Introducing Matt Glossop - Murray Bushrangers (TAC CUP U/18's) S&C Coach

Way back in April 2010, a mere 4 months after starting this teeny blog (as it was back then) I received an email from a bloke who signed up to my mailing list. His name was Matt Glossop and he had just started as the strength and conditioning coach for the Muarray Bushrangers, one of the most successful teams ever in the TAC Cup, the best league for under 18 Aussie Rules talent there is.

He just wanted to run some things by me to get my thoughts and since then we have exchanged 100's of emails and become pretty good mates. I even did my level 1 strength and conditioning hours under him and hope to help out during a game of there's in the next month or so when they visit Melbourne.

In the last couple of weeks we've had interviews from AFL and VFL strength and conditioning coaches Mladen Jovanovich and Rob Nicholson which is great for top end talent which is essentially 1000 players in the world tops. I think that this interview is more in the reaches of a local/amateur footballer even though it is geared to under age players but top under 18 talent can dominate local footy so it probably more closely represents the top end talent we play with and against better then AFL or VFL.

Matt, tell us quickly the process for TAC player selection from start to finish?

Every region will be slightly different. We have a number of processes in place to identify talent for our TAC Cup squad. Some players have already been in the pathway through Under 16 level or Under 15 Schoolboys, others are scouted from local competitions/interleague/school footy and we also ask all of our local clubs to nominate players they think deserve an opportunity. This will result in upwards of 300 players on our database per year. We narrow this down through our scouting network and run a trial game/combine testing day to lock in around 100 players to come into pre-season, of which around 40 will make our main list, so it's pretty competitive.

NOTE - I've been to a few of these early session and there are players everywhere! It's impressive how they get them all through the 5 or 6 stations in 90 - 120mins.

Is there anything specific AFL scouts are looking for?

Again, every club is different. The main things we look at is competitiveness, skill level and running ability. They seem to be the constants and non-negotiables. You need be clean at all times, you must be able to kick at an elite level and under pressure. Speed is great, but can you maintain and repeat it over 120 minutes with incomplete rest and make good decisions under fatigue? Competitiveness is the big one, are they really willing and able to compete at all times.

As the S&C Coach, what levels are you trying to get TAC players up to? Is there a standard the AFL or head coach sets or do you use your own discretion?

The main thing we are trying to do is keep them on the park so they can showcase their abilities, so a lot of work goes into injury prevention, management and recovery, just to give them that opportunity. In terms of fitness levels, we certainly have benchmarks for players by position and can draw conclusions into what the AFL clubs want from their draft history. For instance last year, the drafted smalls (sub 180cm) at Draft Combine had an average 20m sprint time of 2.95s, the smalls who went undrafted had an average of 3.02s, so our smaller players better be working on their acceleration or they are going to get overlooked. Common sense tells us that the interchange cap is going to skew things towards the aerobic athletes this year, so we will react to that and spend more time building our players engines. 

You're 15 and one of the better players in your underage league, what are the requirements to get a trial training invite to a TAC football team?

We would hope that you would be identified either by your local coach who will nominate you and get you on the radar, or through our scouting network watching your games. This is where the 'Talent Pathway' starts in Victoria, so an invitation into an Under 16 squad should be your goal. Interleague and finals footy are always going to carry weight, so do your best to perform on those big stages.

You're 16 and you've been chosen to trial for TAC, but unfortunately don't make the final cut. What are the requirements to a: get an invite next year and b: make the cut next year?

Every year we have players who miss out during their 'bottom-age' year of TAC, but go away and work on their deficiencies and end up making it the next year. Listen to the coaches, they should be giving you direct and specific feedback that you can work on. As I spoke about above, it will usually come down to one of three things; your skill level isn't high enough, you don't run well enough or you don't compete. They are all able to be developed, if you are willing to put in the time and effort.

You're 17 and you've been chosen for the final squad that play throughout the year. What do players need to do to optimise their training, and thus their on-field performance throughout the year?

I always speak to players about what you do when no-one is watching. Anyone can turn up at 5:30 and be told where to kick, how far to run, when to tackle, that's the easy part. I put a huge emphasis on the training our players do over the Christmas break when they're not with us, we give the boys a program and, ultimately, they decide whether they do the sessions or not, how hard they run, how much they push in the gym, that's when you find out who has what it takes to make it at our level and above. It needs to be a holistic approach; you can't run yourself into the ground every day and then playing video games all night and missing your sleep, you can't tear it up in the gym then not eat the right foods. You need to tick every box along the way. 

What has changes have you seen in training TAC players in the time you've been doing it?

Players are coming in better prepared in certain areas- they can run further, faster, harder. But completely unprepared in others- their movement patterns, motor control, running technique, gym technique is still behind what is required at that age. Over the past couple of years, we are starting to get some athletes who know how to squat and hinge at a reasonable level, but there are still plenty who come in having only ever done bench press and bicep curls. There is lots of easily accessible information out there, some good, some not so good (your blog is excellent), so players are better informed and starting to come in with ideas on how to improve certain aspects of their game.

I know you use RPE rating to gauge player wellness - can you go into a bit more detail here?

For RPE we get sessional ratings from our players in a couple of different ways.

1. Wellbeing Reports: which last year were filled out manually but we will switch to Smartabase this year so they will fill it out via the app on their phone.
2. Post-Session: we wait 30mins post session because otherwise players tend to rate it on what they just finished on such as a light session with 10 hard minutes at the end so if you ask them immediately they will overstate it.

NOTE - I am pretty close to getting my own wellness system sorted out especially for local/amateur clubs/players and I'll hopefully have it ready to go prior to round 1!

Matt is a highly sought after strength and conditioning coach from Wangaratta where he also trains athletes from various sports and can be contacted at mattglossop@live.com.au.