Mick Malthouse analyses performance of each of AFL’s new coaches in 2020
St Kilda is exciting to watch but the Saints have one huge Achilles heel that gets exposed against top clubs. Brett Ratten could beat the problem with a simple change on game day, writes legendary coach Mick Malthouse.
Mick Malthouse
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Every AFL coach has been a first-year coach, but each would have approached it differently.
Some would have craved it, others would perhaps have been shy about it. Some would have been intimidated by it, and others just got on with it.
I was fortunate enough as a player to have had five unique coaches who had all either played in or coached premierships. I was under the tutelage of two of the all-time greats — Allan Jeans at St Kilda, and Tom Hafey at Richmond.
I began my coaching career in January 1984 and I’d been given two words of advice from the great Jeans: “Be yourself.”
My internal mantra was to live or die by my own methods.
When looking at the five new coaches of the 2020 season — Matthew Nicks, David Teague, Justin Longmuir, Rhyce Shaw and Brett Ratten — we need to look at their histories as players and coaches for clues as to the type of game structures and methods they will attempt to build at their clubs.
It is also important to understand that none of their teams began the season on equal footing.
None of Adelaide, Carlton, Fremantle, North Melbourne or St Kilda, respectively, made the finals last season.
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Highest-placed in 2019 was Adelaide in 11th with 10 wins and 12 losses. North Melbourne finished 12th (10-12).
Fremantle was 13th (9-13), St Kilda was 14th (9-13) and Carlton placed 16th (7-15).
Some clubs recruited well — St Kilda and Carlton. Others lost players — Adelaide and Fremantle. And North Melbourne basically stayed the same.
All five coaches, whether they had coached at senior level before, been an interim coach, or completed a long apprenticeship, would have started this season with optimism and enthusiasm. There is always some apprehension at the start of a new season for a coach, coupled with a nervous gut feel that you can give the final eight a shake. It’s utterly invigorating.
With four games left in the season proper (before this round), St Kilda is all but in the final eight.
The Blues need to keep winning to make it. Adelaide and North Melbourne have faded as the season has progressed. And Fremantle is improving every week.
Matthew Nicks played for 10 years at Sydney. He served his coaching apprenticeship at Port Adelaide and, more recently, Greater Western Sydney.
He is a very affable and decent young man who has been given an enormous task to change the culture and mindset of the Adelaide Football Club.
Don Pyke helped lift the Crows into a Grand Final in 2017, but it has been a one-way trip since then. Almost half that Grand Final team is still at the Crows, but it is a bare skeleton compared to how it looked three years ago.
Your No.1 job when the losses mount, is to make your team competitive in one-on-one football. Throw out trying to look like another team and finish the year off being as hard to beat as possible.
Nicks, 45, has to be brutal in team selection because too many of his senior players have let him down this year.
It’s not an easy task for a first-year coach because Adelaide has very high expectations. In a state with only two AFL teams, and one of them potentially finishing on top of the ladder, the pressure from supporters and from within the club is enormous.
Nicks’ small mercy is that COVID has forced the Crows into hub life, which means fewer games at home.
The first-year honeymoon is brief so there still needs to be a glow in the tunnel at the end of it. If Nicks can play his youngsters and have the team showing some competitiveness, then at least he can attack 2021 with a bit more optimism.
David Teague, 39, played 83 games with North Melbourne and Carlton. He coached Carlton’s VFL team for three years, including two grand finals, before assisting at West Coast, St Kilda and Adelaide and then returning to Carlton. He was the interim coach for 11 games last season for a record of six wins and five losses.
Teague already appears very settled in the job. He doesn’t display great stress, takes a low-key approach, and appears to always be in control.
Structurally, the Blues look fantastic. The backline is starting to gel with good size, speed, and playing together as one. The forward line is potent. And the midfield with Patrick Cripps, Sam Walsh and Ed Curnow is dangerous. Sam Docherty, back in good form, is providing excellent leadership alongside Cripps.
The Blues have a real sniff of playing finals. They are not scared to say it, and when you talk it you have to walk it. Their destiny is in their own hands.
Teague’s system seems tight and secure and he understands the strengths of his team.
Having said that, it is surprising that they continue to lose games they should win.
Carlton’s percentage of exactly 100 tells the story of its season, with six of its games decided by seven points or less. It is very rarely out of the game.
If there is one knock for the Blues it is that they either have a very slow start, or a poor late quarter. If they can eradicate these lapses in concentration, it will help turn their leads into substantial wins. The lapses generally occur in the midfield, when it is either outrun or outworked, but when it clicks, its supply to the forward line makes it very dangerous and hard to beat.
Justin Longmuir, 39, played 139 games for Fremantle, and began his coaching journey with the Dockers also, before assisting at West Coast and Collingwood. He was considered by many as the reason for the Pies’ backline success.
He has certainly taken that discipline to Fremantle after taking over from the club’s longest serving coach, Ross Lyon.
Longmuir brings a different game structure and philosophy and his methodology is paying big dividends.
The Dockers have had a horrendous run with injury to key players, but I have never heard Longmuir complain. Joel Hamling and Alex Pearce, two key backs, are huge outs for the entire season.
Longmuir wears his heart on his sleeve but still appears to be in total control of the situation. You get the impression his players love his coaching.
His team is not as adventurous as others, but he seems to understand the capabilities of his team and doesn’t want to leave them exposed by trying to be something they are not. You don’t see Freo losing the ball too often by biting off more than it can chew.
It has taken some time to get the team to click with his structure, but as they get players back from injury the growth will be extraordinary.
Longmuir understands the West Australian football system, with the unique pressures of a two-team town, but being a former Docker is a bonus for him.
Rhyce Shaw, 38, coached North for 12 games last year and won seven of them to secure the full-time role.
He played for Collingwood and Sydney, and won a premiership with the Swans.
North has also been hit hard by key position injuries. Captain Jack Ziebell, dual best-and-fairest Ben Cunnington, and leading goalkicker Ben Brown are big omissions from a side that lacks genuine stars and firepower.
There is no doubt Shaw would have started the season with high hopes of a fit midfield dominated by Ziebell and Cunnington, and a full-forward firing on all cylinders.
The recruitment of Jared Polec and Jasper Pittard would also have been cause for optimism, but they haven’t worked out.
Watching North Melbourne of late, I feel it has lost confidence in how to win. A team that already lacks pace has fallen into stop-start mode, overusing the football without any system of penetration into its own forward line. It is both slow and cumbersome and shows little faith that its forwards can win a one-on-one contest.
If the Kangaroos are trying to emulate the top sides with ball use it is simply not working. The focus should be on the basics of the game between now and the end of the season.
Shaw will have to rejig the team for next year. Todd Goldstein, 32, has been outstanding but he can’t last forever. Robbie Tarrant, at 31, is still solid in defence.
Tarryn Thomas, also injured, gives them hope of a good player coming through.
There are a few others, but North’s list compared to the top-eight clubs is sadly lacking. It will need to exploit the trade system and use early picks in the draft to get genuine A-graders into the team.
Shaw is one of the most likeable people you could meet. He doesn’t suffer fools and has a great way with people.
I genuinely fear that he will end up with burnout with the amount of effort he puts in.
It is up to North Melbourne to ensure he finds balance because as the losses mount, desperation grows. The football department and board need to invest in his wellbeing and support him, because it will take 2-3 years for the results of his coaching to come to fruition.
Brett Ratten, 49, played 255 games with Carlton, won three best-and-fairests and a premiership. He coached Carlton for six seasons and I am sincerely rapt that he has been given a second chance with St Kilda. He has done the hard yards and been through the high and lows of coaching, which will work to his advantage. His players appear to love his style.
The Saints recruited brilliantly over the summer and younger players like Josh Battle and Hunter Clark have jumped ahead.
With fantastic speed, the Saints are playing good team football. The backline is reasonably solid, and the forward line can be dangerous. Young Max King will have his ups and downs early in his career, but by playing two ruckmen — Paddy Ryder and Rowan Marshall — Marshall can play forward to support King.
With the league’s best stopper, Jack Steele, in its midfield, the Saints will dominate weaker teams, but they are highly susceptible to the top clubs.
No side leaves the corridor gate open like St Kilda and that’s due to the unaccountability and work rate of the midfield. It is the Saints’ Achilles heel. If it tightens up and stops the opposition from waltzing through the middle, then they are genuine contenders, but there’s not a lot of games left to cement that play.
Ratten tends to coach from the boundary which is good for getting a feel for the game. But you are stifled from seeing general play, so he may need to view the game from the coaches’ box, not in replay, to see more.
St Kilda supporters are clinging to the hope that their team will play finals. Destiny is in its own hands. Ratten needs to look at the losses to the top sides where it will be obvious where the main issue is, and address it. Then the Saints could do some serious damage come October.
It is difficult enough to coach without all the obstacles they’ve faced this season.
The football world does not take prisoners. It is brutal. The system itself will judge you. You are judged by supporters and the media. The players unconsciously judge you. And unfortunately your board judges you too.
A coach cannot be worried about outside noise. As time goes on, wins are celebrated for five minutes and losses last until the next chance for redemption.
But the art of coaching is intoxicating. To plan and execute and help your team win games of football, especially against more fancied opponents, is incredible, from your first season to your last. I hope they all remember that, and enjoy it.
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