How to get the best out of your players...

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS SO CRUCIAL

IWAS at Wembley for England’s 1,000th match against Montenegro as part of The FA UEFA Pro Licence Alumni event, which brings together those coaches who have completed the course since its inception to share ideas and best practice.

We were lucky to have some terrific speakers, including the England Women’s assistant Bev Priestman and Aussie Rules football head coach Chris Fagan of the Brisbane Lions.

Bev delivered a fantastic presentation on how England Women defend out of possession. It was excellent in its detail on the technical and tactical side, which the room really enjoyed.

Fagan followed and his talk was very much people-orientated. His presentation provided a brilliant balance to supplement what Bev showcased.

He was the Aussie Rules Coach of the Year last season. However, his path to the top was a long one.

Fagan, below, was a relative late-comer to management, only getting the top job well into his 50s after a long apprenticeship as an assistant coach.

After getting the Lions job three years ago, only now does he feel as though he has the team he wants.

This wasn’t lost on those in the room, including Craig Shakespeare, who was on my Pro Licence and got the Leicester job after a long stint as assistant, only to be sacked shortly afterwards. Fagan’s key message was about the process of how he delivered success. It was relatively light in terms of the technical and tactical detail required.

It was heavy, however, on the values and culture created with strong relationships. A clear purpose, a common goal and shared ownership are all key cogs in a complex wheel that had people at the centre of it. He concentrated and measured what mattered to his playing style and constantly involved the players in the process with any slight improvements in performance highlighted to the team to get buy-in and belief.

Insight

On building relationships with his players, he expanded on how he invited all the playing staff to his house for dinner at the start of the season in an attempt to get to know them personally.

As Aussie Rules is 18-a-side, there are nearly 50 players in a squad, so sittings were done by around the dozen. His wife would cook for the players whilst Chris (and his wife) tried to get to know the players first as people.

Afterwards, there would be much time spent discussing with his wife what came out of the dinner, before further meetings at other times during the season where Fagan would again attempt to get to know his players better.

It was a wonderful insight that is great to share. As the likes of Russell Martin takes the reins at MK Dons at the complete opposite end of the scale in his first role post-playing with no coaching experience, maybe he ought to take a leaf out of Chris Fagan’s book and invite the lads out to lunch!