Q. Have the events of Grand Final day last year - spurred him on to continue coaching?
A. Absolutely because I know some of the players were unfortunate. I generally know what is wrong with the players and whether we have got the best chance or not. Quite often, some people say, if the players weren't totally 100% fit, don't play them. Well I have to make a judgement - are the next three or four players good enough than perhaps 70-80% of the better players that we selected. I think in the end that is what coaching is about. Immediately the next week later trying to get Damien Hardwick a terrific contract because we had to try and get two new kids and lessen our salary cap at that time last year - it is a very, very difficult period and you need a good, honest coach to sit down and talk to the great and top players of your club, I feel really happy that Damien Hardwick is playing well and at the half-way point of the season is in contention for All Australian selection. And we are very, very happy with Joel Reynolds and Andrew Welsh, because I think they are going to be two exciting players in the next few years that I am going to end up coaching. I will have three years with those kids and by the time Damien finishes, maybe I have got two other Damien Hardwick's at Essendon. I think this club here is always about planning.
Q. What are some of the other areas you are looking forward to work on in the next two years?
A. I think Sydney is one of the most exciting positions of the game that we haven't developed. I think the Swans need help and the NSWAFL also need a lot of help and our club are very, very keen to make sure we help in that area. I think that is one classic area for example and also Brisbane. There are nine million people that are involved in other sports - rugby league, rugby union and soccer - so I think we have to bridge build in those areas. There are a lot of business areas I think we can do a lot of work in with regard to advancing Essendon to be one of the great clubs of Australian sport for a long period of time. It is going to take a lot of work.
Listening to Chris Connelly last night he probably explained it better than anyone for a person in his first year who has just come out of being in a position as an assistant coach. In his role, he now all of a sudden he has to market Fremantle and make it nationally a great football club from Western Australia - which is going to be a very tough task but they do have a very exciting team. I think the position of head coach now has finally been developed in the last five years. I think at one period of my career it might have nearly cost me my job. To be quite honest, in America this has been going on for half a century. Some of the best and greatest university coaches have been developing the head coaches to work with them and assist them into exploring the marketing places and their alumni - which is basically their coaching people and business people. I think we can still do that at Essendon.
I think the position of a football coach perhaps a few years back and the work we have done at the club probably confused a lot of people because we were in a difficult set of circumstances I felt - we had a side that picked up a 1993 premiership and everyone thought they should have gone on with it - probably the 1993 premiership side wasn't a great side. There was five or six very good young kids and we were lucky to hold onto some of the older players. In the end, our recruiting in the last four or five years has been such that we have kept up there for a little bit longer - we have won 80% of our games in the last three to four years, with the assistance of our staff and the coaching staff that we have here. I can honestly say if we didn't have that we probably wouldn't be in the position we are in with the winning ratio at our footy club. I think that is one thing, when the AFL criticise how many coaches some clubs have, they have to be aware of that. We are developing some of the best young talent in sport in Australia. To me that coaching staff I have at Essendon is just so important to this club, along with myself.
When the end does come for you as a coach, would you like your replacement to be someone you have coached?
A. I don't think that is my decision in all honesty. I don't have the right to tell this club or suggest to any club who should be the next coach because it might be a whole different road they want to take. When you look at some of the men that have come through we have been very lucky. Denis Pagan was fantastic for us, Mark Williams for a couple of years was terrific for us and of course - Mark Thompson, Neale Daniher etc. We are pretty happy with what we have been able to achieve in the relatively short space of time. The talented coaches that are coming through and also the talented people and that is only on the footy field - I have no doubt Peter and Graeme would have felt we have a lot of talented people coming through out into other areas of football.Mark Harvey will end up a coach in his own right when he gets the opportunity to coach, whether it is at Essendon or not, that will happen.
