Rodney Eade says Gold Coast Suns still have a lot to learn

GOLD Coast coach Rodney Eade opens up about the Suns’ young list, his coaching experiences and his plans for 2015.

Gold Coast Suns vs. Brisbane Lions in NAB Challenge match at Metricon Stadium, Carrara. Photo of coach Rodney Eade Photo by Richard Gosling

GOLD Coast coach Rodney Eade opens up about the Suns’ young list, his coaching experiences and his plans for 2015.

Q: You’ve come to a young club with little history, what’s been the challenge because it’s a complete departure from what you’ve been involved with in the past?

A: Certainly as a coach, there’s no doubt about that. I didn’t have too many preconceived ideas. Sometimes having preconceived ideas can poison your mind a bit. I’ve been pleased with the culture within the club, the way the club has been set up, good people who have good values. That’s a real good starting point, a real good base. From a football sense, a lot of early draft pics so the talent is here but how much they don’t know about footy, how much they have to learn?, Talent can only take you so far so there’s a lot of education to be done so that surprised me a bit, how much they didn’t know about footy?

Q: So how’s that education process going?

A: We’ve made a lot of ground in some areas. Our ball movement is quite stagnant in some areas. We’re sort of stuck between the historical and what we want to get to. We’ve just got to reprogram and retrain so that takes a bit of time. Probably as a group they haven’t thought about their footy too much … just go and play.

Q: The beauty of youth …

A: A bit of that but you can still learn when you’re young and I think AFL footy’s not really like that. You might be able play under-18s and other minor leagues to just go and get a kick and run around and have the ball come to you. But here in this league it doesn’t do that. I’m really pleased with the work ethic and the willingness to learn and want to get better.

Gold Coast Suns put through their paces at Metricon Stadium. Picture: David Clark

Q: What’s the type of footy you want them playing?

A: As much as we like to complicate it as coaches in different language and the complexities of the game it is still basically the same … you’ve got to win the ball, secondly you’ve got to be able to use it because if you’ve won it you don’t want to give it back; and third is the pressure on opposition to get it back. That hasn’t changed since year dot. We do different structures now and different processes but I think we need to move the ball more quickly than we do, we’re a bit slow. People might use the word exciting but I don’t go really out there just to excite fans. It’s contested ball, good pressure on the opposition but when we get it we’re going to try to score. Some teams get and try not to score, we’re going to try to score. We’re just getting the hang of it at the moment and we’re in a state of transition.

Q: Does the senior coach feel that same level of nerves as the players ahead of Round 1?

A: No, no, no.

Q: Anticipation?

A: Oh there’s anticipation of course. I have anticipation before every game. But not anticipation because it’s a new club for me and my first game at all that. That’s not at the forefront of my mind. Players have bigger roles to play than the coach does, their careers are on the line to a degree, but also their pride, they want to play well. A lot of them are nervous at the moment because they want to get picked.

Q: The level of expectation at the club is high. Does that bring an unwanted pressure?

A: It’s more about the players not feeling that so they can just go about their job and what they have to do. Sure the expectation is to finish high. I would have thought 14 of the 18 clubs would be aiming for the finals. If you don’t aim you’re going to get there. If we fall short there are going to be reasons for it and we’ll take the emotion out of it and work through why that happened and try to improve. I know some people have spoken publicly about it and put it on the agenda but internally we’re aiming as high as we can get.

Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett puts his shoulder to the test. Picture: Adam Head

Q: I assume you’re referring to the chairman saying finals are the minimum standard?

A: And a lot of media people have said it. I can tell you though it’s not a lay-down misere. Some people in Melbourne think it’s a lay-down misere and that’s not the case. It’s a pretty tough competition and we have a long way to go and a lot to improve and we’re still a really young list. There’s a lot of learning ahead of us.

Q: Given your past experience at the Swans and Bulldogs, how do you rate the pre-season?

A: It has been OK. Things could have been better (and) we’re still not where we want to get to. We can improve in a lot of areas. Such a young group … we haven’t wanted to load them up and we can still do a lot of work in future years. We’ve had a few injuries, bad luck, turf toes and knees and shoulders and they’re the most of our injuries to be honest. Our pre-seasons will get better, it’s certainly not Utopia but it has been pretty solid.

Q: You’ve probably never been through a season you’d describe as Utopia?

A: No, but looking back there have been a couple that have been pretty seamless and you work the players pretty hard. We’ll chase Utopia.

Q: Are you concerned with the number of guys who might be a little bit underdone going into Round 1?

A: I don’t reckon we’ll take too many in if they’re underdone. Gary (Ablett) is really fit. He’s fine. I don’t think we’ll fall for that trap. It will be interesting to see how many come up.

Q: You obviously know a lot more about this organisation now after a few months at the helm. What are its strengths and possible weaknesses?

A: Weaknesses are the inexperience and newness I suppose which brings about a sense of enthusiasm, so your strength can be your weakness but your weakness can also be your strength. Strength is the people they’ve selected, I think that’s one of the values in the selection process of staff as well as players. They have a really good values set and what they stand for as a club. The other part of that is the engagement in the community on the Gold Coast, rather than just being a footy club. I was pleasantly surprises just how much the community embraced them as a result of the work our guys do and the club does.

Rodney Eade spent seven years the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Darren McNamara

Q: Is there a mantra you’ve instilled among the players that might not have been there before? Is there a Rodney Eade way they now know?

A: I don’t know what was here before, but the big one … you have to work hard, you have to have a good work ethic in the standards towards training and professionalism. It’s always been a strong value I’ve held and I’ve instilled that from day one. We’re still a work in progress but as I said they are a pretty good group and they’ve responded pretty well to that to be honest.

Q: Have you studied tapes of their games from last season?

A: I hadn’t seen a lot of them previously. Obviously once I got the job I’ve poured over some stats to see where some key patterns emerged and where we could improve and watched a few of their games. Looking at what their weaknesses and strengths were but also tailoring a game plan to the way they are and their strengths.

Q: What has your legacy been at your previous clubs and what would you like it to be here?

A: A few players have said it publicly about the Bulldogs and I’ve thought it … (I) probably taught them to win. Both clubs when I got there their previous three years were, not in the same order, last, second last and 12th. So there was a lack of confidence and belief. They learned to not only compete but to win games. And that harder edge I suppose, to be harder on each other and not accept mediocrity so hopefully that was left.

Q: When you arrived you retained the existing staff and you’ve since brought in Norm Dare who I gather has been something of a mentor. Does that tell us anything about you as a person given the fact you could have come in and made wholesale changes?

A: I didn’t do it at the Bulldogs and Sydney didn’t have any staff but one full-time coach. Bulldogs said I could change staff … I’d rather give people a go. I probably look at the positive side of people rather than make judgments without knowing the facts. Same as players, staff … they either work themselves into the organisation or they work themselves out. They make the decision for you. I’d heard good reports about the staff anyway. Part of my role is to give them direction so hopefully I can help improve them as well.

Tom Lynch in action against GWS Giants. Picture: Mark Evans

Q: It is an interesting start to the season. You have three out of your first four against clubs that didn’t perform all that well last year and appear to be ‘soft’ games?

A: They won’t be soft games, that’s for sure. Melbourne are up and about and training really well, GWS are in the same boat as us so that will be difficult and St Kilda have a lot of enthusiasm. No game is easy and every game is a danger game. We won’t get ahead of ourselves.

Q: Are you annoyed you’ll be without your leading goalkicker (Tom Lynch) from last year in the first game?

A: It is a bit of a blow. You move on and we can’t do anything about it. We’ll just have to prepare for him not being there.

Q: Is 12-14 wins a fair range for this team.

A: If you are going to make the finals you need 12 wins but I’m not going to put a number on it. We might win 15, we might win 10. I don’t particularly believe in talking about that, it only come back as a millstone around your neck later in the year.