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Stanski's Meerkats Part 2

Written by Shiel

Well welcome to the second part of Stanski’s Meerkats. If you haven’t checked out the first part, check that out as we talked to Stanski himself, leeny63, and bails, the Oceania national coach. We talk in this second and final part to KozziAU, and NT team coach RevTonka, and finally -Picard-, who is the Oceania U21 coach. If you want to see more of these articles give these a thumbs up.

Well welcome to the second part of Stanski’s Meerkats. If you haven’t checked out the first part (22281), we talked to Stanski himself, leeny63, and bails, the Oceania national coach. We talk in this second and final part to KozziAU, RevTonka (are they both scouts? Find out) and finally -Picard-, who is the Oceania U21 coach.
Let me introduce you to our first guest, KozziAU. He has been involved heavily with Stanski’s national and U21 tenures.

1. What do you think Stanski’s greatest strength has been to help make him great?
Stanski is exceptionally good at predicting other managers' behaviour and lineups. He'll be correct on their approach to a match with uncanny regularity. A huge part of this is his ability to read the context of a match in any given tournament and see matches within a bigger picture for his opponents.

2. Did you ever work with him when he was coach of the national and U21 Oceania teams?
Many times. Stanski is heavily involved in the Oceanian Slack community and very generous with sharing his opinions and expertise. I was lucky enough to have him as an assistant coach for both of my U21 campaigns and learnt an awful lot from him.

3. If so, what was it like working with him?
Stanski and I are opposite sides of the coin, but we still get on really well. He's very succinct and will happily give his advice and move on if it isn't accepted. I'm the verbose type who will argue in detail and prefer to refine ideas.

However, if you are willing to learn, then Stanski will glady teach you what he knows. He is very generous in that regard. There aren't secrets, unless you're playing him that week!

4. What do you think Meerkats Athletic can achieve over the next few seasons?
Meerkats are heading towards the twilight of their career. Stanski has always been a planner and I think he'll happily accept when it isn't cost-effective to stay up.

This being said, they're still consistently one of the strongest teams in Oceania and I think that'll hold true for a couple more seasons.

5. Do you think that Stanski can lead a team to a Masters or World Cup win with either his team or a national team?
This is the one title that has eluded Stanski and I know that a Masters win has been in his sights for a few seasons now. He got really close this season with a 2-1 one lose in the final. He has the depth and the tactical nous, however form hasn't been kind to him for the last 2-3 attempts. You need both skill and fortune to win these kind of tournaments. Stanski has had half that equation sorted for some time :)

6. What was your first encounter with Stanski, and what was your impression of his Hattrick skills and knowledge?
I've yet to play a serious game against Stanski, instead I've only been in his court.

7. Is there a particular bit of advice that you would like to give Stanski, to help him through this part in his career?
Slow down and leave some trophies for the rest of us!

8. Do you think he is capable of staying at the top?
If he wanted to, then yes. I do believe he could rebuild and establish another dominant session once some HG players come of age. This being said, I suspect he's setting his sights on other goals and other challenges. I don't think he feels the need to prove himself any more than he already has.

9. Do you remember a season where Meerkats just really got going?
The season 64 was insane. Back to back to back Cup wins, winning the PP again. He added icing on the cake by winning the Oceanian Cup Tipping Competition, a competition that he'll openly acknowledge is the toughest competition to win in Oceania. This finally proved that he not only knew how to manage a HT team but also how to have a punt on one.

10. Is there anything you would like to share with the Hattrick Community about Stanski, an achievement or even just a time where help was given either way?
If you follow Stanski's transfer history then you can get a sense of one of his greatest skills, long-term planning. This championship team wasn't bought in a couple of seasons, it was crafted from its early inception.

His tactical nous, that has been refined over time. We're pretty lucky to have him in Oceania.

Thanks heaps again KozziAU.

Now we have RevTonka, a U21 team scout.

1. What do you think Stanski’s greatest strength has been to help make him great?
Persistence and his ability to read and absorb heaps of information.

2. Did you ever work with him when he was coach of the national and U20 Oceania teams?
No - I lurked and learned from the sidelines

3. What do you think Meerkats Athletic can achieve over the next few seasons?
Aging side - brilliantly managed. Another Pacific Premier title and a cup win?

4. Do you think that Stanski can lead a team to a Masters or World Cup win with either his team or a national team?
Yes, he's a brilliant manager but needs time to develop the right player squad.

5. What was your first encounter with Stanski, and what was your impression of his Hattrick skills and knowledge?
I can't remember. He has just been there with his generous advice.

6. Is there a particular bit of advice that you would like to give Stanski, to help him through this part in his career?
I'm not sure he can learn much from me.

7. Do you think he is capable of staying at the top?
Yes. There'll be glitches during rebuilds but he has what it takes to be at the very top.

8. Is there anything you would like to share with the Hattrick Community about Stanski, an achievement or even just a time where help was given either way?
I have enjoyed and learned from all my interactions with Stanski over a very very long time.

Thanks again RevTonka for your time.

Now we have -Picard-, who has recently become the Oceania U21 coach.

1. What do you think Stanski’s greatest strength has been to help make him great?
I believe that Stanski is amazing at identifying the strenghts and weaknesses of his own team and opposition`s. Moreover, he understands the mechanics of the game, the human part and how to reduce variance. This allows Stanski
to choose the best tactic every single match.

2. Did you ever work with him when he was coach of the national and U20 Oceania teams?
Yes, I worked with him when Stanski was head coach at Senior NT.

3. If so, what was it like working with him?
I enjoyed that campaign. Stanski was able to foster an environment where everyone could speak their mind and I think that we had a lot of fun.
Stanski shows a lot of professionalism in his tactical analysis and leadership.

4. What do you think Meerkats Athletic can achieve over the next few seasons?
I think that Meerkats can still fight for trophies for at least few seasons. I can definitively see potential for Meerkats to become the most successful club in the HT Oceania history.

5. Do you think that Stanski can lead a team to a Masters or World Cup win with either his team or a national team?
Stanski can lead a team to win the World Cup any time as he has the skillset but NT coach is totally different than club coach. At NT you need a good number of people doing the legwork and being active, which honestly this is not the case at Oceania NT where few people are doing heroics. If Stanki had the depth and quality of players at his disposal, he could definitively lead Oceania NT to World Cup gold.
At U20/1 it is easier to reach the final stages as the differences between teams are not that big and it requires a one (real) year commitment from scouts and trainers but at Senior NT we are talking about a 4-5 (real) years project or very active scouts on each generation.

Hattrick Master is pretty competitive and there are many top teams out there, some of them in big HT nations others in tiny HT nations. The tiny nations clubs are managed by top managers from big nations, so lots of know-how combined with lots of cash (the advantage of a club in a tiny nation). This combination can make some of those teams unbeatable.

You forgot about the Supporter Week Trophy, another top notch & very prestigious international club competition. Again, super competitive over there as well.

Ahh yes, I did forgot about that, that is also a very hard comp to do well in, and Stanski has done well in that as well.

6. What was your first encounter with Stanski, and what was your impression of his Hattrick skills and knowledge?
My first impression was that he is a guy that knows what he is doing :). He is not a man of many words but it`s a lot of wisdom and hints in his advice.

7. Is there a particular bit of advice that you would like to give Stanski, to help him through this part in his career?
My only advice is continue being active and engaged as way too many elite Oceanian managers retired lately.

8. Do you think he is capable of staying at the top?
Yes, of course he is, for a few seasons at least.

9. Do you remember a season where Meerkats just really got going?
Meerkats has been consistently amazing in the last 4 seasons so hard to pick one of them as better than the others but if I have to pick a top 3, I`d say that winning PP without losing, the OC Cup final against Waverley Hawks and the fight for the title against Bodily Harm, these would be my top 3 picks as the most memorable moments in Meerkats performance at the top in Oceania.

10. Is there anything you would like to share with the Hattrick Community about Stanski, an achievement or even just a time where help was given either way?
In the last years, I can definitively say that stanski inspired many managers and has been very active around NTs. He is a top bloke and we are very lucky to have him as an active member of our HT community.

Thanks heaps -Picard-.

This has been the second and final part of Stanski’s Meerkats. Thanks again for reading, and look out for a new article coming out in a few months. Look at my club page, Amers FC, for the new announcement on who the new article will be on.