Being a development coach
“It is a slight adjustment from a winning philosophy to a development philosophy as you come into the TAC.
“I’m definitely a competitive animal by nature. Certainly at Seymour and Sandringham the philosophy was about success.
“I was lucky enough to be mentored by Steve (Daniel) and Mark Williams who had a development philosophy leading to success.
“At Northern Bullants I believed Mark Williams coached as well there as I’ve ever seen him coach and his development of the players was exceptional.
“I saw him take that to Sandringham and turn development into a winning culture.”
Coaching style
“My focus or my philosophy is basically offence wins games, defence wins championships. The first thing you need to develop is the defensive mindset.
“A lot of players that come into the TAC system are already offensively minded, being in the upper echelon at their own clubs, so it’s about teaching them the balance between offence and defence.
“Players need to know how important a role is, but also not pigeonholing someone and leaving them in a role for an entire game, let alone an entire season.
“Giving them the opportunity to show skills an identify deficiencies to work on.”
Sports psychology
“A lot of coaches say 90 per cent of footy is played above the shoulders, and my first question back is how much training is done above the shoulders.
“It’s a big factor. Players can train and execute skills exceptionally well, but put them under match pressure and it breaks down.
“They haven’t lost that skill, it’s about getting them to execute.”
