Footy Smarts - T@FE (The Age)

[one-eyed]

Footy smarts
By Samantha Lane
The Age
February 19, 2006

The Tigers are taking to the classroom as a new education program promises to improve the players’ skills. Samantha Lane attends some classes and reports on their progress.

IT’S 9.30 on Monday morning, and out on Punt Road Oval Mr Richardson is running a lesson in physical education. His students are transfixed.

Inside, Mark Coughlan, Brett Deledio and Chris Newman are pondering the definition of transition in a lecture room.

There’s no yawning, late arrivals or note throwing, although one student, Shane Tuck, walks in with a football which he throws and catches audibly throughout the class. His teacher, Mr Royal, excuses it.

And for 45 minutes, the sound of a moving footy and a gentle clunking of weights in the nearby gym are the only giveaway that this is a football club rather than an academic institution.

On nearby Swan Street, in a considerably less formal cafe setting, Joel and Patrick Bowden, Jay Schulz and Andrew Kellaway are involved in a tutorial of sorts over coffee.

The topic for dissection for the day? Kicking from the back end. In layman’s terms — how to boot the ball in defence.

On Tuesday, classes — in tagging, designated run and carry, and marking on a lead — resumed. They will continue, too, twice weekly throughout Richmond’s season and, it’s anticipated, well beyond that.

This formalised football education program was the brainchild of Tigers coach Terry Wallace, or the Director of Education as he was identified on the certificates presented to players at the end of their first semester at the club’s recent community camp.

Over the off-season, Richmond players were attending three classes a week. Now that they have entered competition mode, that load will be reduced by one class.

The ultimate aim of T@FE — Tigers at Football Education — is to make the playing group a more aware, clever and flexible bunch of footballers.

The program has been designed to ensure that nothing in football tuition is left to chance. That the passing on of intelligence from a wise elder to a fresh recruit will not be left to the unstructured times before or after training, or to an expert in a randomly timed visit.

It’s also a humble concession that Wallace, and his four-man assistant coaching team, do not consider themselves to be all knowing football gurus.

"If I’m doing Darren Gaspar’s tape with him, or Brian Royal’s doing Darren Gaspar’s tape with him, we’ve never played full-back in our lives, so to get experts in in their respective areas is bloody essential," Wallace said.

"I just thought that there was something missing in teaching people about the specifics of the game that really relate to them. We do it in team meetings, reviews of games, that sort of stuff, but really I was sort of wanting to break it down even further."

Former Essendon premiership player Joe Misiti and one of his old teammates, Steve Alessio, now also an employee of the AFL Players’ Association, are donating their time to T@FE

So is one time Coleman medallist Brian Taylor, former Geelong captain Andrew Bews and Carlton team of the century member Wayne Johnston.

Collingwood legend Mick McGuane was tutoring eight Richmond players on kicking inside 50 before he won an assistant coach’s job at St Kilda, and Gary Ayres was lined up as a teacher, too, before Kevin Sheedy added him to his coaching panel.

Of the current Richmond players, the highly credentialled Kane Johnson (loose man), Nathan Brown (forward ground balls), Gaspar (defensive training), Bowden (reading the game) and Kellaway (third man in marking) are all on the teaching books, as is one burgeoning expert in his field, Chris Newman (kicking out of defence).

Gaspar was voted dux of the first semester for the quality of his teaching, which was better than his coach could have imagined.

Each teacher has designed and drawn up his own six-week syllabus, in consultation with assistant coach David Wheadon, a former teacher himself who is now co-ordinating the program, and it’s hoped that the very deliberate thinking about their own methods might even help Richmond’s best players with their game.

At the conclusion of the six weeks, the teachers must write short reports on each of their pupils, which are reviewed and archived. Wallace won’t name them, but some players will repeat classes in loose ball and kicking.

[one-eyed]

continued....

In the pre-season alone, Gaspar, a 29-year-old veteran, has already seen benefits.

"You tell guys in a lesson, ‘this is what we want to do, or this is where we want you to stand’ and when it comes to a game or training, if someone doesn’t do it, you can refer back to the class.

"Working in a small group you watch them a lot closer, whereas at training, with 42 guys, it’s very hard to form an opinion on one guy in 42."

Second-year player Will Thursfield has been one of Gaspar’s pupils over summer. "If you do something you’ve learnt in the class, I remember I went and said to ‘Gas’ — ‘did you see that spoil I put on?’ because he taught me a new sort of way of doing it. After training I went and told him, and he said he saw it."

In Royal’s class on transition last week, passages of games, now months old, were played and replayed, and the splitsecond decisions of teammates analysed and debated intently.

"What are you doing now?" Royal asked young midfielder Nathan Foley who, in front of the class of seven, revisited some good and poor moments in a round-21 game against Hawthorn last season.

When a less glorious moment that saw him lose an opponent was critiqued, Foley assessed his actions honestly, and was encouraged by his classmates.

At a pre-Christmas think tank attended by the Richmond match committee before T@FE was launched, 50-odd subjects were scribbled on an enormous whiteboard. Every player was then assigned to classes that the coaches thought would be most beneficial for them.

Richmond’s novice players stand to gain the most from the in-depth analytical study.

"I probably had five coaches (before Richmond), and to be honest they probably didn’t teach me a lot," Thursfield said. "I probably came down here not really knowing all that much. So these programs, which are more individually based, just enhance your knowledge hugely.

"After training sometimes you’re too tired to do that (one-on-one additional work), so an allocated time for your individual thing is really good."

But Mark Chaffey, a 28-year-old, 160-gamer, showed last season that even an older, established player can require a crash course in an unfamiliar trade. After spending most of his career in defence, Chaffey became the club’s designated tagger in 2005.

Now, youngsters Foley, Tuck, Dean Polo, Thomas Roach and Andrew Raines are being formally instructed on the nuances of tagging before they are thrown in the same position.

Prospective topics to be covered at Richmond include public speaking, time management, diet, leadership and on-field coaching. The immediate cause, of course, is the betterment of one club.

But Wallace says he would have sought to run the program wherever he relaunched his coaching career. He also sees scope for the concept to catch on, and possibly going on-line in the future.

"The only thing we have available to us is to teach the blokes so that they have a thorough understanding of what they’re actually doing out there, rather than just playing on instinct," he said.

"That said, when it comes to game day, it’s still all instinct — go and play. But my opinion is, give them the knowledge and then let them use that knowledge in any way they see fit."

[one-eyed]

continued.....

TEACHING THE TIGERS
LECTURERS AND TOPICS
(Semesters I and II)

* Joe Misiti: loose ball gets
* Steve Alessio: ruckwork and contested marking
* Andrew Bews: small backs
* David Wheadon: designated kickers and set goal-kicking
* Wayne Johnston: designated kickers
* Brian Taylor: marking on lead
* Tim Darcy: kicking out of defence Brian Royal: transition
* Matthew Richardson: goal-kicking
* Duncan Kellaway: tagging
* Kane Johnson: loose man
* David King: designated run and carry
* Dale Weightman: kicking
* Darren Gaspar: defensive training
* Andrew Collins: loose ball gets
* Chris Newman: kicking out of defence
* Joel Bowden: reading the game
* Andrew Kellaway: third man in marking
* Mick McGuane: kicking to inside 50 (taught in semester one, McGuane now assistant coach at St Kilda)
* Nathan Brown: forward ground balls


WHO DID WHAT LAST WEEK

MONDAY (all 45 minute sessions)

KICKING OUT OF DEFENCE (with Tim Darcy) Joel Bowden, Patrick Bowden, Darren Gaspar, Kane Johnson, Andrew Kellaway, Luke McGuane, Jay Schulz

TRANSITION (with Brian Royal) Mark Coughlan, Brett Deledio, Nathan Foley, Jeremy Humm, Chris Newman, David Rodan, Shane Tuck

GOALKICKING (with Matthew Richardson) Cleve Hughes, Andrew Krakouer, Dean Limbach, Kayne Pettifer, Greg Stafford, Richard Tambling

LOOSE BALL GETS (with Joe Misiti) Nathan Brown, Mark Chaffey, Chris Hyde, Daniel Jackson, Danny Meyer, Andrew Raines, Greg Tivendale

RUCKWORK (with Steve Alessio) Angus Graham, Ray Hall, Trent Knobel, Adam Pattison, Troy Simmonds

SMALL BACKS (with Andrew Bews) Travis Casserly, Brent Hartigan, Cameron Howat, Kelvin Moore, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Dean Polo, Thomas Roach, Will Thursfield, Matthew White

TUESDAY

DESIGNATED KICKERS (with David Wheadon and Wayne Johnston) Joel Bowden, Nathan Brown, Jeremy Humm, Chris Hyde, Andrew Krakouer, Danny Meyer, Kelvin Moore, Kayne Pettifer, Jay Schulz, Greg Tivendale

MARKING ON LEAD (with Brian Taylor) Brett Deledio, Cleve Hughes, Dean Limbach, Adam Pattison, Matthew Richardson, Troy Simmonds, Greg Stafford

TAGGING (with Duncan Kellaway) Mark Chaffey, Nathan Foley, Cameron Howat, Dean Polo, Thomas Roach, Andrew Raines, Shane Tuck

LOOSE MAN (with Kane Johnson) Patrick Bowden, Darren Gaspar, Daniel Jackson, Andrew Kellaway, Matthew White

DESIGNATED RUN AND CARRY (with David King) Travis Casserly, Ray Hall, Brent Hartigan, Chris Newman, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, David Rodan, Richard Tambling

KICKING (with Dale Weightman) Mark Coughlan, Angus Graham, Trent Knobel, Luke McGuane, Will Thursfield

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/02/19/1140151855141.html

[mightytiges]

This T@FE idea is impressive and obviously very well thought out. Not a bad collection of "teachers" either the RFC has been able to bring in although I'm not sure about Richo lecturing about goalkicking .

It will probably take a while to see if there are any major benefits, it's still great to see the coaching staff are not only aware but are actively trying to make our blokes smarter footballers. Footy smarts is something we have badly lacked for ages. We have always been one of the dumbest sides in the comp.

The best sides have always found that edge over the rest. Kudos to Tezza and the RFC for being proactive and showing initiative. 

[Tiger Spirit]

It’s also a humble concession that Wallace, and his four-man assistant coaching team, do not consider themselves to be all knowing football gurus.

Well, after several years of mind bending and mind numbing coaching, we have someone who knows how to be a coach (if we didn’t know it already).  Not only that, TW’s taking AFL coaching to a whole new level.  Impressive work, by anyone’s standards.  Well done to TW and whoever else is concerned.

Top article by Sam Lane too.

Second-year player Will Thursfield has been one of Gaspar’s pupils over summer. "If you do something you’ve learnt in the class, I remember I went and said to ‘Gas’ — ‘did you see that spoil I put on?’ because he taught me a new sort of way of doing it. After training I went and told him, and he said he saw it."

In Royal’s class on transition last week, passages of games, now months old, were played and replayed, and the splitsecond decisions of teammates analysed and debated intently.

"What are you doing now?" Royal asked young midfielder Nathan Foley who, in front of the class of seven, revisited some good and poor moments in a round-21 game against Hawthorn last season.

When a less glorious moment that saw him lose an opponent was critiqued, Foley assessed his actions honestly, and was encouraged by his classmates.

Let’s not get carried away or anything, but this initiative has the potential to fast track our players, especially the younger ones, and give us an edge over some of the other clubs we’re roughly equal with at the moment.  Obviously it depends a lot on the players how much it benefits them and improves their game.

"The only thing we have available to us is to teach the blokes so that they have a thorough understanding of what they’re actually doing out there, rather than just playing on instinct," he said.

"That said, when it comes to game day, it’s still all instinct — go and play. But my opinion is, give them the knowledge and then let them use that knowledge in any way they see fit."

And with time, that knowledge can develop into instinct too.

Some good signs and some exciting times ahead. 

[Captain__Blood]

Great to hear. Football of the future, no doubt. Thinking mans game off the pitch as much as it is on the pitch and game day.

Wallace 

[bluey_21]

Innovative idea!