You get a completely different view from sitting behind the goals and it was with that in mind that we put together our members’ insiders' night.
The average supporter’s main understanding of the game is typically restricted because of the view they get on the TV screen. We thought it would be a great idea for our supporters to gain a bit more insight into what’s happening in the modern game.
On the night, each of the assistant coaches got up and spoke for 15 minutes about their respective area of expertise, whether it was the forward line, back line, midfield, fitness or player development.
We showed our members snippets of game footage and showed them exactly what players were faced with when they had the ball in different areas of the ground.
The whole night was based on the premise that we wanted to make it easier for people to try and understand why players might do things like hold on to the ball, rather than playing on all the time, or why they don’t kick long inside 50.
We opened ourselves up to any questions from the floor, armed with knowledge of some of the criticisms the general public have of our team and other teams in the league.
Our supporters want nothing more than for us to win and I think we left them with the realisation that that is all we’re here to do.
We, like all teams, would like to play fast, direct footy through the corridor and kick 30 goals per game. But the smarts in the opposition coach’s box and out on the ground makes it increasingly difficult.
Following the success of the members’ night, we decided to put the same presentation on for around 15-20 members of the local media.
With the aid of inside knowledge from former coaches at the Western Bulldogs, Geelong and Hawthorn we were also able to explain how zones work and describe different ways teams try to hold you up, restrict your scoring and, at the same time, how you might score yourself.
I think a presentation such as this could work for every club in the AFL. It was almost like a reduced coaching course. The club was really apprehensive about having a presentation like this and worried about how confronting and negative the outcome might be.
But to the credit of all involved, we had a shared goal in mind, which was to help our supporters learn and for us to be more aware of their concerns.
The AFL is always looking for ways to improve our product and get more people along to watch.
I think helping people to better understand the game is one way of doing this. Another would be to take a leaf out of rugby union’s book.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to go to Sydney to see the rugby union world cup final and I was impressed by one of their innovations. After every referee’s decision, a written description of the penalty was displayed across the bottom of the replay screen.
I thought it was brilliant and I can’t see why we couldn’t use something similar in the AFL.
We could even replay some decisions during the breaks and, using players from each club, illustrate why a free kick was or was not paid.
It would add to our game and might also help alleviate some of the frustrations we all have. You could even use the same screen to air a two-minute video showing some of the different strategies in a game and giving a bit of theory behind it.
Of course, some supporters won’t agree with all these new ideas, but at least they can start to understand what a player or a team’s intentions are and not feel out of step with what is going on out on the footy ovals of today.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
