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The coach has taken
on a new importance in the last 10 years. As the intensity
of competition has grown, so too has the importance
of tactics as an attacking weapon. The solo coach of
days gone by has been replaced by a panel of experts
reporting to a single autonomous expert.
There are training coaches, pre-season
coaches, running coaches, physical education coaches,
recuperation coaches, mind coaches, set play coaches
and psychologists ‹ all backed by legions of statisticians.
But as in any major competitive organisation,
it is the head coach who sets the agenda. The head coach
decides the style of play, makes the final moves on
match day, addresses the team at the breaks, exults
in the glory of victory and carries the load when the
team loses.
The intensity of the job wears out only
but the very good and the desperately passionate. It
is rare at AFL level for the senior coach not to be
a former player, and a former top player at that.
Strangely however, many of the most successful
coaches have been dour performers, known as much for
their character and application as for their ability
to turn matches. Perhaps it is these men who understand
how important it is to apply the same energy to the
smallest detail as it is to the grand picture.
Most coaches in senior grade football
are non-playing coaches. In the AFL there has not been
a playing coach since Malcolm Blight at North Melbourne
(for only a short stay) in 1981.
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The coach
addresses his players before each game, at quarter-time,
at half-time and at three-quarter time. If the coach wishes
to make team changes or send messages to a player during
the play, he does so via an official runner.
The runner is the coach's mouthpiece when
play is in progress.
Many teams in the lower grades of football
have playing coaches because the side also requires
the benefit of their playing skills.
Most coaches have been successful footballers,
although many middle-grade players - such as premiership
coaches Allan Jeans, Alan Joyce and Tom Hafey - have
gone on to be prominent off-field strategists.
The first League coach was John Worrall,
who started coaching Carlton in 1902. The longest-serving
coach was the late Jock McHale, of Collingwood, who
coached 712 games from 1912 to 1949. Next comes Allan
Jeans with 575 games (St Kilda, Hawthorn and Richmond).
McHale leads the list with eight premierships.
Former Melbourne coach, the late Norm Smith, is next
with six.
Coaches range in age from early 30s to
the 50s.
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