Mick Malthouse on the secrets to team spirit and how a club regains it when their backs are against the wall

It is hard for clubs to bounce back when morale is so low. AFL legend Mick Malthouse assesses the small things at the Blues that could help turn their season around.

Anthony Rocca is congratulated by Mick Malthouse.

Winning, by itself, instils a confidence and a culture that is positive and connected. Simple.

Losing creates doubt, suspicion, a lack of confidence and great unease. Simple, too.

But while winning is often the impetus for “team spirit”, when you’re not in a winning position, it’s the effort, and the reward that comes from that effort, that can transpire as “spirit”.

The tough games and adversity you’ve encountered in the past serve as the greatest catalyst for your future. People who take inspiration from hardship turn it into a positive.

But having said that, it comes back to leadership within the club and within the team.

Former Pies skipper Nathan Buckley with coach Mick Malthouse and Scott Burns in 2000.

The term rudderless is quite damning in today’s society. The old adage: if it is to be it’s up to me, aptly applies to the clubs that are struggling today.

Carlton has heat due to external expectations. West Coast is in the depths of despair. Geelong isn’t sailing like last year. Richmond has struggled. The Brisbane Lions away from home have struggled. Sydney is nowhere near as well placed as last year.

So, the spoils will go to the clubs who can recover the quickest.

And while strong leadership is essential, in the end it’ll be the followers who make it happen. The more players who follow and take responsibility for their own roles, the greater the uptake of the story being told by the leaders: “We can do this.”

Losing is really horrible. When it happens enough the pressure builds like an earthquake. For every defeat the shifting tectonic plates cause more friction until you know the release is going to cause a great deal of damage.

Young players turning up at the club to a barrage of questions from awaiting journalists wanting to know if the coach is going to last, if the captain is leading well, if everyone is trying hard enough, who’s injured, when will you win? The focus goes from playing football to survival. It demoralises an organisation and it’s very hard to lift anyone’s spirits.

The bloodletting at the Blues and the pressure on coach Michael Voss is so disheartening and unnecessary, but nonetheless this is where it’s at, and he and Patrick Cripps, Luke Shuey at West Coast, Toby Nankervis and Dylan Grimes at Richmond, Luke Parker, Dane Rampe, and Callum Mills at Sydney, and Patrick Dangerfield at Geelong, must instil a sense of confidence, support, unity, positivity, and calmness at their respective clubs.

Michael Voss. Picture: Getty Images

Believe me, it takes an enormous effort to lift the spirits of a team or a club back to a level that gives you a fighting chance.

As coach, on the Monday after the weekend’s game a win or a loss should not be identified by your demeaner, you are simply there to ready the team for the next week.

Club spirit cannot be handed out, you as the coach must supply the inspiration. Remove or move the doubters, promote the believers, and try anything to build connection.

In my early days at Footscray we wanted to be identified by something, so we became the “Junkyard Dogs”, and a handful of players promoted that – captain Rick Kennedy, the great Doug Hawkins, Brian Royal, Stevie Wallis, Andrew Purser and Simon Beasley among others.

They battled hard so that we were in every contest. If we were losing someone would break the silence with a gag, or better still, an act of sensational play that would lift the entire team.

At West Coast it was believed that the club couldn’t win away from home, which was quite limiting and damning. The constant booing when we went to Melbourne seemed to get under the skin of many players.

There had to be a line in the sand, so our motto became: “It’s us versus them.”

John Worsfold and Michael Brennan as leaders ingrained that in the group and spirits were lifted. So much so the team almost wanted every game to be away because of that feeling of closeness and camaraderie, and it’s us against them.

Collingwood went from 16th in 1999 to playing off in a grand final in 2002, because captain Nathan Buckley, with strong support from Paul Licuria, Scott Burns, Shane Wakelin, James Clement, Ben Johnson and Simon Prestigiacomo, took a stand against poor performances.

The heart and soul of the team, Anthony Rocca, was undoubtedly the game-day inspiration.

Anthony Rocca celebrates a goal.

He just had the knack of kicking a 60m goal in a tense moment to lift his teammates’ spirits and the crowd. It was done through deed.

And when you have a closely fought victory, it binds the playing group together like nothing else.

Movie nights, family days, club dinners, bowls nights, comedy acts, mid-season camps, it all helps to strengthen a bond.

The imposition of the hours required at the club, and away from the club, these days, makes it difficult for extracurricular activities that won’t impose on training and down time.

There is no easy solution. But even something as simple as a movie during the lunchtime break can bring a laugh and a common focus. I found out recently that my Magpie boys bonded over my “terrible” movie selections – I guess Lawrence Of Arabia can only get you so far.

Good or bad movies, it’s all about the endeavour of trying to lift spirits. An on-field act, an off-field gesture, it all goes a long way to bringing life and hope back to an otherwise hopeless season.

Originally published as Mick Malthouse on the secrets to team spirit and how a club regains it when their backs are against the wall