I replied to a thread on Ratten, and suggested the difficulty he would have in mixing the new set Game plan (strategy) and player empowerment.

What helps unskilled teams to maintain the buoyancey within a league (any league) is a set game plan. What enbles teams with talent and skill to hit the heights of success is a mixture of the game plan, and trusted empowerment for players to use their skills to their maximum effect. It means the teams dynamics are very hard to plan against, and helps turn the tide when the game is not going your way.

We have a number of very good footballers, whom have been made to look at little ordinary when trying to follow the joing dots of the game plan. A little freewheeling doesn't hurt, in fact it's the very reason why I enjoyed footy over other codes.

Interested to read your views.

Keep the faith, go blues!!

To empower players, they need to work within a structure. There is no defined structure or plan.

It's a pretty fluid structure, and does empower players to take the game on as they see fit. What you saw last night was a small handful going into their shells, and everyone else with 50% extra to do as a result.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Ratts didn't sufficiently motivate players mentally and tactically.

That performance last night was a wake up cal to the Carlton faithful and quite simply unacceptable.

We ar staring at the barrel of 1-6 in a months time..and that should be just about the nail in the coffin.

What we don't seem to see often, are players of the ability of Gibbs drift forward and create problems, or thornton switching and pushing forward, ala Scarlet. When you do push forward unexpectedly, you create uncertainty within the opposition, "will he push forward or won't he, should I stay with him or should I stay in the hole".

Empowering shouldn't allow the complete abandonment of the game plan, but should allow your talented players to press the excite button, and turn the game on its head. If you look back on the past two weeks, the only quater we looked exciting and truly dangerous was in Brisbane (third qtr) it took Simpson, Murphy amungst others, to really take the game on. They used their talent to change the course of the game. Once we returned to our over possesive structured style, the game fell right back into the hands of Brisbane.

I know we took a few chances in that game, that didn't pay off, and resulted in goals for Brisbane but at least the game was there to be won, as opposed to last nights game, when we never looked like breaking out of the possesive, numbers behind the ball bubble.

Made a post in another thread that eventually flowed into this discussion:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27758&p=1021086#p1021086

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Yes.

Essendon* just keep it simple and picked the right players to make it work, but we appear to be playing a game plan that we can't pull off and defend if it fails.

Ratten.

Good read Jimmae, I think I'm on the same wave length.

On the odd occassion we had a clearance from the middle, we still seemed to make sure that we had numbers behind the ball before we moved forward. That extra handpass, that popped out and hit the deck, causing the ball to be again handled and again handpassed. The senior or go to players, just didn't kick into over drive and mix it up. If they are empowered to change tact, it didn't seem all that clear to me.

On your point with Ratten being more of a father figure in terms of a coach, its not a bad trait. As a father you are allowed to do your block when the time and circumstances warrant it.

I agree there b.buzz, which is why I added the compassionate bit to reinforce the image I'm looking for. I think (and Doc seems to have backed this up with evidence) that Ratts is a bit too soft on how he corrects the kids at times.

Forgetting the basics of a structure deserves said block-doing.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.