AFL VICTORIA COACHING FORUM 2026 PART 1

This past weekend I attended the 2026 AFL Victoria Coaching Forum with countless other local men's, women's and junior coaches from all over at the MCG.

Should you attend in future?

Yes.

Sitting still is essentially going backwards.

I did a lot of the practical session's so and I didn't take any notes - this is all from memory so it's bit scattered but here's what I took from it.

 

COACHING GAMEDAY - WOMEN'S (SHAE SLOANE - HEAD OF WOMEN'S FOOTBALL MELBOURNE AFLW)

I only got the back end of this one as I was late getting there but she was covering the different aspects you need to address in the lead up to, and on. gameday.

This included what you want to do at contest and then on offense and defense.

The simplicity of it all might have surprised a few with the "line to goal" positioning mantra used on both phases of play to ensure they go the long way to goal on defense and that we go the quickest way to goal on offense.

Yes, it's predictable to them but it's also predictable to us (Geelong in the 2000's hitting the hot spot 300 times a game yet couldn't be stopped!) and makes perfect sense with Melbourne's past marking power inside forward 50 (Zanker, Harris, Hore).

Things to cover on offense include line to goal, best position (draw defender/cut to teammate), take grass, leading patterns, knowing what to do if you see a spare for either team, kick to advantage.

Things to cover on defense include line to goal, best position, 1st to move/transition focus, patterns (corrections), footwork, spacing.

On gameday you'd have 2 - 3 points of focus for contest, offense and defense depending on that game's KPI's:

Contest x narrow focus, 1st give, support/come back to the ball

Offense x attack line to goal, deep entries, roles in blitz/forward half play

Defense x defend line to goal, 1st to move/happy feet, roles in counterpressing.

I can add to this as the slides come through later but I'd most local footy clubs focus far too little or far too much on this part and simply need to find the balance of information v under/overload to keep retention as high as it can be.

 

WOMEN'S SPORT'S PANEL - SHAE SLOANE, DIASY PEARCE, MON CONTI

Shae has been there and done that in women's sport having played high level volleyball and AFLW and now high up in AFLW administration.

Mon Conti has also excelled at football and basketball, often with both season's overlapping and playing both sports at the top level at that the same time so how she navigated that was interesting to hear - especially lying to her basketball coaches that she was also playing footy!

Daisy is 1 of 1 and she could literally talk AT me all day but she's as human as the rest of us, going into detail of how she was unsure of her relationship with a player last year and the worry it caused her and then how she dealt with it.

Her perspective on all things football, and especially women's, is like no other person in football at the moment that has the platform like she does and there should be more of it.

 

LIVE LIFE WHOLE - MEG DICKINSON

Live Life Whole is an online platform by women for women involved in sport that has gathered specialist form many areas of women's health and have popped them all in 1 space.

I've written about some of these issues before and with a lot of men coaching women's teams, this at least gets them thinking about more than just football when relating to their players.   

This online platform needs to me made available to female players of all ages so coaches get to work doing so!

 

PREP TO PLAY - BROOKE PATTERSON

We've all had some experience with the Prep to Play protocol since it came to local footy clubs in the last 7 - 8 years and it's a constant work in progress to streamline the program to improve user-ability and to target what you need to in an ultra-specific way.

What's gone a bit sideways with PTP is that teams have used the same protocol for years on end when in fact there's level to PTP and you're meant to work through them and build your resiliency and robustness to the game of football.

Not that I want to start racing as soon as we start but one of my gripes with PTP is that is can be slow and engaged with not a lot of engagement from the players which can also mean it's not going to have its desired effect but seeing Brooke show how we can get it down in 10mins in a ramping intensity format has me back on board and I'll be adding the components I was missing straight back in for training tonight.

 

SKILL ACQUISITION - SHAE SLOANE

This was a practical session straight up at 9am Sunday morning and was highlighting the use of constraints in skill development 9sound familiar?).

She, and other AFL Vic Game Developers, all mentioned things I've written about over the years like repetition without repetition, differential learning, variable practice, challenge point, game representation and incorporating a constraint-led approach to training and had us try it out ourselves as well as showing some ways they do it at Melbourne.

It was great to see this stuff finally making its way from the AFL down to community level but that was only about 40 coaches out of the 1000's in Victoria alone but you got to start somewhere.

I saw ads for Game Developers a while back and now that I know what it actually is, I have asked for more information on becoming one. 

In small groups we had to move through various stations and develop a training activity with the equipment at each station where we had 1 station of nothing but 3 tennis balls but when you know the principles behind CLA, then you can do this far easily then if you don't.

During your warm-up you want to incorporate some form of quick reaction/decision making straight away and get away from partner handball with slow/low intent handballs and 10min chats about the weekend.

For quick reaction it might be as simple as 3 kicks each in a race with the other partners to ramp up intent.

For low complex decision making it can be as simple as this by incorporate repetition without repetition by having the defender give the ball to the kicker in as many different ways as possible (roll, up in the air etc) and/or the kicker having to do something with the ball before they kick like pass it around their backs, under 1 leg etc:

RUCKS AND TALLS (STOPPAGE SET UPS/SYSTEMS + ROTATIONS/TIMINGS) - DARREN FLANIGAN

This was fun as Darren is old school Geelong ruck from the 90's and 90's and is as throwback to those days.

I only did half of this but 1 thing I took away was how to use your body at contest whether you're a big or small and that's to give them a shove 1st to knock them off balance but nothing silly, step across and in front of them with the leg closest to them, then use your closest elbow to hold them out as they try and come back to you and the ball:

 

KICKING MASTERCLASS - JOSHUA BOURKE (BD SPORTS)

Jodh was an innovator in the women's space, setting up kicking masterclass for female footballers as far back as 2014.

A high energy speaker, he was very engaging and had plenty of little gems on teaching kicking such as young girls initially trying to kick from their quad only (that can lead to overuse injuries as well as poor kicking distance/accuracy) and talked a bit about using basic leg swings to groove the action you want them to use as well as using a traffic light analogy: 

I would like to see a lot of what he said combined with more external focus though v internal focus.

 

DEVELOPING GAME PLAN + OFFENSIVE STRATEGY - JACKSON KORNBERG (FRANKSTON DOLHINS VFL)

This was a very well-done presentation with just enough information to cover a lot of area's without getting bogged down into too many specifics.

Once again it was the simplicity that stood out but to be clear - it's probably highly technical when a coach lays it out for themselves but by the time it gets to the what the players get to see, it has been streamlined to an inch of its life with only the necessities remaining for ease of consumption and retention.

I liked he connected stats they use as KPI's to their game style, suggesting that your brand is crucial to sustainability and if your stats are maintaining or increasing, then you're on the right track.

He also posted a pre-xmas slide from a season or 3 back that shows how they introduce concepts from session 1 onwards.

Week 1 - Fundamentals

Session 1 x Hands in Tight + Session 2 x Kicking Club + Session 3 x Kicking Club

Week 2 - Flow

Session 1 Face Up/Fight Forward + Session 2 x Outnumber Game + Session 3 x Fight for the Outside

Week 3 Smash

Session 1 x Charge/Go Forward + Session 2 x Recover Back + Session 3 x Close Out/Deny

Week 4 Smoke and Flow

Session 1 x Outnumber Game + Session 2 x Recover Back/Own 1.5 + Session 3 x Intro to Transition

Week 5 Transition

Session 1 x Fight Forward/Transition + Session 2 x Fight Forward/Transition + Session 3 x Fight Forward/Transition

2 training activities he has on his slides were:

DIAMOND KICK

Go for 1min sets, not 3 - 5mins as I say in the video with the focus points being footwork for the outside players, use 1st option and don't force something inside that's not on

SEARCH AND DESTROY

Focus points being to face up and fight forward for the offense and to press forward and spare the deepest opposition for the defense.

PRACTICE GAME ANALYSIS - SYD/GWS + BRIS/GC

 

Some quick clips from the 2 games from yesterday where we look at:

• Sydney Forward Press Defense
• Sydney Fat Side Wing Play
• Gold Coast Length from Center Bounce
• Brisbane's Ridiculous Ability to Locate/Utilise Tiny Pockets of Space
• Brisbane Length from Kick Out

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2025 TEAM GRAPHICS

Last year I discovered a Twitter account called One Percenters which is actually a guy named Mateo Szlapek-Sewillo - a footy analyst who provides THE BEST season previews in all of AFL-media print, screen and audio.

I've linked to him before and with his permission I have started to put together some AI-generated graphics on each tea based of his preview of each team.

Today we'll cover Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton and Collingwood.

ADELIADE CROWS

                               

BRISBANE LIONS

                               

CARLTON BLUES

COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES

PRACTICE GAME ANALYSIS - WB/SYD + COLL/GWS

 

Week 1 of the practice games, or should I say match simulation, is over with and things get a little more real with official practice games this week before the real serious stuff.

I watched WB/Syd live and got sunburnt to a crisp but we (Swans) looked good and the Dogs were more than serviceable without a crop of their stars on the park.

The same holds for the Pies who were without most of their starting 22 but GWS had the week from hell in the lead up to the weekend and were also missing a few of their starters.

Some of the camera angles don't allow for a lot of the ball vision to be seen so I've got a lot of center bounce clearance clips.

Today we look at:

• Bulldogs Team Defense
• Sydney at Center Bounce Clearance
• Collingwood at Center Bounce Clearance x 5

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A.I IN AFL PART 3/3

Last week Sam Mitchell caused quite a stir when he admitted to using AI in his coaching process and although what was reported contained very limited detail of what he actually uses and what he uses it for, the uproar was ridiculous.

There is no doubt that AI will become a part of Aussie Rules in the near future as team's are always looking for ways to optimise and streamline their approaches and there's not an easier way to do that then through AI means.

On Twitter I came across this comment on the subject which of course sent me down the rabbit hole of this 341 page study titled "Artificial Intelligence-Based Decision-Making Support During Australian Football Matches" and here is part 3 of 3 of my numerous notes from it.

• AI prediction of match outcomes study
• Can machine learning models based on technical performance and not score margin, predict match outcome in real time?
• All models performed well (73.5 – 75.8% prediction rate) v benchmark score-based model (77.4%) with accuracy being at its lowest at the start of the match (45.7 – 48.8%) and increasing to peak near the end of a match (87.2 – 92.7%)
• A DSS is a computer system designed to support the decision making of the user
• A handful of technical PI’s are able to predict match outcome from 78.9 – 95.1% but the models weren’t designed for in-game us, only pre/post-game
• Wanted to test other metrics but scoring-based one’s and opted for meters gained, meters gained per kick, time in possession, inside 50’s, turnover’s, time in forward half, contested possession, effective disposal, groundball gets, marks on lead and rebound 50's
• Defensive stats x 1v1 losses, rebound 50 differential, tackles, 1v1 wins, spoil differential
• Transition stats x intercept from mark, defensive 50 rebound to boundary %, defensive 50 ball movement to wing %, defensive 50 ball movement to corridor %, turnover’s
• Offensive stats x inside 50’s, repeat inside 50’s, uncontested marks, initial inside 50’s, leads targeted, scoring accuracy
• Data should guide you with what to do, not just tell you what to do
• Suggestions were made for it to dig deeper so they added an insights option which provided breakdowns of the subcategories of PI’s contributing to the broadly defined PI’s which formed the suggestion and the coaches liked it
• What might be best is a combined approach where coaches provide a list of specific changes they might make during the game or have made before, coupled with their pre-conceived expectations of the way these would impact the values of their PI’s and instead of suggesting numerical PI targets, the AI could then suggest a small selection of these specific changes which would satisfy the teams needs according to the coach’s preconceived expectations and then the coach picks the most appropriate change in the moment
• Long term, data can be collected on the actual impact of these changes and this database could be used to provide more objective actionable suggestions
• Decision-making stages AI could support include opportunity trigger, understand the opposition, determine the need for action, explore options, evaluate the decision
• Impact AI could have on decision-making constraints x manage information volume, reduce emotion, reduce time pressure, prompt early coach reaction, direct focus
• An AI-based DSS should update regularly, be easy to navigate, use color, be customisable, be transparent in its confidence, provide the ability to manually dig deeper
• Coaches respond to an opportunity trigger, they endeavour to understand the opportunity and then determine the need for action
• If action is required, coaches explore options, take action, and then evaluate the decision
• AI can handle far more information in time-constrained environments than humans and can pick up on patterns not recognised by the coach
• Coaches should consider opportunities within current in-game decision-making/coaching practice’s where they would be willing to be supported by AI and communicate this with those responsible for building the DSS, use the discovery of context specific decision-making processes as an opportunity to reflect on your own practice by asking yourself: h
• How am I becoming aware of an opportunity?
• Am I truly considering the underlying cause of the opportunity before deciding?
• Is taking action always necessary and how do I assess whether action is necessary?
• Where am I sourcing my options from and am I leaning on the experience of others around me to support the exploration of options?
• How/when do I take action and is my message getting across to the right people in an effective manner
• How do I evaluate whether a decision was the right one?
• The discovery of context specific decision-making constraints during matches serves as an opportunity to minimise some of these constraints through means other than AI so ask yourself:
• Are there any ways that I can improve the way I communicate my thoughts to players/assistant coaches?
• What impact does emotion have on my ability to make good decisions and how can I be more objective
• What are the most important pieces that I want to be fed during games and have I communicated this effectively to my coaching team/support staff?
• Work closely with analysts to find common ground on the types of DSS based solutions you think could be useful and provide feedback on any barriers you face when using the DSS
• Give a DSS time to evolve, communicating with the developer about what would help build trust in the system
• For analysts you are the conduit between the DSS and the coach and its effectiveness will depend on your communication of suggestions from the DSS to the coach, work closely with the person designing the DSS and provide suggestions for improvements + understand the underlying processes/technique involved so you can adequately explain suggestions
• For researchers/practitioners/analysts aiming to design/develop/implement a DSS to gain an in-depth understanding of how coaches make decisions in their environment, you need to:
• Build a DSS that fits their current processes
• Consider ways to incorporate additional data types to improve on the current method
• Work closely with coaches/analysts and consider the implementation of a DSS as a continuous process
• Ensure the suggestions the DSS provides are sufficiently actionable for the coach
• Be willing to compromise on perfect science to provide a DSS coaches will find most useful
• Any new system will be competing for attention so incorporate desirable functions of older/pre-existing systems into the new DSS

BRISBANE v CARLTON PRACTICE GAME ANALYSIS

Interesting game for a practice hit out last night.

For me I wanted to look at Brisbane's ball movement which I covered in detail here in which I will be constantly referring to in any Lions videos this year.

My best mate is a Blues supporter so I'm somewhat interested in them as I have to watch them live a couple of times a year when he comes up but also a local boy from down my way and an ex-teammate's son Taylor Byrne was playing so I was very keen to see what he would do and he didn't disappoint - kicking 3/.1 all in the last quarter to get the Blues over the line. 

This will be broken up into a Brisbane part and then a Carlton part.

BRISBANE

After going through numerous Brisbane games late last year, and same as watching/analysing Sydney and Collingwood games previously, it's impossible not to watch them play and pick up on the trends I've identified in their respective products (Sydney, Collingwood).

In Brisbane's case it's short kick possession football, patience with the ball, hit up leads and getting length towards goal of which all of these are touched on in the video + the companion video I alluded to.

CARLTON

As mentioned in the video the Blues are a big work in progress as they turn their list and game style upside down and this video shows a clip of the "good/new" Carlton but then the "old/crap" Carlton rears its ugly head as well which will be their vibe this season I think but at least there's a conscious effort to change unlike previous years of going to the contest well over and over again.

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A.I IN AFL PART 2/3

 

Last week Sam Mitchell caused quite a stir when he admitted to using AI in his coaching process and although what was reported contained very limited detail of what he actually uses and what he uses it for, the uproar was ridiculous.

There is no doubt that AI will become a part of Aussie Rules in the near future as team's are always looking for ways to optimise and streamline their approaches and there's not an easier way to do that then through AI means.

On Twitter I came across this comment on the subject which of course sent me down the rabbit hole of this 341 page study titled "Artificial Intelligence-Based Decision-Making Support During Australian Football Matches" and here is part 2 of 3 of my numerous notes from it.

• Information that needs to be collected from coaches before building a suitable DSS are what's your background/experience? How long were in each position? How did they lead to your current role? What different types of decisions do you make during games? Why do you see them as important/necessary? What factors impact those decisions? What information do you rely on to make game decisions? How does that information help you do that? Do you use either internal or external sources of information? Describe a specific decision you made in a game and the process behind it? How did you identify the problem? What did you do next? How did you evaluate the decision
• Opportunity Trigger refers to data, coach observation, intuition and momentum
• Momentum can be identified through objective (you can see it) and subjective means (a change in pivotal stats, quick shifts in scoring, field position etc)
• Understand the Opposition refers to looking for context, experience, using data as evidence and involves searching for more detail/why is it happening to make an informed decision
• Coaches will use data to reassure what they’re seeing is correct
• Determine the Need for Action refers to the fact coaches can’t control some things and sometime doing nothing is the best method as players play well or play bad in any given game which is again out of the coaches control
• After an uncontrollable factor causes a problem, it’s better to consider the players intention in the moment and keep going
• A key aspect of a head coach’s decision making is to find the balance between when to and when not to change things up and where that balance lies may depend on the coaches philosophy/belief in the capacity of the players to solve a problem on their own even though a lot of coaches favour immediate performance benefits over valued learning outcomes for players during games
• In the end, the determination for or against change either halt the decision-making process (no change) and reassess layer or change (proceed to the next stage)
• Explore Options refers to sourcing options, action types, weighing up the value of action
• Coaches want to hear the ideas of others in this phase of decision making
• Coaches will rarely do things they haven’t at least talked about during preparation
• When you solve 1 problem then another opens up – there’s a cost to every decision
• When selecting an option that is good enough there is a tendency to go beyond picking the next best option and through explicit consideration/calculation or risk/reward, the exploration of options represents a coach’s best attempt at reasoning within their constraints
• Take action refers to the head coach having final say + frequency/timing of decisions
• The coach's role is to facilitate the decision-making process collaboratively and they then must filter all the information and then assume sole responsibility to make the call
• Avoid sending messages out in the last 5mins of a quarter so you can properly deliver it at the break
• Evaluate the decision refers to the fact that not every decision is right + consequences of getting decisions wrong + time to evaluate
• You'll rarely win from making the right decision/s but you can definitely lose if you make the incorrect ones
• You have to allow time for 1 change to work before making another
• Coaches can make rapid, pre-emptive decisions to allow a more considered decision to come later which is 2 subsequent decision-making processes (1 rapid/1 extended) where the evaluation from rapid leads into extended
• Barriers to A.I decision-making study
• To minimise decision-making constraints, you could develop/implement a DSS system
• Information that needs to be collected beforehand includes what barriers to effective decision-making do coaches face during games? What are the thoughts/perceptions of coaches towards A.I based DSS’s during games? What are the visual functional design elements which would enable coaches to utilise/interpret information provided by a DSS?
• A hypothetical might be a scenario where we're down at half time, we don’t know what’s going wrong or what can fix to improve our chances of winning
• At half time we use the DSS by adding in instance 1, import live data, observe interface and then read the suggestions
• You'll also be able to navigate the simulator tab and play with a stats toggle to simulate what different changes in your stats will do to your predicted chance of winning
• Barriers to decision-making include cognitive deficits via coaches emotion, delayed reactions/misdirected focus
• Environmental deficits via time pressure, difficulty in communication, the physical environment (up in the coaches box v on the bench) and information volume
• Cognitive barriers to decision-making constrain the decision-making process internally via coaches experience and cognitive limitations
• When emotion develops into a barrier then you need to catch your breath and stop and look the wall/have a drink to shift your mind away from what you’re actually seeing
• Coaches expressed they sometimes identified potential options but refrained from implementing them due to their concern that their communication of the message would be ineffective
• Without a collaborative, calm environment, the ability to make decisions in a rationale/collaboratively way is hindered and there’s less psychological safety around incorrect decisions
• Coach Thoughts/Perceptions on DSS included an un/willingness to adopt (replacement/hesitancy), expectations (ease of use/what coaches want), concern/criticism (oversimplicity/overreliance), the actual DSS role (when and how/who and why)