Keeping your cool in the heat of the coaches’ box is crucial to the team’s success on game day, according to Senior Coach Don Pyke.

With multiple line coaches and assistants all monitoring different aspects of the match from the box and also at ground level, clear, calm and concise communication is paramount.

“I think being calm in the box is something that allows you to make really clear decisions,” Pyke said on The Crows Show.

“Players don’t want to look up and see a raving mad-man in the box screaming, yelling and banging phones, because they want to think that we’ve got a handle on the best way of addressing the issues we are seeing in the game.”

Team personnel at ground level also play an important role on game day, relaying messages from the coaches’ to the players on the field.

“Communication within the box is one thing, it’s vital that communication between the box and the bench as well is functional,” said Pyke.

“There’s a lot going on on game day, players coming off with injuries, rotations as well as positional changes we want to make.

“We have to be really clear from the box, firstly what we want, and then communicate that down to the bench so it happens.”

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Pyke heads a busy coaches’ box which includes line coaches, development coaches and statistical analysts who all play critical roles. The coaching team must also be able to respond and make adjustments as the game progresses.

Pyke relies on the four assistant coaches in particular, David Teague (forwards), Scott Camporeale (midfield), James Podsiadly (defence) and Matthew Clarke (ruck), to focus on their areas throughout the course of the game.

“In the box, each of the line coaches is really looking after their area, any significant change they want to make around their line sort of gets (passed) through me,” Pyke said.

“Anything that’s minor, which is just sort of flow-of-game stuff, I let the line coaches deal with that.

“When we talk about the total game and the changes we want to make, it’s important they have a really strong handle on their zone.”

Whilst it’s only Pyke’s first season as Senior Coach, the 48-year-old boasts extensive experience in the AFL coaching environment.

Pyke feels Adelaide has the right mix of ingredients on game day in its coaching line-up.

“I’ve found the coaches box really good, the environment in there has been really positive, solution-based and we’re trying to get the right balance between reading the cues of the game and helping the players,” he said.