If Not BB, Who?

[Raydan]

I think we have folks with strong views on both sides of the debate.
That's good for forum business...I'm not sure it's a position the club would want to see.

But there are also some of us who are sitting squarely in the middle....and I'm totally buggered if I know "Where we are at!"
'Have faith' I'm told.
But bloody faith is the most 'airy fairy' thing in football.
It's totally meaningless and has no influence on what will happen... (unless you're a club director)

The problem this season is the first three weeks have given us a group of results that have only muddied the perception.
Real Jekyll and Hyde stuff.
Some say they can see real improvement but if we look back over the last three years we could find many post game threads where we've talked about 'real' improvement.

I like Bolton. I like his attitude. I think he does generally have a lot of support from the playing group' I think they believe he can make them better players and have embraced what he's trying to achieve.
I'm also sure he's learning and developing in the role and his coaching will only get better.
But there is a time limit.
It's not set, and can happen very quickly if things go completely pear-shaped.
Am I convinced he's the coach that can get the results we want before his time runs out?...
No, I'm not sure, and that's based solely on the fact that the results so far are a decline in both wins and ladder position that hasn't been offset by a real improvement in development and performance.

It's not irreversible.
He has until the end of this season before any real pressure comes on.
What saves him?
For that we need to see wins and a steady rise up the ladder.
Now hopefully that may come...but we can't just wipe the last three years...and go "Starting Now!"

As we've seen in another thread the core of this playing group was there before Bolton.
With the addition of those drafted in his first year he has had a stable group that makes up a large part of his starting 22 players, albeit severely affected by injuries at different stages.

Yet what we've seen is us heading South in terms of ladder position and games won each year.
So until you turn that around you have to cop a bit of flack.

Show us some solid evidence in terms of
-player improvement
-teaming together and structure
-wins
-ladder improvement
….and the criticism will evaporate.

I still think the great majority of Carlton supporters want this to work.
I don't know what we do if it doesn't.

There are coaching issues, when we have the game on our terms like the first quarter this week, we looked good, but any decent coach can shut down young kids from running with the football, especially a good defensive team like Sydney. What Bolton has failed to do is implement a game plan that counters this. GWS is a running side and when the opposition tries to block things up they keep the opposite wings wide, which enables a release kick when fed out the back.

ATM if we win the ball in congestion we feed the ball back, then kick down the line and any half decent coach knows that, places a defender 30m forward of the stoppage, they get the ball and kick into the middle of the ground as all of their player who were congesting the play run off our guys and this opens the ground up putting our defense under pressure. We were just luck this week that Jones and Weitering were able to play out of their skins.

Imagine the same play where we feed the ball back, but instead of kicking it down the line they run 10m to the middle of the ground and kick to the opposing wing to our player we have there waiting for the release kick, it doesn't have to be on his chest but in his general area, and we are away.

The opposition then have to decide are they going to allow this, if they man him up, then we send another over there and create a two on one, this will then stop the play getting too clogged up and allow our young runners to get some momentum again.

If the opposition win the clearence the wing pushed out can run to the middle and block the players who want to get to the middle.

That is a very simplistic look at it but it works for GWS well, just ask DeLideo who gets many easy kicks by being that release valve.