Coaches

Collingwood has copped a truckload of bumps - mostly off the field - in its quest to win back-to-back premierships.

A year of troublemakers, distractions and criticisms has added fuel to the Pies’ fire. The players will tell you they’re hungry to win consecutive AFL flags under Mick Malthouse’s leadership.

The Pies’ efforts are working to great effect, and the players realise they are in top nick for another crack at the flag.

Continue reading "It’s impossible to picture Malthouse in a backseat role" »

Tempting as it is to bang on about the perennially inept Melbourne Demons, the real story is at the pointy end of the AFL ladder.

Jim Stynes, the admirable Melbourne Demons president, did a good job of being stoic but not stubborn at an emergency press conference today, hot on the heels of his team’s record 186 point weekend thrashing, and the subsequent sacking of coach Dean Bailey.

Amazingly, the woeful Demons are still just a game-and-a-half out of the eight. That says less about them than it does about Collingwood and Geelong. And it leads to one conclusion. The grand final should be played tomorrow.

Continue reading "Stop the AFL season, I want to get off" »

Adelaide Crows coach Neil Craig is a man of unique vision. We know this because he has told the public as much on several occasions. Where Crows’ fans see a rabble who currently sit 14th on the AFL ladder with three wins from 12 games, Craig sees great things ahead.

“It’s the most exciting group I think this club has ever had. I can just see this group of players doing great things,” Craig said in April, after his side’s loss to the Blues. Even this weekend, after yet another loss, he was largely upbeat. “It’s an inexperienced team that I think is showing some really good signs,” he babbled.

Visionaries are great. Without them, the oceans would never have been sailed, the heavens conquered, nor the Snowy dammed for hydro power and water. But true visionaries are rare. It’s one thing to claim to be able to see over the horizon. Another entirely to fail to see the bleeding obvious two feet in front of your face. Which brings us to Julia Gillard…

Continue reading "Real leaders have vision the rest of us can see too" »

If you thought one win against the lowly Kangaroos was enough to keep the wolves from the door, think again.

Michael Voss, the Brisbane Lions favourite and most decorated son has found himself standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down and wondering when he’s going to feel the hand of power pushing him in the back.

In this, his third year at the helm, he stands accused of systematically bringing the football club he served with such distinction as a player and captain to its knees with some of the most arrogant and ill informed decision making we have seen from an AFL senior coach.

Continue reading "Voss’s losses are proof there are better bosses" »

For centuries, humanity has grappled with some of the universe’s biggest conundrums.

An intelligent creator or a bunch of randomly evolving strands of DNA? The chicken or the egg? And why does Darren Lockyer have such a gravelly voice?

But there’s one mystery which has divided the great thinkers like no other. Do sporting coaches really make a difference?

Continue reading "Origin proves that coaches simply do not matter" »