Each week a senior coach will write an exclusive column for AFL.com.au in partnership with the AFL Coaches Association. This week, Adelaide's Brenton Sanderson looks at the evolution and importance of leadership groups.
A GOOD leadership group, like the one we have at the Crows, is an extension of the coaching group.
Our leaders have an intimate understanding of the game plan and they have the power to make changes on the field. This is crucial because it saves a lot of time and can prove the difference between winning and losing.
It can take up to three minutes for the coaches to make a change because only one team runner can be on the field at any time, so everything runs a lot smoother if onfield leaders make adjustments themselves.
Ideally they resolve the issue on the spot, which allows the coaches to focus their attention on other areas.
The best example I've seen was during my time as an assistant coach with Geelong.
In the 2007 grand final we gave Matthew Scarlett the job on (Port Adelaide's) Warren Tredrea, and Tredrea started pushing up the field to drag 'Scarlo' away from goal and try to blow him up. Before the coaches even identified it, 'Scarlo' made the change himself. He went to Justin Westhoff, who was playing deeper, and moved Darren Milburn onto Tredrea; and whenever Tredrea went inside 50 they'd swap again.
It wasn’t even something that had been discussed pre-game among the coaches or players, but it was the right call. It showed great leadership.
We're trying to stay ahead of the curve to teach and identify leadership, and ensure our players learn to be leaders on the field rather than being robots and waiting for coaches to make decisions for them.
Leadership groups are still evolving in footy clubs as we try to find the right mix, just they are in business. There's no one way to do it, and it's horses for courses: whatever you think will work for your group.
Some clubs have seven or eight players in their leadership group while others have only three or four. We have six – Nathan van Berlo (captain), Scott Thompson (vice-captain), Patrick Dangerfield (deputy vice-captain), Rory Sloane, Jason Porplyzia and Sam Jacobs.
In the traditional Leading Teams model, players select the leaders, but we changed that this year to include other key decision-makers in the process. Now I make the final decision in consultation with the other coaches, senior players, our football manager and CEO.
The best leadership groups comprise great role models: the club's most professional players who drive the standards.
Typically, they also absorb information quickly and are very approachable.
Sometimes players don’t feel comfortable approaching a coach about an issue, particularly the senior coach, so it's important that they have the option of going to a member of the leadership group instead. For that reason, it's good to have a broad range of leaders, and I think we have that.
A lot of issues don’t even reach our coaches because our leaders deal with things themselves. That's the sign of a good leadership group, and it's a big help to the coaches.
You need a strong leader at the top of your program, otherwise you won’t have strong leadership filtering down through the group. The best captain I've seen was Tom Harley. He wasn't the best player in the team, but he was the best at understanding the personalities of the entire playing group. Tom also had an innate ability to marshal the troops towards a common goal.
We've got a great young leader. 'VB' (van Berlo) is the complete leadership package, and the ultimate professional. He wins all of our time trials, is an animal in the gym, never puts a foot wrong, is really switched on, has strong relationships throughout the group and has great balance in his life.
I meet officially with our leadership group every Monday morning, and we meet on an ad hoc basis after that to address any issues that arise.
Our weekly meeting generally lasts from half-an-hour to an hour, during which we discuss the weekend's game, how they saw it, and they raise anything they think the coaches need to be aware of.
There are always strong opinions put forward, which is healthy because you need to have hard conversations at times to get to the core of the issues at hand. We certainly take the leaders' views into account in our decision-making. If they tell us they think we're training them too hard or too long, or whatever the case may be, it would be foolish for us to shut them out. We're very open to their feedback because they might raise something that we mightn't necessarily have considered.
Ideally, leadership groups boast an even representation of midfielders, forwards and defenders, but it doesn’t always work out that way. It's also important to keep turning over the leadership group to expose different players to those responsibilities.
Geelong would bring players like Paul Chapman and Cam Mooney into the group for a year at a time, and they were really valuable because they saw things differently and weren't afraid to voice strong opinions. That ensures freshness and challenges the other leaders to think outside the square, which you won’t achieve if your leaders have similar personalities and views.
Leaders come in all different packages, and sometimes they're actually the rascals of the group. I can cite many examples from my playing days where rascals attracted followers. The key is to identify that early and teach them to use their leadership skills for good and not evil. If you can do that, you might end up with a fantastic leader.
Two of our players in that category are Bernie Vince and Taylor Walker, both bubbly characters who like having a good time but are also natural leaders. They've been fantastic in my brief time at the club and have had very positive influences on our younger players, who really admire them.
External leadership programs can also be beneficial.
When I returned to Geelong as an assistant coach at the end of 2006, the club had just undergone an internal review and Leading Teams was brought in to help develop leadership. It's a concept that has been really successful for some clubs and not so successful for others, but it definitely helped Geelong.
The players were encouraged to give direct feedback to their teammates, and it was really powerful. They learnt a lot about leadership very quickly. At the Crows, we run a version of that program through our full-time leadership development manager Paddy Steinfort, the former Richmond player.
Paddy also passes on relevant reading material to coaches and players, and that even extends to stories from the military, where certain decisions and actions are highlighted as great examples of leadership.
Although the military model has a distinct vertical hierarchy and is too rigid for footy clubs to follow, it's the best system because it recognises good leadership through promotion and titles. We're not as strict, but that's probably the best example of the direction we're heading.
