AFL legend Mick Malthouse breaks down the coaching landscape for Brad Scott, Rhyce Shaw, John Longmire and more
Brad Scott is gone and he’s unlikely to be the only coaching change this year. How should the likes of Brendon Bolton, Alan Richardson and Simon Goodwin respond? Mick Malthouse knows a bit about the most brutal time for coaches.
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It is rare that anyone, let alone the coach, leaves a football club on his own terms.
Brad Scott’s departure from North Melbourne was dignified and courageous.
His efforts in nine and a half years at North were tremendous, with the playing group he had to work with. Brad wore his heart on his sleeve and clearly had his players playing for him. He was a tough player and an equally tough coach.
Not every season works out the way you want it to and sometimes it doesn’t take long for your pre-season dreams to be dashed. That becomes tougher still at a club without the depth or wealth of other clubs.
Brad will sit now and contemplate what has taken place, but it won’t take him long to feel refreshed and rejuvenated in body and mind and itching to get back into the driver’s seat. That’s what happens when coaching is in your blood.
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He is no doubt a good enough coach that he will be highly sought after by several clubs and have a long career in coaching.
He has ambition, drive, a great sense of history, and he takes nothing for granted.
He has conjured some incredible wins through fine tactics. Having tasted finals football as a player and coach there is no doubt that after serving a long apprenticeship (let’s face it, that’s what your first gig is) he will look to take his next side into finals and beyond, quickly.
But will his departure begin a domino effect?
Before any job can be filled a vacancy has to occur and by Brad departing after Round 10, we have 13 weeks plus finals of speculation ahead of us until it bubbles over like the sulphur pools in Rotorua.
I pity the coaches whose teams are underperforming.
After several years of relative coaching stability, this year could be one of multiple changes. It almost appears at times that club boards need someone to break the ice before they are willing to pull the trigger themselves.
The AFL is such a closed society, it is fairly easy to draw a link between certain people through friendship or management, and any football club. But that doesn’t equate to what is really going on behind closed doors.
That is just guesswork.
White noise is a nuisance, but if it gains momentum it affects two groups particularly — the family of the coach and the players.
If it affects the playing group there can be a double whammy of consequences, where it interferes with the team performance and, by reflection, the coach’s performance.
Coaching is always a talking point.
But some people don’t get that there is always a greater picture to what is happening at a club when a team isn’t winning.
Coaching a top side with great depth and wealth has its own drawback, that of expectation.
But these clubs can generally cover for a “normal” list of injuries.
Others simply can’t because the list isn’t good enough and doesn’t run deep enough. The team suffers, the coach suffers and the club suffers.
There are clubs going through the building phase, and others at the end of it.
Before we start judging a coach, weigh up what team he has available to him on a week-to-week basis.
If I use John Worsfold at Essendon and Simon Goodwin at Melbourne as examples — because the heat seems to have been turned up on them from external forces — no one could have anticipated the number of key players injured and unavailable to the Bombers this season.
Or that Melbourne wouldn’t be able to recover from a long pre-season injury list.
It is never as simple as pointing the finger at one person, but in worldwide elite sport that is always going to be the easiest option, and so the merry-go-round will continue to turn.
INSIDE THE MIND OF RHYCE SHAW
I had the pleasure of coaching the Shaw brothers at Collingwood.
They were chalk and cheese in the way they played and acted off field.
Heath, now at Greater Western Sydney, is one of my favourite players. He is the joker.
Rhyce, the serious thinker, was a fine contributor at Collingwood with moments of brilliance, but one mistake in a Grand Final was unfairly not forgotten by the Magpie faithful and they never eased up on him.
It’s funny how footy works sometimes. I am so pleased he had a second chance at Sydney and, like his brother, got to wear a premiership medallion in the end.
While Rhyce was at Collingwood he studied psychology. His association with Leon Davis and others revealed a fantastic human touch in his personality. He was aware of the needs of others and often put them above his own.
Hearing him voice his concern this week for the welfare of North Melbourne’s players after Brad Scott’s sudden departure didn’t surprise me. Empathy is a great quality for a coach to have.
Rhyce is a highly intelligent young man who understands the game.
Too often a coaching candidate is judged on his playing ability alone. The more skill he showed as a player suggests the better a coach he will be. That is rubbish.
It is less to do with playing ability and more to do with character.
There are two prerequisites that a coach must have to succeed.
1. He must know how to get on with people and how to interact with different personalities by being supportive and helping them grow.
2. He must be able to translate clearly how he sees the game to his playing group.
I feel very confident that Rhyce will meet both of these requirements in the coming months at North.
But, having said that, it will be a steep learning curve for him, as it is for any assistant coach who takes on the interim senior role.
The senior coach has full control of the steering wheel, gears, breaks and accelerator. The assistants are in the passenger seat.
They may have good ideas and solutions, they may get on well with the players in the line they coach, and they may contribute well to the weekly game preparations, but the reality is that the senior coach should make all the hard decisions and he sets the agenda for the game plan.
Therefore when the opportunity comes along to fill an interim position, most find the challenge of senior coaching very different to that of an assistant.
Some rise to the occasion, others don’t.
I wish Rhyce all the best for this season and beyond.
GET READY FOR COACHING’S MOST BRUTAL TIME
John Longmire is the obvious choice for North Melbourne to chase.
He is a great of the club and a premiership coach.
In coaching the Sydney Swans to their strengths he has never missed the finals in eight completed seasons in charge.
Many have questioned his tactics, but it is clear he understands his players and how to get them to play to the maximum under his system. It has been highly effective.
So it is silly to say North won’t approach his management at some stage. But Longmire cannot be blamed for them trying.
Any speculative association with North Melbourne is out of his control.
And there will be speculation, until there is an answer, one of which Longmire is not required to give while he is coaching Sydney. It is grossly unfair in our system (compared to the NRL where mid-season announcements are common) to hound him for a declaration when he is trying to get his team into the finals.
My guess is he wouldn’t even contemplate a decision until the end of the Swans’ season — if there is a decision to be made.
The Swans’ results will now come under even more scrutiny, so Longmire has the extra responsibility of shielding his players from outside noise, of deflecting the glare and absorbing the pressure.
He isn’t alone though. John Worsfold, Simon Goodwin, Brendon Bolton, Don Pyke and Alan Richardson are all doing the same. It is the toughest, rawest and most brutal time to endure as a coach.
From experience, all I can say is: keep your heads up, lads, and put your best foot forward.
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