Brendan McCartney at peace with exit from Western Bulldogs, helping build Melbourne midfield

BRENDAN McCarthey admits he ‘got some things wrong’ at the Western Bulldogs. Three years after his exit, he is helping build a Melbourne midfield that looks a lot like the fairytale Dogs.

BRENDAN McCartney leafed through the pages of books he hadn’t read for a decade to help find the answers.

The soul searching was confronting.

After almost 30 years in coaching, the man regarded as one of the game’s best teachers of young men and most astute football minds realised he had become too harsh and perhaps closed off with the Western Bulldogs players before he was moved on in late 2014.

And only now, in his third season at Melbourne, is McCartney ready to talk publicly about what he learnt from his difficult departure.

“It was at a time in my life where I was just probably hellbent on doing things and playing a certain way, which made me borderline stubborn and probably overly stern, and abrupt,” McCartney said.

“People would have questioned that I probably wasn’t listening intently enough.

“Previously, I had never shied away from being honest with a player or a team and explaining what I have seen, but it was always coupled with a supportive solution and an investment of time in that player or group.

“It dawned on me that that empathetic side had dropped out of my coaching. And I’m not proud of that.”

Brendan McCartney left the Bulldogs after three years as coach. Picture: Michael Klein

In the weeks after his resignation, McCartney headed to Barwon Heads, exercised more, and combed back through his personal library for passages in books he first highlighted in 1996, re-energising him for the next chapter of his career at Melbourne.

In particular, there was Marva Collins’ Way about a trailblazing Chicago schoolteacher and The Obstacle is the Way, about overcoming adversity.

Now, he is at peace with the exit from the kennel.

McCartney watched the Dogs’ Grand Final triumph last September in awe of some of his former charges and the brilliant job Luke Beveridge’s coaching staff had done orchestrating one of the most famous against-the-odds victories in the game’s history.

“They won a flag the hardest way possible with just incredible commitment to one another and intensity and it seemed to fuel enormous self belief within them,” McCartney said.

“So, I have nothing but absolute respect for what Luke has done, because clearly he is an outstanding football person and manager of men.

“Yes, there is a sense of pride in that for me, but the club made some decisions and whether you agreed with them or not, they have been proven to be correct.

“I know in my heart that so much was done right (in 2012-14), but I got some things wrong at the end of it, and that’s not other people — I got some things wrong.

“So you’ve got to be man enough to look yourself in the eye and own those mistakes and get to work and that is what I spent the past couple of years doing.”

At Melbourne, he was enticed by the prospect of teaching the eager young ball-winners the fundamental art of extracting the Sherrin from a stoppage. And as one former colleague put it this week: “Brendan teaches the contested ball battle as well as anyone in the game. Spacing, positioning, movement, technique, everything. He knows how to teach players to win the footy.”

“Some things in the game will remain the same, and for me, you will always have to be able to create a contest and handle a contest,” McCartney said.

“Players have all been trained to perform at a high intensity in a 20m radius which means the collisions in there now are even more intense.

“I don’t see too many premierships won at a decent level of footy if you haven’t got intensity and competitiveness because otherwise the talent will never flourish.

“But the two years I have had at Melbourne have been fun, they have been reassuring, reaffirming, and what they have done has reminded me of what I can do when I coach, and the impact that I can have as a person. I didn’t feel like that when I left the Dogs.

“I feel like I am valued at Melbourne and there is a big box of knowledge there that I can use to help and people can take whatever they like out of it.

“At 56, I have a love and passion for coaching. It has been tested, but it is stronger than ever.”

Melbourne assistant coach Brendan McCartney talks with coach Simon Goodwin. Picture: Michael Klein

Clearly, he helped mould some of the Dogs’ gun young midfielders, just as his teachings around aerial defence, clearance method and triangle patterns remain legendary among triple-premiership Geelong players such as Cameron Ling, Joel Corey and Jimmy Bartel.

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin is using the same fundamentals to foster a culture of selflessness and fearlessness at the Dees, helping shape the way Jack Viney, Clayton Oliver, Angus Brayshaw, Christian Petracca and Jesse Hogan, to name a few, attack the ball.

“You can throw in the young Bulldogs mids in the same bracket, because there are distinct similarities through all three groups around that competitiveness and will to win,” he said.

“And just that ferocious attack on the ball.

“I want to help Simon build a group of players that can get to the big games and handle the big moments.”

Oliver, McCartney admits, is a favourite.

“It is rare to find, but some players get faster the closer they get to the ball, and I love that about ‘Clarry’,” he said.

“It is not everyone’s cup of tea, but you can really build a team around players like that, who can just find another gear as they swoop on the ball.

“They are just so hard to play against because players think, ‘Every time this kid jumps at the ball or goes near the ball he either wins it, or he hurts me’.”

McCartney is adamant Melbourne can climb upward, quickly.

He said Goodwin was the most well-prepared and capable first-year senior coach he had seen.

“Melbourne is in a very good place and the future is there to be taken, really,” he said.

“They keep doing what they have been doing, at some stage a great opportunity is going to look them in the eye, because it’s an incredibly exciting group and they are really good young men.

Brendan McCartney chats with Jesse Hogan. Picture: Michael Klein

“But the key is that they are just so competitive and we are just about to get to the stage where they are really competitive with each other.

“In the really good teams that I have been associated with, the midfield training is often more intense than a game.

“And when you have to start yelling at them to stop absolutely pounding each other, seriously, that is when you know you are on your way.

“We have to stop training and say, ‘Hey boys, that’s enough, the intensity is there, save it for the weekend’.”

While Mark Thompson remains “the most incredible footy brain” McCartney has worked alongside, Paul Roos helped him rediscover the light and shade of coaching.

Every Monday morning, McCartney works down the player list making mental notes. He considers who needs some extra support, a coffee chat, or simple congratulatory text message about a small improvement. These help the bonds that McCartney says is critical are AFL coaching now, perhaps even more so than game plan advantage and match day tactical nous.

Players want to feel supported, he said, and McCartney is reinvesting personally and emotionally, every minute he can.

“The things that I knew let me down, Melbourne gave me a chance and put me in an environment where those things that have always been a strength came out again,” he said.

“So I was back working with younger players, back working with players who were in and out of the team and I could just grab them, work with them and teach them again.

“At the same time, I got to learn a lot off Roosy around man management. He just had a real calmness and levelness to him and it’s a really good thing.”