McKenna may be the right Guy for Richmond
Garry Lyon | June 3, 2009
MEMO: Richmond Football Club Coaching Subcommittee,
Who am I? I am an established and aspiring coach with a thorough apprenticeship who has coached, and continues to coach his own football team at the elite level.
I am a highly respected former club captain, dual premiership player and multiple All Australian.
I have served as an assistant coach for five years under multiple premiership coach Mick Malthouse.
I enjoy a high profile and have proven to be a highly competent and savvy media performer.
My current role has provided me with the most intimate and thorough knowledge of the best young players in the country, having recently travelled overseas with the Australian academy squad, and enabled me to establish initial working relationships with these players and their managers.
IF THE Tigers have put a line through Guy McKenna as a candidate for the Richmond job due to his involvement with the Gold Coast 17 franchise, then it is imperative that they think again.
McKenna shapes as the outstanding candidate for the position and the fact that he has a year to run on his contract with the new boys on the block should not be seen as an insurmountable hurdle.
The fact is, he is no different to the plethora of assistant coaches who have been bandied around in the media in the past 24 hours who are contracted beyond this year.
Michael Voss, having just signed on as an assistant coach at West Coast last year, was able to negotiate an immediate release to accept the senior role at the Brisbane Lions when it was offered.
It is almost an unwritten rule in football that an aspiring coach, not at senior AFL level, will be released from his contractual obligations to take up one of the 16 coveted positions.
McKenna is contracted to be coaching the Gold Coast team in the VFL next year. His future beyond 2010 is unsecured and it is a window of opportunity that the Richmond Football Club should take advantage of.
I have counted 22 potential candidates listed in the two main newspapers in this town in the past 24 hours. McKenna's name was not mentioned once and nor was he listed by the corporate bookmakers who are keen to frame a market.
It is an amazing oversight given the background of McKenna and his role over the past 12 months.
I believe McKenna is a standout candidate for Richmond. He ticks almost every box and the feedback from well-placed and experienced football people, a notoriously cynical group, hard to impress, regarding the job he is doing with the young Gold Coast group is overwhelmingly positive.
His presentation to the young academy squad in South Africa recently was said to have held the group spellbound. Talent scouts from around the country, who monitor the under-18 competition forensically, have raved about his handling of the group, their rapid and ultra-impressive development and the manner in which he addresses the team and the clarity of his coaching philosophies. Any rough edges he may have had before heading north have been well and truly knocked off.
Significantly he has been able to coach, at senior level with Claremont in the WAFL, and now with the Gold Coast under 18s. I think it is a crucial, but underrated consideration in the appointment of a senior coach. To be the ultimate decision-maker in terms of the direction a side takes demands accountability and responsibility. The consequence of any decision ultimately rests with the head coach, and that demands thorough preparation and an unwavering faith in your philosophies.
To have been able to take charge of both a senior list, as well as a developing group, provides invaluable experience in dealing with the psychology and challenges that come with motivating and handling a broad gamut of personalities. It must give you a head start, however small, over those who have served only in the supporting roles.
The challenge of appointing a new coach is enormously difficult. From my observations, and experience, there is no right or wrong template to work from. It is, despite the increasing level of sophistication being introduced to the process, nothing more than an educated guessing game.
And for those who beg to differ, cast your mind back to the recent appointments and reappointments of our most successful clubs.
Alastair Clarkson's appointment was howled down by some of the biggest names in the game. And if some Hawks supporters were honest, they would put their hand up as well. Overlooking favourite sons of the club with previous coaching experience was one of the main beefs of the most vocal critics. Four years into his tenure he delivers a flag.
John Worsfold was an assistant at Carlton before many in the industry sniggered at his appointment at West Coast. Five years into the job he delivered a flag.
The push from outside Geelong was for Mark Thompson to go after finishing 10th on the ladder in his seventh year. The following year Geelong capped off a magnificent season and secured its first flag since 1963.
Anyone want to own up that they thought Ross Lyon was no good at St Kilda early on at Moorabbin? Ten wins on the trot, top of the ladder and the doubters are nowhere to be found.
I was involved in the interview process at Melbourne after Neale Daniher's reign. The club did the initial legwork and then a group of us interviewed six candidates before making a recommendation to the board.
I would never get involved in that process again. Not because of any misgivings with the way it was handled, and I think Dean Bailey will be a very good coach, but no matter how much work you do, and how well the interview process went, it somehow, for me, didn't seem enough to make such an important decision.
And I guess that remains the challenge today. The best recruiting firms, the best "processes", the most homework and research done can take you only so far.
Is coaching a team in your own right more important than having been involved as an assistant at a successful club? Is an experienced coach, who understands the immense workload of senior coaching but may be a little jaded with the process, going to be better than an untried coach with boundless enthusiasm?
Does profile and charisma, bearing in mind the need to "sell" a club to all stakeholders, put one candidate ahead of another?
Are some people just destined to be great assistant coaches and no more, while others are born to lead?
Untried coaches without assistant coaching experience have been unpalatable since Tim Watson's ill-fated time at St Kilda. Has that landscape changed with Michael Voss walking into Brisbane and having it positioned in the top four after his first 10 games at the helm?
It certainly won't scare those eyeing off Nathan Buckley as the possible answer to their prayers.
The Tigers have stolen a march on a number of clubs who may be in the market for a new coach in the coming months. They have to get it right, and the first door I would be knocking on would be Guy McKenna's.
As it stands, he can do all the legwork for the Gold Coast, only to see a Leigh Matthews, Mick Malthouse or Paul Roos appointed over the top of him when the team enters the AFL in 2011.
He may not be interested, but they will never know if you don't ask the question. The promise of a senior job and a three-year contract may be the thing to lure him away from a backdrop of uncertainty and a further 12-month apprenticeship.
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