Coach Greg Stafford - Forwards Coach

[The Dr]

The forward coach is doing exactly what the senior coach wants

You might be right. Publicly Goody bemoans our lack of forward connection though.

Whatever it is, it's a mess.


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[Topkent]

You might be right. Publicly Goody bemoans our lack of forward connection though.

Whatever it is, it's a mess.


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The connection starts with the blokes kicking it. There was a stat on Fox footy midway last year or the year before that Oliver and Trac had found one mark inside 50 from like 110 kicks between the them at one point.

Our forwards are crap and they struggle at getting speration but it all starts with the ball carrier not using them

 

[Proper Gander]

The connection starts with the blokes kicking it. There was a stat on Fox footy midway last year or the year before that Oliver and Trac had found one mark inside 50 from like 110 kicks between the them at one point.

Our forwards are crap and they struggle at getting speration but it all starts with the ball carrier not using them

Bit of both now.

The forwards are like headless chickens. They mostly don’t lead, but that might be because they have been burned so often by a midfield that bombs at random and in hope. Then you get a midfield that rarely see a good leading target.

Overall I agree though. It starts in the middle. Plenty of teams have done well without greats in the forward line. And bugger the midfield. These days they are top of the queue for individual awards, so earn it and play better thanks.

Overall, it would be good to see a coach who can read our assets and defects as a team, and forge a game plan to get the best of this. Forward half football and priding ourselves in efforts in the contest is clearly falling short.

 

[Daemon]

I used to put the blame on the mids equally with the forwards but I'm seeing a much more concerted effort to stop and lower the eyes when kicking into the forward 50 this year. Unfortunately they more often than not have nothing to kick to. That's on the forwards and their coaching. I'm specifically talking about kicks into the arc, not the hack kicks by Oliver out of the middle.

 

[Crusty Demon]

I used to put the blame on the mids equally with the forwards but I'm seeing a much more concerted effort to stop and lower the eyes when kicking into the forward 50 this year. Unfortunately they more often than not have nothing to kick to. That's on the forwards and their coaching. I'm specifically talking about kicks into the arc, not the hack kicks by Oliver out of the middle.

Yep. Forwardline is a mess

 

[The Dr]

Look, I think it's certain that the two areas are shoddy - our mids are mostly questionable by foot, and I think they're scared/encouraged not to bite off too much with kicking inside 50.

But the forward line functioning is awful too. So many players run to the same areas, hardly any one leads at the ball carrier.

Plus the glaring issue which should be easy to fix is we're one KPF too many up there. Two of JVR/Petty/Turner plus Fritta is a great mix, plus the smalls.


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[Capt_Concussion]

It appears to be a trend that we take talented key position players from defence and throw them forward. They apply their natural abilities along with very basic forward craft (read leading at the bloody ball carrier) and they look a million dollars.

Fast forward a couple of years, within which they've received coaching as a permanent forward, and they suck.

TMac - foot injury and age played a part though
Petty - foot injury
Turner? - don't know if he's actually good yet

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[tomcruise]

I don't like him. He comes across as a weirdo in interviews.

 

[Crusty Demon]

I don't like him. He comes across as a weirdo in interviews.

He does come across a weird unit.

The F50 is just so stagnant. No movement. Blame the mids all you like, but when the forwards aren't leading to the ball, then what option they got? The ball users have actually lowered their eyes more this season for sure. But our F50 is a dogs breakfast. Maybe Disco will give us a bit more movement down there? He moves quite well for a big guy unlike Brown or a resting ruckman.

 

[demondavey]

Tom Stewart will have 40 touches and 20 marks next week.

 

[Mich0]

Even if it is the mids fault, shouldn’t the forward coach still be doing something about it and coming up with a different strategy / coaching the mids how the forwards want it ect opposed to the same s**t for 5 years?

That said our forwards are trash when our backs/mids get hemmed in d50 and the ball comes out. They compete like s**t and the ball rebounds back in over and over by the opposition defenders and we can’t get it past half way.

 

[Topkent]

Even if it is the mids fault, shouldn’t the forward coach still be doing something about it and coming up with a different strategy / coaching the mids how the forwards want it ect opposed to the same s**t for 5 years?

That said our forwards are trash when our backs/mids get hemmed in d50 and the ball comes out. They compete like s**t and the ball rebounds back in over and over by the opposition defenders and we can’t get it past half way.

Shouldn't the forwards coach be coaching the mids

 

[Capt_Concussion]

Shouldn't the forwards coach be coaching the mids

Surely a professional coaching group don't operate in silos. Think it's reasonable the forwards coach has some say in how the ball is delivered into f50.

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[Topkent]

Surely a professional coaching group don't operate in silos. Think it's reasonable the forwards coach has some say in how the ball is delivered into f50.

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Yeah but the arguments stupid, why not say it's the midfield coaches fault for not correcting the forwards on how to lead. They should all be working together yep, people just love to give s**t to Stafford because he was a crap to average player.

 

[booshboy]

Yeah but the arguments stupid, why not say it's the midfield coaches fault for not correcting the forwards on how to lead. They should all be working together yep, people just love to give s**t to Stafford because he was a crap to average player.

who's fault it is really doesn't matter at this point, nothing's changed for 3 years, Goodwins just re-signed and unfortunately isn't going anywhere, getting rid of Stafford is the next best we can hope for.

 

[Topkent]

who's fault it is really doesn't matter at this point, nothing's changed for 3 years, Goodwins just re-signed and unfortunately isn't going anywhere, getting rid of Stafford is the next best we can hope for.

Nah I think the next best thing we can hope for is we change the way we move the footy from the back half to give our forwards my time and space to lead into.
If people think changing Stafford makes any difference then Goody's a great coach being held back by Stafford

 

[Crusty Demon]

Even if it is the mids fault, shouldn’t the forward coach still be doing something about it and coming up with a different strategy / coaching the mids how the forwards want it ect opposed to the same s**t for 5 years?

That said our forwards are trash when our backs/mids get hemmed in d50 and the ball comes out. They compete like s**t and the ball rebounds back in over and over by the opposition defenders and we can’t get it past half way.

Our F50 is garbage. List wise and instruction wise. Seeing them live its plain to see the leading patterns are horrible. Its either lead to a pocket or look for the cheap ball over the back or get in each others way. Surely its on the firwards coach to create space and create good options in the F50!? Who's fault it is could be argued all day, but something had to change for us to win another flag. And it hasn't. When you're in charge of that area of the ground, and it's the area that is by far our weakest area, then change has to be made. It might be like shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic with the list we have, but maybe, just maybe a new forward coach could bring positive change.

 

[booshboy]

Nah I think the next best thing we can hope for is we change the way we move the footy from the back half to give our forwards my time and space to lead into.
If people think changing Stafford makes any difference then Goody's a great coach being held back by Stafford

I would say Goodys a mediocre coach who needs high quality assistants around him to help him with the tactical stuff.

 

[Topkent]

I would say Goodys a mediocre coach who needs high quality assistants around him to help him with the tactical stuff.

Supposedly that's why we got Mcqualter but nothing's really changed we still look terrible moving the ball and we don't take risks that could have us scored against.

 

[Bluelegs]

Supposedly that's why we got Mcqualter but nothing's really changed we still look terrible moving the ball and we don't take risks that could have us scored against.

We're not bombing the ball as much or as stagnant as last year but I agree were not really making ourselves more dangerous. Feels like we want to have our cake and eat it too. Want to fix our ball movement but don't want to give anything up defensively. Our kicking skills aren't good enough to move the ball by foot without cheating forward so were just turning it over more for no added reward.

 

[Lord Nev]

It's not as simple as 'the forward line sucks'.

This year so far we are ranked:

Goals per inside 50 - 8th
Goal kicking accuracy - 8th
Marks taken on a lead - 3rd
Marks per inside 50 - 15th
Average score - 8th
Team v opponent average score - 4th

Seems a lot here are just stuck in the same old cycle of criticizing what we think we should rather than looking at the bigger picture. What if, our tall forwards aren't that good but the coaches have found a way to still be doing well for scoring efficiency and actually winning games? That's what those stats above pretty clearly say IMO. Doesn't mean we can't get better of course, we will need to.

The issue is our scores from turnovers/back half. That's been a big part of our game plan the last few years and clearly still is, but we're down in that this year:

Scores from turnovers
2023 - 7th
2024 - 11th

Scores from defensive half
2023 - 4th
2024 - 7th

Scores from stoppages
2023 - 6th
2024 - 5th

The other part is people talking about us needing to take more risk with our ball movement. It's already happening.

Team v opponent turnovers
2023 - 1st (as in best team in the comp)
2024 - 6th

On the above, in 2023 we were 3rd for clearance differential. So far this year we are 11th. Our forward line isn't going to magically get better, so instead of putting heat on an area where we're surviving given then game plan and personnel, we should be focusing on where we can maximize our strengths. Winning more clearances and using the ball better from the back half.

As much as people bag Salem, getting him and Bowey back will help that scores from defensive half number. The clearance stuff is another story. We need to get those players passed their niggles and form slumps and start actually taking advantage of the part of the ground where we've invested a huge amount of our salary cap.

More pressure should be on McQualter than Stafford IMO. (And I'm no fan of Stafford).