The Tackle: How did Richmond let Adam Kingsley slip through the club’s fingers?
For four years Richmond’s possible next coach was sitting two chairs from Damien Hardwick. Now he might be about to win coach of the year with another club. Mark Robinson looks at the incredible rise of Adam Kingsley.
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At best it was poor timing and showed lack of foresight. At the most extreme, Damien Hardwick’s departure from Richmond could be seen as self-centred.
Because for four years the Tigers’ possible, or probable, next coach was sitting two chairs from Hardwick, and as sliding doors moments go, the Tigers missed the train and Greater Western Sydney was off with its man – champagne in one hand and lobster in the other.
Adam Kingsley now is one of the favourites to be named AFL coach of the year.
Things could easily have played out for Richmond as they have for GWS.
If the Tigers had a succession plan in place, and if Hardwick had broached his looming departure with his Tigers bosses well beforehand instead of making a shock announcement after round 10, it’s highly likely that Kingsley would already be in that job rather than coaching in western Sydney.
Life is loaded with hindsight evaluations, some of which are fanciful.
But Kingsley at Richmond was not fanciful at all.
However, the Tigers dropped the ball. Or Hardwick did. It’s probably a bit of both.
And instead of Kingsley at the helm, the Tigers are now looking at Andrew McQualter, Adem Yze, Daniel Giansiracusa and Chris Newman.
“I would assume if Richmond had a succession (plan) in place, we wouldn’t have Adam Kingsley as head coach and we’re thankful for that,’’ Giants chief executive David Matthews said.
“And while the Tigers were in the midst of courting Jacob Hopper and Tim Taranto to leave the Giants, we were feverishly working to get Kingsley out of Punt Rd.
“We are exceptionally grateful we were able to secure him.
“I can remember when we first interviewed him. We asked him if he was involved in discussions with Hopper and Taranto, and he said ‘not any more’. The logical question to ask was: ‘How do you feel about taking on a job when Taranto and Hopper will walk?’ He said: ‘No, that doesn’t worry me at all, I’ve just got to get this team playing the way it should be playing’.’’
The 2022 season was one of upheaval.
Leon Cameron had walked and Mark McVeigh became the interim coach as the Giants finished the season in 16th place, with only West Coast and North Melbourne below them.
Popular opinion had the Giants again being a bottom three side this year.
Internally, the Giants were hopeful more than confident of an upsurge. That prognosis changed about mid-year and Kingsley is at the top of the credit list.
From being 1-3, and then 3-7, the Giants scrambled into the finals. They play St Kilda on Saturday.
“He took over a list which was resetting after we traded out Taranto and Hopper,” Matthews surmised.
“He’s given confidence to blokes who needed confidence, blokes like (Jake) Riccardi and (Xavier) O’Halloran as examples, he’s got (Jesse) Hogan in a really good space, he backed himself in on the selection of Toby Greene as captain and his ‘win anywhere anytime’ (mantra) has been enormous.’’
The Giants have won 10 games on the road at 10 different venues, which is an astonishing record.
The wins came at Perth Stadium, Norwood, Marvel Stadium, Manuka, SCG, GMHBA Stadium, Bellerive Oval, Traeger Park, Adelaide Oval and MARS Stadium.
All this with a rebuilt coaching panel.
Only Craig Jennings remained from last year. The first-year Giants coaches were Brett Montgomery (defence), Jeremy Laidler (forwards) and Ben Hart (midfield). Jason Davenport (head of development) and Wayne Cripps (VFL coach) were also inclusions.
“Here’s the other genius aspect of him,’’ Matthews said. “He managed to elevate Toby Greene to captain in a way that it didn’t affect (Stephen) Coniglio or (Josh) Kelly. They’ve had their best seasons ever.’’
Giants footy director Jimmy Bartel says Kingsley was firm in his beliefs from the outset, that he spoke with clarity and confidence and focused on a new game plan.
“The big thing was when he decided he was really keen on one captain and Toby was the obvious one, and he couldn’t have handled it any better,” Bartel said. “It’s why all three of them embraced it really well.’’
Matthews: “Watch the post-match interviews from the last round. Stephen Coniglio gives an interview and they say, well done, a great way to celebrate your 200th game, and at the end they say there’s a fair bit to look forward to and he says, ‘I just want Toby Greene to be All-Australian captain’.
“Then they ask Toby, great day, great way to celebrate Coniglio’s 200th and Toby says: ‘He’s been my best mate for a long time, it was really important we won today’.
“For Kingsley to sit down and say we’re going to take the captaincy off two of you (Coniglio and Kelly) and I’m going to go with Toby … he’s handled it absolutely brilliantly.’’
Bartel: “This bloke has had to come in and retrain an entire group with a new game plan.
Kingsley made the call that Toby Greene would be the club’s standalone captain. Picture: Getty Images
That’s why we were 3-7. He told the club at the start of the year that we might be slow out of the blocks because he’s given them a hard pre-season and they will be fatigued, and they’re still trying to learn a new game plan.’’
Kingsley changed the Giants’ profile. No longer using Cameron’s stoppage game, the Giants are a high transition team.
“Whenever you pump him up I feel kind of worried people think you are trampling on Leon’s grave,’’ Bartel said.
“It’s nothing to do with that. They’re just polar opposites on how the game should be played.
“Leon was heavy stoppage, slow the game down, get numbers behind the footy, defend and score from stoppage and clearance, whereas Kingsley is pretty much come forward, defend coming forward, put speed on the ball … we all know it’s the Richmond way.’’
Kingsley has embraced the “tsunami’’ identity, which fundamentally is run in numbers, but the Giants are far more than flash with the ball. There’s a grunt about them. They never put up the white flag. In times past, they could beat themselves, but now you have to beat them.
Bartel and Matthews were on the coaching selection panel. Kingsley beat Yze for the role and the pair identified different aspects of Kingsley that impressed them.
Part of the psych testing was numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and abstract reasoning.
“He was off the charts with abstract reason,’’ Matthews said. “He produced a result which is in the top 1 per cent of the population.’’
Abstract reasoning involves patterns, puzzles and identifying some sort of conclusion from what’s placed in front of you.
Bartel: “The more we spoke to him the more impressive he was. He’s clear, he’s confident, he’s really concise in what he wants. There’s no wavering, and he doesn’t preface anything, he’s got a clear understanding of the game and you could see his experience shine through.
“You could tell there was a real level of composure about him. It’s not like he’s a hard bastard, but he delivers the message in a good way and follows up.’’
To Bartel’s point, Kingsley is a man’s man. He doesn’t waste words, he’s matter-of-fact and he’s confident in his beliefs.
“If you’re a first-time head coach, and you flip the game plan on its head, you’ve got to have inner confidence and inner belief to do that,’’ Bartel said.
“He’s one of those people who is very bright who doesn’t exude how bright he is.
“He doesn’t force his football knowledge or his overall intelligence on you, but you can tell there’s a very bright person there. There’s not one bit of arrogance or cockiness about him, but he comes off confident and assured in what he wants to do.
“You need that as a coach. You need to get the whole club to believe in your philosophy … you’re leading a cult, aren’t you?’’
Kingsley is a candidate for the coach of the year in a field deep in offering, including Carlton’s Michael Voss and St Kilda’s Ross Lyon.
Bartel pitched for his bloke based on expectation.
“It’s all about what is the crux of the award,’’ he said.
“Is it delivering above or beyond expectation? Most people had us in the bottom three. Whereas everyone’s disappointment in Carlton was early doors because we all expected more from them.
“So, they really landed where a lot of people wanted them to land, which is the bottom half of the eight. Vossy has done a magnificent job, but I’m just making a case for our guy. I can’t think of a player on our list who has stagnated or gone backwards.’
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