Agree that a successful background doesn’t guarantee a successful career as a coach. if these people don’t have the necessary awareness to know what the role of a Coach really is about and are stubborn enough to go into the role thinking they know everything there is to know about coaching a team, before they even take on the job, then they are more than likely destined to fail.
The most successful and best coaches are the ones who can teach their players something they don’t already know and can get something more out of them than they thought they were capable of. And even though Sheedy and Matthews came from successful backgrounds, they haven’t managed to stay in the game so long by being insular and thinking they had to have all the answers themselves.
They have succeeded because they are prepared to see what doesn’t work and make changes where necessary. Doesn’t need a successful background to do that, just an open mind.
You have to worry about how some coaches go about it at times though. They seem more concerned about the result and don’t seem bothered how those results are achieved, as long as they win. Too bad if their coaching style, and approach to the game, has the potential to harm the development of their players, not to mention the game itself. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that the better playing style and better prepared their players are the better the results will be.
But, hopefully times are changing for the better and I think Clubs are a lot more aware of the impact a ‘good’ coach can have on their players and club. And so are better prepared for what to look for in a coach than ever before.
