THIS WEEKS GAMES

VIEW FROM HERE | A week is a long time in football....
The catch cry of a “week is a long time in football” is certainly relevant to the State League
competition at the moment and will continue to be as the home and away season draws
closer to an end.
Last week’s results meant there were some positional
changes to the ladder, including the following:
• Clarence who were sitting 2nd only a game clear now
find themselves 2 games clear of the 3rd placed team
and have now made it difficult to be dislodged from
2nd spot.
• Burnie who were sitting 3rd prior to last weekend are
now sitting 4th after their loss.
• Glenorchy who were sitting 4th prior to last week are
now sitting 3rd.
• North Launceston prior to last weekend were sitting
5th on the ladder by percentage have now gone a
game clear inside the 5.
• North Hobart who was sitting 6th just outside the five
on percentage is now a game outside of the five and in
7th spot.
• Lauderdale who were 2 games outside the five in 7th
position prior to last weekend now find themselves in
6th and only one game outside the five.
This weekend’s schedule of matches provides a number
of contests that could see the results go either way
which may change where clubs are positioned come
Monday.
The other thing that occurred this week was North
Hobart’s Head Coach, Clinton Brown, tendered his
resignation to the Club; Clinton was the last remaining
playing-coach in the State league competition.
Clinton’s comments in the media included “I just think
at the moment being a playing-coach is too tough at
this level” and “you need to have your eyes in the box
all the time to see what is going on and at the moment
doing it on the ground is just too difficult”. This poses an
interesting conundrum for TSL Clubs as to whether the
appointment of a playing-coach or non playing coach will
deliver the right structure for the Club to be successful.
If you look at “Best Practice”, which is the AFL, the
current day football environment demands that people
heading up the football club in a coaching capacity
should have a ‘helicopter view’ on game day and
implement their own strategies and structures by seeing
them first hand from afar, rather than being on the
ground and receiving the information second hand.
What I am sure of is that Clubs will appoint the most
appropriate person for the role whether that is a playing
or non-playing coach to achieve the outcomes that their
core business warrants and desires, but it does provide
for an interesting debate.
Shaun Young
General Manager
Wrest Point State League
Editor’s Note: The last time that a playing coach was
engaged in the AFL / VFL was way back in 1979 when
Alex Jesaulenko led Carlton to the Premiership. Along
with John Nichols at Carlton in 1972 they are the only
instances of successful playing coaches at this level in
the last 50 years.
Tasmanian Brett Geappen led Clarence to the State
League title as a playing coach in 2009, but, arguably,
some of the most successful Tasmanian coaches of
recent years have been non-playing such as Matthew
Armstrong, Adam Sanders, David Newitt, Grant Fagan,
Andy Bennett and Garry Davidson.
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