SOWING THE SEEDS OFSUCCESS
The Fighting Tiger Bulletin
By TERRY WALLACE
Richmond Coach
AFL football is filled with emotion, and when you look at the Richmond Football Club, it has had its fair share of this over the past few years.
The Club has been struggling both on and off the field. With the change of personnel at the end of last year, both from an administrative and coaching point of view, supporters were once again wondering what would happen.
My job as senior coach was simple in its direction, but. more difficult from a structural point of view. The direction was simply to implement a style of play that was sustainable both for the short term and long term for the Club. To do so, I needed to put in place the football personnel that wouLd be able to work to this style of play. This involved several changes in the football management, coaching, and playing areas.
The job over the off-season was to put enough work into each specific part of our game to get the required on-field improvement. A huge amount of work went into the skill and fitness components of our training. But, more importantly, we trained long and hard to implement a running style of play that we could take into the 2005 season. Hours upon hours were spent with the group in training drills and mini games that created a running overlap style of football, which has been evident in the manner in which the team has played throughout the first half of the season.
At the start of each year, the football media, and people in generaL, ask how the team will go. We had a couple of simple responses to this question:
1. We wanted to be competitive everytime we took the field.
2. We wanted to play an attacking brand of football, which was free-flowing and would enable us to kick higher scores.
I think we have achieved both aims so far.
Admittedly, we have suffered some bLowouts, but when you consider where our win/Loss ratio was at the end of 2004, I would think most would agree that the team has become a lot more competitive in its on-field approach.
With respect to our second aim, we've had a dramatic improvement in our scoring ratio. Our 'inside 50's' are up significantly from last season due to our running brand of football and, with a potent forward structure, we've been able to turn these extra opportunities into goal conversions.
Like every business, we have a set of Key Performance Indicators [KPI's] that are taught to the players at the start of each season, so that they have an understanding of what we as a Club are trying to achieve. These KPI's are spoken about at every break in a match throughout the season, and are a major part of all review meetings held at the Club.
Unless the pLayers have an exact understanding of what the Club's and coaches' expectations are, how do they realistically know if they are delivering satisfactory performances?
In AFL football, we all live and die by wins and losses, but the only way to have continued success is to measure key areas of the game. When you compare some of the statistical data between season 2004 and 2005, you will see that there has been a quantum Leap by the team in areas such as disposal, retention of the ball through handball receives and marks, and uncontested possessions, which has led to us being ranked very highly in the AFL for inside 50's and goals.
All this does not happen by accident - it is part of the bigger picture. We were unsure how quickly these KPl's would turn for us, but had set them on the best-performing teams in the AFL, as eventually that is where we want to be.
PLAYING PERSONNEL
On arrival at the Club, I promised everyone that we would strive to become competitive in the short term, as well as have a long-term vision of developing our own champions for the future. The ability to introduce Troy Simmonds, Trent Knobel and Mark Graham to the group, along with having five selections in the top 20 at the National Draft, was a really positive result. It not only gave the playing group confidence for the long-term future, but they saw some key big men walking through the door, who had the capabilities of assisting the team immediately. These three experienced pLayers have had a big impact not only on-field, but also from a leadership standpoint within the Club.
My next; belief was that if we were going to be competitive, we needed to have some strong-bodied, hard-nosed players with the fitness and strength to compete in the middle of the ground. Having Mark Coughlan back to full fitness has been a real bonus for the Club and, with the elevation of Shane Tuck from the Coburg Tigers team, plus our captain Kane Johnson, these three have formed a physically tough midfield, capable of matching any in the competition with their inside work.
Mark Chaffey has also been thrown into that mix, and he's had some very important tagging roles through the first half of the year. He is fit, strong, and has helped us achieve success by locking down on some of the competition's best midfielders.
The region of our midfield that I believe we had struggled with the most was our lack of quick-running, skilled players. This is why we drafted Brett Deledio, Richard Tambling and Danny Meyer. These young guys add genuine skill and run to the team. I realise expectation is always high on players selected as early draft picks, but from a coach's perspective, I know they will become quality performers for the Club in the future. At this stage all they need to be doing is their job ... With Tuck and Coughlan still only in the early years of their AFL careers, I think you will find that we have the nucleus of a quality midfield for the next decade.
I always believed with Matthew Richardson, Nathan Brown and Andrew Krakouer in our forward structure that the team could kick goals if these players were serviced correctly. The particularly pleasing part of our forward line has been the introduction of Troy Simmonds to play as a lead up centre half-forward, and the continued improvement of Kayne Pettifer as a goalkicking flanker. With the senior experience of Greg Stafford and Wayne Campbell added to this region, it becomes a dangerous combination. The best sides in the competition have multiple goalkickers, rather than all their eggs in the one basket. Players who are non-threatening, in terms of their goalscoring ability, allow the opposition to zone off and double-team our best. A key to our forward Line revival is keeping six players in this structure who can all hurt the opposition on the scoreboard. With the season-ending broken Leg suffered by Nathan Brown in the Round 10 clash with Melbourne, it's simply become a case of other players needing to step up in our forward line. It's about getting three goals per match out of the position, not necessarily one individual.
The aspect of our development this season that has probably pleased me the most, has been the defence. There were many question marks on players in this area of the ground, but Darren Gaspar, Andrew Kellaway and Mark Graham have all done good jobs in the first half of the year. They have a great deal of experience behind them, which is important in backline play, while Ray Hall continues to improve as a running defender. When you add some run and counter-attack from Joel Bowden, Chris Newman and Greg Tivendale, we have a good combination of defence and offense in this area of the ground. Also, in my structuring of our team, I thought it was vitally important to ensure that we maintained stability in the backline.
Of course, the key to the Club's long-term success, is the development of our younger playing group. We currently have 17 players 21 years of age or under, which is nearly half our list. Those players who have been at Trgerland for 1-3 years are vitally important to the long-term stability of the team.
STAFFING
When looking at redeveloping any CLub, all the attention goes to the senior coach, but as an experienced football person, 1 understood how vital it was to get the right people in the football department. There are so many elements of the game that now must be looked at and you need to a solid team around you to cover off all of these.
Over the off-season, there were comments made about the Club's tighter football budget and how it would restrict us in attracting the right people. But when you
now have a look at the team we have in place, it is perhaps the most experienced in the whole of the AFL. Greg Miller, at the top, has been in the game for four decades and our Football Operations Manager, Paul Armstrong, after playing AFL football at St Kilda, went on to cut his teeth as an AFL Development Manager, before successful administrative roles [Football Manager] with Geelong and the Western Bulldogs.
The first assistant coach I sought was Brian Royal as, once again, he's had experience at three AFL clubs as an assistant and been in the line for senior league coaching positions in his own right. Brian is up to date with every major trend in the game. I was also very fortunate to have one experienced assistant coach still in the ranks at Punt Road in David Wheadon. David has been at the forefront of game development for decades and has been involved with successful eras at other clubs such as Essendon. I also brought Gordon Casey along to our match committee. Gordon was a top footballer with Footscray, has a wonderful knowledge of the game, and was my right-hand man through some successful times at the Western Bulldogs. He has no-nonsense manner and his work with our backline has been outstanding.
All these guys have been in football for a long, long time, so then I thought the only thing really needed within our ranks was a couple of younger ex-players, who had the ability to communicate well with our senior squad. When searching for the right people, I thought it was necessary to look at clubs who've had success over the past decade, as we really needed an injection of confidence and know-how. Therefore, I was rapt that dual Kangaroos premiership player David King took up an invitation to become one of our assistant coaches. He is a vibrant person with a great understanding of the game, who can communicate with the players on their own level because he can share his own experiences against opposition players that are still out on the playing field. His effervescent nature, and the manner in which he played the game, was exactly the style of football I was Looking for our players to take on. He has been an excellent acquisition.
The final position was taken by Essendon premiership player, Steve Alessio, who is now looking after our ruckmen and working with our taller players on their marking and other aspects of their game. Steve is a real gentleman of the game and he, too, has been very eager to learn and grow within his role. Again, our senior players know that he has been to the top of the mountain and understands what it takes to get there. They have enormous respect for him and the group work together extremely well. Steve is also a strong enough individual to push across his thoughts about our big-men rotations on match day.
When you look at the quality and work ethic of this group in the football department, it is clear why my job has been made easier. We all understand that our work has only begun. but I'm hoping that the entire Tigers' supporter base can see how much time and effort has gone into trying to turn the Club around. Whether this finishes in the success that we are all looking for in the future, is in the lap of the gods. We will, however, be well-managed, organised and have a set direction for everyone within our structure, as success doesn't happen by accident.
