17th Premiership wrote:
Big questions about Teague are whether or not he just provided a fresh change and picked off some low hanging fruit to unleash our improvement, whether or not he has a longer term plan to take the club forward and towards the top 4 and how will he respond if/when other clubs begin to counter our new game plan.
The big questions about Voss and Ratten are whether they have genuinely grown as coaches since their first stints. Both took their teams to finals. Voss then niaively made terrible recruiting decisions incl bringing in Fev and shooting for a flag, having over-rated the list. And I’ve heard queries about his man management. But he does have great aggressive traits which we could use and obviously led the Lions to a three-peat.
Ratten did everything asked of him at Carlton but the persistent queries amongst the club leadership was whether he had what it took to take us all the way. Admittedly, like the Lions, we over-rated our list at the time which featured Judd, Murphy, Kreuzer, Gibbs and Fev.
My feel from way outside the club is that Teague is the smartest and has the most even temperament of the three. He immediately tinkered with the game plan just enough to make a huge difference and the players have warmed to him. And then he shown a strong ability in the first few matches to respond tactically during the game. And I feel like he is very comfortable in his own skin. I think this equips him to be the best coach.
Voss strikes me as a natural leader and winner but not convinced he can devise and communicate to others as easily as he led in his playing days. But if he gets through the coaching selection hoops I’d be comfortable with him as coach.
I am sure Ratten has grown through his assistant role with the.hawks where he did a great job with their mids. However, as we saw with Bolton, seeing how Clarkson does things doesn’t mean that you can do them yourself. Again, if he goes through the process and wins, I am sure he will have proved himself worthy.
But at the end of the day, my preference as it stands now is: Teague, then Voss, then Ratten.
This assumes two things:
1) That we continue our good form and probably need to win at least one more match
2) That Clarkson is not available (for no more than $1m/yr - he is the best coach but paying him too much would cost us too much in other areas).
I have Voss a long last after his failure at Brisbane as coach. Don't want failures. At the same time Ratten was getting our side into finals on a regular basis. About the only one who has done no good from Clarkson's group is Bolton. Fagan, Hardwick, Simpson, Beverige have done pretty well i'd say.
I have Teague, then Ratten, then daylight.