McRae takes aim at mates
02 June 2007 Herald-Sun
Bruce Matthews
PULLING up a chair in Richmond's coach's box will start a weird experience for Craig McRae at Telstra Dome tonight.
His job, as one of Terry Wallace's assistants, is to try to plot the downfall of several teammates he won three premierships with.
The 195-game Brisbane Lions forward wants nothing less than the Tigers' first win of the season, even if it is at the expense of old mates.
"It is a strange situation working through the week and talking about certain players and their strengths. It's hard not to talk up the strengths of Simon Black and the like. It has been a hard week in that regard," McRae said.
"David King is our opposition coach and he does a fantastic job. He knows the opposition as well as anybody, but I could assist if he had any questions."
McRae is in the first season of a two-year contract at Tigerland after moving his young family from Queensland to further his ambition of becoming an AFL coach.
"It's a step in the right direction to where I want to go. The last piece of the puzzle is getting the position on the ladder and that will come with time," he said.
"To work under Terry, who is a fantastic operator and a great planner. I played under Leigh Matthews and Robert Walls (at Brisbane) and Mark Williams when I first started at Glenelg in Adelaide. And now to be alongside Terry and learning can only stand me in good stead going forward."
McRae, 33, is one of the most recently retired players to become an assistant coach. And the group of young players under his command need look no further than their boss for an example of how fortunes can be rapidly reversed in football.
"I've been through it (losses) as a player. It was a tough time, but really satisfying to turn it around from being bottom in '98 to playing in Grand Finals in my last four years," he said.
"Richmond is heading in the right direction. This first nine or 10 games is, I suppose, a bit of a stalling point, but we're certainly capable of bigger things down the track. It takes time to fast-track players, especially with a young list."
In McRae's second year after joining the Lions as a clever left-footer from South Australia, senior coach John Northey operated with just one assistant at the Gabba.
But even the massive advances in coaching haven't amazed the triple premiership player as much as the Tigers' propensity to eat their own, a verbal cannibalism fuelled by a barren and luckless start to the season.
"In my time at Brisbane we were trying to find an identity and respect in the competition. Trying to develop our own culture and history, with no disrespect to the Fitzroy part of it," he said.
"At Richmond, there's 100 years of history. And I'm really amazed at people from outside the club who want to have a crack at the club, whether they're past players or people who are associated with the club who really want to get stuck into it. It has been a real eye-opener.
"Playing under Leigh Matthews you focused on not letting outside distractions affect the goals to get one premiership, then the second and third. Coming down here, it seems like day to day you need to have to bubble around you and to bounce off things."
McRae's specific role is development coach to prepare a group of 25 young Tigers for the demands at senior level. He used a sports psychologist to provide profiles on each player for a better understanding of them.
"I try to develop them as footballers, but also in their life skills. It's amazing the challenges. You might get it right with one or two players one week but there's always going to be weeks when there's a few down," he said.
So, how do you protect so many young players still feeling their way against the constant sniping, particularly from those who declare undying love for the club almost in the same sentence as the vitriol?
"I think it has been a real strength of the coaching staff and everyone associated with the club to avoid that.
"We haven't got the results on the field, but inside the club, we're determined to turn it around. We believe what we're about and that we're still going in the right direction," McRae said.
Those hot and heady days at the Gabba will seem like another life if the development coach has to report to work at what's sure to be a chilly Punt Road Oval on Monday morning, with Richmond still winless.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,21834453%255E19742,00.html
