Coaching crystal ball

In the wake of England’s rout of Australia in the just-concluded Ashes series, there are calls for changes in Australian cricket. We think the emphasis will fall on coaches and selectors (we’re influenced by this article by Test great Dean Jones). And this brings the question of coaches’ influence on elite sportspeople to the fore, yet again.

 

Coaches’ influence and background is a question AussieRulesBlog has looked at a number of times — here. In AFL ranks, it seems only those with playing experience at that level get a gig — Neil Craig and Wayne Brittain being the most recent of a tiny handful of exceptions, and Brittain had served a substantial apprenticeship under David Parkin.

 

In speculation over AFL coaching vacancies there are often VFL coaches mentioned, especially North Ballarat’s Gerald FitzGerald recently, but none have so far got to hold the reins at an AFL club. At one time Joyce Brown, former national netball coach and mother of Carlton firebrand Fraser Brown, was being seriously touted as a potential VFL/AFL coach, but AFL keeps very much to the tried and true formula.

 

In contrast, cricket, as Dean Jones points out, doesn’t currently have a coach at Sheffield Shield or national level with substantial Test-level experience.

 

It’s worth noting two things about the cricket situation: coaches, at least at the national level, traditionally play more of a supporting role to the Captain; and John Buchanan, with a mere 7 first-class matches and 160 runs for Queensland, was Australian coach through one of Australia’s most dominant periods.

 

Another crucial difference between cricket and AFL is the match day role. The big decisions on the cricket field are the captain’s — field placement, bowling changes, batting order — while AFL captains choose which end to kick to and then take up a largely symbolic role, albeit often inspirational.

 

We are particularly interested in the influence of coaches at the moment as we contemplate the year ahead for our beloved Bombers under debutant coach and all-time club great James Hird and 2012 for the Barcodes under their all-time club great Nathan Buckley.

 

The most immediate contrast to draw is the raft of reports from players of the first Hird-directed pre-season being significantly tougher than those under Matthew Knights and, largely by implication, Kevin Sheedy.

 

Dean Jones makes the point that the resurgence of Australian cricket in the mid-1980s began with the appointment of Test legend Bob Simpson as coach. Simpson “was as hard as nails and rode all of us players 24/7” and “Three-hour fielding sessions were the norm”, according to Jones. Simpson was a gritty and determined opener, but capable of brilliance. Clearly Australian cricket at the time was at such a low ebb that Simpson treading on toes to take charge as coach wasn’t an issue.

 

In AFL, there have been few prodigiously-talented players who’ve gone on to achieve coaching success. As we’ve noted previously, the ranks of Premiership coaches in the last fifty years are dominated by gritty and determined backmen who made their mark in spite of limited talent.

 

John Coleman, Paul Roos, Malcolm Blight, Alex Jesaulenko and, arguably, Leigh Matthews are the naturally-talented players who achieved the ultimate success accounting for only ten of the last fifty Premierships (and Matthews contributing four of those).

 

Can James Hird and Nathan Buckley add their names to the ranks of Roos, Blight and co? If determination counts for anything, yes they can.

 

Has Hird arrived at the right time to take advantage of Matthew Knights’ list building over the past three years?

 

Does the 2010 Premiership dull the hunger of the playing group as Buckley takes the reins for 2012?

 

Will either or both of them make Bernie Quinlan look like a master coach? Sure, that’s unlikely, but it will be an interesting couple of years.