You hear about club culture all the time in AFL circles and was probably made most famous by the Bloods culture of the mighty Sydney Swans that started in the early 2000's and ignited the 2005 premiership run.
You don't hear about so much at local/amateur level though as it's another one of those things that seems to be too much effort and requires too much time to really instil, especially in the ever changing landscapes of l/a footy.
Speaking about my club again, we don't have a poor culture but we do find ourselves in a very unique position.
- The club is only 50 years old
- It has played about 5+ different venues in that time
- The club had a year in recess about 10 years ago
- 6 or so years ago we had a mass exit of players who mostly retired with a few going on to play at higher levels
- We don't have any junior feeding systems yet apart from Auskick as well under 8's to 10's.
90% of our recruitment comes from existing players with the odd player who moves into the area and comes along on their own as it's nice and local.
Our home ground is in Camberwell but we have players that come from Eltham to Newport to Dandenong that play for us.
A young-ish club, no real "home", essentially starting again from scratch a few times, no young players that have come up through the club from day 1 and players from all over Melbourne.
All this has mad it hard to instil a culture that can pave the way for future success.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we have a poor culture - not at all.
But we don't have a lot of "history" because of all the moves and different locale of players that have played for us.
Country town teams all have local players that played there since they were 5 or 6 right up until senior footy.
They were essentially raised at the footy club and thoroughly know what it stands for and who it serves.
We've improved a bit here but have a long way to go.
A few of the culture improvements we'll be looking to make this year include:
SET PILLARS/STANDARDS
This has to be the starting point and is a set of non-negotiables which seems hard to instil at l/a level where footy isn't your job but not instilling is what STOPS club culture.
Whether it's on or off-field achievements, every player needs to know them, how to abide by them and how to instil them.
I might say this a few time sin this series but do not assume everyone knows what you're talking about and hot to act on it.
You can say follow these pillars but a lot of players will need exact instructions on it and also this means that they can't say they didn't know about them or understand them if something awry.
The biggest plus for setting pillars and standards is that when something goes wrong you can always go back them as they won't change, and then you start re-start or re-jig to get back on track.
NAME YOUR CULTURE
Once you've set your pillars and standards then give it a name like the Bloods culture above.
This will make it easily identifiable to everyone and makes it sound far more important than "a set of rules".
Put a sign up in the rooms above the door and before every game every player and coach touches it and says the culture name.
These small and what seem like insignificant reminders can drive a team in tough times of the season and can be morale boosting as it reminds you that you're always playing for something bigger than yourself.
BUILD TRUST
Here's my take on trust and a scenario.
#1
The ball is in a pack situation.
The coaches game plan is to handball out of trouble and then kick when it's at least a 50/50 chance of winning the ball - don't just blaze kick out of a pack down the line to the opposition who repel it straight back over your head.
The plan is to use the numbers around you to get the ball to someone into space.
So you get the ball and the teammate next to you calls for it early, knowing that you're going to get it.
From hearing that call, another teammate can see the play developing according to the coaches instructions and takes off from his man to where he can an opportunity to get into space.
You ignore the call, the original calling teammate is out of play and the 3rd teammate is now out of position with his man free in their forward line.
As predicted above, your kick goes straight back to them, they find the spare man created by your teammate and they kick a goal.
Some people might think that by simply doing that hack kick caused all the problems.
Well yes and no.
The real problem lies in why did he do the hack kick and not handball to the far better option?
I think this is where trust is the problem.
Player A is a past best and fairest winner.
Player B is a regular 2's player who's come into the 1's just this week.
Player A hasn't really played with Player B before and in the heat of the moment might have thought that his hack kick would be a better option than handballing to Player B who hasn't really proven himself at this level yet.
From Player B's aspect, Player A has burnt him 2 - 3 times already this game so now he doesn't trust him to play his role correctly.
Player C also loses trust that his other teammates aren't following the coaches order and stops providing options, even though he is the line breaker from half back.
Team first ethos goes out the window.
Funny things happen in the heat of a game - some good and some bad - and they always will.
But don't make lack of trust be the reason why they do.
Implement some trusting drills at training.
Make sure team rules are enforced and that there are precautions if they are not.
Make every teammate somewhat familiar with each other by making training groups of players from different groups.
You could do a whole season without training "with" another player and then you're expected to trust them to the hill in the heat of a game?
Unfortunately it's not that easy.
Finally don't confuse trust with team bonding as trust is individual to individual to make a team and bonding is more a collective thing that is enhanced after trust has been established.
No comments:
Post a Comment