Oppo Camp Neeld Sacked - Craigy to take over

[Jack is Back]

I agree that we have done a great job developing younger players over the last 5 years. Without single figure draft picks or cheap father son picks we have developed 5 players to elite/near elite level, Dangerfield, Sloane, Walker, Jacobs (I still believe) and Talia. Brodie Smith is making good progress and we have a heap of young players who are looking quite promising (Brown, Laird, Grigg, Kerridge, Lyons, Crouch),

We have also had above average success with Rookie elevations (Henderson, Wright, Riley, Petrenko)

Although I disagreed with our conservative approach to playing KIDS last year, I understand why Sando did this and things have improved dramatically this year (but I still want to see more of Kerridge and Lyons plus some games for Grigg)

 

[Allefgib]

Jacobs is really one of the keys there. If he can recapture his 2012 form in the future, and the others progress in-line with their current ceilings, we have the nucleus of a contender. If Jacobs can't get back to that form - we're still missing a piece.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I can see Melbourne beating us later in the year after a comeback from 5 goals down during the 3rd quarter, with Melbourne getting a crucial free just before the siren to put them in front

 

[SydCrow]

I can see Melbourne beating us later in the year after a comeback from 5 goals down during the 3rd quarter, with Melbourne getting a crucial free just before the siren to put them in front

the free going to Sellar for an arm hold by Rutten

 

[Sanders]

It's interesting how many of the MOB were more than happy to blame Craigy for the lack of fitness at Melbourne, game plan etc,etc, etc but when he does take over they suddenly improve Haven't heard a word from the MOB so far.

Bouncy bouncy kitty

But strangely it was the younger, less experienced players that have lifted for Melbourne in the last 2 weeks. Suddenly Jack Watts looks like a footballer.

If only Neeld had a mentor, someone experienced to take the heat off and take the young blokes aside & help them develop.

You know Neeld might have done much better if he had that?

 

[hey shorty]

Thought it was rather funny listening to Trengoves comments yesterday about freedom and taking the game on. Isnt that the exact same thing our players said about Sando last year and the previous coach didnt allow that as much

 

[cmndstab]

Every player is going to be talking about "freedom" and "taking the game on" when a new coach comes in. It's not like the coach can implement a lot of intricate structure in the 5 days between taking over and the first game. Particularly in the case of a caretaker coach, who might not even be there next year, there is little point in spending what remains of the season to try to get the boys to play "your way" only to get them there right as the season ends. You see the year out, tell the kids to attack the ball using their natural flair, and go from there.

It will always give a struggling club a boost, but alone is not enough to make them contenders again.

 

[radiojake]

The other week I was working at the Melbourne Rectangle Stadium (Commercially known as AAMI Park... yeah, how good is that first name) ... Anyway.. Melbourne Football Club have some kind of offices there, there's a big glass door with their logo on it on one side of the ground.

I was selling rubbish to Rubgy fans out the front of the Melbourne Rebels v British and Irish Lions match, and sure enough I came across Neil Craig leaving from the giant Melbourne Football Club doors. Does this man only ever wear shorts? It's the 2nd time I've seen him in near freezing conditions with him only wearing shorts...

Anyway, as he passed me, I said to him "Good Luck, Craigy..." he looked at me with a weird look and he didn't say a word.. I guess he has other things to worry about than dealing with what he assumed was a heckler...

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

One of his major strengths is that he's impervious to cold.

When he's forced to wear pants by official decorum, he compensates by wearing a polo shirt.

Was he chewing gum by any chance?

 

[Slippery Pete]

Craigy has a good set of pins.

 

[radiojake]

One of his major strengths is that he's impervious to cold.

When he's forced to wear pants by official decorum, he compensates by wearing a polo shirt.

Was he chewing gum by any chance?

Almost certain he was

 

[Sanders]

Anyway, as he passed me, I said to him "Good Luck, Craigy..." he looked at me with a weird look and he didn't say a word..

Good ol' Neil always got time for the little guy.

 

[PCORF]

Miss you Neil.

 

[KickLongTackleHard]

He guys, I've noticed a lot of crows fans talk negatively of Neil Craig's reign and yet you were pretty successful, although not ultimately, during his time. Just wondering what the key reasons are? From what I understand he had a fantastic relationship with the playing group and similar to Eade, his time was just up.

Anyway, I don't think he'll backflip and want to coach again next year.

 

[Allefgib]

Too inflexible and broke players down on the track.
Seemed to think working harder was always the answer.

 

[SydCrow]

Craig is the heir to "T-shirt" Tommy Hafey

 

[cmndstab]

He guys, I've noticed a lot of crows fans talk negatively of Neil Craig's reign and yet you were pretty successful, although not ultimately, during his time. Just wondering what the key reasons are? From what I understand he had a fantastic relationship with the playing group and similar to Eade, his time was just up.

Anyway, I don't think he'll backflip and want to coach again next year.

The general opinion on Craig is probably soured by the fact that he stayed on too long. By the time he finally walked, people were rabid. If he'd left a year earlier there would probably be a more positive opinion about him.

He's very good at taking an underperforming group and getting them to play much better football, but he seemed to lack a certain something in terms of taking them to the next level after that. There are also questions over whether he is capable of adjusting quickly enough to the rapid changes that take place in the AFL.

 

[SydCrow]

He's very good at taking an underperforming group and getting them to play much better football, but he seemed to lack a certain something in terms of taking them to the next level after that. There are also questions over whether he is capable of adjusting quickly enough to the rapid changes that take place in the AFL.

I wonder whether there are actually rapid changes, apart from rule changes every year or so. It's a pretty simple game isn't it?

 

[cmndstab]

I wonder whether there are actually rapid changes, apart from rule changes every year or so. It's a pretty simple game isn't it?

It's becoming increasingly less simple. Every time a particular style of game emerges as the leading approach, one or two years pass and somebody figures out how to combat it, and everything shifts.

I think one of our problems in the latter parts of Craig's tenure was that he was still trying to get us to play like we did in 05/06, even though the rest of the comp had figured out how to combat it years earlier. As a coach of AFL in the modern era you need to be willing to constantly evolve and adapt, which was one of Craig's worst areas.

 

[SydCrow]

It's becoming increasingly less simple. Every time a particular style of game emerges as the leading approach, one or two years pass and somebody figures out how to combat it, and everything shifts.

I think one of our problems in the latter parts of Craig's tenure was that he was still trying to get us to play like we did in 05/06, even though the rest of the comp had figured out how to combat it years earlier. As a coach of AFL in the modern era you need to be willing to constantly evolve and adapt, which was one of Craig's worst areas.

I wonder what people think of Malthouse and his stick to the boundary line approach at Carlton (so exposed by Collingwood on the weekend).

I reckon that most teams play a pretty similar style of footy, obviously looking to their strengths where they have them. Apart from Freo, the zone seems to have largely disappeared.

 

[Slippery Pete]

Craig is the heir to "T-shirt" Tommy Hafey

Where did that nickname come from incidentally?

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

He guys, I've noticed a lot of crows fans talk negatively of Neil Craig's reign and yet you were pretty successful, although not ultimately, during his time. Just wondering what the key reasons are? From what I understand he had a fantastic relationship with the playing group and similar to Eade, his time was just up.

Anyway, I don't think he'll backflip and want to coach again next year.

I think he wants to coach again more than anything in the world. Ignore what he says. The 'one club coach' thing was when he thought he'd coach us forever and was heading for premiership glory, dynasty etc. He loves coaching - lives it and breathes it every second of the day. He would be absolutely dying to prove himself again and would fall over himself to coach Melbourne.

He's being a bit blase about his long term aspirations publicly but that would simply be to keep expectations down and head off speculation.

The problems he ran into at Adelaide stemmed from our finals failures - 2005, 2006 and especially 2007. Those results shook the faith - the club's faith in Neil, the player's faith in Neil and Neil's faith in himself.

He was forced to become slightly more flexible. Modifications were made to training programs, he put favoured players out to pasture to turn the list over, he was more willing to make positional changes on match day. All of these completely flew in the face of everything he believed in but without the ultimate results to fall back on, he had to compromise.

His methods by themselves were very successful. As soon as he compromised and was forced to take other ideas on board, our results went south.

According to Neil there is one way of doing things, one way to play, one way to approach football, one standard that all players must adhere to. There is no room for flexibility, no room for individualism, no compromises. If something goes wrong, he refused to believe that any of his decisions had any bearing on it - it was just that the players didn't follow his instructions correctly or we have to work even harder at training. He was incapable of growth or improvement. He is what he is.

He talks about getting 'clear and honest feedback' from the players and always being willing to accept criticism to see if there is anything you can learn from etc. But these are just words, he doesn't believe this in the slightest. The reality is that he is exceptionally single minded in what he expects. There can be no variation. Even after his trip abroad to learn from the systems operating in other major sports his only lesson learned was that "it reinforced a lot of my beliefs."

He is a one trick pony as a coach but it is a bloody good trick. It works and it wins. I hope he gets the opportunity to coach you. I think that where Melbourne is at would be good for his coaching. Melbourne is missing the quality senior core that he inherited at Adelaide which means Neil will have to build it himself. Work with youth, develop a team. After being there for 18 months he would have no illusions about what he has to work with so would have to be more patient and less demanding. I think he'd be better the second time around and would be a good coach for you.

 

[Sanders]

I think he wants to coach again more than anything in the world. Ignore what he says. The 'one club coach' thing was when he thought he'd coach us forever and was heading for premiership glory, dynasty etc. He loves coaching - lives it and breathes it every second of the day. He would be absolutely dying to prove himself again and would fall over himself to coach Melbourne.
.

Could not agree more.

 

[Kerleys Ghost]

I can see Melbourne beating us later in the year

I came here to post that exact thing, ha.

 

[Kerleys Ghost]

He guys, I've noticed a lot of crows fans talk negatively of Neil Craig's reign and yet you were pretty successful, although not ultimately, during his time. Just wondering what the key reasons are? From what I understand he had a fantastic relationship with the playing group and similar to Eade, his time was just up.

Anyway, I don't think he'll backflip and want to coach again next year.

he will want that job, and he'd probably be ok for you given how horrendous you are at the moment.

his gamestyle was over-complicated, everyone got sick of him, and we won 7 games in a season, and then a certain shit-house team belted us by about a 100 points...

im sure you remember.