When Geelong secured Shaun Grigg as a development coach, the Cats also picked up a whole bunch of intelligence on the Tigers
When Geelong signed Shaun Grigg, they picked up a development coach and a man who knows the ins and outs of how Richmond plays. How valuable will that be for Chris Scott? Mark Robinson investigates.
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The day after Richmond’s best-and-fairest, the Tuesday after the Grand Final, Shaun Grigg was required in Geelong to talk to the media.
Geelong’s new development coach talked enthusiastically about his role before going on a tour of the club.
When he got to the swanky footy department, the Cats coaches were at work. They were reviewing Geelong’s loss to Richmond in the preliminary final.
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Here was a man who knew the ins and outs of Richmond’s methods, developed over three years of dominance — a rolled gold package of Richmond’s intellectual property, standing right in front of them in a Geelong polo.
“It was quite funny,” Grigg said. ‘”That was the first time I met all the coaches together.
“They were having a look at the prelim final. They didn’t throw me in it, though. They asked about a couple of little things, but they were also mindful I was taking a tour and my head was spinning a bit.
“They were looking forward to hearing some of my views when I start work.”
Jack Steven from St Kilda and Josh Jenkins from Adelaide were Geelong’s headline signings during the trade period, but Grigg from Richmond just might be its most important acquisition.
Because while everyone knows why Richmond is the No. 1 team in the AFL, not everyone knows how.
Grigg knows why and how — and everything else that has gone into making Richmond the best team in the competition.
He was an on field coach for Damien Hardwick who encouraged Grigg to go down the coaching pathway.
He knows the game plan back to front and sideways, which modes of offence were undertaken, and where players were positioned on defence and offence.
And he was able to make moves on the ground depending on the trend of the game.
He knew everything about Richmond, and now Geelong will know everything about Richmond, too.
Just how important is Richmond’s IP in the hands of another team is an intriguing discussion.
“It’s hard to say how important because the same recipe is not going to make the same cake for every team,” Grigg said.
“You can take bits of pieces of what I’ve learnt over the past 10 years, but you just can’t unplug what Richmond did and plug into another team and have the same success. It’s not that simple.”
Grigg’s role at Geelong is development, which has been an insanely successful program at Richmond.
This year the Tigers picked up Marlion Pickett in the mid-season draft, Jack Ross at pick 43 in the national draft, and Mabior Chol at pick 45 in the rookie draft.
Liam Baker was pick 18 in the 2017 rookie draft, Shai Bolton was pick 29 and Jack Graham pick 53 in the 2016 national draft, and Nathan Broad was pick 67 in the 2015 national draft.
Then there was the 2014 rookie draft, the richest of them all. The Tigers secured Jayden Short at 11, Jason Castagna at 29, Kane Lambert at 46 and Ivan Soldo at 68.
As much as his on field IP will be of vast assistance to coach Chris Scott, Grigg’s input in the development space will also be invaluable.
“Richmond has had great success at getting the best out of young players and bridging the gap from the VFL to AFL and every player that debuted or came in and played this year fit straight in,” Grigg said.
“People say, my God, they look like they have been playing for five years.
“There’s a whole range of reasons why. A lot of it is above the shoulders. Do they feel worthy? Do they think they’re good enough? Their confidence.
“Craig McRae (Richmond VFL coach) would get them to play the same role in VFL as they would in the AFL, albeit it’s a bit harder.
“The one thing I’m really looking forward to is trying to help the young kids in Geelong realise they are good enough and they belong and their skill-set matches up with other elite players of the competition. They’ve just got to believe it.”
Grigg will work with the first to third-year players at Geelong.
His job description is development and, of course, he will help with strategy, on and off field.
For example, Richmond believes its adoption of mindfulness over the past three seasons has propelled it to the top.
Grigg doesn’t know if he will need to delve into that area at Geelong.
“The only thing I can do is come in and speak from experience about what’s worked and what hasn’t, put up some ideas,” he said.
“’It might not be for everyone, but it might help one or two players, especially that young core group coming through.
“’It’s my job to help them get better results on field via a whole range of different things.
“It’s not just about pushing more weights or getting their ground ball better, or the opposite foot better, it’s about their whole being, really, their mindset going into a game, their fear of failure, their desire to succeed, what they want out of their careers, it’s a whole range of things.
“They include the training schedule, what the players are doing in their down time, what they are doing while at the club, their preparation.
“How Dustin Martin prepares is different to how Trent Cotchin prepares, they’re both great players, but it’s what works for you, and how to get the best out of yourself.
“There’s no one way to get everyone to play their best footy.
“You’ve got to build relationships, build the trust, to find out what makes (everyone from) Patty Dangerfield to Quinton Narkle tick, they’re all going to be different.
“There’s no easy way to it. You’ve got to put in the time, show them the faith, show them you care. It’s an exciting time for me.”
If Geelong wants to win the premiership in 2020, it will have to beat Richmond along the way.
It was close in the preliminary final and if Gary Ablett had kicked that goal midway through the final quarter to give the Cats the lead, who knows what would’ve happened.
And they were that close without Tom Hawkins and Mitch Duncan.
Clearly Scott and his coaches know Richmond’s numbers and method, but presumably they don’t know all of it. That’s where Grigg’s knowledge will be called upon.
The Tigers have played the turnover game better than any side over the last three years.
In 2019, they averaged 58 points a game from turnovers, which was ranked No.1.
They outscored their opposition by 16.6 points a game from turnovers, which was ranked No.1.
Grigg knows how.
Richmond’s ball movement game went to a level it wasn’t at in 2017. They were ranked No. 2 for generating an inside-50 from a defensive 50 chain, and No. 2 for generating a score from a defensive-50 chain.
Grigg knows how.
“Everyone talks about Richmond just playing this chaotic brand, but there’s method and system behind it,” Grigg said.
“It’s not just get it going forward and running in packs. There’s a lot of method and system to it which you can practise.
“Every opposition coach would know what the ingredients are to beat Richmond. It’s just can you do it and can you sustain it?
“The pressure Richmond puts on the ball for massive amounts of time is one of their strengths.
“Their running power, the way they can keep speed on the ball the whole time, is why Richmond has been so good the past three years.
“So, it’s can you get your players comfortable in those situations for long enough? That’s the tricky bit.”
It’s been observed that the AFL is a copycat industry — work out what the premiers do and get in line — but the Cats didn’t bring Grigg to the club solely for his intel.
Chief executive Brian Cook said: “IP plays a role, but I don’t think it drives the deal. It’s part of the bundle of things Shaun Grigg brings to the table.
“There’s no doubt there’s some Richmond intelligence, for want of a better word, that we are not aware of that he might talk to us about, but we’re not certainly going to go out of our way and say, ‘tell us the Richmond game plan, what goes on here, what goes on there?’
“We’re not trying to copy or imitate Richmond, we’re trying to find our own way of beating them.”
He stressed Grigg’s main role would be in development.
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“Over a period of time, if your head coach is really development oriented, most of the assistant coaches move that way,” Cook said.
“In our case, our coach is quite mechanical, he’s quite tactical, picks momentum really well, and we found a lot of the assistant coaches are moving that same way.
“Yet, we have all these young kids coming in. It was obvious we had to try switch them (coaches) back a little bit, but also get an extra person in that development area.”
But Scott will still use him on strategy.
“No doubt,” Cook said.
Originally published as When Geelong secured Shaun Grigg as a development coach, the Cats also picked up a whole bunch of intelligence on the Tigers
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