It was said on the Footy Show last night that coaches had to coach their teams to their strengths. For Parramatta it means giving Sandow free reign. Tallis and Crocker both said that Sandow had full charge of the team at Souths. Sterling stated that coaches have to coach certain players and not just the team. In this day and age structure works for some teams but not others. It is turning players into robots who just complete set plays and don't play what's in front of them. The players have to be given a basic gameplan and some basic set plays but leave it up to them to decide when to go through with the play and when to play what's in front of them. A rigid structure will only work when the coach has players who can play a structured game. With players such as Roberts, Sandow and Hayne a structured game plan will not play to their strengths. They can try to play to this structure but we have seen the results of this. It's simple, Kearney has to change the game plan and play to the strengths of his halves and fullback. 5 tackles and a kick will not win us games. The great Eels teams of the past have all played ad-lib football. It worked because they had some great attacking players but also because it suited those players. Put Sterling and Kenny in this current structure and they would struggle. They could play this structure but you wouldn't see Kenny making nearly as many line breaks or scoring as many tries. It's simple, let Sandow play what's in front of him and he will play well, put him in structure and he'll struggle. Kearney's got to coach to his players strengths.
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Sandow should be able to play with freedom but only if he sees the opportunity. Good halfbacks can play what is in front of them on each play, great halfbacks have the vision to see how a set can be played out and utilise any play from 1 to 5 (his 5th tackle options have been poor).
The guy needs structure, every team does - he just needs to know when to play to it or take on another opportunity.
At the moment Sandow was struggling to finish off sets so lets hope tonight when he plays with vision for the complete set and take any opportunity that presents itself.
Sterling didn't say ditch the structure. He said to modify it and coach Sandow to be able to play a brand of football where he can complete a set play but also play what's in front of him. That's what the great players can do, in particular Sterling and Johns. They could go about a simple backline movement like they were on a training run but then change direction or instruct a player to run a different line. It comes back to practice in the end. If Sandow is working on this at training we'll see the results in his game.
Looks it pretty obvious to all and sundry what is wrong.
But really I am starting to think that its probably not all Kearney's fault that he hasn't deviated from his rigid gameplan. I think he was essentially paid 450k a season not to deviate from his gameplan and not to have the eels playing like they did under Anderson.
This is because it was thought (and I have to admit that I probably shared that thought) that whilst we might play some good footy we were always going to be pipped at the post by a team playing in the modern era like a Melbourne or a St George so long as we adopted an ad lib style.
Pretty hard for a bloke to accept a job on those terms and then do an immediate about face.
Yes while it would be difficult for Kearney to handle the "breaking of the shackles" and sacrifice his control somewhat...it would also prove his strength in realising that his structure doesnt work and these players need to play whats in front of them to bring out thier best.