{"id":124701,"date":"2025-09-07T04:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T04:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124701\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T04:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T04:11:08","slug":"david-king-says-coaching-matters-after-first-week-of-finals-first-crack-analysis-geelong-cats-gws-giants-fremantle-dockers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124701\/","title":{"rendered":"David King says coaching matters after first week of finals, First Crack, analysis, Geelong Cats, GWS Giants, Fremantle Dockers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight has become six<\/a> with the first week of the AFL finals in the books. <\/p>\n

And Kangaroos legend David King emphasised \u201ccoaching matters\u201d in September, with one gold standard clearly above the rest.<\/p>\n

Collingwood and Geelong booked their spots in home MCG preliminary finals with wins over Adelaide and Brisbane, who live to fight another day with the double chance. But it\u2019s season over for the GWS Giants and Fremantle in a bitter pill to swallow.<\/p>\n

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King believes the Cats have clearly emerged as the flag frontrunners after a dominant 38-point victory over Brisbane at the MCG.<\/p>\n

It marks Geelong\u2019s eighth preliminary final appearance in the last 10 seasons \u2014 including six of the last seven \u2014 under Chris Scott in an exemplary record and testament to the club\u2019s sustained success.<\/p>\n

While that dominant win over Brisbane \u2014 which included Oisin Mullin and Mark O\u2019Connor executing crucial shut down roles on Hugh McCluggage and Cam Rayner \u2014 was a clear standout from the weekend, King pointed to the entire planning of 2025 from Chris Scott and company to guide Geelong to the final four.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s one key rule the dual premiership Kangaroo has long preached that Geelong abided by on Friday night : Don\u2019t get beaten by what you know.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCoaching matters, and it\u2019s not just game day. It\u2019s what you do in the weeks leading up, the months leading up. The planning, the foresight, the vision,\u201d the dual premiership Kangaroo began on Fox Footy\u2019s The First Crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the template is Geelong, because they just don\u2019t allow the opposition to do as they please. There was no way Geelong was going to allow Rayner and McCluggage to beat them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mindset of is this group is: \u2018We\u2019re not going to get beaten by what we know going in\u2019. I think it\u2019s brilliant coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resting of Patrick Dangerfield, Jack Martin and Bailey Smith throughout the year. Make sure they\u2019ve got their best 23 to choose from the first week of the finals, what an unbelievable asset that is. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe roles of players has been shifted over the last month, they\u2019ve all played everywhere. So if you\u2019re planning to play against the Cats, you\u2019ve got no idea where those magnets are going to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile several other clubs will be left questioning key decisions after they fell short on the finals stage.<\/p>\n

Collingwood skipper Darcy Moore was out of control in a defensive masterclass with nine intercept marks against the Crows.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Ollie Dempsey would\u2019ve caused headaches in the Lions coaches box all night, showing off all his tricks with a dazzling 25-disposal, three-goal display from the wing.<\/p>\n

The Giants took a punt on several underdone stars for their cutthroat clash with Hawthorn, which yielded mixed results.<\/p>\n

And Gold Coast duo Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson ran riot on Fremantle with a combined 66 disposals and Bailey Humphrey bopped up with three goals in a Dustin Martin-esque performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was the plan for Dempsey? Was Matty Nicks ready for Darcy Moore? The gambles on injured players \u2014 Jesse Hogan, Jake Stringer, Jake Kelly. Was it too many?,\u201d King continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these decisions are nothing to do with how you want to play, because ultimately the system is embedded over multiple years. Does it have preliminary final integrity final or not? Is it ready to stand up against the best?<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Fremantle\u2019s tonight is not, they can\u2019t shift and cover those star midfielders. They don\u2019t have someone who can go and lock away Bailey Humphrey, who\u2019s out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n

GWS Out! Hawks cause upset in Sydney | 03:53<\/p>\n

Moving forward, King believes teams with flag aspirations need to really hone in on playing a brand that will hold up under finals heat.<\/p>\n

But enforcing that ideology isn\u2019t exclusive to the senior coaches in a \u201cchallenge\u201d that demands full-club buy in over an entire campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, it\u2019s your system and beliefs we pick apart. We do that from the cheap seats, but we do it off the level of what the best are doing. And the best right now is Chris Scott. So if you\u2019re not at that level, you\u2019re getting beaten,\u201d King continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the challenge for the competition. Not just for the individual coaches, for the full club. To get the right people in and ensure you\u2019re playing a finals system.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre the GWS Giants really playing a finals brand that\u2019s going to take them to the promise land? <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe this is why we look at Damien Hardwick saying: \u2018He\u2019s doing it again\u2019. Because this model works. We look at these guys who get it done for a reason. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo what are the rest learning from these guys? If your system doesn\u2019t work in big games, it\u2019s no good.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said \u201cof course\u201d Geelong is the team to beat from here as it prepares to face the winner of the Adelaide-Hawthorn semi-final. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not just for one singular reason, it\u2019s the season long, it\u2019s everything. All roads lead to a preliminary final,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you can get beaten in a prelim, in a one-off game. No problem. But they give themselves every chance every year, because they make the right decisions season long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight has become six with the first week of the AFL finals in the books. And Kangaroos legend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,689,684,12923,87592,87581,14385,10989,1818,39252,42266,87583,87585,87586,87577,38382,87584,87593,87590,87589,10124,20924,13659,2485,9130,25573,1139,87582,86944,87580,12138,12188,27763,87588,1120,12181,10400,44389,12157,25844,677,39209,19095,87591,87579,68934,701,87587,62647,87576,85,87578],"class_list":["post-124701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-cotton","tag-chris-scott","tag-clear-flag-fave","tag-coaching-matters","tag-damien-hardwick","tag-darcy-moore","tag-david-king","tag-david-swallow","tag-dustin-martin","tag-emotional-fyfe-farewells","tag-final-integrity-final","tag-finals-brand","tag-finals-fails","tag-finals-game","tag-finals-heat","tag-finals-stage","tag-finals-system","tag-flag-frontrunners","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-game-day","tag-geelong-cats","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-gold-standard","tag-greater-western-sydney-giants","tag-harsh-home-truths","tag-hawks-cause-upset","tag-home-preliminary-finals","tag-hugh-mccluggage","tag-intercept-marks","tag-jack-martin","tag-jake-kelly","tag-jake-stringer","tag-jesse-hogan","tag-justin-longmuir","tag-mark-oconnor","tag-matt-rowell","tag-noah-anderson","tag-oceania","tag-patrick-dangerfield","tag-preliminary-final","tag-preliminary-final-appearance","tag-preliminary-final-integrity","tag-promise-land","tag-queensland","tag-right-decisions-season","tag-sides-loss","tag-sides-victory","tag-sports","tag-suns-legend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}