Leon Cameron reveals he turned to Mick Malthouse to help build a strong culture at GWS
LEON Cameron has revealed how Mick Malthouse has helped build a selfless culture at GWS, and the legendary coach has admired the way the Giants coach has turned his club’s season around. JESSICA HALLORAN writes:
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MICK Malthouse was the coach of Footscray in the late 1980s when a teenage Leon Cameron, a “wonderfully gifted player”, was dealt an injury blow that could have derailed his career.
“Because he injured his right leg badly, not only did he learn to kick left sided, he did it so well that most people by the end of his career thought he was a left footer,” Malthouse said.
“To me that tells you how hard Leon Cameron works under the circumstances of adversity.”
Cameron went onto to play 256 games.
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The now GWS Giants coach’s trademark resilience has come to the fore again this season.
Back in May Cameron’s team was in footy hell: on a four-game losing streak, smashed by injuries and looking set to miss the finals.
Malthouse, who is a “touchstone” for Cameron, said the Giants coach did a brilliant job of steering his footballers out of hard times.
“That time to me hardened their organisation, the players and that hardened their resilience as a football club,” Malthouse said.
“The thing about Leon is this, he never complains about the obvious, the obvious with GWS is their injuries. I think because of his resilience as a player he has become a very resilient coach.”
Today, Cameron and I sit in the cold beside the Giants’ training ground to talk about coaching and culture.
He doesn’t mention that the club’s latest official injury report had 17 players on it, including Jon Patton and Tom Scully out for the season.
Instead, Cameron gently thumps the wooden picnic table to make his point about the sturdy, selfless team culture they’ve built at the GWS that has them in their third AFL finals series. He agrees with Malthouse — the hard times have made them more resilient.
“Our belief; it’s grown,” Cameron said.
“You need setbacks, you need heartache, hardship to create unity, spirit and cohesion and in turn culture.
“We’ve had our fair share but so have the Swans, the Eagles, the Hawks.
“What Richmond did last year was unbelievable because they’ve had their fair share of setbacks. You sit back and go, ‘God that must be a really good place to be in. You must have a really, good culture and spirit’.
“I hope some people are starting to say that about us.”
Malthouse has influenced the way Cameron has united his Giants.
The pair speak every now and then on the phone and Malthouse has toured the Giants club several times.
What Cameron admires most about the three-time premiership winning coach was his ability to create a loyal playing group and in turn a great club culture.
“Mick’s the master of creating spirit among his playing group. One thing I learnt off Mick is that players will play for their coach. If you treat your players well on and off the field they will find an extra yard and Mick was the master of that,” Cameron said.
“His Eagles and Collingwood teams, they would run out every weekend knowing their coach would look after them like there is no tomorrow. He would always go in and back his players.”
You get of a sense of that united spirit when you walk around the GWS Giants club rooms. Other footy clubs can have a siege-like atmosphere, a harsh, elite coldness, but the club hidden up the back of Sydney Olympic Park really does feel “a bit like a country footy club”.
It’s exactly the way Cameron, who grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria, likes it. They have post-match functions for family and friends here.
On school holidays the kids of players and staff basically treat the joint like a play centre.
“That’s what I grew up on and that’s what I am rapt that we have here,” Cameron, 45, said.
“I just think, why can’t we create a strong culture here based on selfless attitudes and a willingness to put other people before themselves.”
Which is exactly what has happened. Several Giants players are now taking pay cuts to stay at the club rather than go interstate.
“I acknowledge we have some talented players but then you have to bring them together and work together, I think a lot of guys have been extraordinary in accepting lower money to stay at a footy club, I have seen that over the last three years,” Cameron said.
“When you get that in among your walls you get a really, good selfless culture. When players prefer to play in the midfield, and are playing in other positions, and not worrying about it that’s when you are starting to get a selfless culture — but that’s taken years.”
Sure, you can buy the best talent but you can’t buy winning belief and culture. It’s excruciatingly difficult at times to create.
But with this group, this season, their actions have really shown they are establishing a “selfless” team culture with strong leaders.
Cameron said co-captains Phil Davis and Callum Ward were “extraordinary” in reviving a playing group then “bereft of confidence” earlier this year.
Cameron points out belief is so high that when players like Jon Patton and Tom Scully were ruled out for the season because of injury heads haven’t dropped for too long.
“We’ve had setbacks, we’ve lost lots of players, but the belief has remained really high, it might have dipped in losing a game or a player, but it has not spiralled,” he said.
“That’s maturity. That’s the right stuff.”
“Mentally we are in a really good place to prepare for the unknown in the coming weeks”
With six men on the injury list, set to return, including Sam Taylor, Toby Green, Aidan Corr, Brett Deledio, Ryan Griffen and even Dawson Simpson who originally ruled out for a long stretch, the Giants could well do some “damage” in September.
On Sunday they take on Melbourne, who are making their first appearance in the finals in 12 years.
The Giants are gunning for the win and a top four finish.
“The resilience levels and spirit they’ve grown this year, holds you in good stead in big games,” Cameron said.
They say Cameron has coached out of his skin this season.
He should be a front runner for coach of the year say some. Cameron says the platitudes are very kind, but adds: “You are one performance away from someone smacking you.”
“I try to enjoy the moment, and don’t sink too low … which is easy to say, bloody hard to do,” he said.
When I ask Malthouse sums up Cameron, he says: “He is a beautiful person with a good soul”.
“You come across people, some are shonks but he is other end of the spectrum to a shonk,” Malthouse said. “He’s a beauty”.
And it’s clear to see that largely because Cameron’s genuine care for his players, and belief in them, the Giants are thriving and threatening again this year.
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