Typical - Blame the CoachAgain zzzzzz

[stryper]

The only Losers to see here are the ones that continually bag our great club...
So easy to say sack Knights...Sack this person and that person... no plan etc bla bla bla...
1 thing is needed and 1 thing only - Skills.
There is nothing wrong with the gameplan...
There is nothing wrong with the endeavour...
Our skills are attrocious at the moment...
Turnover after turnover.
Not the coach...- tried different moves and has passion...
Tell me Honestly would Geelong/St Kilda be the side that they are if they continually turned the ball over...
Answer NO...
They run and carry but they hurt the opposition because they hit targets...
We continually put ourselves under pressure with Turnovers...

All that is needed is for us to be able to find the targets. Be able to kick goals instead of points at crucial times...
This will enable the forwards to fire...And yes win games...

We have nobody to blame but solely the skills from the players...
Forwards at the moment have a mission impossible to get the ball...
Need to seriously do something about our kicking - Find the targets!!!
If anybody should be under fire it is our Skills coaches...
Would Bomber Thompson be any better with our side - NO.
When Geelong were continually turning the ball over - people forget he was on his way out the door with Geelong but then all of a sudden they got it right...- started to find targets...

People Get real and Stop finding scapegoats. Get to the real issues at hand...

[gringo]

Knights picks shit teams, got rid of Lloyd too early, has a game plan that resembles a rave party with free flippers for all, has no winning credentials and came from Richmond whilst that club was at it's lowest ebb. SEND IN THE CLOWNS.

[stryper]

Gringo Get a grip on reality Lloydy left because he didn't have the passion anymore.
He was offered a contract but had enough...
Wanted - Players that can perform under pressure...
It is 1 thing to do it right during practice...
It is completely another to perform on gameday...
Inexperience will hurt and we will be inconsistent but it will turn around...
Knights has the right attitude and will continue to turn the Team around until he finds players that can perform on the big stage...
Collyer - I see potential but way to many turnovers...
Welsh - gave away far to many frees - undisciplined for a Leader...
Hooker - had the fumbles last night...
Hille - was like a rabbit caught by a spotlight against Natanui but Credit to him to made things happen and worked hard...
Gumbleton/Hurley/Williams - Very limited opportunities - Applalling disposal into the forward line...
Watson - A Gun who is in a class all of his own...
Ryder - A few good things...
Melksham - Major potential - needs to finish games off.
Reimers - hardly any chance due to such poor disposal.
Dempsey - terrible last night...
Dyson - Bad night.
Winder - bad night again.
Houli - Ok but too many turnovers...
I could go on and on...
Simple fact

[robbie67]

One of the main reasons he got the job was his belief in the list. The list is awful, and the buck stops with him. Get someone who has been part of a winning culture, and f*** him off.

[DYSON#2]

our kick ins are a disgrace, blokes stagnet like a stale bottle of piss. no movement, no blocks to create space and make our kick ins effective. both coaches and players to blame

[stryper]

I have an idea.
Everybody who wants Knights gone - Please put your hand up...
Ok - now line up 1 by 1 and Here is your chance to be the coach...
Do a better job or Not so that we can bag the shit out of you too... lol
Patience my friends is what is needed... PATIENCE = Success...

[robbie67]

I have an idea.
Everybody who wants Knights gone - Please put your hand up...
Ok - now line up 1 by 1 and Here is your chance to be the coach...
Do a better job or Not so that we can bag the shit out of you too... lol
Patience my friends is what is needed... PATIENCE = Success...

Wow, what a great argument,the old "you try doing it then" approach. Post of the year.

[BenDoolan]

Gotta say that I'm becoming a bit disillusioned at some aspects of the team and the selections. I'm not yet ready to burn the coach. And personally, the arguments that he hasn't come from a winning culture is a bit pox IMO. Where did Clarkson come from? Roos? They had playing careers which amounted to nothing. Hafey, Jeans etc didn't require a successful playing career to become successful coaches.

I don't mind reading about criticisms of a coach for what he's done or hasn't done in the coaching box, but I cringe when the criticism is purely based on "he came from a losing culture".

I remember very vividly after walking away from losses at Windy Hill in the early 80's when all you would hear was people criticising Sheedy's moves. "Why doesn't he just leave players where they are?" "What was he thinking putting Duckworth up forward and TD down back?". A couple of years later, we were lauding such moves.

Not saying Knights is a Sheedy, or Knights will be successful, but would just like to see where people think his coaching isn't where it should....

[BenDoolan]

our kick ins are a disgrace, blokes stagnet like a stale bottle of piss. no movement, no blocks to create space and make our kick ins effective. both coaches and players to blame

And that's a fair point!

[robbie67]

1. The list is his resposibility, and while some players on the list have potential, overall the list is awful. More recruiting mistakes, and no ability to attract anyone.

2. Unanswered goal after unanswered goal.

3. Team structure. Is it really that hard to get Watson some help inside? Ryder looked very capable of at least negating Natanui last night, but he kept rotating Hille on to him.

4. The unwavering faith in Slattery.

5. Complete refusal to tag the in form mid-fielder.

[Bomber_Fan]

I thought this was one of Knight's more impressive performances as a a coach after a loss. At least he tried some different things after we got absolutely thumped in the second quarter. There were some disappointing aspects such as having Hille ruck against Natanui and Cox against Ryder. Should have changed this sooner as it was bleeding obvious that Ryder was able to compete against Natanui better and Hille against Cox. Make no mistake this is one of the reasons we got smashed at the clearances because the WCE midfield assumed that the ball was going to get tapped to advantage. I would have loved for Knight's to put a sweeper just behind the centre square to at least give the WCE midfield something to think about and maybe at least slow down their progress towards goal.

Things he tried that I liked were putting Houli in the midfield, trying Hooker up forward and putting Dempsey on the wing. Unfortunately I don't think Houli is a backman too many times he hospital handpasses to a team mate at the 50m line and it becomes a turnover. I think he should be ordered to only kick the ball out of 50m line and not handball. I wasn't too impressed that we managed to reduce the margin and they had Kerr injured so they slowed down.

One thing that had me irate was the umpiring, I am sick of the holding the ball rule. I lost count of the number of times the WCE players went to ground with the ball and hit a touchdown. Incorrect disposal umpire - so pay the free kick. I especially enjoyed the one where the WCE player lifted his arms to avoid being tackled and was bought down. That should have been a free kick because he had time to dispose the ball. Then Houli gets pinned for holding the ball with absolutely no prior opportunity. Of course it was look after WCE night because the umpires would give their players a free kick whenever there was an infringement with holding the man off the ball. Ignore the fact, that they don't pay this 99 times out of another 100 times.

Memo to EFC - Hanson and Kennedy say thanks for making sure they keep their places in the line up for at least the next few games. At least McGinlay coudn't kick 7 goals against us this time.

[BenDoolan]

1. The list is his resposibility, and while some players on the list have potential, overall the list is awful. More recruiting mistakes, and no ability to attract anyone.

True yes. The list is his responsibility and he has culled it significantly. And we would agree that most of the culls were warranted - Bolton, Bradley, Johns, Camporeale, Cole, Johnson, Nash, Lee (who the f*** was he), Big Mal, Hislop, Rama, Pev, Lovett. There's probably others I have missed. And there's the retirement of Lloyd and Lucas. Since he's been involved at the draft table he has selected the likes of Pears, Hurley, Zaharakis, Melksham as early picks. The only questionable one is Myers (and Melksham is too early to call). I think he's done quite good with those selections. Yes, we know, missing Rioli is going to piss a lot of people off.

Not getting / attracting big name players. Yep, that's been shyte for many years. What can he realistically do about it? Without giving away top quality players in return (of which we don't have many of), I can't see this changing all too soon.

2. Unanswered goal after unanswered goal.

Disgrace. But I don't blame the defensive 50 for this. Again, West Coast did not kick a huge score - that score is beatable. We were murdered in the centre bounce and at the stoppages. Weak pressure on their ball carriers etc. The intensity wasn't the same as the previous week. Knights has some responsibilty to try and extract that intensity, but where are the players own pride in performance? That's what pisses me off. Everytime these guys pull on a jumper and run out, they should be giving 100% of themselves 100% of the time - without prompting!

3. Team structure. Is it really that hard to get Watson some help inside? Ryder looked very capable of at least negating Natanui last night, but he kept rotating Hille on to him.

Totally agree here. I am perplexed at the treatment of Prismall despite what others think. He is an extractor of the footy and generally uses the ball well and provides Watson with relief. Missed him last night IMO. Hille was just not going about his work with any authority. For someone who's played 150 games, he's the one that looked like the novice. Agree that Ryder was a better match up for him in the ruck - better leap than Hille and more athletic over the ground.

4. The unwavering faith in Slattery.

Yeah, well....until we get some other tough nuggety back pocket from somewhere, or coming through the list (I can't see any), he will be around some some time yet. Yes Knighta loves him. But O'Donnell loves him most (just in case anyone is wondering)

5. Complete refusal to tag the in form mid-fielder.

Apart from Welsh (who lost the plot last night), I don't think we have anyone capable of performing this role well at all. Maybe Hocking? Dunno. The other problem is, most other teams have more than one "in form" midfielder

[robrulz5]

Gotta say that I'm becoming a bit disillusioned at some aspects of the team and the selections. I'm not yet ready to burn the coach. And personally, the arguments that he hasn't come from a winning culture is a bit pox IMO. Where did Clarkson come from? Roos? They had playing careers which amounted to nothing. Hafey, Jeans etc didn't require a successful playing career to become successful coaches.

Coming from a succesful culture isn't helping Damien Hardwick and hadn't been too kind to Mark Harvey before the first 3 games of this year. Brett Ratten still has a shite coaching record after playing in a good side.

[tonysoprano]

There is nothing wrong with the gameplan...

Bullshit.

He has had 2 years to develop his "gameplan" - we are not even f****** close to getting it right. If the players aren't capable of delivering - change it to a plan that they might actually be able to execute. If he's not prepared to change it - then change him.

f*** him off sooner rather than later. This year is a right-off already. Another year down the shitter. Another amatuer, soft, pathetic, disgrace that we have seen way to much of over the last 5 years.

This is bullshit. This is Essendon.

[BenDoolan]

There is nothing wrong with the gameplan...

Bullshit.

He has had 2 years to develop his "gameplan" - we are not even f****** close to getting it right. If the players aren't capable of delivering - change it to a plan that they might actually be able to execute. If he's not prepared to change it - then change him.

f*** him off sooner rather than later. This year is a right-off already. Another year down the shitter. Another amatuer, soft, pathetic, disgrace that we have seen way to much of over the last 5 years.

This is bullshit. This is Essendon.

And what would that be? A gameplan of fumble, stumble, jumble and crumble?

[little_ripper]

For those of you blaming the list, get real, its problem is that its still very young, not that its no good.

The big problem(and its been waiting to really manifest itself - 2010 it finally has) was a lack of quality players between the ages of 23-27. This generation of bombers(would be drafted from 2000-2003/2004) were well below average compared to the comp. So we have culled and recruited heavily in the last 4-5 years. =D> =D>

I'm not too sure about Knights , but then again an up and down season is pretty much expected from a bunch of kids. You can't really judge a coach completely by watching the team play on TV(which I do - living a long way from melbourne). IMO i would love hirdy as a coach.

I'd say at the moment we haven't improved on last season which is a disappointment. Nevertheless if we keep our heads up and get games into the young blokes who have missed a lot of footy, or new to the club..good results will happen.

I'm expecting a better second half of the season, than the first.

[Boyler_Room]

For those of you blaming the list, get real, its problem is that its still very young, not that its no good.

The big problem(and its been waiting to really manifest itself - 2010 it finally has) was a lack of quality players between the ages of 23-27. This generation of bombers(would be drafted from 2000-2003/2004) were well below average compared to the comp. So we have culled and recruited heavily in the last 4-5 years. =D> =D>

I'm not too sure about Knights , but then again an up and down season is pretty much expected from a bunch of kids. You can't really judge a coach completely by watching the team play on TV(which I do - living a long way from melbourne). IMO i would love hirdy as a coach.

I'd say at the moment we haven't improved on last season which is a disappointment. Nevertheless if we keep our heads up and get games into the young blokes who have missed a lot of footy, or new to the club..good results will happen.

I'm expecting a better second half of the season, than the first.

This argument has been presented on here for years. Blah blah... I'm over it. We keep producing rubbish season after rubbish season. We have a game plan that stinks. To suggest there is nothing wrong with the game plan is to suggest that handballing to a teammate in trouble is acceptable. Putting strange sides on the park, not playing talls, etc, etc, etc. We've all seen the arguments. I am really getting past caring now.

[robbie67]

This argument has been presented on here for years. Blah blah... I'm over it. We keep producing rubbish season after rubbish season. We have a game plan that stinks. To suggest there is nothing wrong with the game plan is to suggest that handballing to a teammate in trouble is acceptable. Putting strange sides on the park, not playing talls, etc, etc, etc. We've all seen the arguments. I am really getting past caring now.[/quote]

Saved me writing it myself Boyler. I must have read how the "problem" is our players in their mid-20's a hundred times in the last 8 years. They have had forever to fix it.

Sorry Little Ripper, but you have the same sort of blind faith that former posters had when they used to tell us how good Henno, Bolton, Bradley, Johns, Myers etc were going to be.

[j-mac31]

2. Unanswered goal after unanswered goal.

Disgrace. But I don't blame the defensive 50 for this. Again, West Coast did not kick a huge score - that score is beatable. We were murdered in the centre bounce and at the stoppages. Weak pressure on their ball carriers etc. The intensity wasn't the same as the previous week. Knights has some responsibilty to try and extract that intensity, but where are the players own pride in performance? That's what pisses me off. Everytime these guys pull on a jumper and run out, they should be giving 100% of themselves 100% of the time - without prompting!

3. Team structure. Is it really that hard to get Watson some help inside? Ryder looked very capable of at least negating Natanui last night, but he kept rotating Hille on to him.

Totally agree here. I am perplexed at the treatment of Prismall despite what others think. He is an extractor of the footy and generally uses the ball well and provides Watson with relief. Missed him last night IMO. Hille was just not going about his work with any authority. For someone who's played 150 games, he's the one that looked like the novice. Agree that Ryder was a better match up for him in the ruck - better leap than Hille and more athletic over the ground.

Surely these two points are related. Our ends of the ground are not the problem. At least not the backline.

I too can't see why Prismall was dropped. If Welsh stopped being a dickhead, he might be able to show some justification for being VC and help Jobe out a few times at the clearances. It would be good if McVeigh came back and focused on winning the ball in the middle and Lovett-Murray played more than one good game in a row.

4. The unwavering faith in Slattery.

Yeah, well....until we get some other tough nuggety back pocket from somewhere, or coming through the list (I can't see any), he will be around some some time yet. Yes Knighta loves him. But O'Donnell loves him most (just in case anyone is wondering)

I've been prepared to still have Slattery in the back pocket and go with your arguments Benny, until now.
The fact is, he can't read the flight of the ball. He can't win one-on-one contests. And he always is at least two steps behind when the ball is on the ground. In other words he cannot defend. Which is his primary goal.
And when he has the ball himself he is hopeless.

Give someone (anyone) else the job and a chance to show that they may actually be able to come close to looking like stopping an opposing small forward for at least 5 minutes. Or go back to McVeigh and/or Welsh there. They were pretty good there once.
Although if New Welsh turns up, his free kicks given away will be even more costly - direct goals instead of eventual goals.

Funnily enough, I thought Slattery did alright in the middle in the last quarter. Maybe he could have a run there, where there is less pressure on him and maybe even have a crack at tagging.

[billyduckworth]

Funnily enough, I thought Slattery did alright in the middle in the last quarter. Maybe he could have a run there, where there is less pressure on him and maybe even have a crack at tagging.

I noticed that too. Maybe it was just because the sting had gone out of the game, or maybe he is really better suited to tagging? Maybe we could try Slatts in the middle as a tagger, McVeigh back to the back pocket and piss off Welsh altogether.