Coaches academy idea put into play

A COACHING academy will be introduced in Geelong next year if AFL Barwon development manager Luke Maher has his way.

The proposed academy, for example, would provide senior coaches, Division 1 colts and under 16 coaches, as well as under 15, 16 and 18 coaches at the Geelong Falcons, with access to elite level clinics delivered by the Geelong Cats.

The program would upskill the region’s coaches and provide candidates for football clubs looking to fill vacancies.

The idea came from Bell Park co-coach Luke Rayner, who worked for more than four years as a talent and coaching manager at the West Austra- lian Football Commission.

“The idea over in Western Australia, for argument’s sake, was over the six-month period we ran consistent and constant academy sessions and they were utilising both the Fremantle Dockers and West Coast Eagles coaching staff at the time,” Rayner said.

“We were developing coaches, we were educating coaches, we were across coaches more, so when those roles came up and those people applied from within the academy, we already knew them, we knew they could coach, we knew they had a certain level of expertise.

“Hypothetically, a GFL job comes up and suddenly you’ve got a pool of 20 or 30 coaches — whatever the number is that have been involved in this academy — and straight away you know those academy coaches have been exposed to X-amount of knowledge and education sessions.

“The reason I think it would work is because Geelong is a bit unique. They house an AFL team, a VFL team, the No. 1 country league in Australia, two really good supporting district leagues that are going to, forever and a day, and need good coaches.”

A draft proposal was floated to AFL Barwon hierarchy this year but fell on deaf ears. But Maher is keen for the concept to grow legs in the off-season.

“I’m hopeful that in 2018 we can progress further with a coaching academy, per se, but in saying that, it’s obviously a workload thing as to where it goes to,” Maher said. “It’s that upskilling of coaches consistently that we need to work on, and that’s something right from the top — right from the AFL — that they’re looking very thoroughly into. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do our own thing at local level as well.”

The AFL is in talks to revamp its coaching accreditation system, which would dictate the AFL Barwon’s proposed academy.

But Maher has a draft paper ready he hoped to fine tune and get ticked off by AFL Barwon in the off-season.

“If we can give some of those coaches enough information and education so they move in the direction they want to move, I think we’re doing our job better. I don’t think we’ve completely done that well,” he said.