Does Clay Sampson have what it takes to lift South?

[panthers 2008]

What is the general consensus on Clays ability to move the panthers in the upward direction.
I personally think he has the character to bring some credability back to the club,as long as he is fully supported by the club,and has good people/coaches around him.
He will definately need a couple of years to push through some juniors,and as the club has stated they will be using local/country zone players for the future with limited recruiting,they will need very good people to spot talent in the panthers country/local zones.
Give Clay the Right tools and I think he will do a great job!!

[saintal]

needs some cattle, especially senior players willing to set an example.

[holden78]

What a joke

[Sponge Bob]

What is the general consensus on Clays ability to move the panthers in the upward direction.
I personally think he has the character to bring some credability back to the club,as long as he is fully supported by the club,and has good people/coaches around him.
He will definately need a couple of years to push through some juniors,and as the club has stated they will be using local/country zone players for the future with limited recruiting,they will need very good people to spot talent in the panthers country/local zones.
Give Clay the Right tools and I think he will do a great job!!

Agree 100%

[Barto]

Does anyone?

South remind me of St Kilda in the AFL. Doesn't matter what they do what players they recruit, what coach they get.. occasionally they make the finals but they're always shit when it comes to going all the way.

[CENTURION]

The only way that he could lift his players is by sticking a car jack up their bums!

[MightyEagles]

The only way that he could lift his players is by sticking a car jack up their bums!

But will that make them wn a flag?

[CENTURION]

The only way that he could lift his players is by sticking a car jack up their bums!

But will that make them wn a flag?

Hmmm, dunno.

[southee]

Not sure.

Lack of experience worries me.

Also being too close to the players....i.e one of the boys.

[Hondo]

I think South will end up OK eventually despite all the hysteria of a month ago.

Clay sounded very professional on his 5AA interview. To me, it's a rookie coach with a rookie list (given that the club has stated it will be focussing on local junior instead of expensive recruits) which will need time to settle down. Even Jack was quoted as saying it was going to take him 3 years.

And despite the lack of experience, they have turned in competitive performances the last few weeks when it could have been expected that everyone would drop their bundle.

[darley16]

Agree Hondo, time and hoping the current players whose contracts expire at the end of this year re-sign knowing that the future is bright. Barto...i don't know why you even bother

[Sojourner]

We havent really seen enough of Sampson to tell, we have Norwood at home in our next match in round 14 which is a game that the club should be a reasonable chance of winning.

I am a little concerned that under Jack Cahill the club beat Glenelg, Port and West and drew with Norwood, yet the same side has yet to record a win under the new coach. We lost first off to Central who have not hit their winning form yet of recent years and we played them at a time when it was felt that the club should be a chance of winning as a result of the motivation of the coaching situation that had occured the week prior. We then rolled on to lose against the Eagles at home and North at Prospect which were both games against sides placed in a similar position to us on the ladder and I dont feel that there is a sufficent excuse as to why the club did not pick up at least one of those three games as a win.

Since being on SAFooty I have seen that many supporters have the full expectation of their club that they are to win every week. This is something that has never really existed at South, losing is accepted and expected to the larger half. Many of our problems are cultural and that is specifically why Jack Cahill was there to try and deal with, hence the two occassions where he refused to hand out "best player" awards after shite performances and losses from the whole side in general which is something that had never happened before at South to my knowlege.

South need to toughen up and it appears that when Jack tried to do just that it was more than the club could take and they attempted to apply the handbrake so to speak.

The points made about Clay Sampson coaching in an modern AFL style were noted by me of course, yet what is it that people think that Ken Sheldon tried to do at South previously? That is hardly a new idea to the club and I dont think it will solve our problems in the intermediate term.

My thoughts were that South needed a coach that took no nonesense from the playing group and would toughen the group up as a whole and work towards creating a culture that would see South expected to win every week. My candidates for the job were Michael Nunan, Phil Carman or at an outside chance John Schneebichler for that reason. Yet its clearly pointless appointing any of these as that style of coaching will not be supported by the club.

I dont want to come across as continually railing on the club, yet I dont think Clay Sampson as coach will work. I think that Sturt are a good example where someone like a Phil Carman had to come into the club, lift it off the bottom of the ladder and make it competitive, then another coach was brought in with some different tactics who as fate had it finished off the job. Clays coaching style might work as a finisher, yet IMO not as a builder which Jack Cahill was there for. Until we go through that process as a club we are kidding ourselves is my opinion to the initial question.

[blueandwhite]

Is Clay the man..?
Difficult to say at this stage. Unfortunately he has little to work with if you are looking at consistent sanfl players. It is my opinion he will be shown the utmost respect by the playing group, who have witnessed his love of the jumper and courage in dealing with his shoulder problems over the last few years. Clay is a Southie through and through that is for sure. on thing that people forget is that he is a very experienced AFL player, with stints at Melbourne, Richmond and he played in a victorious Adelaide Crows side in 1998. He has had a good grounding with some great experience as a player but how that translates to the coaches box is the question.
He has really been tossed in the deep end as a novice coach however and it was a bold move by the board to appoint him until the end of 2009 and not as a caretaker coach. The list is thin but I admire the direction that the coach/club is taking in promoting untried junior talent from within its ranks . Tossing them in not for 1 week but several to give them a chance to settle in and show us what they have got. Hopefully all going well at the end of the year we will have 5-6 good youngsters who will play 100 games for the club.
I only hope that the board can hold its nerve until the coach gets the chance to settle in as well.............