Rodney Eade, Terry Wallace say intense scrutiny when coaching AFL is enough to make even the strongest crack
Two former AFL coaches say the pressures of corralling young stars, the intense public scrutiny and the threat of being sacked can overwhelm even the strongest resolve, including the former “junkyard dog” and Roos coach Dean Laidley.
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Dean Laidley’s arrest this week has highlighted the troubles other former coaches have had in the past few years.
There may be many contributing factors, one of which may be coaching in the AFL.
It raises questions about the pressure of coaching and whether being sacked and discarded by the industry has contributed.
Coaching in the AFL is a high-pressure vocation.
You go into it with your eyes open knowing there will be pressure and a level of scrutiny.
It is a fantastic, well-paid job with a great level of satisfaction.
It is exhilarating and can be quite intoxicating.
It is very challenging but stimulating and being able to assist and direct 45 players and 30 staff is a great responsibility.
It can be a lonely existence. It is a 24/7 all-encompassing role.
Coaching is a unique experience because the only people who understand are your adversaries.
Who do you turn to in times of trouble?
The highs are high but the lows can be very low.
There are many pressures being a coach of an AFL club: an impatient boss (the board), dealing with players, staff, criticism from the media, answering to members and supporters.
All of these pressures you cope with as part of the job.
The biggest pressure is self-made and stems from pressure to perform.
The great NFL coach Vince Lombardi encapsulated the main pressure all coaches have to deal with: “Winning isn’t everything — it’s the only thing.”
The pressure to win at all costs overrules common sense and balance in your thinking.
Coaches are lauded too much in victory and blamed too heavily in defeat.
With mounting losses or not meeting expectations, all the pressures grow in significance.
At this point it is a very lonely job. This is the situation where coaches need support from their clubs.
When this pressure increases it is generally the people around (family) who suffer because life is very public, especially in this age of social media and greater media coverage.
In a coaching sense, how you handle these situations can define you or at the very least define your team.
In my first coaching job at the Sydney Swans, the pressure was mounting in my last year as results were not there.
I had a perception that I was not receiving support from the club and my attention turned away from the players.
I was entering meetings tense, and while my words were fine, players could tell from my body language how palpable the tension was.
This was poorly handled on my part. Learning from this when I was confronted with a similar issue I was able to handle it differently.
At the Western Bulldogs in 2007, we lost two games in a row and pressure was mounting after a successful 2006.
We were due to play St Kilda and I remember walking into the players’ review on the Monday with a smile, cracked a joke (not very funny) and did not talk about the previous game.
All we discussed was how we were going to win at the weekend, which we did.
How we handle pressure is very individual. Most coaches I have spoken to seem to cope with the day-to-day life of coaching.
They all seem to have an outlet of some sort to switch off, whether it’s family time or an outside pursuit.
With the issues of the ex-coaches being so public this week the media spotlight has turned to the pressures faced by senior coaches today.
The biggest stress I have found, backed up by numerous former coaches I have spoken to recently, is the sacking and how it is handled.
The void it creates in your life, purpose and self worth. There is a feeling of being discarded by the industry.
The AFL Coaches Association, led by Mark Brayshaw, has become more proactive and vigilant in supporting coaches. This needs more work.
Mental health is a serious problem and we as coaches must be prepared to get support when needed.
From my experience, we sometimes think we can deal with our problems but the reality is that’s not always the case.
Like players, coaches must prepare for life post football and have a work-life balance. This has always been championed by a former Hawthorn and Carlton coach David Parkin.
An AFL initiative could be to talk to past coaches to ascertain how they handled the transition from coaching to ensure it becomes as seamless as possible.
To me, post coaching is the biggest challenge that coaches face and they definitely need support moving forward.
Rodney Eade was senior coach at Sydney 1996-2002, Western Bulldogs 2005-11, and Gold Coast 2105-17.
SOME COACHES END UP IN A DARK PLACE AFTER THE ‘FOOTY BUBBLE’
– Terry Wallace
An AFL senior coach has always been seen to be a particularly important club and community leader.
They are role models to all involved in the sport, the spokesperson for their club while committing to a teaching role not only regarding football but also life skills to their young players.
The role also has a degree of mentoring and welfare all wrapped up into the one position.
In the past we have seen some coaches become statesmen and revered community leaders, such as John Kennedy Sr, Ron Barassi, Tom Hafey, David Parkin and Allan Jeans.
So where have we gone so wrong in recent times?
In the past decade we have had death, family tragedy, drug issues and run-ins with both the police and the law courts to deal with from our senior coaching fraternity.
My question remains: what pressures are leading to these poor lifestyle decisions and are we as an industry asking the right questions and providing adequate support for these men once they exit the AFL system?
Everyone of these coaches would have had their own individual issues — all with human elements confusing their decision making.
Clearly all of them have made destructive choices that have not only hurt them but others around them.
In over four decades involved in the game I have never seen such damaging implications from a group of leaders.
This is an unprecedented time in the history of our game which requires serious investigation.
I don’t want this situation to get confused with the issues that the coronavirus pandemic is creating in so many industries in our country today and I am well aware that the timing of this article will find many workers dealing with major stress themselves.
I am hoping we can separate the two issues for a moment as this is my industry that has found its coaches in a very dark place.
Most reasonable senior coaches will tell you that at times in this role you need to “suck it up” as this is exactly what you signed up for and why it is a high-paying position.
Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy said earlier this week that coaches sign up for the pressure surrounding the job.
But it is not until you are right under the media heat that you realise that your family, elderly parents, wife and kids did not necessarily sign up for this scrutiny.
Former St Kilda president Rob Buttress once quoted that senior coaching takes grown men to places that they should not necessarily go to.
This is difficult from the outside to comprehend as so many people have pressures in their everyday business lives which then flow on to family.
I can only say that the public scrutiny can be so overwhelming that it changes the way that a coach acts and reacts, therefore it actually changes the character of the individual.
These senior coaches have been elite performers all the way through their careers and for many failures in such a public nature has never been part of their DNA.
They have spent more time inside “the footy bubble” than players.
When that world comes crashing down some work their way through the fall from grace but others it impacts deeply.
Clearly there is domestic fallout in many areas of working and home life but I have witnessed it as an assistant coach watching the senior coach try to keep his home life together.
I have seen exactly the same thing as a senior coach watching some of my assistants trying to complete their jobs when their home life is in tatters.
Although the senior coach is surrounded by so many assistants and support staff it can still be an “island” of a role. You are in the eye of the storm.
Most clubs, although needing to look after their brand, have empathy when the coach is under the pump.
But what tools are in place, and for how long, after the senior coach loses his role and potentially loses his way in life at the same time?
If this unfortunate trend is to be halted, questions need to be addressed.
What are the pressures that have led to such unbelievably bad decisions?
Were any issues identified with these coaches after leaving their positions?
If the answer was “yes”", what was done and how was it addressed?
If the answer was “no”, why could we not see these individuals falling so badly through the cracks?
The AFL Coaches Association do really well supporting the coaches in the system, but it is an incredibly tough role, when under-resourced, to track them outside of the industry.
With the current changes to our game we will see a dramatic decline in the “Soft Cap” at football clubs, meaning some coaches will lose their roles and there will be fewer people to monitor their mental health as they leave.
I am concerned. Is there the potential in 18 months’ time for this trend to escalate even more?
For the industry’s sake I am hoping that we do all we can to prevent the human toll that coaches have recently gone through.
Terry Wallace was senior coach at Western Bulldogs 1996-2002 and Richmond 2005-09.
READ MORE:
LAIDLEY PHOTOS MAY HAVE BEEN SENT TO 100+ OFFICERS
ROOS CALLS FOR AFL TO ACT IN ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ CRISIS
HOW LAIDLEY EARNED NICKNAME ‘JUNKYARD DOG’
TWO OFFICERS SUSPENDED OVER LEAKED LAIDLEY PHOTOS
Originally published as Rodney Eade, Terry Wallace say intense scrutiny when coaching AFL is enough to make even the strongest crack
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