Those who can teach, coach

As the AFL kicks off with the annual season opener between Carlton and Richmond tonight, we examine how there is more to being a good coach than simply possessing an in-depth knowledge of the game.

The evolution from professional athlete to professional coach is a natural one, a common practice in elite sport for more than a century. While many have prospered, there are plenty that have failed, though it’s fair to say that this isn’t exactly unprecedented given the high volume of former players in coaching circles.

The AFL is hardly an outlier, with 17 of the current 18 coaches having played at the highest level before taking up the position on the sidelines. Yet Carlton’s Brendan Bolton, who donned the boots for North Launceston, Clarence and North Hobart in Tasmania before retiring at 28, is at the forefront of a potential shift in attitudes towards what constitutes somebody worthy of coaching an AFL club.

Bolton was, and to a degree remains, an educator, previously employed at Hobart’s Rosetta High School as a physical education teacher. After a seven-year stint in the classroom and a season in charge of Clarence in the Tasmanian Football League, Bolton was lured across the Bass Strait in 2009 to coach Box Hill in the VFL, cutting his teeth there before becoming an assistant at Hawthorn and ultimately, a senior coach with the Blues.

Bolton’s methods have attracted more attention than his impressive track record; before landing at Carlton amid a total rebuild, Bolton had never been part of a coaching line-up where the team’s win-loss record dipped below 50 per cent. Yet it was, and still is his drive to understand the individual, not simply the footballer, that has intrigued so many.

A departure from the spray-giving, Jock McHale caricature of Australian Rules coaching, Bolton has an emphasis on equipping his troops to problem solve via empowerment rather than bellowing orders, an approach no doubt honed during his time dealing with high school students.

This correlates directly with fresh draftees who are thrust from childhood into the media spotlight, a transition that can take some getting used to. A coach experienced in the world of teaching with a penchant for building strong, positive relationships is as qualified as anyone to mould youngsters into good people as well as good footballers.

This isn’t to say Bolton couldn’t handle himself on the field. He was captain-coach of North Hobart at just 24 (his leadership skills were evident even then), winning the Horrie Gorringe Medal as the Southern Football League’s best and fairest player in 2003. He was forced into retirement as a result of chronic hamstring injuries just four years later.

Bolton isn’t the only prominent member of the AFL fraternity with a background in teaching. New Brisbane coach and fellow Tasmanian native Chris Fagan holds a Bachelor of Education yet he, unlike Bolton, did carve out a career at the top level, reiterating the message that there is no right or wrong path to becoming an AFL coach.

While it is not the only sport to employ this type of methodology – former teacher and university lecturer John Buchanan was controversially chosen as the coach of the Australian Test side despite only managing seven Sheffield Shield games in his career – there is certainly room for a change of approach.

James Hird, Michael Voss and Nathan Buckley, arguably the AFL’s three marquee stars between the late 90s and mid-2000s, all became senior coaches with their respective playing clubs despite little experience elsewhere. Only Buckley remains in the coaching box and he will be under intense scrutiny in 2017 after Collingwood’s steady decline from premiers under Michael Malthouse in 2010 to missing the finals for the last three seasons.

There is no reason that former champions cannot make great coaches – Ron Barassi and Leigh Matthews are living proof of that – and a background in education is no guarantee of success. However, if the likes of Bolton and Fagan can succeed in their roles, there may well be a diverse new pool of coaching candidates beyond past players for AFL clubs to siphon through in the future.