How trip to Europe changed how Stuart Dew coaches Gold Coast Suns AFL team

In the heart of Europe Stuart Dew discovered something that changed the way he coached Australia’s indigenous game.

In the heart of Europe Stuart Dew discovered something that changed the way he coached Australia’s indigenous game.

Dew has revealed the trade secrets he learnt during an expedition overseas with other members of the football department at the end of 2019 and how it instigated changes he believes will make the Gold Coast Suns better.

The Suns senior coach said it centred around how big sport’s clubs teach their respective games to the players.

“Four or five of us went over to one of the sports academies in Sweden and that was really interesting,” Dew said.

Suns coach Stuart Dew talks to his team during the round 1 AFL match between the Gold Coast Suns and the Port Adelaide Power at Metricon Stadium on March 21, 2020 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Jono Searle/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

“A lot of it was about trying to build better decision makers.

“We coach a team but we don’t try and over-coach. We want players to be able to make (good) decisions on the ground.

“We have some players who can add flare to our football team and the AFL competition.

“We changed our pre-season in the sense that we went hard on a running program last pre-season and this time we did a lot more decision making, small sided games.

“We probably did the same drills as everyone else but how we actually coached it and how we let the players coach themselves (was the difference). We only stepped in when we needed to.

EX-AFL PLAYER ACCUSED OF STEALING FROM CLUB

HOW DEW MADE AFL BIG TIME

DEW ENTERS THE HEAT ROOM

“The challenge is actually stepping back.

“I have been really proud of our coaching group. We talked about that going into the pre-season and we executed it.

“We were looking forward to seeing how it all went and unfortunately we are still waiting for that (due to COVID-19).”

Dew said it was hard to provide more freedom to the players but it was vital to their development.

Ben King of the Suns celebrates a goal during the round 1 AFL match between the Gold Coast Suns and the Port Adelaide Power at Metricon Stadium on March 21, 2020 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

“We always go back to the fact our intention is to help the players be as good as they can and realise their potential,” Dew said.

“As long as the players understand that. At times we might step in because we think we are helping when we actually need to step back and let them work it out for themselves to grow a little quicker.

“As an industry everyone is looking at different ways (to improve) and the trend has been to have less structure. The way the rules are and the way the game is played lends itself to that as well.”

FULL DIGITAL ACCESS: 28 DAY FREE TRIAL