billc3 wrote:
Interesting to hear Hardwick on OTC saying they had a review of their strengths at the beginning of the year and worked out how they should be playing.
Explains why a pretty ordinary team won a flag. Dusty's year is the other.
It's always an interesting call as a coach. Do you play how you should OR how you know your players can play. Often by the time you get players playing the way you want, the season or career is over.??
Tough one, but I think we've been plan focussed for years now to the detriment of many players.. Hopefully changes like Jones may be a new path.
Go you good things
This is something I thought Ratten did well. He managed to create game plans based on the strengths of the players we had. When we had our players fit and firing, we had some great results. But when Waite/Kreuzer/etc went down it made that same style ineffective and there would be a lag in adapting the style to fit the current 22. I think Hardwick would've been similarly challenged had Rance/Martin been injured.
It's evident that Ratten was getting the most (or at least close to the most) out of the playing group based on our subsequent results with Malthouse who sought to enforce a game style upon the playing group, regardless of their strengths.
It's interesting the idea that you don't want to be a one man team because what if Buddy/Fev/Carey get injured/shut down in a big game? Therefore, lets create a game style that doesn't demand such excellence from an individual and focuses on rigid discipline from the player group. Conversely, if that's the case, why bother trying to recruit the best players if you don't seek to utilise their strengths?