Cool and calm Adelaide Crows coach Don Pyke calls on players to focus on normal game of football at end of abnormal week

YOU rarely see Adelaide Crows coach Don Pyke lose his nut in the coach’s box. Here’s his reason why.

Crows coach Don Pyke signs autographs for fans at the end of training at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

• Crows to give Dusty the ‘don’t argue’
• Crows keep staredown reason a secret
• Stare not disrespectful: Pyke
• Why this can be a line-up of champs
• Pyke puts onus on players to declare fitness

ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke has opened up about the reason he finds it crucial to keep his composure in the coach’s box.

Pyke, who rarely loses his temper even when the team is struggling, said he needed to set an example for his players after asking them to make sound decisions on the ground.

A calm Don Pyke at three quarter time of the preliminary final. Picture: Sarah Reed

Don Pyke talks to Mitch McGovern on Wednesday. Picture: Sarah Reed

How he handled himself while coaching needed to live up to the same standards he preached.

“We always encourage our players under the heat of the game to make good decisions,” Pyke said.

“To be calm and composed with the ball and how they act.

“So if they look up to the coach’s box and see me throwing water bottles and banging phones — and I have my moments, I get frustrated like anyone — but the reality is that players don’t make errors deliberately.

“There are a lot of errors in a game of footy and we have to just accept that that’s part of the game.

“We can’t get distracted by those because otherwise we can head into a really different mental space which ultimately impacts on our ability to execute the skills we know we’re are capable of.”

Pyke, who played in West Coast’s 1992 and 1994 premierships and the losing 1991 side, said he would remind the players to keep perspective during football’s most hyped-up week.

As much as the players have been swamped by wellwishers and been the centre of attention, there is what Pyke called a “normal” game of football to prepare for on Saturday afternoon.

“The reality is that it’s an abnormal week,” Pyke said on radio TripleM.

“We’re going to deal with a whole range of things — from the open training today (Wednesday), where there could be 10,000 people, through to the (grand final) parade and then the build-up to the grand final.

“You get down to two teams and all the focus goes just on those two teams.

“It is abnormal, the week, but at the end of it is a normal game of footy to play.

“At 2.30pm it becomes a game of footy and all the things we’ve done throughout the season will hold us in a really position if we bring the right level of effort and the right attitude to the game on Saturday.”