Individual player improvements

[the_boy_jake]

All the talk of bottoming out, 23-28 year old footballers and 5 year plans aside, who do you think has improved under the coaching of TW and assistants?

For young players there is a natural progression so I'd like you to ask yourself if you think they have improved appreciably in comparison with players of their age at other clubs.

Let me try a few players:

Bowden, J. - Improved
Bowden, P. - Improved
Coughlan, M - Injuries and the changing game most probably to blame but stagnated.
Hyde - Improved
Johnson - Gone backwards
Krak - Backwards
Meyer - Hasn't progressed.
Newman - Has gone from being a real prospect to a solid player IMO.
Pattison - It must be hard for the coaches to work with someone who has no footy smarts.
Petts - Improved
Polo - Improved
Richo - Still going
Schulz - Had hoped he would be kicking bags by now
Tambo - still waiting for him to announce his arrival
Tivendale - backwards. He's never had any skill apart from a reasonably long kick but his confidence is shot now.
Lids - He's doing OK, but the kid potentially has absolutely everything you want in a modern footballer and I can't remember him having 4 really solid quarters. A bit of a blot for the coaching staff IMO.
Foley - Improved.
Hall - backwards.
Raines - Improved.
Tuck - Backwards

I could go on.

I've had the privilege of watching the Lions week in week out over the years and Matthews has this wonderful ability to improve the individual ability and confidence of his footballers seemingly by the week. If a player goes backwards he usually keeps going right out the door.

There are a few players in the above list who keep going backwards year in year out and are still on the list. So they either have potential and the coaches can't unlock it or we are not tough enough. I suspect the latter.

[Tigermonk]

sack the coach you will see some improvement in a instant

[the_boy_jake]

sack the coach you will see some improvement in a instant

I think you have to be realistic and say we can't afford to do that financially, even if you do think Wallace is the worst coach in the land.

What I would like to see.

1) Some accountability for the situation I outlined in the original post. Either our list management is poor or our coaching is poor or both. I suspect both but that list management is our biggest problem, so why is Miller seen as the greatest football brain in the world.
2) Lets get a caoching setup and stick with it. We had Micky McGuane on board and let him go to the saints. Now MM is doing great things in (I believe) the EFL and is regarded as a very good coach, yet we go for three rookies in our coaching setup (King, McRae and Rawlings) and deem Micky not good enough for a full time position. I've nothing against the incumbents but I think we have the balance wrong.

[Tigermonk]

you know why l cant watch Richmond play because they are pathetic under Wallace
they play no different football than when Frawley was there
Skill level & thinking have not changed its pathetic
we are not scoring goals sell Richo to another club let him bathe in glory his too good to be messing around at punt road
we are protecting the backline when we dont have any score now thats stuffing laughable
we got a top forward line we wont kick to but go backwards then forwards to centre then backwards then turnover
When Wallace arrived he said we were going to play direct forward fast flowing fast scoring football just is someone didnot tell him he didnot know how to organize or how to do it
Players being played out of position & matchups that are laughable you call that coaching
can you pick his game plan is shut the team down your playing but just let them get enough to win & when we move forward just chip it slow till they flood there backline     

[julzqld]

You've been hanging around X too long.

[bluey_21]

You've been hanging around X too long.

 

[mightytiges]

Bowden, J. - Improved significantly. I'm tempted to say he's A-grade now. Shame we can't use him up forward.
Bowden, P. - Improved from gone at the Dogs to average. Now injured.
Coughlan, M - Can't say as he's missed so much footy in the past 3.5 years.
Hyde - Improved but from gone to just so-so.
Johnson - Shouldn't really be playing with a broken hand as his kicking has gone downhill but had 7 tackles on the weekend despite it.
Krak - 1%ers have improved but still can't get the pill. No improvement overall.
Meyer - As Andy Collins said in EOTT, Danny needs to do more in 1%ers and tackling.
Newman - Improved. He went backwards in 2004.
Pattison - Still too young for big blokes.
Petts - Improved in first 2 years but has gone backwards this year.
Polo - See Petts although has a dodgey shoulder as an excuse.
Richo - Improved. More a team player now and more focussed.
Schulz - Stagnated. Just doesn't work hard enough.
Tambo - Was improving until he copped that shoulder against Geelong.
Tivendale - Tivs is tivs. No change apart from doing more inside work now.
Lids - Improved.
Foley - Massive improvement.
Hall - Gone via injury.
Raines - Improved dramatically last year but so-so this year. Better the last few weeks.
Tuck - Improved in Plough's first year but just hasn't gone on.

I've had the privilege of watching the Lions week in week out over the years and Matthews has this wonderful ability to improve the individual ability and confidence of his footballers seemingly by the week. If a player goes backwards he usually keeps going right out the door.

There are a few players in the above list who keep going backwards year in year out and are still on the list. So they either have potential and the coaches can't unlock it or we are not tough enough. I suspect the latter.

Brisbane were just as bad as us on the weekend. If they didn't have Lappin we would've won despite turning the ball over every 2 minutes.

[the_boy_jake]

I agree to an extent MT.

But Brisbane rarely play well in Melbourne and just 2 years ago they were staring into the abyss.

The rapid improvement in players like Sherman, Rischitelli, Merrett, Selwood (comes from a great footy family tho), Cam Wood etc. as well as the way he turned around the careers of Leppitsch (best defender in the land in his prime), Johnson and a few others is testament to Matthews ability as a coach.

Now Brisbane have the advantage of until very recently a top notch senior core to bring the young blokes on and maybe there is something in what Plough was saying about recruiting resources, but I really do feel we have been a bit kind to a few players over te years e.g. Tiv.

Look at how quickly Leigh dealt with Cupido. Krak is still on our list contributing nothing.

[bluey_21]

Look at how quickly Leigh dealt with Cupido. Krak is still on our list contributing nothing.

  Good pick up

[mightytiges]

I agree to an extent MT.

But Brisbane rarely play well in Melbourne and just 2 years ago they were staring into the abyss.

The rapid improvement in players like Sherman, Rischitelli, Merrett, Selwood (comes from a great footy family tho), Cam Wood etc. as well as the way he turned around the careers of Leppitsch (best defender in the land in his prime), Johnson and a few others is testament to Matthews ability as a coach.

Now Brisbane have the advantage of until very recently a top notch senior core to bring the young blokes on and maybe there is something in what Plough was saying about recruiting resources, but I really do feel we have been a bit kind to a few players over te years e.g. Tiv.

Look at how quickly Leigh dealt with Cupido. Krak is still on our list contributing nothing.

That's true Jake the Lions ' youngsters get to learn from triple premiership players like Brown, Lappin, Power and Chris Johnson. Our cubs aren't so lucky.

I would like to bottle whatever happened to Brisbane in mid-2001. They went from mentally soft perennial frontrunners over a 5 year period to one of the greatest sides ever. Remember we pumped them in round 3 in 2001 at the 'G after half-time yet they exposed our midfield weakness at the time by the end of the year as did Essendon.

As for Cupido they let him go when they were at the height of their powers so not a too difficult decision. The luxury, sides with good lists have, to pick and choose. I think they swapped him for Caracella.

[WilliamPowell]

Bowden, J. - Improved - credit to him
Bowden, P. - Improved in 2006 - yet to see he him much in 2007
Coughlan - really struggled coming back from the OP. Has not kicked on from B&F form
Hyde - showed improvement last year but has stagnated in 2007
Johnson - stagnated this year badly
Krak - disappointing with a capital D - real concerns about his future
Meyer - could be anything if he showed more intensity.
Newman - solid but has not improved his disposal. Still turns it over too often in high pressure situations.
Pattison - can't fault his efforts but no peripheral vision
Petts - Improved but has struggled with the extra atteniton this season
Polo - Improved - with more improvement to come
Richo - Improved - and still Richo
Schulz - disappointing - lacks consistency
Tambo - steady improvement when I think we are all expecting spectacular improvement
Tivendale - improved under Wallace - could lay a tackle under spud in 2006 was in our top 5 tacklers
Lids - struggling with being tagged but will be our gun player for the next 10 years
Foley - standout improvement - one big difference between Axel and others he has had to fight to get to where he is today.
Hall - backwards. Scared to think how many frees Ray would have given away this season with the hans in the back rule
Raines - Improved but has struggled this season
Tuck - Backwards - gets the oppositions no.1 tagger now and doesn't cope to well with it all. In that regard I reckon he misses Cogs being out there