I thought they were both great players and two of my favourites. And I agree it's both good PR for us and good for Mooney and Scarlett themselves to get coaching experience outside of their long term club. And effectively they and our club are dipping their toes in the water. No probs.
But I wonder about a few things. If they are genuinely one a day week coaches, how much how can they actually do during the season? Just reviewing a game properly across each of the forwards and defenders would take many hours.
Geelong have been a great footy club in recent years, but I do wonder about the Geelong-ification of our club with King, Scarlett, Mooney and another guy who worked with Macca at the Dons (Grant).
Time will tell if all this has been a great move, or perhaps otherwise Macca has hired too many guys he knows. The appointment of Hansen and Smith would be a counter argument to the last point.
Thoughts?
I'm a little iffy on this as well.
On one hand, he's bringing in people he knows to be "quality", are good at what they do, and share his views on the style of play and recruiting that Macca holds dear. They are (mostly) from a club who plays our brand of footy the most successfully out of anyone in the AFL, and this is a good indicator.
On the other, however, is bringing in staff that only share this view really a great move? I'm of the opinion that for good group dynamics, someone needs to at least play the devil's advocate; it would be better if somebody actually had a differing view, though. This would allow the other opinions to throw some ideas at Macca and perhaps implement something different on occasion, making us unpredictable and exciting to watch.
I also believe that Macca needs an experienced hand under him to help him find his legs. Not a Macca basher at all but I think our coaching department is lacking big experience. On field we have players like Morris, Murphy, Gia, Boyd, Cross etc to give guidance to the youngsters, but who do we have to do that in the coaches' box? Experience in there wouldn't hurt.
I love these coaching decisions and think they're good ones -
however, I still believe that they're only a good core. I'd like to see at least two more additions - an at least somewhat experienced coach/assistant and somebody who is a little more focused on uncontested footy to teach our players to spread from a contest and get themselves in space.