestly believe the coaches make up about 29-30% of performance. The players control the rest.

I feel 29-30% is far too broad a figure. Please narrow it down.


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Coaching from a tactical standpoint probably gets more credit than it deserves in modern footy. You can have the best tactician in the world but if the players can't execute your plan then it's a pretty useless plan.

A bunch of our players have said that we're playing a much more simple game plan than we have in previous years and that the main difference is players are being given more specific roles to do and not try to win the game off their own boot. Our master plan to disarm Richmond on Saturday was just move the ball by hand and don't kick to their loose talls.
 
Underrated note: we are now 4/4 on the G this year too. Will go a long way if we keep that up
 

Ando727

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My apologies TK, I’ll make a point of no longer taking subtle post shots at poor Simon or for that matter anyone else involved with MFC. For fu** sake is this really why you are so wound up, out of the 2 of us I don’t think it’s me that needs to stop being defensive. And the irony and your complete lack of self awareness regarding you getting offend at me taking potshots at Goodwin isn’t lost on me.

You taking potshots at anything and anybody you slightly disagree with on any subject is your MO.

But other than that I’m having a great time and really enjoying the footy at the moment, as I’ve posted before the path of least resistance is Goodwin coming good and hopefully we are seeing that before our very eyes.
You blokes obviously have history, which is stirring something up.

I will say that I agree that Williams and Yze must have made a difference. We look different this year - and they are the key coaching personnel that changed over the off season, who are in the role of improving what has improved a lot this year. It's Occam's Razor. The changes follow from the personnel changes. Goody's still learning too, of course. He's evolving, but he needed some extra help. I can't fault him this year, but my god he was crap in the very recent past. I'm glad he's listening to his assistants, and that they are making gains where they need to. It seems the coaches are working as a better team now.
 

Topkent

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Demon bhoy

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You blokes obviously have history, which is stirring something up.

I will say that I agree that Williams and Yze must have made a difference. We look different this year - and they are the key coaching personnel that changed over the off season, who are in the role of improving what has improved a lot this year. It's Occam's Razor. The changes follow from the personnel changes. Goody's still learning too, of course. He's evolving, but he needed some extra help. I can't fault him this year, but my god he was crap in the very recent past. I'm glad he's listening to his assistants, and that they are making gains where they need to. It seems the coaches are working as a better team now.
HaHa all good with TK and I, we have the occasional back and forth but we always hug it out in the end.

Ive been at least as harsh towards Goodwin as anyone on this board which has upset some people but his overall record had been poor to say the least, and the criticism of his coaching from myself and others was completely fair and reasonable, and at the end of the day the bloke in charge bares the burden of responsibility for failure weather your an AFL coach or CEO or running a road crew.

Having said that Goodwin deserves all the praise for the complete turnaround this year in terms of off season hires games plan evolution, resurrecting careers and getting what appears to be complete buy in from the players. As flat as I felt at the end of last season I feel completely energised by the performance from the club this year.

Goodwin seeing the light is our club’s quickest path to success and it appears he has and long may it last, and full credit to him
 

Demon bhoy

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Does anyone remember when Thomlinson went back last year? Is he almost single handedly the reason our defence is so good?
One of my biggest gripes with Goodwin was playing blokes out of position with Lever getting caught playing as a key back and being taken to the goal square constantly ******* doing my head in, to me it was a complete waste of his talent. Thomlinson going back seems to have solved that problem and set Lever free to play the role he is now dominating in, good luck or good management at this point the results speak for themselves.
 
One of my biggest gripes with Goodwin was playing blokes out of position with Lever getting caught playing as a key back and being taken to the goal square constantly ******* doing my head in, to me it was a complete waste of his talent. Thomlinson going back seems to have solved that problem and set Lever free to play the role he is now dominating in, good luck or good management at this point the results speak for themselves.

Tomlinson said on The Sunday Footy Show he actually spoke to Goodwin and said he could play that role. Just a good working relationship is all it is.
 

Demon bhoy

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Tomlinson said on The Sunday Footy Show he actually spoke to Goodwin and said he could play that role. Just a good working relationship is all it is.
Happy to be corrected on this but Im fairly sure Tomlinson was a Key defender originally at GWS and was pushed up the ground to fill a hole, either way he is doing a cracking job and good on he and Goodwin for putting their heads together and getting a great result, he is as important structurally as any of our defenders right now
 
Well it's pretty obvious Williams and Yze are making an impact but Goodwin deserves some recognition.

Richardson is forgotten here but I think a key part of his role is to oversee football operations and act as a conduit between the FD and the executive.

He has good experience from his Port days and it looks like he's doing well at the minute given how well we are working together as a unit.
 
Happy to be corrected on this but Im fairly sure Tomlinson was a Key defender originally at GWS and was pushed up the ground to fill a hole, either way he is doing a cracking job and good on he and Goodwin for putting their heads together and getting a great result, he is as important structurally as any of our defenders right now

Yeah thats right. He started as a defender at the Giants and got moved to the wing when Scully got injured and never went back. The club put the interview up on youtube if you're interested.
 
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