Re: Northern Blues vs. North Ballarat at Ballarat on Sunday
Reply #21 –
The Northern Blues isn't working and Luke Webster to me has little idea how to develop them into a team....our two best players are a small unit in Sam Cattapan who will probably never get to play AFL footy and it was the same last season with Lambert and Marcon.
Cameron Wood is the other but he is purely backup and appears destined to just make up the numbers.....there seems little future in even having him on the list and we probably should have got the next Sam Jacobs from the SANFL/WAFL....
We need a standalone to to develop our players and we need a coach who is better than Webster...he has done nothing with this team and developed no one...
Results like this certainly do give your argument legs. Certainly the Northern Blues, and the Northern Bullants before them, have never acted like a real team. There have always been artificial divisions between the players and the guys have been treated differently. That is not good for any team.
It does appear to be something our admin has addressed: the recent booklet for the Northern Blues that was sent out to me showed more staff, particularly development staff, than I expected at Northern and a lot of it obviously put in place by Carlton. For example, Heath Scotland has recently been added to the list, even though he didn't make the booklet.
Certainly something had to be done. It was clear a couple of years back that there was a poor working relationship and the groups didn't mesh well.
That said, I am sure we can integrate things better. Attracting a bit more talent on the Preston side of things won't hurt either. Wilkinson, Anthony and the like are a decent beginning and young lads like Cattapan good pickups. But there needs to be more talent coming through.
Coaching: Having listened to Webster, he does not impress me as a game day coach. That may be a bit harsh, as I don't see the preparation he does or the planning he does off the field. I would prefer us to name a good match day coach to coach the team, someone who can inspire the team to produce its best.
I can't comment on who has or has not done much development: I don't get to see that. But the performances on match days suggest we are lacking that as much as anything. Hopefully the club can determine which are doing and job and replacing those who are not, while looking at the structures at the top clubs and stealing personnel and ideas from them. We need to be the best developers in the business: it makes out recruiting look much more reasonable if we do.
I can't see us becoming a stand alone team, although there would be some really good things to come from it. We have put too much time and effort into the 'Northern Blues' to tear it apart. But we really do need to improve it. Until we do, it will be an albatross around our necks and a concrete pillar on our feet.
As usual, well balanced comments Captain Crash.
I also agree with EB1 and yourself. Webster does not seem to have the comms skills to be an elite development / NBs coach. Listening to him yesterday it was the same old same old and he really does seem unsure of himself and even forgets where he's at in an address! Listening to Scotto address the boys, however, very different... he's really good.
Sometimes cutting your losses is the best option and that's how this marriage (Preston/Blues) looks at present and has looked, really, for a long time. The last time they played as a cohesive unit was under David Teague... Though, in fairness to Webster in one respect, he just didn't have the cattle yesterday.
Topic: Northern Blues vs. North Ballarat at Ballarat on Sunday (Read 11917 times)
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