Coaching and Plan B

[stevoswan]

Clarkson's 62% winning record is a bit surprising as I do consider that the only side in the last decade, maybe ever, that has truly had a 'plan B' (and even a 'plan C') AND had a player group which could virtually coach itself on field to adapt games plans as the game unfolded, was Clarkson's Hawthorn of 2013-15. The Swans need to develop this skill in their player group, on top of their undoubted talent....if we could achieve this, we would win heaps of flags.
I think with the standard of list we have and the stage of development it's at, the timing is perfect for new coaches and ideas to come in. I truly hope they are working on the above....

[Mel_C]

I have never rewatched the 2014 GF (or 1996, 2005 and 2016) but my memory of that match was Longmire was badly touched up by Clarkson.

You haven't rewatched 2005????? [emoji6]
I know you meant 2006. I actually saw the end of that game when it was replayed on Fox one day [emoji17] .

[wolftone57]

Indeed. Just went for a look at the latest numbers. H&A games:

1. Scott 73.86%
2. Pyke 71.59%
3. Longmire 70.13%

then a fair bit of daylight to

4. Simpson 63.07%
5. Clarkson 62.28%

Those figures are deceptive. Clarkson took over a very weak team and built the list. Both Longmire and Scott took over when the teams were pretty good and the lists were top quality. In fact Scott took over a ready made premiership team. Longmire's Swans had a few holes but not that many and they were plugged rather quickly by good drafting leading to a premiership in 2012. Let's face it he only took over in 2011. After all we made the semi finals in 2010. We were in exactly the same position in 2011.

Scott took over from Bomber Thompson in 2011. He won the premiership in his first year with a side that had won the 2007, runner up 2008, 2009, prelim 2010. This was a pretty good side, no I'd say this was the most experienced finals side and one of the most talented ever assembled. He inherited a gold mine. since then Scott has coached the Cats to the Elimination in 2012, the Prelim in 2013, Semi 2014, 2015 no finals, Prelim 2016, Prelim 2017. He keeps trading experienced players, some seen as the best in the league, into his team to keep them up the top. He is trying to buy a premiership in the next two years. If he doesn't they could be in trouble. They have not drafted much youth in the last 5 years and their depth is pretty poor.

Simpson again is a coach that took over a struggling side. Although his record is not as good as the others.

Clarkson took over Hawthorn when they were right down. In fact they were second bottom. Between 2000 & 2004 they finished 8, 6, 10, 9, 15. When Clarkson took over the list needed a total clean out. Players like Ben Dickson who turned up but failed to play most weeks found themselves being shown the door. All the dreadful dross they had traded in from other sides like Essendon were let go. Hence in 2005 they finished 14th, in 2006 11th, 2007 5th playing off in the Semi Final and won the Premiership in 2008. They have improved under Clarkson every year he has had charge. He became the second coach in this millennium to coach three in a row and has won 4 Premierships. Neither Scott nor Longmire have done that. In fact both have won one Premiership, so sometimes figures lie. By the way with the team Scott was gifted, Longmire less so, he should have won more. Although you could argue so should Longmire.

[wolftone57]

Clarkson's 62% winning record is a bit surprising as I do consider that the only side in the last decade, maybe ever, that has truly had a 'plan B' (and even a 'plan C') AND had a player group which could virtually coach itself on field to adapt games plans as the game unfolded, was Clarkson's Hawthorn of 2013-15. The Swans need to develop this skill in their player group, on top of their undoubted talent....if we could achieve this, we would win heaps of flags.
I think with the standard of list we have and the stage of development it's at, the timing is perfect for new coaches and ideas to come in. I truly hope they are working on the above....

It's all about where the Hawks were when he took over. In his case he had to rebuild the Hawks list and game from scratch, in 2004 they were 15th and he only managed 14th in 2005 due to a rebuild. Whereas both Scott and Longmire inherited finals sides from the year before.

[Blood Fever]

It's all about where the Hawks were when he took over. In his case he had to rebuild the Hawks list and game from scratch, in 2004 they were 15th and he only managed 14th in 2005 due to a rebuild. Whereas both Scott and Longmire inherited finals sides from the year before.

Agree Clarkson is a very good coach. I reckon he has had more talented players than Longmire over the years. S. Mitchell, Hodge, Buddy, Burgoyne, Roughead, Cyril etc provided more skill and brilliance. Longmire has done well to win one against them on their home ground as well as getting to two others.

[stevoswan]

You haven't rewatched 2005????? [emoji6]
I know you meant 2006. I actually saw the end of that game when it was replayed on Fox one day [emoji17] .

The main thing I remember from the '06 GF, besides the huge letdown when the siren went to end it, was Goodesy receiving a lightning quick handball from BBBH in the first seconds of the last quarter and drilling it from 40m out and I was thinking, "we've got this!". I was expecting our boys to go berserk! The resulting arm wrestle was excruitiating! One @@@@@@ing point!

[Auntie.Gerald]

Plan B !!

[BRISWAN]

Re 2006

How do you have a plan B to counter pumped up ?juiced up bunch of drugies, who ran just as hard at the end of the 4th quarter as the start of the match.

They looked like action heroes

Cant counter that crap.

[Bexl]

Re 2006

How do you have a plan B to counter pumped up ?juiced up bunch of drugies, who ran just as hard at the end of the 4th quarter as the start of the match.

They looked like action heroes

Cant counter that crap.

Don't know that you can't beat it but it's very hard to. We should have played against Adelaide in that granny then it would have been a fair game as they were beaten by the DRUG CHEATS in the prelim.

[liz]

And we'd have lost. Adelaide were our absolute bogey team back then. We had only beaten them once in the previous yonks of seasons. West Coast did us a huge favour in getting rid of Adelaide in the finals in both 2005 and 2006 to give us at least some chance of winning.

Strangely, I look back at the 2006 grand final with a little fondness. Although we came up one point short, it was a wonderfully gutsy effort to come back from that dreadful first half and nearly pinch it - Kirk's dogged brilliance, some miraculous goals to nearly close the gap, and it was the game that was the making of Ted as a Swan. I'll never forget the moment late in the final quarter when he kicked the ball at almost right angles to where he'd intended and fell over in the process, all because he'd run himself to the absolute point of exhaustion.

It may have felt a whole lot different had we not finally broken the drought the previous year. That certainly softened the blow of losing in 2006.

[Blood Fever]

And we'd have lost. Adelaide were our absolute bogey team back then. We had only beaten them once in the previous yonks of seasons. West Coast did us a huge favour in getting rid of Adelaide in the finals in both 2005 and 2006 to give us at least some chance of winning.

Strangely, I look back at the 2006 grand final with a little fondness. Although we came up one point short, it was a wonderfully gutsy effort to come back from that dreadful first half and nearly pinch it - Kirk's dogged brilliance, some miraculous goals to nearly close the gap, and it was the game that was the making of Ted as a Swan. I'll never forget the moment late in the final quarter when he kicked the ball at almost right angles to where he'd intended and fell over in the process, all because he'd run himself to the absolute point of exhaustion.

It may have felt a whole lot different had we not finally broken the drought the previous year. That certainly softened the blow of losing in 2006.

We were a better side in 2006 than 2005. We had a shocking first half in GF and missed some sitters. Big Bad Barry had a shocker. Kirk was sensational inspiring comeback. You are right about Adelaide and for years we struggled to beat Collingwood- that was a very bitter pill to swallow!

[Mel_C]

It may have felt a whole lot different had we not finally broken the drought the previous year. That certainly softened the blow of losing in 2006.

I feel the same about 2006. I'm sure I would have felt different if we lost 2005. I was able to watch the footy shows the next day and read the papers. The only thing that depressed me was when the Eagles were presented to the supporters with the cup. Compare that to 14 & 16 where I had a complete media ban!!

We were a better side in 2006 than 2005. We had a shocking first half in GF and missed some sitters. Big Bad Barry had a shocker. Kirk was sensational inspiring comeback. You are right about Adelaide and for years we struggled to beat Collingwood- that was a very bitter pill to swallow!

The impressive part about 2012 is that we beat Adelaide and Collingwood and won at the MCG, the 3 things we had struggled to do.

[bloodspirit]

There have been a couple of really illuminating articles about the new frontier of coaching being mind training and how it is done at AFL clubs:

The game in the brain
Mindfulness and meditation helped Richmond break their AFL premiership drought

It seems that the only clubs that are pursuing this in AFL up until last season were Richmond (3 seasons) and Adelaide (1st season). Other clubs have not done anything approaching the level of depth or integration with their footy program. To me, this makes sense. Neuroscience increasingly shows the power of our minds to affect and improve our performance. (If you haven't seen Redesign my brain which was on ABC presented by Todd Sampson it is really eye opening and inspiring in this regard.)

I would like to see us trying to catch up with this. When I had the opportunity to raise this with the players recently they said they don't really do anything like this already, although the player had read about Richmond's pioneering of this and seemed interested.

Within the domain of mind-performance, it seems there are various sub-domains, including training group performance and momentum, a cutting edge new and as-yet-unproven area. One of the key areas for developing minds and having success is social connectedness. This reminds me of Kirk years ago declaring his love for his bloods brothers. It is also the area where Sydney gets a special mention in the first quoted article above:

"the second thing is social connectedness, and the clubs that can create the healthy connected cultures are 100 per cent going to be the ones that thrive.
?From the outside I see that Sydney always seems to have been a club that put culture first and has done it really, really well.
?You see them consistently up there, winning or in the top eight, top four, and that is testament to the fact that they realised early on that this stuff does matter.?

This last bit also rang true with what the players told me. Tippett made a point of praising the strong sociability of the club and how the players are all actually friends and socialise together. So some encouragement there. But I'm disappointed to hear we don't seem to be pursuing this more vigorously given the success record it is quickly assembling both in Australia and the US.

I say channel the Force we should, and use it the best we can!

[Bloods05]

There have been a couple of really illuminating articles about the new frontier of coaching being mind training and how it is done at AFL clubs:

The game in the brain
Mindfulness and meditation helped Richmond break their AFL premiership drought

It seems that the only clubs that are pursuing this in AFL up until last season were Richmond (3 seasons) and Adelaide (1st season). Other clubs have not done anything approaching the level of depth or integration with their footy program. To me, this makes sense. Neuroscience increasingly shows the power of our minds to affect and improve our performance. (If you haven't seen Redesign my brain which was on ABC presented by Todd Sampson it is really eye opening and inspiring in this regard.)

I would like to see us trying to catch up with this. When I had the opportunity to raise this with the players recently they said they don't really do anything like this already, although the player had read about Richmond's pioneering of this and seemed interested.

Within the domain of mind-performance, it seems there are various sub-domains, including training group performance and momentum, a cutting edge new and as-yet-unproven area. One of the key areas for developing minds and having success is social connectedness. This reminds me of Kirk years ago declaring his love for his bloods brothers. It is also the area where Sydney gets a special mention in the first quoted article above:

"the second thing is social connectedness, and the clubs that can create the healthy connected cultures are 100 per cent going to be the ones that thrive.
?From the outside I see that Sydney always seems to have been a club that put culture first and has done it really, really well.
?You see them consistently up there, winning or in the top eight, top four, and that is testament to the fact that they realised early on that this stuff does matter.?

This last bit also rang true with what the players told me. Tippett made a point of praising the strong sociability of the club and how the players are all actually friends and socialise together. So some encouragement there. But I'm disappointed to hear we don't seem to be pursuing this more vigorously given the success record it is quickly assembling both in Australia and the US.

I say channel the Force we should, and use it the best we can!

The Swans used Transcendental Meditation to good effect with a number of players under Ian Stewart in the late 70s, but it was never employed across the board systematically like the Tigers did with their mindfulness techniques last year. At least one current Swans player, a very senior one, practises TM and it would be great if more could learn. There is now a huge body of scientific research demonstrating the benefits of this particular technique and a lot of it relates specifically to athletic performance.

[Auntie.Gerald]

I think one of the big keys with mindfulness being applied to peak performance is that there is no hiding from behaviours that counter the common goal of finals footy and a GF win

For the tigers having an amazing talent like dusty become more aware of his behaviours that go against the grain is solid hold

Any behaviours / tendencies that could de rail a premeiership is brought to the Surface for all to see !