Brisbane
needs to offload its assistant coaches at the end of the season if the club is
to keep revolutionising its culture and improve on the field.
It may seem
premature to make such a suggestion after six rounds but there are remnants of
the Justin Leppitsch era that remain in the coaching box and that can still
impact on the gameplan implement by new coach Chris Fagan.
Murray
Davis, Danny Daly and Ben Hudson were assistants but they remain at the club
despite Leppa’s sacking. Fagan can only do so much in the coaches box but he
needs support and those men can’t do that.
The Lions
have shown moments of brilliance under Fagan like in the Round One victory
against Gold Coast and even in the defeats against Essendon and Western
Bulldogs but the Richmond and Port Adelaide defeats showed that the players can
sadly revert back to their old habits.
These
include excessive handballs, the inability to make tackles, the desperation to
chase the opposition or pressure them, and an inability to win one-on-one
battles.
A lot of the
handballs are made in hope. The ball-carrier will handball to a teammate but he
will only take the pressure off himself. His teammate will likely be placed
under a barrage of pressure and can’t dispose of the ball cleanly and
effectively.
Brisbane
plays its best footy when the players go direct and emphasise on kicking. When
that happens, forwards such as Eric Hipwood and Michael Close can kick goals
and midfielders like Mitch Robinson and Dayne Zorko can make an impact on the
scoreboard.
Defensive
structure is important even if a team wants to play an attacking brand of footy
and the Lions need to fix that up. The defence is easily pressured and
opposition forwards can carve open the backline with their pace.
Brisbane has
some promising key defenders like Darcy Gardiner and Harris Andrews but they
are still very slender and need to bulk up. To atone for a lack of heavy frame,
their ability to read the play needs to be sharper. So far there are little
signs of the defensive coaches working on that with the players.
There have
been some changes made to the coaching and development staff up at Brisbane in
addition to the sacking of Leppitsch. For instance, Mitch Hahn is coaching the
NEAFL side instead of woeful Shane Woewodin and the Lions have won four out of
four games in that competition.
Alongside
Fagan, former Collingwood VFL coach Dale Tapping is now coaching the midfield and
working at the VFL means that Tapping should have experience with younger
players, which would suit a young list like Brisbane’s.
Former
captain Jed Adcock is the assistant midfield coach now and after his experience
at the Western Bulldogs, he can pass on knowledge about the coaching of Luke
Beveridge, who has a created a team that handballs effectively, gets the ball
out of congestion and plays at a high tempo.
Davis, Daly,
and Hudson were poor at their jobs under Leppitsch and their tasks probably
won’t be performed any better under Fagan. They are not likely to provide great
tactical ideas or words of wisdom so it is better to get rid of the weak points
of the Lions’ coaching staff.
Brisbane
must get rid of them at the end of 2017 and Fages needs to bring in more of his
own people.
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