As the AFL’s future 17th team begins life in the TAC Cup competition, staffing is as much about finding jacks of all trades as looking to the future.
Take assistant coach Shaun Hart. A triple premiership player with the Brisbane Lions, Hart is an expert at stoppages, but at the Gold Coast he’s also doubling as caterer, cleaner and taxi driver.
“He’s just jumped in his car and gone to pick up three boys that are at school,” senior coach Guy McKenna told afl.com.au.
“When the lunch is done, he’s in there cleaning up the pots and the pans and half the plates and saucers as well.”
IT manager Russell Butler, who McKenna worked with at Collingwood, is a former Olympic diver who also takes the players for core strength work and stretching. Butler’s role was initially supposed to be created only at year's end, but was filled early based on what he could offer in both areas.
“An IT person is invaluable because you might have the best coaches running around, but if they can’t put it on screens and analyse it ... well, you’re going to have some issues,” McKenna said.
“[And] the core strength that a lot of the AFL clubs are doing now, and they have been for the last two or three years, was invaluable to throw at these kids at such a young age.”
Along with high performance manager Andrew Weller, McKenna himself used to stop by on the way to training to pick up lunch for the squad.
“[Weller] was taking them for stretching and another one of our assistants was taking them for their core work,” McKenna said. “We’d then belt up and start cutting up the salads and ham for sandwiches or cooking a hot dish of pasta or spaghetti. It was certainly all hands on deck.
“It’s all about developing the kids and on the way you might develop yourself. I’ve been pretty thankful for the staff we have chosen.”
In addition to conditioning, Weller – formerly in charge of rehabilitation at St Kilda – oversees diets and weights programs. McKenna estimates an AFL club would employ four people to cover his role.
The next round of recruits will come to the Gold Coast at the end of the year, ahead of the club’s planned entry to the Victorian Football League in 2010 and its scheduled AFL debut in 2011.
With another influx of teenagers expected to join the club as draft picks in November, McKenna said the new players’ level of development would determine the particular roles required.
“At the end of the year I might say we need at least another two people in conditioning rather than another coach,” McKenna said.
“There is a plan for extra staff but whether they’re all in conditioning, whether they’re all coaching, whether they’re in welfare and player development [is uncertain].
“We’ll let some water pass under the bridge and then say, ‘Right, where are we soft, where do we need some help, where do we need a hand?’"
