SA Footy

First of all I need to declare an interest as I have similar qualifications as Neil and the man is regarded as a "king" and a pioneer in my-exvocation. In short I have a lot of admiration for him, so this post is not designed to be a Neil Craig bashing post.

My final observation on the prelim final and indeed the season is based on something an ex-Norwood player told me years ago about Neil Craig's coaching when I was associated with another footy club (sorry for bringing up my past experiences Pete..... )

He said when he was at Norwood, Neil was the most prepared dedicated, thorough coach he had worked with (this bloke was ex-AFL). The match plans, what he wanted to the player to do and what the opposition was likely to do were covered to nth degree. However Neil's biggest problem was that there was hardly ever plan B and that when changes were made they invariably too late.

This was something that I first pondered when I heard he was appointed as care-taker coach in 2004, and something that resurfaced in my thinking after the Richmond game. Is he backing his players and his game plan to turn it around or is he just slow to react to oppsition tactics???

Thinking back over some of our losses maybe this is a reason, the Richmond game when we finally went man on man late in the game and on Saturday when we were challenged in the 3rd quarter and the Weagles were able to get a run on us.....

I sort of didn't mind what he was trying to do with the Richmond game in that he was trying to teach the players to combat the keeping's off plan a certain way which hasn't been seen since - okay to experiment early in the season to a certain degree. Not justifying it by anymeans but I could see a method to his madness.

But as an Adelaide supporter I susppose the question has to be asked do we lack a plan B and is our head coach slow to react to opposition changes in tactics, discuss......

1980 Tassie Medalist

Good Post,

From a Match Day view, my only criticsm of Craigy and the Adelaide coaching staff is that they seem slow to re-act in the coaches box, I know after the Richmond game Craigy took this criticsm on board and in the context of that game accepted the criticsm.

Sometimes in a game of footy you don't even need a plan B, you just need to change the mix for 10-15 minutes, last week's prelim final I was screaming for Craigy to either throw Rutten forward, or Johncock in the midfield or across HF, just try and manufacture a spark, but those moves did not come....

I also think Craigy's greatest strength can be his greatest weekness, he shows tremendous amount of belief and confidence in his players to the point he believes they will find a way home and find a way to win but like I said sometimes you just need to make the call and change the mix to manufacture that spark.....

My other thought is lets face it Woosha does not have a plan B either other to throw Hunter forward, last week Woosha did not pull out any coaching miracles at half time, his superstars single handed pulled them back in to the contest, matter of fact I can't think of too many teams with an extensive play book, even Sydney I have watched them on numerious occassions this year get beaten when the players were not playing that Bloods footy

The key is flexibility, does the crows best 22 have the flexibility to give Neil confidence to change it up, Craigy has gone on record this week that he needs to find or develop players that offer more flexibility to the side, we need ruckman that can play forward and kick goals, talls that can play either end of the ground and running players that can rotate through the middle or across HB or HF

The other factor that needs review is the extra training load which is scheduled for late july to early August, I know Craigy has gone on record stating it is a myth and non a factor, well I am not so sure, this year the club lost some momentum, confidence and structure through injuries through this period, it worked in 97/98 but not in 2005/06

sydney-dog wrote:The other factor that needs review is the extra training load which is scheduled for late july to early August, I know Craigy has gone on record stating it is a myth and non a factor, well I am not so sure, this year the club lost some momentum, confidence and structure through injuries through this period, it worked in 97/98 but not in 2005/06

This is the exact point I was alluding to in my post on the prelim thread. This extra training was the turning point in our season. We went from the team that everybody feared to being quite beatable- eg. Showdown. Completely the wrong call and I think they will think twice about doing it if in a similar situation, certainly seems a waste of a year (a grand final birth was the least we were hoping for ¾ thru the season) - to get run over in the second half of a home prelim when we were well on top goes to show it didn’t work! As I said if it aint broke don’t fix it!

A lot of coaches don't have a plan B. Thomas, Thompson, to some extent Worsfold (moving Selwood away from the Birdman was a good start) and most are judged on the strength of their plan A. Craig is a top coach it's just that the Eagles match up very well against his team and he hasn't quite figured out this piece of the puzzle yet.

I'm sure Craig will be astute enough to learn from any mistakes..perhaps it is time to admit Adelaide fans that your team is not quite as good as you thought they were....a tough thing to do I know as I found out earlier this year.

regards,

REB

Neil Craig as Tassie has said,seems to be less than prepared to use a "plan B",when in fact,it appears as though his "plan A" is not as flexible as other coaches may be.In saying this I mean,"plan A" needs to have flexibility to it,Roo was never moved into the midfield (injury may have limited him),McLeod never went forward,McGregor never went intothe ruck against the more mobile ruckmen.As we know coaches do rely on assistants,they do,the input the assistants give makes an impact on the decision making of the coach.All of them need to look at how and when they react.

The other important point to make I feel with respect to potential weaknesses in our coaching staff is that scientists (Pyke has a science background too) are pretty dominat in their character traits on process, systems and procedures, they are not so good when it comes to values identity and relationships.

This I believe is Sydneys strength as they have great values and relationships amongst the players and coaching group, in other words they are very team orientated and it shows in their playing style.

The club has been working on that with the "leadership guru" they have been using but as supporter but I think it is anrea we need to further develop if we are going to challenge for the flag - we need to become more selfless and team orientated in our play. This is not to say we aren't, as we wouldn't have made a prelim final oveer the alst two years if we weren't but I think it is another area for improvement.....

TASSIE

totally agree with you tassie especially the part about how sydneys players are real close and have a bond towards each other and the coaches. was reading the herald sun today and there was dave hughes (before the game program) was going around all the tables having a chat with players and wives. he said all tables were having a great time but when he got to adelaide's table he reckoned you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. thinking tyson and andy still havn't patched things up over leyley and their wives or hughsy was just looking for a gag