To me it just highlights the inherent problems in the Popovic regime.
Andrew Clark was the Sports Science for years under Arnie and was wanted by clubs around the world as well as AFL and NRL. We never had a problem like this under him or his replacement.
Under Andrew Clark: The sports science framework was simple, deeply integrated with the head coach, and focused entirely on matching the physical baselines players were hitting at their clubs.
Clark didn't try to reinvent how a player lived their life when they arrived in camp. Instead, he built a meticulous, massive network tracking up to 100 players in the broader pool.He spent his weeks constantly talking to high-performance staff at clubs across Europe, Asia, and the A-League. When a player landed in camp, Clark didn't force a new fitness philosophy on them; he seamlessly continued the exact training metrics they were hitting at their club. This eliminated the risk of over-training or sudden exhaustion
Under Tony Popovic & Leigh Egger: The squad experienced a sudden, drastic shift to an uncompromising fitness regime. This regime essentially forces players to rapidly change their body composition, weight, and defensive running loads. This seems to be what lead to what Popovic called flat performances.
Popovic is notorious for micromanaging everything his players do. Egger's philosophy explicitly focuses on sleep, body mass, and lifestyle, which perfectly mirrors Popovic's old-school obsession with discipline.
Popovic and Okon have both been accused over the years of being poor man managers. Mile Jedinak, was employed as the set piece specialist but we under-performed in the World Cup there as have other teams where he had that role. Juric was a traditional shot-stopper - no modern keeper. So no work would have been done on sweeping.
Foxe I don't know enough about what he was doing.
All up the whole of the management team looks to be a set up that says yes to Popovic and not challenge him.
Surely we should be looking at the best management ensemble to take the team forward rather than minions to just agree with the head coach. i.e. These staff may be ok in their place but they aren't adding to the overall whole - just falling into line. A more diverse set, properly managed group, should lead to a management team greater than the team manager.
