Chris Fagan & old outsider coaches

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How AFL clubs pick coaches: The hidden process

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/how ... 52b7z.html

"Many on the selection panel have never sat in a coach’s box...

An ex-player will also have his own set of beliefs, generally forged during a successful career, but often in another era.

An outsider may have the expertise but lack accountability or influence, one reason former coaches are often reluctant to become involved.

One suggestion made was that those selecting should undergo the next coach program while a media expert on a panel would also be useful given the vital role a coach plays in representing the club.

That appears too radical a step for most clubs to take right now although St Kilda has taken the unprecedented step of appointing an AFL employee - coaching educator David Rath - to their panel.
...

One club estimated they spent at least 15 hours with their preferred candidate during the selection process prodding and poking him from all sorts of angles before they were convinced he was the one.

Another club began with 200 names, whittled that group to 80, then 20 then three or four before two became one.

Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan’s path to appointment began with an informal coffee then he made a presentation, followed by a question and answer session and then live coaching for about a quarter before the Lions settled on him.

Port Adelaide assessed candidates on technical capacity, management skills and their ability to create and drive a strong culture.

All that rigmarole followed what has become the most important part of the coaching selection process: before they began assessing candidates, clubs needed to understand where they sat and what they needed by looking inwards rather than outwards.

Misread that situation or fail to do the requisite work to know what is required and the odds of making a successful coaching appointment lengthen.

When the Melbourne board thought they needed a hard-edged coach and appointed Mark Neeld, they misread what the players at that time really needed, which was a softer touch. ...
...

Little process appears to have occurred before Mick Malthouse, Ross Lyon, Leigh Matthews, Malcolm Blight and Paul Roos landed at clubs as Messiah appointments and the decisions enjoyed varying degrees of success.

Going the Messiah route may appear to mitigate the risk, but not the cost, but there are still those willing to head down that path."

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Bob Murphy:

Roos acted on what they could see, but will the Blues?

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/roo ... l#comments

"In the past couple of weeks, I've begun to wonder if we are witnessing the death of footy's "due diligence".
...

I'd started to think there are in fact two types of duediligence: one conceived out of intellect, detail and thoroughness, and the mutated football definition, born of a fear of failure or embarrassment. To my delight, I found there were two variations.

Due diligence (1): A comprehensive appraisal of a business undertaken by a prospective buyer, especially to establish its assets and liabilities and evaluate its commercial potential.

Due diligence (2): Reasonable steps taken by a person to avoid committing a tort or offence.

I believe the game changed when North Melbourne appointed Rhyce Shaw as their senior coach. The Kangaroos have backed their judgment and what they have been able to see, hear and touch in the two months since Shaw became their caretaker coach.
...

The noise out of North Melbourne was that Shaw had brought the team together, but just as importantly brought the club together, too. I haven't seen or heard that coming from the Blues' camp. Is that the reason why Teague could miss out? Is it possible that the "training wheels" comment from board level is the set-in-stone directive? Teague may never have been in the running if that's the case, but could that have changed too?

Are the Blues going to drift towards Due Diligence Version Two? Where a large motivating factor is to already be preparing for the scary thought that it might not work out, and you need to be able to stand behind the process if it all goes belly up in three years' time?

Picking coaches is incredibly important, but if you're not positive and bold as you set sail, you might be shot already."

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J. Niall:

How Teague got the full-time job at Carlton

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/how ... 52hgq.html

"Carlton's coronation of David Teague as senior coach was based upon an elaborate process that involved building a personality profile of Teague and other candidates and matching it against the make-up of the Carlton playing group.

The Blues would subsequently describe Teague as "a perfect match" for their players - unwittingly using the language of online dating. Each of the players filled out an online questionnaire as part of the club's profiling of their collective and individual traits.
...

The chief executive Liddle was at pains to say that the process had been thorough, including not simply the profiling, but the interviews, close-up observations of Teague and the use of a data analyst."


[Of course Teague can't really be called an outsider, but he's not the typical Carlton choice, and many thought Judd's "training wheels" comments ruled him out.]

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No coincidence: The traits that make the NRL's coaching kingpins a cut above

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/no-coincid ... 52sp7.html

"Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that the teams left standing in the NRL season are run by coaches that all bring something a little left of centre to the round table.
...

All of them tend to share some similarities, though, no matter how wildy different they are in and around their clubs and away from the field. ...

Intensity
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New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman remembers walking out of the training facility at 11pm one night happy with all the extras he'd just completed ... only to see coach Bill Bellichick pounding the treadmill watching game footage. That latent intensity breeds respect and performance.
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Paranoia
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One line in a news report by one reporter at one organisation can turn into an over-arching, concerted effort to bring down the club. Bennett has done it superbly over the years and Stuart and Hasler are masters of the age-old seige mentality, where every man and his dog are out to get them. Playing groups respond time and time again.

The element of surprise
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While the best coaches leave almost nothing to chance along the course of a season, they have a habit of keeping things fresh and occasionally unpredictable within the walls of a club and even when projecting to the outside world."


[Don't know about that... Maybe when successful coaches are like that, they are praised for it. When unsuccessful coaches are like that (e.g. Richo), the media say they are "too intense", "paranoid", etc.]

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The good, the bad and the ugly of AFL succession plans

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the ... 52tdx.html

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Suns sound out Neil Craig for support coaching role

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/sun ... 53dmg.html

"The Suns are open to finding ways to beef up support for Dew and their coaches as demands continue to grow. Gold Coast's situation is particularly difficult given their need to nurture young talent while attempting to remain competitive.

Craig, who was a star player in the SANFL, worked with Olympic Cycling and was involved in the Crows 97-98 premiership teams as a fitness adviser before becoming their senior coach in 2004. He led Adelaide to consecutive preliminary finals in his first two seasons, which they lost by less than three goals on each occasion.

After finishing up at the Crows the 62-year-old worked as a director of coaching at Melbourne alongside Mark Neeld, before stints at Essendon as high performance manager and Carlton, where he worked well with former senior coach Brendon Bolton.

He is regarded as one of the best and most experienced coaching educators in the country and has strong credentials to support any club as they develop ways to support the increasingly-demanding senior coaching role."

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Craig joins Gold Coast as part-time consultant

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/cra ... 53gjx.html

' "Neil will have a very specific scope of responsibility and work closely with Stuey and the coaching group on how they collaborate, reflect and teach," Suns football general manager Jon Haines said.

Craig will remain involved with the England rugby union team...

"My role will be to observe, to listen and pose questions and offer my observations to Stuey and the coaching group, based on my experiences." '

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M. Gleeson:

North's team of P-Platers

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/nor ... 53gul.html

"AFL football has not seen change like it. In the space of six months every single leadership position at North Melbourne bar the chairman has changed.

North has a new chief executive, general manager of football, list manager and a senior coach appointed mid-season. While all the appointments have experience, none have experience in the positions they are now in.
...

None of these appointments in isolation would be remarkable but the fact of so many leadership positions being held at once by people without direct experience in those roles is surprising."

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'"I want the players to get better, so I need to know how I can get better," Fagan told AFL.com.au.

"Halfway through last year they told me I gave them too many stats in meetings. 'Just give us some vision, boss, and tell us what you want us to do and we'll do it because we know you've done the work, you don't have to prove it.'

"So, I did that, and we went on a nine-game winning streak.

"I've just got to keep listening to these players."'

https://www.afl.com.au/news/367561/the- ... is-players

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Ryan:

The remaking of Michael Voss...

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the ... 58uag.html

"When asked whether he micromanaged during that period, he says “control freak” would be a better description, but it’s not the self awareness that resonates most; it’s Voss’s understanding of the impact his behaviour had on others.

“People don’t feel like you trust them. I didn’t get that at the start, but I well and truly get that now and the one thing that our group will feel is they will feel trusted...with that trust comes clear accountability as well to follow through on the things they say they will do,” Voss said.
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“If I was guilty of anything in my first gig at Brisbane, I had really high expectations and [when] anything was done I was hard to impress,” Voss said.

“I probably didn’t give acknowledgement. If I fast-forward eight years I now give greater attention to celebrating those moments.”
...

“Their environment has changed,” he said.

“What they are exposed to growing up now [and the] level of complexity in their lives is far different to what I ever experienced when I was growing up.

“I have a deeper understanding of them and some of the challenges they face as a player. I have really tried to bridge that gap.”
...

“Let them self discover and make mistakes and be creative and not get it 100 per cent right, and then coach them through those moments,” Voss said."

[Magpietothemax]

Ryan:

The remaking of Michael Voss...

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the ... 58uag.html

"When asked whether he micromanaged during that period, he says “control freak” would be a better description, but it’s not the self awareness that resonates most; it’s Voss’s understanding of the impact his behaviour had on others.

“People don’t feel like you trust them. I didn’t get that at the start, but I well and truly get that now and the one thing that our group will feel is they will feel trusted...with that trust comes clear accountability as well to follow through on the things they say they will do,” Voss said.
...

“If I was guilty of anything in my first gig at Brisbane, I had really high expectations and [when] anything was done I was hard to impress,” Voss said.

“I probably didn’t give acknowledgement. If I fast-forward eight years I now give greater attention to celebrating those moments.”
...

“Their environment has changed,” he said.

“What they are exposed to growing up now [and the] level of complexity in their lives is far different to what I ever experienced when I was growing up.

“I have a deeper understanding of them and some of the challenges they face as a player. I have really tried to bridge that gap.”
...

“Let them self discover and make mistakes and be creative and not get it 100 per cent right, and then coach them through those moments,” Voss said."

...of course he would say that