Interim coach Rhyce Shaw on his darkest footy moment and hopes for North Melbourne’s future

It was the worst moment of his playing career but Rhyce Shaw has finally watched his horror 2003 Grand Final fumble, a moment he says has fuelled his passion and drive to make a career of coaching.

Rhyce Shaw reflects on his horror 2003 Grand Final moment.

Sixteen years after the darkest moment of his football career, Rhyce Shaw finally pressed PLAY this summer.

The North Melbourne assistant coach dared to revisit the 2003 Grand Final, a football lesson doled out by the Brisbane Lions that contained a moment he had tried to bury deep.

All it took was an instant of hesitation. Shaw stumbled on the MCG turf as he failed to baulk Alastair Lynch deep in a pocket.

For exactly a decade Lynch’s pirouette and goal over Shaw’s head — that expanded a second-term margin to six goals — cut deeper than anything he had done in a career full of highs.

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“I tend not to look back at stuff like that, but I (finally) watched it. It might have been just after Christmas. I tend not to watch stuff like that. I don’t really watch any of my own footy but I watched it because I wanted to remember it and see what it was like,” Shaw said.

“A few of the guys here (at North Melbourne) have been through a bit and I thought, ‘Is that something I can use?’

“That was a hard time. I felt like let the whole club down. Was it that bad? I am not sure but at the time it certainly felt as if it was the end of the world. And I shut myself off from the world after that. I was angry with myself. Because I am Collingwood through and through, and my dad (Ray) played in four losing Grand Finals and a drawn one, and I knew how much it meant to him.”

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The moment Rhyce Shaw made that costly fumble in the 2003 Grand Final.

Interim coach Shaw sits at a round table in the club’s Arden St Huddle community centre. He has stolen half an hour and a quiet place to reflect on North Melbourne’s season.

It is just 20 days on from where Brad Scott stood down at a press conference, literally half a dozen steps away, but so much has changed.

In front of him is a list of the team for Sunday’s clash against Greater Western Sydney. Shaw’s priority is to inform each player on the selection bubble personally if they have found a spot in his team.

What immediately becomes apparent is that Shaw’s ability to learn from those crushing moments has instructed every step of his journey into a potential senior coach.

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“It wasn’t great at the time. It wasn’t a great day for the club,” Shaw said of that Grand Final 16 years ago. “I had actually thought Brisbane were a bit further up. I was hoping they were. The game was still in the balance, but it’s actually shaped who I am. I learnt so much from those periods. Resilience and persistence play such a huge part in AFL football and your ability to believe is so important but also having people believing in you is just as important.

“You learnt it’s what you have to go through to learn and it put me in the position I am now. The lessons I learn from that and the premiership have been invaluable to me.”

Shaw and Nathan Buckley leave the MCG after the 2003 Grand Final loss.

In a bizarre postscript to that finals disaster, Lynch one day became his manager after Shaw followed brother Heath to Lynch’s then-Velocity stable.

But it was Lynch’s great mate and former Fitzroy teammate Paul Roos who Shaw credits with changing the course of his footballing life.

It would be five more seasons until Shaw moved north to Sydney under Roos’ guidance.

By the time he returned to Arden St last year he had played seven more seasons, won the 2012 premiership and become a NEAFL coach of the year and dual Coaches Association coach of the year.

As he navigates his way through 12 weeks as North Melbourne’s caretaker coach he says it is people like Roos whose lessons remain with him.

“Paul Roos, he stands out. He turned my career around, no doubt. He took a chance on me going to Sydney and his support and relationship with me was just unbelievable,” he says.

“He made me feel 10 feet tall and bullet proof. He is just a great person and I keep in touch with him to this day. He has just been a fantastic support for me and he is someone I aspire to be, no doubt.”

The memories of that drought-breaking premiership are still sweet, even if the teammates on his 2012 premiership WhatsApp are having a field day ribbing him about him not returning recent goodwill messages.

Shaw is enjoying his role as interim coach of North Melbourne.

You have changed, is the general good-natured theme.

Shaw can still remember the moment the coaching bug bit, as he battled an abdominal injury and helped NEAFL coach Jared Crouch by instructing players on the boundary line.

By his final year he was working intensively with fellow running defender Nic Newman and realising he could make a career of this coaching thing.

So now that he has the keys to the city, what does he do with them to maximise a North Melbourne season that was at one stage going nowhere?

Basically put their destiny in their own hands.

“It’s so enjoyable to spend time with a group of players who really want to go somewhere. It’s all about the players,” says Shaw.

Talk about a response.

Shaw has tapped into a spirit, hard edge and return to form that has them on a three-match run, two of them under his watch.

He isn’t interested in spruiking himself or turning this story into a job interview, aware the Roos will eventually run a coaching process later in the year.

What has emerged in this past month is that if anyone believed the Roos were short on young talent, they aren’t any more.

“It is interesting, I heard a few of the stories going around, the list rebuild and all that stuff and I haven’t been privy to any of that,” he says.

Shaw celebrates Sydney’s 2012 premiership.

“But I get so pumped, we have guys like (Taylor) Garner, (Jy) Simpkin, (Nick) Larkey, (Ben) McKay, (Sam) Durdin, Tarryn Thomas, Bailey Scott, Curtis Taylor, Joel Crocker, Kyron Hayden putting his hand up and is pretty close. Cam Zuurhaar.

“That’s half our team. And then you put in on top of those guys who are 23-25, Luke McDonald, Marley Williams, Jed Anderson. We are in a pretty good spot in terms of talent.

And yeah, everyone can get better, but I am really excited about what is happening at the moment and I am not thinking too far ahead but I just love the fact we can go out there and have LDU (Luke Davies-Uniacke) and Jy Simpkin running through the midfield with ‘Ziebs’ (Jack Ziebell), (Ben) Cunnington and Anderson. It’s a great look.”

The rush of wins has clearly changed perceptions about trading off established stars, Shaw not part of that process but clearly in awe of the contributions from the big five.

“Being within the Sydney system, we never bottomed out. But we did a heap of development of players and making sure they played to their strengths and I felt Scotty did a great job of doing that. He was always encouraging guys to do what they do well.
“I have got no idea what is going on and all I know is those guys are so important for our team. Ben Cunnington, if he is not All-Australian this year I have got no idea how the game is played.

Shaw sings the Kangaroos song with his players after his first win as interim coach. Picture: Michael Klein.

“He is just a super talent and you add in ‘Ziebs’ who has gone into the midfield and played amazing roles for us, Robbie Tarrant just doesn’t get beaten. I saw it first hand as a defensive coach. And Shaun Higgins whose last three weeks were exceptional and one of the most versatile players who I can literally play anywhere.”

Clearly the job of senior coaching is an exhilarating rush, Shaw freely admitting his work-life balance is out of kilter.
“There is none,” he jokes, aware there is no other option if you throw yourself into this kind of opportunity.

Like Roos, who spoke to every player on a Tuesday, he makes sure he speaks to every listed player at least once a week.

The fastidious note taker — back to pen and paper after experimenting with North Melbourne’s iPad versions — is jotting down a million theories and game plans as he goes.

He never considered passing up this chance, aware a 12-week interim coaching gig of this kind is double the normal length for someone in his position.

Even if the events of that dramatic weekend when Scott and the club parted company are a blur.

Shaw with brother Heath and father Ray after Collingwood won the 2010 Grand Final replay.

“Heath comes down the day before (Melbourne) games to see my kids because the kids don’t get to see uncle Heath that much,” he said.

“He came over to my place and we were stuffing around with the kids and I said, ‘I will flick the footy on’. It was Collingwood-Sydney. And then it was you (laughing) on the TV saying I am a chance here. And Heath and I looked at each other and said, ‘Jesus what is going on here’. We hadn’t heard anything.”

Football boss Cam Joyce called late at night to offer Shaw the job after Scott coached out his final game the next day.

“I jumped at the chance to be honest,” he says.

“They don’t come around that often and I knew it was a really good opportunity for me but also I could play a part in where the club was going and could try to continue the message that Scotty had been speaking about over the last probably four weeks prior to that, which we had started to play really good footy.

“I will get 12 weeks so it’s a fair stint. A lot of people see it like this is your one chance and then you are gone but it’s just a great opportunity for me to develop and see where I can go from it.

“I can learn from this experience so much and I already have in the three weeks I have done it. I can’t think of any other possible scenario where you wouldn’t say yes.”