Interesting choice of coaches there. Williams is such a controlling figure that if brought in you are essentially handing over the keys to the club. He's a modern day Sheedy who runs everything, so you'd want to be really sure that you agree with his methodology and dare I say - structures. I know everyone believes Ratten's appointment circumvented 'process' and therefore wasn't researched or informed enough, well sigining Choco would probably be argued better than 'whadabout 2004!?' His personaility divides players and in a club that lacks leadership and has a nasty culture of questioning the authority of the coach, you'd have to say he'd be a risk.
Then there's Woosha, I'm not sure his coaching career has done a lot to promote him honestly. It seems like an advertisment for no cattle no success. From a gameplan point of view I can't see him doing a whole lot differently with our list, maybe Waite from CHB to CHF in the 3rd quarter.
Roos is an interesting one, successful yes, likeable yes, but again is stuck completely in a gameplan that ultimately effects not just the way the players play, but also how a list is structured. For Roos it's about stoppages, suffocating and stopping the opposition run, we know it can work, we've seen Sydney's success. But you have to ask how does this apply to our list? Trim the fat, get rid of the guys who don't fit into the plan: no Houla, retire Stevens, trade Thornton. If there's a hole in the list bring in a 29 year old who's on the outs at another club. Shane Tuck isn't guarenteed of a game at the Tiges anymore, second rounder for him. The draft is now about guys who can execute the game plan, we've previously filled our list with 6'2 runners but now it's about Nick Suban, Mitch Farmer and Robbie Gray. 3 years down the track we've turned Murphy Judd and Gibbs into blue collar workers and we have a list that is half way between Roosie's stocky tackle midgets and Hughesie's running flankers, and our average 65 points a game means we've had our FTA coverage cut in half. This is not to say that this system wont bring success, but it'll be on the back of some big changes that will take plenty of time to implement, but as Carlton supporters we're good at patience.
Now I understand that it's not just about giving a coach his head so you can see his plans fully implemented, Richmond would have been better off if they sacked Wallace after 2 years, there'd be less McMahon and JON types and players would have more of a clue about defensive pressure. But if you analyse what Ratten is doing to the list and the way we play, you'll see he's basically doing what people have been calling for through the Pagan years. His first 2 drafts have seen footballers with as few flaws as possible brought in. You take 08 and every player drafted would be described as certain AFL right up to Tiller who was an development option. In 07 there were far more exciting options than Browne left on the board but none of them more certain at forging a position than Browne. All of them can kick, and with the exception of Yarran - who was reknowned for his extraordinary skill level - all of them would have intensity and courage under their list of attributes. People have bemoaned our lack of forward options, we brought in Yarran and all of a sudden we needed a midfielder in Rich. Waite has been given more time up front, Stevens taken out of the guts, Carrazzo out of the guts, Gibbs in the Guts, Houla away from the backline and even out of the side, Fev pushing up to create more space in the forward line, Kruezer resting forward... all of these things have been implemented and I've been reading about them for years on here. Fact is the list isn't complete, it isn't hard enough, there are still plenty of passengers and there's still a void in the senior leadership ranks. The inconsistency throughout games means the gameplan is flickering in and out, but the players believe it enough to want to follow it, they just aren't executing it well enough yet. It's going to take time, and it's going to take time for Murphy and Gibbs to step into leadership positions.
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