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SWANSBEST
16th April 2003, 05:27 PM
Classy coaches cut dead wood
15 April 2003 Herald Sun

BOB Skilton was the most decorated player in the VFL during the 1960s, winning two of his three Brownlows and seven of his nine best-and-fairests.

Yet South Melbourne never finished higher than eighth in that decade.

After finishing ninth of 12 in 1968, the Swans decided on a massive change of direction, replacing coach Allan Miller, who never played at VFL level, with Melbourne's six-time premiership coach Norm Smith.

Two years later, the Swans played in the finals for the first time since 1945. It was Skilton's solitary final.

It also was the earliest evidence for me that, while good teams make good coaches, great coaches forge strong teams.

During the past 10 years, the argument has been personalised. Who would you choose to build a future on: Peter Matera or Michael Malthouse, Wayne Carey or Denis Pagan, Andrew McLeod or Malcolm Blight, Michael Voss or Leigh Matthews, James Hird or Kevin Sheedy?

Matthews, Pagan, Malthouse, Sheedy and Blight have won 11 of the past 13 premierships, and one of the exceptions - David Parkin (1995) - won four flags in his career.

Carlton's success on Friday night has reinforced my belief that the coach is the most important person in the football club.

So long, of course, that the coach is one of the best.

Pagan's impact at Carlton has been increasingly apparent in the past two rounds, with a gallant 16-point loss to Collingwood and a shock win over Essendon. Put simply, the best coaches impose themselves upon a club.

Not just the team, but every person in every department. Standards and expectations rise in every room.

The coach's style becomes pervasive. People in the club even start to talk like coaches with powerful personalities.

Carlton's gutsy win on Friday night said plenty about Essendon, but more about Pagan and his influence.

In the corresponding fixture last year, Carlton kicked 9.8 from 296 possessions. This time, 267 possessions brought 15.15. It has to be more than coincidence that Brendan Fevola and Ryan Houlihan kicked six goals between them from 42 possessions.

From what we heard and read last year, those stats were more likely to have been 42 pots after the game. Pagan will rebuild Carlton his way, just as Malthouse has done at Collingwood.

Between Malthouse's appointment in September 1999 and the start of his first season, 12 players were cut from the list. He knew what he wanted, what he needed, and had the courage to implement it. The results are there for all to see. It will be tougher for Pagan, given the draft penalties resulting from Carlton's salary-cap rorts, but he will redefine the culture.

Matthews did it in Brisbane.

The Lions finished 16th and last in 1998. The fiercest battles for the club that year were fought between senior coach John Northey and his supposed assistant and ultimate mid-season successor Roger Merrett. It was the best wooden spoon group since Collingwood of 1976, but it lacked direction and purpose.

Matthews came in and swept away all the dead wood and the Lions have finished fourth, fifth, first and first after finishing last in 1998.

It's a combination of respect and fear. Matthews and company have an aura, self-belief, uncompromising standards. Few have the mix in the right balance.

The great coaches simply don't accept alibis. Like Malthouse did with West Coast, like Pagan is doing at Carlton, they simply get on with the task at hand, no matter how difficult.

No, Blight didn't make it work at St Kilda, but he returned to coaching for the wrong reasons.

There are 16 coaches at AFL level who are devoted to their job; sadly for supporters of most clubs, there seems to be just three or four capable of making a significant difference.



http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,6286587%255E20123,00.html

bloodhound
17th April 2003, 01:44 PM
I think it's a very good article. And though I somtimes find sheahan less than wise, it smacks wisdom. Roos could do worse than reading and then rereading that article. IMO administrations don't win permierships, great coaches do.