2024 Season

I am not making a judgement either way on O'Brien's effectiveness as a coach in first grade or going forward...

But just to put it on the radar as a genuine factor...he also largely inherited rebuilding/developing a club squad at the same time COVID hit us. The ability to attract, develop, bring juniors through and develop lower grade players over that time was nigh on impossible to achieve what might have been possible without COVID, whilst also trying to create and drive a systemic culture shift at the club.

I know all coaches had to deal with the impacts of the pandemic....but when you are also trying to address some ingrained structural and cultural issues in a club, it does create additional complexities that should be acknowledged when evaluating his performance and effectiveness to date.
 
As you say though all clubs had COVID to deal with so I think that can be removed as a factor, as all clubs faced the same.

The issues entrenched in the club, is certainly an issue and one that if we were to replace OB, would be looking for a coach that can turn that around, so OB should not be spared judgement on his own ability in that regard.
 
Still_Nutty said:
I am not making a judgement either way on O'Brien's effectiveness as a coach in first grade or going forward...

But just to put it on the radar as a genuine factor...he also largely inherited rebuilding/developing a club squad at the same time COVID hit us. The ability to attract, develop, bring juniors through and develop lower grade players over that time was nigh on impossible to achieve what might have been possible without COVID, whilst also trying to create and drive a systemic culture shift at the club.

I know all coaches had to deal with the impacts of the pandemic....but when you are also trying to address some ingrained structural and cultural issues in a club, it does create additional complexities that should be acknowledged when evaluating his performance and effectiveness to date.
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I’d actually be fascinated to see some sort of breakdown of which players missed key development years due to COVID and see how if there’s any consistent pattern to how they were affected. I believe SG Ball & Matts were canned midway through their season in 2020, and that we only got 1 round of Flegg and Cup that season, followed by only about 15 rounds of Flegg and Cup in 2021. I would say the most negatively affected cohort of players were those who are 22-23 now, unless they’d already progressed into the top grade. I wonder, if you compare players that age to those aged 24-25 or 20-21 atm, you’d be looking at a worse group of players…
 
Posted the below incorrectly in the pre-season thread.

Clifford back playing for the cows and his spiral bombs are back also..... interesting, did AOB coach it out of him? If so what a stupid coaching tactic
 
JOJO82 said:
Posted the below incorrectly in the pre-season thread.

Clifford back playing for the cows and his spiral bombs are back also..... interesting, did AOB coach it out of him? If so what a stupid coaching tactic
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Definitely a coached tactic. We haven't changed what we do with our 5th tackle options and gone through how many sets of halves since Clifford. Looks like he is hitting them pretty sweet too. Trai fuller isn't enjoying himself.
 
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