North Melbourne could already have ‘the next John Longmire’ in Rhyce Shaw, writes Jon Ralph
A day after North Melbourne’s impressive win over Collingwood, it was suggested players would be “shattered” if Rhyce Shaw wasn’t promoted from caretaker to full-time coach. As Jon Ralph writes, the Roos have the next John Longmire in their midst.
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Rhyce Shaw should be the next coach of the North Melbourne football club.
Not because he beat Collingwood on Saturday night, but because of how he beat the Pies.
As one North Melbourne figure suggested on Sunday, there will be a lot of shattered players and staffers if Shaw isn’t coaching this club next year.
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Why get John Longmire — who is about to be offered a fat new contract anyway — when you can get the next John Longmire?
He isn’t just the right man at the right time getting an emotional bounce from a downtrodden team.
He is a senior coach-in-waiting stunning insiders with his potent mix of relationship building and cutting-edge tactical acumen.
Collingwood were soft and disorganised and a shambles on Saturday night, in the words of its own coach.
But Shaw also pulled off a coaching masterclass, going to work on their weaknesses and exposing every one of them in a way that escaped no one at the club.
The feeling grows every day at Arden Street that he is a special talent and the man to lead them well into the future.
Like interim coach Paul Roos before him winning the role at Sydney over a fancied contender, he has every chance of winning this role full time.
And why they are at it, why wouldn’t Roos be part of the package deal?
Shaw told the Herald Sun last month that Roos saved his football career and remains the man who inspires him as a coach.
Collingwood’s lowest score since R5, 1995. What a performance from North. Rhyce Shaw has to be a chance to keep the job now.
— Jay Clark (@ClarkyHeraldSun) June 29, 2019
Hey @NMFCOfficial
— Stephen Quartermain (@Quartermain10) June 29, 2019
No need for your coaching panel. You’re wasting your time. You already have your man...Rhyce Shaw 👊🻠#AFLPiesNorth
Why not get the next John Longmire? Rhyce Shaw a cracker and getting his mob playing highly watchable footy with huge pressure, slick ball movement and the kids on show again. Against his old side too. What a night for him however the coaching race pans out
— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) June 29, 2019
“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,” he said.
With Roos definitely keen to throw his cap back in the ring as a coaching director, imagine the package deal from a Roos-Shaw combination?
Roos takes care of the big picture, sets the club direction, fights the public battles and senior coach Shaw keeps doing what he does best.
Which is enliven a football club that to be honest, could sense that Brad Scott had checked out despite all the good he had done in nine and a half years.
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Shaw is the perfect blend of man manager and tactician, a mix that so often leaves a senior coach good at one skill but lacking in the other.
A staff and playing team worried that Scott was a little disengaged over summer are alive again, Arden Street pulsating with energy at his ideas and attention to detail.
Tactically he has refined Scott’s game plan in a way that has played to the list’s strengths without confusing players by tipping tactics on their head.
Everyone keeps talking about how he has “simplified” the game plan, but isn’t that the essence of coaching — refining the message to what really matters?
Against Collingwood they played the kind of footy Roos powerbroker Glenn Archer would have been proud of — massive pressure, lightning ball movement, multiple targets, rock-solid defence.
Shaw should be coaching an AFL team next year.
The only question is whether the club listens to those who he is inspiring or he finds his chance at another AFL club.
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