The teacher in Senior Coach Brendan McCartney is taking a different approach in review sessions, stressing not what the player has done wrong but rather how their actions impact their teammates.

A team oriented mentality has swept across the Bulldogs’ players since McCartney’s appointment, and he believes the extended focus has resonated amongst the group.

“I think it’s best done if every bit of footage you show them link that to the implication it has for the team,” McCartney told SEN's Morning Glory. 

“So that if they don’t chase someone, or they stay on the ground too long and not get up and fight, the ball leaves the area and someone else is under pressure.

“With young people – everyone really – you get more out of people if you find the good in them, that ‘if you do this look what happens’.”

Rather than building a team around a handful of marquee players, McCartney envisions a cohesive line-up, where every single player has an established role and the desire to contribute to get the team over the line.

“It doesn’t matter how much talent you have or how much experience, the team has to function together – there’s so many facets to the game now, it’s when you’ve got the ball, when you haven’t got the ball, every time the game stops everyone’s got a part to play,” he said.

“Off the back of that - and this is a philosophy of ours - that the really good players emerge off the back of that.

“When you go the other way and try and have players drag your team forward on their own back all the time –I’m not sure that‘s the way to go.

“Our philosophy is quite clear, that we are confident that some really good players will emerge out of a functional team.”