Ability is great but if you haven't got that winning mentalaty then it's going to be hard to succeed. With players having it easy these days are we going to be short on players that will have the heart to battle to win? I know there's a huge surge in people wanting the new crop of players to have the skills set to perform at the Highest Level. This is all well and good but they also need to be winners and have that hunger to win and want to win. It's not about the Dog in the Fight its about the Fight in the Dog.
The thing is are we building the will to win into these players or even nurturing that ability or, are we losing that battling spirit? The will to Win and hate to lose mindset must be an ability that is welcomed and encouraged. If a Coach can build Grit into a player that shows signs of it at a youth level then his natural ability will come through even more. Maybe this idea is old fashioned but who needs a Team full of quitters?
If a player has the will to win, the will to battle, to never give in and to overcome adversity then he will have what it takes to succeed.
Is this a way to produce players of the future for RUFC? Do we need to Nurture the winning instinct into the right players from an early age? We need to bring players through the ranks and if we cant have the best prospects then maybe we should be recruiting youngsters that show natural Grit into our ranks.
Well thats my way of thinking on maybe solving the lack of home grown players problem, what do you Guys feel the way is to go re Players and the way to produce players of the future for the Millers?
Mr Evans, in his three season tenure, has shown Zero desire to produce our own players of the future, preferring recently to ship in journeyman dross from here, there & everywhere.
The nearest recent example of a home grown lad who could have become a top player was Paddy Brogan, who I'm convinced would have played at a much higher level if it wasn't for the horrific injury he suffered in that match v MKD a few years ago.
Grit v Ability? mmmmmmmmmmm
Paul Green, loads of fight, grit & commitment, should be a crowd favourite but misses sitters on an alarmingly regular basis.
Ben Pringle, left foot like a wand, not a lot of grit, gives up during games that don't go his way.
could go on all night.................discuss!!
Its a hard one Brad but we do need to produce winners not just for the Millers but for the National Team too. There are younger players out there with a natural streak of Grit that could be developed to increase that will to be a winner. Can we recruit them to our ranks?
Steve Evans is a Win now Manager, he cant afford to wait and produce his own so maybe his hands are somewhat tied there.
I agree with the Brogan view, I used to work with his Mother she was a nice person and I felt for both of them.
I agree that grit can be at least as important as talent. A team needs 2 or 3 leaders at least. Players who hate losing and can galvanise those around them.
The thing is that these sort of qualities are just as rare as ability.
Some ability and real will to win, or loads of ability and not too competitive?
It's got to be the balance. Maybe the 2 just don't so often go together.
Jan molby used to sit in the centre circle spraying passes all over the pitch and ran the game without moving.
Tony grealish made sure the opposition didn't keep moving for long.
Paul Warne used to sprint for 90 minutes.
Between them the perfect player. Grealish would be useless thesedays as he would be off every week.
Paul warne would cut it in the bottom 2 leagues but in the championship they would pass around him.
Jan molby would be marked out of the game by a holding midfielder.
In summary, the game has advanced so you need to be an athlete with a brain who can play football....and act. Not be hard and run around a lot. For the record I preferred hard football.
The thing I'm trying to say is, if a player has the natural ability as well as the Grit, which is encouraged and "Coached" in a way that it's increased so as to maximised to the full then surely that player would be better than a player that is purely gifted without the Battling Spirit developed into his mindset. Obviously there needs to be that desire and narrow mindedness there to begin with.
We have specialist Coaches with whom the Players train with to develop their ability so why not use specialised Coaches to bring to the fore that determination to win? Can that desire, Grit or spirrit be increased by Coaching methods?
The Wimbledon of old, the "Crazy Gang" were a bunch ofp layers thathad Grit, who never gave in and battled for each other Game after Game. Those players had that desire and I'm sure their Coaches brought that quality out of those players. That sort of battling spirrit seemed to grow from player to player, it seemed as though that mindset was contagious.
If the likes of Wimbledon could find the right tupe of player then why cant the Millers? Scout them young and bring them on.
Just thinking about this whilst driving home and I thought of the way Jack Charlton got a group of no hopers playing for themselves and performing v the Big Boys. You could say the same about harry Basset at Wimbledon and the blunts or even Bolton under Sam Allardyce.
I know theres more to it than players with Grit like tactics and gamesmanship etc but those teams had what it takes to battle for the cause and win.
Get coaches with that type of attitude in the backroom staff and maybe we could bring the same qualities out of the Millers players of the future.
Having those sorts of players around should rub off and encourage the players without the fight to perform in the same way, even if they up their desire and fight say 10% then we must be on to a winner.
We've all seen the lazy player, with all the ability, who once his team goes behind he then disappears for the rest of the game. Well with the right players around him he wouldn't be able to disappear, having Grit breeds Grit.
