Coaches, Coaching and Taking Responsibility For Results

My colleague in Football Eamonn Flanagan (Nearpost National radio program) drew my attention to a very "hot" interview between Craig Foster and Ange Postecoglou. I hold Foster in high regard in Football and have a similiar view of Postecoglou. I don't know either person, except through the lens of Football.

For me, this video was hard to watch. They were dealing with a important matter to hand - the development of our best players and our participation in youth world cups. Foster was right to draw a line on the performance of the Australian Youth teams Postecoglou coached. Postecoglou was right to feel aggreived, as so much impacts on the selection, preparation and campaigning of an Australian team to a World Cup, that the proposistions put by Foster were overwhelming, appeared deeply offensive and unfair. But that's not Foster's go. As I watched again, it looked to me like a hundred other Football arguements I have seen at Clubs, and at games on the sideline or in the dresing sheds or the drive home, at Junior and Senior levels over  many years. There are several happening right now in several of our Premier League Clubs and just as hard. This one was on national television.

Foster continues to do wonderful work in Football and Postecoglou is coaching and resurrecting an A League team others had given up for dead and doing it well. Both are good for Football.

Then I found another Craig Foster piece concerning the hapless John Kosimna, as he imploded as Coach at Sydney FC. Not a pretty sight and again, nothing like the full story for a fantastic Football player and Coach that Kosimna was and may still be. As with the other, I admire Kosmina, but what must be happening to him in this interview is written all over Foster's face.

Nothing wrong with being held to account for results. Coaches know the buck stops with them, but they have a right to expect others in their Club / orgainsation to be corageous enough to take thier share of the blame. After all, "success has a thousand fathers".

Bring this down to our Capital Football Premier League - I can think of three Clubs at this time who have, or, are in the throws of Coaching dramas, which if not resolved will cripple their competitive endeavours in season 2011. They just don't make national television, but they do embroil their local members and its just as important as the level of football for the two interviews and for a little while it is high local drama. Though let me tell you this - if we did have vision and audio of some of the local "debates" it would make a cracking "reality series". Football is nothing if not passionate in nature at every level of the game. Sadly, turn the passion up and down goes the good judgement.

Coaching a Football team, at any level, at any age, is a hard task. It's often a thankless one, for most it is without any sort of remuneration and all too often, can reap a bitter harvest of gratuitous unpleasant criticism that can make the coach feel it's all a waste of time.

We loose a lot of Coaches, just as we loose a lot of referees. Coaches are seldom abused on the sideline during the game, but a few too many of them indulge in the same unacceptable practice toward match officials and  their own players. In these latter circumstances, Clubs, players and parents are happy to see the back of the Coach.

Coaching at the junior / youth level in Football carries with it considerable responsibilities. Parents of players usually volunteer at these early ages, just so that the young players can form a team and play. No Coach, no team, no play. Junior Clubs float on the generousity of spirit of volunteers, but they can't accept a team of young players without a Coach.

Coaching Senior Football is obviously different because of the age of the players involved, the all embracing demand to produce "wins". but I wager, that if you asked any local Football Coach if they could identify with the problems of coaching at the senior level - lets say the Premier League in the ACT region, they would quickly connect with the situation.

When the Coaching responsibilities step up to the levels of the persons int he interviews (see below), we are dealing with people's chosen profession and the "business" of a Football Club, not to mention Club and National supporter expectations. The stakes are high.

By and large, Coaches of Football teams just do the job as best they can, with the players they have and with precious little support or resources. Most would dip into their own pocket each season to cover off on mising equipment and other costs.

Investing in good coaching habits and practice is returned many times over at every level of football in the region.

Punishing a Coach by laying the blame for a poor season is often not fair and disposing of a Coach during a season, often says more about the inadequacies and poor judegment of those that appointed the Coach than it does of the Coach. Clubs can be so stupid, providing unhelpful intereference, rather than help and support to a Coach under pressure to win. Parents too often collude on the sideline and simply defame a coach, but with not idea themselves how to put it right or be prepared to undertake the task. It can get very  nasty. Why would a Coach come back for that next season? Often they do not. Just like Referees.

Coach education and training has been the single biggest change in Football in the ACT in the last few years. Its a product of the new National Football Curriculum and without it, the curriculum will fail to take hold. We need a lot more of it, much more than Capital Football has been able to deliver or prepared to resource. We now know to an absolute certainty that it can make a decisive difference for the good of the game. It is the most critical point of association between Capital Football and Clubs. Simple as that!

So please watch these two vidoes from the past and reflect on coaching. Nothing wrong with a genuine conflict of ideas, but no point in tearing good people apart.