Virgin Blue wrote:
Don't take this the wrong way but you seem to be making a lot of excuses for various players.
Are you happy with our kicking skills, as a club?
BTW ball drop or mental issues or bad judgement, whatever, it doesn't matter, truth is a lot of our players cannot kick consistently, for whatever reason
They're excuses for the time being because they are easily corrected with a little bit of one-on-one coaching and discussion with the player, and then said player putting the work in.
You've seen the results first hand with blokes like Russell & Carrazzo (last season). Sometimes it's a simple matter of running too hard, then finally getting your turn to kick and having jelly legs from lactic acid build up. It's a grind out there and it's not always going to be perfect footy, but the biggest thing that needs to change is how the boys concentrate on all the tasks they have to perform: how they position themselves at stoppages/packs/once the ball is entering ourf50/d50/midfield, how we tackle, how we zone, how we man, how we kick, where we kick, when we handball, etc.
Give them a piece of paper and test them, and I think you'd discover they will find the right answer. The problem is that when the question is asked on the field, for whatever reason, they're not finding the answer. That is the concern. If they can identify it off the field and on the training track, the blame starts to move away from the coaches, and back onto some players panicking on the field, or completely ignoring instruction. Don't get me wrong, that still leaves some responsibility with the coaches but as a player, when you're given homework, you do it. It's what you're paid for.
Away from that, these issues were further highlighted last night because we seemed to have individuals who lost their composure with fumbles when there was seemingly no reason for it, and scrubbed kicks because they felt they were under pressure. Complete mental fragility, and no one raising their voice amongst the panic to reassure, or if they were no one was prepared to listen.
This then stems into another discussion about player empowerment and authoritarian approaches. Personally I think we have a structure on field that empowers the players to go with their instincts, but we lack authorities to steady the ship out there when it gets rough, save for Judd, Simpson, Scotland Murphy, Russell, Kreuzer and occasionally Gibbs. The problem there is that the latter two shouldn't have such responsibilities, as evidenced by Gibbs not being able to dominate consistently (which at just on 21 is entirely understandable) and Kreuzer still getting his skills up to scratch. We need more names, particularly up forward, who are prepared to stamp their authority on things instead of pretending to, or finger pointing without real insight into what his team mates can do better.
Away from that, perhaps our off field approach is too authoritarian in the sense that the coaches may be focussing too much on correcting issues and directing our players on these, rather than highlighting and reinforcing the decisions players have to make on the field. Ratts seems to have made an impression in the media of being more of a compassionate father-figure as coach than an individual who will react aggressively in the face of insubordination, of any form. I don't expect to see a representation of that one way or the other in the media, but I have yet to see him really fire up in quarter-time addresses or at training when the chips are down.
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