aboynamedsue wrote:
toddkurnski wrote:
The club went through the right process to appoint him. At the time, he had come from the right club playing the right structures with the stamp from his previous employer. Someone who could develop as a coach as the group developed. When interviewed I am certain he would have impressed. Just look at today.
As the young players were been brought in since the 2015 draft, I think he did a good job of creating an enjoyable environment for them to settle into. The general feel for me from the outside and based on player retention and contract extensions was that he seem to at the very least create a galvanised group prepared to play for each other. A place they wanted to stay and build something. There was no more smell of the rot of the Malthouse years.
What failed to happen in my opinion is the development of his coaching ability. He had an excuse last year, but with enough talent available through the first half this year he couldn’t pinch the wins needed to keep the belief in either his own development or the teams.
I think it was the right thing to do when he was appointed. I think today was the right thing to do. It hasn’t worked out, not through effort, but perhaps because of ability. We just haven’t shown what other teams (Cats, Tigers, Pies) have shown when they spared their coaches. It happens.
I look forward to who can bring the best out of the playing group, which I still think is dripping with talent. Someone please harness it and ride it home.
Highlighted is the bit I’m grappling with. What is the difference between what Bolts had at his disposal this year compared to last year?
The club’s expectation was that we’d win more games this year, but it failed to provide him with the resources (ie. experienced quality new players, aligned with need) to achieve that. Once we failed to land Shiel, and Docherty did his knee again, I think the club ought to have reset its expectations for 2019 because it was always difficult to see where the short term improvement was going to come from.
I understand those that feel that way. You can make the case that
1. He had poor assistant coaches
2. He lacked good senior players
3. He copped injuries to key players
My feeling is, I can agree with all the above and can see them as mitigating factors for why he hasn’t been able to win games, but the last 4 out of 5 weeks we have again produced football played to a game plan that is unable to find a path, any path, to victory and in fact look further away now than we did 18 months ago. There needed to be natural improvement after a decent preseason for most players. There wasn’t.
Even historically bad teams have done better. An Essendon* side banned for drug use, made to play with top up players was able to grind out similar results.
As others have said. Bolton was a good person. Whenever I watched videos of him with the players he reminded me of my U/16 coach, in a good way. Really positive, always looking to unlock the best inside people, asking people to push themselves and play not only for yourself but for your team mates. That’s all great but the game plan, whatever it was, was producing results below a bar that was only inches higher and he just couldn’t make up the difference and I think, along with what looks like the players and the administration, couldn’t see how he could do that even if all the points above were resolved for him.
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