Re: New Signing to be announced tomorrow : Thu May 12, 2011 2:06 pm
debaser wrote:
Eddie gets lambasted for the way he says things or for what he says?
What he says seems more and more to be proved right does it not?
What he says seems more and more to be proved right does it not?
Not. Look, without wanting to re-start WWIII, the general thrust of "Mac is crap, get him out, he's the problem" was one side of the camp. My own oft-maligned angle was, to sum up very briefly, is that McNamara is a good young coach; that while nobody is immune from criticism, and "should he go or should he stay" in the case of a coach of any team becomes academic if performances decline below a certain level as the coach WILL be sacked, the MAJORITY of the blame lay with the players. I said that because to my eyes, many of them, much of the time, were not putting it all in.
We now have Potter. Not much argument about his being a decent appointment. But, we have had too many shabby performances already. Although there are many other factors, and I don't want to join the simplistic camp, still to my eyes, many of the players, much of the time, were not putting it all in. Only the other day, we had another player hinting as much again (Whitehead, saying they "need to talk more" and "stop jumping out of the line leaving gaps").
Now, I do not believe that either McNamara or Potter did or do coach them that way. And we have again this year read several times that the game plan was fine, but when they ran on to the pitch, the players didn't follow it.
Does the coach bear responsibility for not ensuring his players follow orders, game plans, etc? I suppose you couldn't argue otherwise. Certainly ultimate responsibility is his.
But it's funny, isn't it, that Potter is experiencing the same self-destructive habits.
Anyway, the continuing events on the field leave me convinced all the more that what we have is a player problem in the main. Is there a coach to solve it? Who knows. I would certainly be for Potter being given a proper chance - measured in seasons, not weeks or days - but parting company with McNamara has not proved to be the magic elixir that some claimed it would be. And so I would respectfully suggest that there has not been a lot of "proving right".
There is another angle, as well, and that is the signing and release of players. I don't know nor does anyone I suspect just how much or little input a coach has into signing any given player, and we know we don't have the Warrington Wizardry to magic up megabucks, but still I am not exactly doing cartwheels with signings like Sibbit and Jeffries.
Perhaps we should conclude that the signings made by previous and current coaches are not shall we say necessarily always what the coaches' first choice might have been, although once signed, again, any player should be given a fair chance. For example, being judged on a season not a handful of games.
I have no interest at all in other people thinking I am right, wrong or whatever. I say my piece and it is what it is. But if the question is, was it the coach, or more the players, then to me the evidence against the substantial part of the blame being with the players continues to mount.
Some might suggest that in fact there's nothing that wrong with the players that "a good coach" couldn't cure. But to me that argument fails because to make it, you have to argue that not only was McNamara first a bad coach, but now that Potter is, too. And this to me is where the 'dud coach' claims start to collapse, because Potter has clearly shown with his short track record that he is no dud.
Basically what we are saying is that their is a New World Order. The new generation are pushing through with our opinions and discussion's. The Old Guard is no more!
