A BRIEF HISTORICAL LOOK AT THE ORGANISED APPROACH TO COACH EDUCATION IN SA

History is a word that means many things to many people and is a great base for reflection and consideration for future development.

South Australia should be proud of its input into Coach Development in Australian Football and through the care and concern for the Game and its participants over the past 40 or so years the SANFL, in conjunction with a variety of agencies, has produced some great leadership to assist the development of the Game through formal Coach Education - there has been, and still is, a great tradition of support for coaches in SA.

Life is punctuated with examples of people who have contributed as assistants to the development of personal and team skill, and who have shown great initiatives over the 150 years since the origins of the Game.

However, it was in the 1960s that we saw some huge initiatives in Game Development with people becoming very inquisitive about athletic performance as part of a general administrative will to grow the Game in all aspects, eg the VFL and the Stadium at Waverley, the SANFL and the Stadium at West Lakes, and the building of facilities at each of the 9 SANFL League Clubs as physical structural indicators. There was a settling of Australian Society after the Second World War and a sense of consideration about life and a formalization of education as a key base for development of the community from a family and community perspective. Physical education was introduced as a formal option in Universities and Teacher’s Colleges.

Probably the most significant decision with regard to the SANFL’s input into sport education development was the appointment of Donald Vivian Roach as Publicity and Promotions Officer for the SANFL around 1970 to include the key responsibilities of Promotion of the Game and act as Editor of the SA Football Budget. Don had an outstanding record as a player at West Adelaide in the late 50s and 60s, gaining selection in the All-Australian team after the 1961 Carnival in Brisbane. He then moved to Hawthorn, VFL, in 1964/65, before returning as playing coach of West Adelaide in 1966/67. He stood out of the Game for over a year and then joined the Norwood FC where he became a playing assistant. Norwood had been most disappointing in the nineteen sixties and decided to start a structure with a more conscientious endeavour to train and educate youth with a long term goal to set standards of play and off field conduct that would enhance its relationship with its zone and country SA.

One aspect of this development was the development of school football, including rule modification for young players, and recruiting and welfare of talented players under the guidance of prominent Master Builder and President Albert (‘Bert’) W Baulderstone. This process was an extension of that adopted by the Sturt Football Club in the early sixties which saw them take the SA football world by storm winning 5 consecutive premierships from 1966 to 1970. It had developed from a young team of players predominantly from its zone under the guidance of legendary coach, Jack Oatey. The Sturt resurgence was in large part due to a passionate administrator, Raymond W Kutcher, who had almost ‘begged’ Jack to resurrect his coaching career at Unley in 1962 after he had resigned himself to the grandstand. As faet would have it Ray, an engineer with the Electricity Trust of SA, and Bert were members of the Norwood Rotary Club and the Club provided a great meeting place for two men who were visionaries in the true sense of the word. The well healed cliché that the team was greater than the individual, the Club was greater than the team, and the Game was greater than all the aforementioned was truly a maxim for these two passionate men. Ray and Bert discussed the building of Football Park and Ray, as the Sturt delegate to the SANFL, was a leader in pushing that the SANFL have its own home while Bert committed himself to build a new Norwood FC through a coordinated approach with a 25 year old playing coach, Robert Oatey.

It was through Ray and a small band of cohorts, including Justice Don Brebner, Norm Grimm and Kim Smith, that Australian Football saw the need for not only a physical home but the education of administrators and staff, the most significant being coaches. And so the recruitment of Don Roach to the Norwood Football Club as a player became a key part of the Norwood redevelopment process and then through the collaboration of Ray and Bert the appointment of Don to the SANFL saw coach development become a part of a burgeoning football development in SA in playing, coaching and SANFL and SANFL League Club development.

Athletics throughout the world was looking at training techniques, including the use of ‘medications’, to improve the physical attributes of endurance, strength, speed, (power and agility), and flexibility. Australian Football was being influenced by coaches who were starting to use athletic coaches and trainers to assist physical performance of players.

With the educational examination of sports also came the consideration of technical development of skills and the associated development of team/game play skills. The coaches knew that there were tactics and they had employed them since the inception of the Game. Now there was the start of an era of how all the parts could be best put together in any one team for optimal performance through the agency of education. For example, handball was starting to be used as an attacking weapon, although it was not until around 2000 and beyond that kicking and handball were starting to creep closer together in the team’s statistical analysis of disposal. (In 2008 the Geelong FC in the AFL exceeded 200 kicks and 200 handballs in a game which was a phenomenal change from the 30 to 50 handballs in the 1960s!)

At the SANFL Don Roach led the way in SA to a growth of the game in the key educational institutions, the schools, and also in the community that saw a cooperative input from experienced coaches from many sports as well as academics that resulted in,

• Cooperation with Jess Jarver, the highly respected athletics coach, who was leading the way in Coach Education for Athletic Coaches.
• The 1st official coaching course in Australian Football being convened at the Norwood Football Club in 1971 with coaches receiving a certificate with photo on completion.
• The birth of a Newsletter and the birth of the ‘Australian Football Coach’ Year Book in 1972. Two further publications were compiled in 1973/74 and 1974/75 and the first manual of coaching was to be not far away.

Through Ray Kutcher’s incredible will to not only have the Game in SA recognized, but to include the picture of a great National Game, Ray was appointed to the National Australian Football Council as SA’s delegate, and with his lobbying and zeal a National Director of Coaching was appointed in the mid 1970s – Daryl Hicks, a SA school teacher and coach, SA State representative and former Sturt Player.

Daryl Hicks involved coaches from around the country to develop the National Football League of Australia Coaches Manual. The Manual was compiled by the National Coaching Committee of Cliff Semmler (Chairman), Jim Davies, Bruce Andrew, Dr Colin Davey, Dr Ken Fitch, Jack Oatey, Ross Smith, Keith Webb, and R. W. H. Kutcher (ex officio) and Daryl. (It is of note that Cliff Semmler was himself a football initiator and key mover in the establishment of the West Adelaide FC’s development of their home ground at Richmond in the 1950’s.)

It is worth noting the acknowledgements in the front of the first Coaching Manual and the considerable input from SA. Let us also remember though that there were some people in Victoria who were also very keen to extend the knowledge base of the Game and people like David Parkin from Hawthorn and Ross Smith from St Kilda, and others, were key protagonists in the examination of the Game from an educational perspective that integrated both theory and practice.

In the 1980s the SANFL appointed a Technical and Development Manager, Alan Stewart, who was asked to enhance the introduction of the Level 2 Coaching Course which Murray Tippett, who had been at the SANFL in a marketing and development role in the 1970s, had introduced on behalf of the League. This was to be a great step forward for it enabled the conscientious coach an avenue to be introduced to some of the educational developments in both practice and theory in Australian Football and other sports beyond the basic topics addressed in the Level 1 Course. The National Australian Football Council had printed a Level 2 Manual to supplement the L1 Manual produced in the 1970s.

Alan’s input was most significant, not only for his conscientious approach to the method of presentation of the SANFL Level 2 course but for his own personal development. He had been a successful junior coach at the Central District Football Club (CDFC) and as coach of the SANFL Teal Cup (U17) team. Experience with the Level 2 course taught him the value of workshop/group discussion in the consideration of situations associated with coaching. Alan became the senior coach at the Central District Football Club in the early 1990s and with assistance from Ray McLean, a former teacher and instructor at the Edinburgh Air Force Base instituted a management plan for the development of the players individually, as a team, and in sync with all aspects of the club. It is now that in South Australia we have observed the incredible success of the plan with not only the CDFC having the most incredible success on and off the ground for 10 years but acceptance of the system in many sporting clubs across the Nation and of late, overseas.

The SANFL appointed its first Coaching Manager in 1995 with the task to coordinate the education programs, and the Manager works closely with the AFL Coaching Manager and the 9 SANFL League Club Development Managers to attempt to assist clubs at all levels to have access to information to develop their clubs in their communities. It is through Codes of Behaviour accepted and practised by all coaches, and a willingness of coaches to work together in their clubs that Australian Football in SA provides a community service to at least 60,000 players each year.

• When one considers the family ties of these players one realises the fantastic service that the Game provides to human interaction. Eg, if we consider each player as having 2 parents and 4 grand parents then 60,000 x 6 = 360,000 people, at least, have a pretty close interest in the game.
• The responsibility of clubs to appoint caring coaches who are prepared, firstly, to be educated in both theory and practice and, secondly, who have a will to work together will be an integral to the future of the game in our society.

There has been reluctance by some coaches and clubs to share their coaching practice for fear that it may jeopardize their ability to have a ‘winning edge’. The discussion in this area has been most interesting and, Jack Oatey, after 20 years of experience, felt strongly that no matter how much information one has about another team’s strategy, the fact that his team played together 20 times and trained together at least another 50 times was enough in itself to always give an advantage over any team that only played against them twice per season. Hence knowledge sharing meant very little in stopping the opponent and, in fact, could hinder a team’s ability to realize its own coordinated endeavours while placing too much attention to the opponent.

Education has reinforced much of this observation. It is acknowledged that for very high personal skill levels the player should indulge in around 10,000 hours of practice. It would not seem unreasonable to apply such a principle to learning game tactics to read each other’s play? And as we have studied more about the nature of the game and its very ‘openness’, (ie, very little restriction of movement), the casual observation of the ‘old coach’ has been reinforced by educational theory.

So, for the past 35+ years we have seen the birth of education for coaches to the present stage where information sharing is mandatory and introduction to coaching practice through education is compulsory in all bodies affiliated with the AFL through its Game Development Department and strongly supported in SA by the SANFL and its affiliated bodies.

The SANFL remains a positive and proud contributor to Coach Education through theory and practice in conjunction with the AFL and the Australian Sports Commission and the principles promoted through the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme.

The more we discuss the wide variety of aspects relating to the Game the more we realize the ‘openness’ of its nature and the fantastic opportunity there is to develop team tactics for one’s own team and the personal fitness and technical and game skills of the players.

• For example, “Are we doing enough in each aspect, are we doing too much of one, or whatever, to get the balance right for a sound team performance.

There remains a thirst for knowledge about the game by players, coaches, and the wider community in what seems to be such a simple game. But those who have played and coached realise only too well how difficult it is to perform the simplest technical skills let alone have a coordinated team movement of the ball to get it through the “the two big sticks”!

Historically the SANFL has understood the huge difference between the coach and the player.

As a player we receive information, we practice, we play, we socialize, and in general we are united through astute help in a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic ways. For the player, in particular, it is about ‘me and my development’ as the key factor for involvement in the game.
But, as a coach, we give game and technical information and probably a lot more in personal care and development. Giving is something that has associated with it huge responsibility for it presumes a high degree of genuineness/honesty/integrity through sound knowledge and respectful understanding of the whole picture to impart such knowledge. The coach does not play – he is not the core of the game yet if he ‘gives’ in an appropriate manner it will be through him and his associates that the player will ‘give’ to a balanced team performance.

It is lovely to receive, but to give, often whilst subject to the severest criticism and not a lot of ongoing help, is not easy.

But history has shown that, on reflection, people who have had the opportunity to have been assisted by a true ‘giver’, who cares about knowledge and respect for others, really appreciate that opportunity to have shared in the teamwork and hence the Game is the winner, and so is the community. The coach is often respected by players, many years after they have left the game, for the opportunity given and the manner it was presented. The tradition developed in SA has been one of a healthy respect for Coach Education in both theory and practice, and those basic activities pursued some 40 years ago are now well and truly engrained in the new AFL and its clubs as well as the whole Australian Football community.

With the development of the National Competition since the 1980s we have seen a remarkable examination of coach procedure in all aspects of personal and team development. This education has not only been limited to a narrow framework for a particular club but has affected the whole football community through ongoing education under the auspices of the AFL Game Development Department and its State Affiliations.

There has been a development of the AFL Players Association (AFLPA) and AFL Coaches Association (AFLCA) for players and coaches. Both of these bodies are working to not only provide ‘protectionist policies’ for the well-being of members but, most significantly, a broad input by players and coaches into Game Development at all levels. For example, the AFLCA is strongly committed to have its members, both senior coaches and their assistants, involved in coach education through mentoring of best practice behaviour that each club’s coaching staff is constantly developing and modifying.

SA AFL senior coaches, Neil Craig and Mark Williams, are very strong in their support of coach education and are members of the AFLCA executive that works closely with AFL Coaching Manager, Lawrie Woodman, and the State Coaching Managers. (Lawrie has been a stalwart in sport education in a similar time frame to that of David Parkin and Ross Smith through an involvement with Australian Football and athletics, and a broader feel through time working at the Australian Institute of Sport.) Neil Craig graduated from Flinders University as a Sports Scientist and Mark Williams from the University of SA as a teacher. Neil has been associated with coach education voluntarily in SA for over 25 years and Mark worked with Sports Medicine Australia as well as coaching for a similar period. SA is very privileged to have two people of this caliber leading the coaching force at AFL level in the early 21st century.

All bodies affiliated with the AFL have adopted a policy of compulsory coach accreditation for all coaches and in SA coaches are required to attend and complete a Level 1 accreditation in their first year of coaching if they wish to continue for a second year and beyond.

• At least 18 Level 1 courses are conducted through the SANFL League Club Development Managers and coaching staff for coaches beginning their care for player and game development. Coaches complete a workbook that addresses key topics for consideration by the coach.
• A Level 2 accreditation course for coaches who wish to examine the game a little further is conducted over 3½ days where some of the best coaches, past and present, deliver information. The coaches who attend are required to present a pre-season summary, a coach’s diary of activities, and be assessed by a member of the SANFL Development Staff.
• To further develop coach knowledge the SANFL is at present examining how it can best provide mentoring for those clubs who are striving to develop their own coaching processes to support their club structure. Mentoring programs are now being considered for future development.

Click here to view the current coaching courses

To acknowledge the input of coaches in 1995 the SANFL began a Coach Awards Dinner at the end of each season whereby recognition is made to 

1. A coach of the year from each of the nine league clubs country and metropolitan region (18 awards),
2. A SANFL Primary Schools Coach of the Year,
3. A SANFL AFL Auskick Coach of the Year,
4. A Female Coach of the Year,
5. Coach, or coaches, who have given outstanding service to coaching, coach education, or both. 

The 9 league clubs have been great supporters of this event and between 450 and 500 coaches and partners attend each year from throughout the State.

The AFL has appointed Coach Ambassadors of considerable experience of the like of David Parkin, Kevin Sheedy and Stan Alves who are available to visit affiliated leagues to present ideas about improving the standard of coaching by coaches.

So, the educational process is constantly being enhanced by the SANFL in conjunction with the AFL Game Development Department and the AFLCA with a close link to the National Accreditation Scheme promoted by the Australian Sports Commission.

Click here to view the ‘Foreword’ by Raymond W H Kutcher from the original NFL Coaches Manual.