A message to Bucks: use the force

[Member 7167]

Do you really need to infect every threat with your one dimensional negative comments. Give us a break.

[thompsoc]

[inxs88]

Collingwood fans have a lot to be optimistic about and can't help feel that the slanted media analyses has a lot to do with creating negative sentiment. Take into account the following:

* SEN at 5:52pm today crosses to Tim Watson whose lead sports story is about "Bux under pressure with Pies fixture release for 2017".

For gods sake, has he ever never been under pressure??? From the days he went to Brisbane Bears, to the 1994 move to the Pies not the Roos, to pre 2002 Grand Final day when all media pundits said "until he does it in September" ........ To the succession plan pre-takeover then to the post Mick takeover, to the NOW .......

He has never had one year to relax from the limelight, breathe, relax and let natural tendencies and progression to develop. He is has been such an easy target for dumb, thoroughless and low hanging fruit journalists needing to fill air time and copy space.

Lets as hard core Pies fans not add to the noise and give him 2017 plus hope that injuries, Gubby Allan or any other external factors can piss off for 12 months.

[thompsoc]

[magpieazza]

[thompsoc]

No I am not.
The use of side by side to squash criticism of certain members of the inner
Circle at CFC is what I object to.

[stui magpie]

[Jezza]

[Cam]

[E]

what a load of rubbish!! Everyone knows deep down in their heart that the Magpie army will rally around a successful team.

I remember the last cycle. Tonnes and tonnes of bickering and dissent among pies army over the direction MM was taking our team. shit, i got my name trying to convince people that we were developing an elite midfield when everyone else was saying that we had recruited a bunch of hacks with now stars.

As we rolled toward 2010, the Magpie army slowly came out of hibernation and the bickering stopped. mid 2010 until Sept 2011 was about as bicker free a time as i can remember.

So you have the order all wrong. Bucks needs to build a team for us to believe in, and then, and only then, will the Magpie Army unite around them.

AND I GUARANTEE YOU. IF BUCKs PUTS TOGETHER A SERIOUS VIRTUAL PREMIERSHIP TEAM (which i define as any team that can play in a grand final against GWS over the next 8 years since they are going to win the next 8 flags), the Army will be there and the bickering (even about Buckley) will stop.

We always think we are living in new times. But this cycle has been happening over and over throughout the years and there is no reason to believe anything will change this time around.

Success begets unity! Success begets the Army!

[mooretreloar]

Coaches are given too much credit when the team is going well. Coaches cop too much of the blame when a team is going poorly.

The last time that I went to a Collingwood match, round 23 2016 v Hawthorn, I did not see Buckley kick a ball, give a handball, take a mark or lay a tackle. I also didn't see him on field during the game providing leadership by directing players to set up in a certain way or go to a certain position on the ground. Apparently, it is the players that do all these things.

The one thing that always comes to the fore in discussions about successful football sides is the leadership of players. Coaches like David Parkin and Alastair Clarkson have said on numerous occasions that their successful teams were built on players taking ownership and basically coaching themselves. How many times in the last five years have you heard commentary saying that Hawthorn has five or six on-field coaches?

In hearing Buckley speak about coaching it is clear that his philosophy is to empower the playing group to take ownership and drive their own success. For this to be successful you need to have leaders capable of driving the playing group on and off the field.

One of our major problems in the last three seasons has been our lack of leadership on-field, too much has been left to Pendles. The 2016 leadership group of Pendles, Sidey, Adams, Maccaffer and Brown hardly played a game together.

In seasons 2014 and 2015, if you watched our games closely the only player consistently directing players on-field was Pendles. In 2016, Sidey and Adams started to help Pendles in this area. In hearing Adam Treloar speak, I believe that now that he has one year under his belt with us, that he will also begin to help in this area.

A priority in 2017 is to develop more players to assist Pendles, Adams, Sidey and Treloar in driving the team on-field. This will automatically improve if we can sustain a period where the nucleus of the side is able to play a string of games together to build the camaraderie.

Buckley's philosophy of empowering the playing group is sound and from someone that has played high level sport, if you have to rely on someone to always get you up to perform than your success is going to be very short lived.

[qldmagpie67]

[Member 7167]

[Cam]

Bucks moved from school to school as a kid, 12 or 13 different ones IIRC from his book. He didn't have close friends, his relationship with his dad wasn't great until he was much older. He is tough, and didn't rely on close relationships or bonds to survive. He became one of the hardest men, mentally in the game. He didn't really need people much.

However he is married, and a father, and both those facts will have changed him. There is hope, but I fear his metamorphosis will come too late for us. Having taught 20-75 year olds at TAFE in IT, high school kids, and down to babies that have grown up in my house, I can safely say that in every class you have a clown, its their thing. There are the shy kids that work hard no matter what, ones that are shy and only thrive with constant praise, showoffs with high skills that have superiority complexes [possibly rightly so], showoffs with low skills that compensate via their vaudeville, high maintenance ones with low skills, need praise and disrupt others. Every class has these, no matter what the age, although you do get less disruptive ones after 30 as they tend to be there with a focus.

Point is, I really hope that we are not trying to have one type of player at Collingwood. Because no matter how hard we try, people shift roles to fill them. Take out the class clown and another will spring up in its place, it's social nature. Respect the diversity, embrace the diversity, individualise and maximise improvement. And don't tell the players to not listen to music before a game [as happened this year] - because everyone prepares differently.

I, too see the affable man on the TV and in the post game interviews and think "How can this possibly not be working?". Maybe it doesn't translate? Maybe MM poisoned everyone at the time and Bucks never had a chance. Not all movies have happy endings, particularly at Collingwood.

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

Just on leadership I can't see the criticism levelled at Pendlebury as warranted. To me he's a great leader who leads from the front, plays even when injured and speaks well in front of the media. The only criticism I have of Adams is that he throws himself into the fray too much putting his body at risk. We need Adams out there on the field every game, not watching from the sidelines.
Sidebottom gets into the leadership group by default, admittedly not the ideal route to promotion, but as one of the most senior and skilled players in the side, he needs to stay there. Obviously Brown and Macaffer didn't work out. We need one of the back six to step up into the leadership group. Howe to me would be a good choice to promote.
Treloar is the other obvious one to promote into the leadership group.
Not a good look if three of the leadership group are outsiders, but we haven't been drafting players with leadership qualities into the club lately and this has been making Buckley's task to win games harder.