bornadog
26-06-2013, 08:29 AM
25 June 2013
The summation of the game for us is that we just have to be a bit braver and more concise when we have the ball, and as a coaching group, back our players with some good advice, help and coaching to make the right decision, particularly in high pressure situations.
We weren’t able to counter a couple of Richmond’s real strengths on the weekend. They can be pretty difficult to play against when they are making earlier attacking decisions and they got us a little with that — but a lot of that is to do with young midfielders just learning when to make attacking and defensive decisions.
For almost 18 months now, we have spent a lot time teaching defence, attack, ability to win contests and stoppages, and that hasn’t changed. What we are in the process of doing is helping our younger, inexperienced players put it all in place in games consistently. They are actually quite good in one or two areas, but not many young players come in and are good defensively right away — and that is where our footy program kicks in. We want to be a good contested side, we want to be a smart uncontested side and we don’t want to be too reliant on either one.
Our first four picks from the 2012 draft played on Saturday night and have all shown a capacity to deal with the game when there is pressure on — either to win the ball, or to commit to the contest or just think their way through a difficult situation. And just as importantly, they are good young kids who work hard, listen and are very coachable. We believe our older players have to take a lot of credit for that, they are doing a lot of good work with them and putting some good habits in.
As we have done all season, we will continue to reward people that play well at VFL level. We have been bringing them in and probably the past five or six inclusions, over a couple weeks have all played very well at that level. There is playing well and having a big contribution to games, but what is also just as important is that when they are playing at VFL level, they are playing their particular position or role, the way we want them to. That’s why we are really excited about our own team in the VFL next year; it is going to assist enormously with the development of our players.
Our record over the past 18 months when we play teams around us on the ladder has been quite favourable, we just haven’t had a lot of those games. However, we are really confident we will get a good result in the long run, because we’re consistently being matched against more mature, more developed and more experienced teams. A lot of the experiences are there and the situations the players are finding themselves in will stand them in good stead later on.
We are looking forward to playing more consistently this week against Melbourne, and in particular starting the game better — we want to be braver with the ball, defend well and continue to show the hunger to compete. If we see that happening on Saturday night, then the result will take care of itself.
See you at the game.
Brendan McCartney
The summation of the game for us is that we just have to be a bit braver and more concise when we have the ball, and as a coaching group, back our players with some good advice, help and coaching to make the right decision, particularly in high pressure situations.
We weren’t able to counter a couple of Richmond’s real strengths on the weekend. They can be pretty difficult to play against when they are making earlier attacking decisions and they got us a little with that — but a lot of that is to do with young midfielders just learning when to make attacking and defensive decisions.
For almost 18 months now, we have spent a lot time teaching defence, attack, ability to win contests and stoppages, and that hasn’t changed. What we are in the process of doing is helping our younger, inexperienced players put it all in place in games consistently. They are actually quite good in one or two areas, but not many young players come in and are good defensively right away — and that is where our footy program kicks in. We want to be a good contested side, we want to be a smart uncontested side and we don’t want to be too reliant on either one.
Our first four picks from the 2012 draft played on Saturday night and have all shown a capacity to deal with the game when there is pressure on — either to win the ball, or to commit to the contest or just think their way through a difficult situation. And just as importantly, they are good young kids who work hard, listen and are very coachable. We believe our older players have to take a lot of credit for that, they are doing a lot of good work with them and putting some good habits in.
As we have done all season, we will continue to reward people that play well at VFL level. We have been bringing them in and probably the past five or six inclusions, over a couple weeks have all played very well at that level. There is playing well and having a big contribution to games, but what is also just as important is that when they are playing at VFL level, they are playing their particular position or role, the way we want them to. That’s why we are really excited about our own team in the VFL next year; it is going to assist enormously with the development of our players.
Our record over the past 18 months when we play teams around us on the ladder has been quite favourable, we just haven’t had a lot of those games. However, we are really confident we will get a good result in the long run, because we’re consistently being matched against more mature, more developed and more experienced teams. A lot of the experiences are there and the situations the players are finding themselves in will stand them in good stead later on.
We are looking forward to playing more consistently this week against Melbourne, and in particular starting the game better — we want to be braver with the ball, defend well and continue to show the hunger to compete. If we see that happening on Saturday night, then the result will take care of itself.
See you at the game.
Brendan McCartney