How Brenton Sanderson keeps everything in perspective

IF you see Adelaide Crows coach Brenton Sanderson dancing through the main streets of Rio in a G-string, don't be surprised.

Adelaide Crows coach Brenton Sanderson keeps the importance of footy in perspective.

IF you see Adelaide Crows coach Brenton Sanderson dancing through the main streets of Rio in a G-string, don't be surprised.

The mind blowing experience of being in the Sari Club just hours before the 2002 Bali Bombing's forced Sando to rethink his priorities.

In the days that followed, he boarded a plane to New York, and in the spiritual shadows left by the fallen twin towers, he wrote a bucket list of ten things he wanted to do before he died.

He has ticked a few things off that list in the past decade, and before the end of this year he will tick off another, with his wife Veronika expecting their first child. Fatherhood is a big one.

His own parents split when he was thirteen, and in an interview he did with me explaining his bucket list back in 2003, Sanderson admitted: "Dad was the ants pants. He was my hero."

He revealed that despite winning a Geelong best and fairest and having a distinguished AFL career, the Super Rules practice game he played with his dad as a thirteen year old, was probably the one game he will remember most fondly for the rest of his life.

Attending Carnival in Brazil, and running with the bulls in Pamplona are also on Sanderson's list, but both will have to wait.

And despite currently holding a pilots license, flying a jumbo jet is now the most unlikely to ever be ticked off. Although to keep that dream alive, he will complete some hours in the air with former Cat and Roo Leigh Colbert this coming summer.

Ironically coaching an AFL club was not one of his ten, and yet that has become his priority and his obsession.

"I've got to be the best coach I can be. Your heart and soul goes into it and it's a 24-7 job, and I wouldn't want to do anything else right now" Sanderson admitted, adding with a smile, "and it's about 10 times harder than you think it will be.

"The greatest thing in coaching is telling a guy he is playing his first game, and making those phone calls on draft day to tell someone they have been drafted. But then there's having to delist players and cut players."

The importance of Sunday's Showdown can never be understated and Sanderson accepts that for Crows fans, the ultimate measure of his success will be in the winning of games like today and the winning of a premiership.

But in his own eyes, if he is to be a quality AFL coach and a quality human being, there is a level of success he must achieve beyond the win-loss ratio.

Which is why rather than name any victory or defeat, he raised player relationship building and severing, as the high and low point of his coaching life so far.

"It's not just football; and that was part of my presentation to the board. Ultimately we have a responsibility to the families of the players we draft, to make them better people."

Sanderson is not just obsessed with getting his game plan right and being successful today.

He is obsessed with getting the human element right.

He must be demanding, ruthless and brutal, but he knows that like life, it's the building of relationships that bring you success as a man and a mentor.

That quest sees him speak regularly via phone and text with key people he is not afraid to name. Rivals like great friend and Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley, astute people managers and empire builders like Geelong CEO Brian Cook, former coaches including Mark Thompson and ex-teammates like Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey, Corey Enright and James Podsiadly.

On occasions, he even bounces things around with former Geelong teammate and today's cross town rival Ken Hinkley.

Sando even admits listening to select television commentators' assessments of his methods, and even more amazingly, he not only listens to Crows fans but responds to the sensible ones via twitter. And yes, he occasionally picks up supporters from bus shelters.

Sanderson played three more AFL seasons after writing that list in New York in 2002.

Winning an AFL premiership was on the list, although he intended doing it as a player.

He has not ticked that box yet, is highly unlikely to tick it this season and with draft restrictions this November thanks to his club's disastrous Kurt Tippett contract bungle, 2014 looks tough too.

The Crows, like Melbourne and Essendon, have recently been guilty of getting the balance between winning and responsibility wrong.

Sanderson has the balance right.

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