A funny thing has happened to the A-League. Club owners and decision-makers have finally realised that locally-born and/or produced coaches have just as much chance of winning you a title as an expensive foreign import.
Currently, of the 10 A-League clubs, eight employ local coaches. The only two that don’t are Perth Glory and Brisbane Roar.
However, given that the two incumbents, Glory’s Ian Ferguson and Roar’s Mike Mulvey, have only ever held coaching appointments in Australia, the argument could be made that they two have earned their clipboard and magnetised pitch diagrams through developing in this country.
There are possibly two men who have sparked this revolution – Ange Postecoglou and Graham Arnold.
That both have done so through the baptism of fire of managing national teams (and in some quarters being highly criticised for their performances) is a testament to their dedication and willingness to evolve as coaches.
This is not to say that foreign coaches bring nothing to the A-League and it would be foolish to close up the shop and presume the Australian game can learn nothing from coaches beyond these shores.
Johnny Warren was a fierce advocate of importing South American techniques to the local game back in the late 1980s when the National Soccer League was about to move to a summer competition, with temperatures and match conditions unsuited to a fast-paced British style.
There was a fair representation of Baltic nations in the early ’90s with coaches such as Zoran Matic and Frank Arok enjoying great success – the latter as a Socceroos coach who developed the concept of “Team Australia” as players began heading overseas to pursue full-time professional careers.
In more recent times, the FFA have turned to The Netherlands for coaching experience. The Dutch influence has not met with universal approval withing the coaching ranks, but a clear and consistent technical coaching pathway has now been developed and is producing more locally qualified and licensed coaches than ever before.
Interestingly, only two foreign coaches have guided a team to the A-League title. And both Pierre Littbarski and Vitezslav Lavicka did it with Sydney FC.
Perhaps that’s why the Sky Blues seem hell-bent on bringing in an overseas boss. And before all the Melbourne Victory fans start yelling Ernie Merrick’s name, I realise he was born in Scotland but his first coaching appointment was in 1979 at Doveton.
If 33 years of local coaching doesn’t give Ernie an Australian coaching passport, I don’t know what does…
Tony Popovic is the latest local boy to make good and his development of the Western Sydney Wanderers has been a work of art.
Not many A-League observers would have predicted that Popovic would have the Wanderers challenging for the title in their first season.
Along with the aforementioned Arnold and Ange, John Kosmina, Frank Farina, Gary Van Egmond, John Aloisi and Wellington’s Ricky Herbert are enhancing the A-League’s local flavour.
In many ways, the A-League provides a unique coaching challenge and perhaps this is a reason for the emergence of local talent.
The league is played in the hottest part of the year which dictates playing style, fitness preparation and recovery probably a lot different to cold climate leagues. There is a lot of travel involved – consider that Australia and New Zealand distance-wise covers almost as much area as Western Europe.
There are restrictions on playing personnel imposed by a salary cap, marquee spots and visa places, which means players have to be developed rather than signed. And the season itself is relatively short so there is less margin for error.
The A-League may be waking up to the fact that a little local knowledge can go a long way.
j binnie
Guest
Mid - It may or may not have slipped your notice but 2 of the 3 coaches you mention have already spent time overseas,and hopefully were awakened to the fact that there was much more to football team management and coaching than what they thought when they arrived at their destinations. You see coaching is a laid down educational passage that takes in a set line of education,how to teach,how to physically prepare, how to arrange training to avoid repetition and boredom, and learning the various minor items that all help to get a settled team. Management is a much greater educational path for the courses available in education are almost endless and is purely dependent on how far and how fast the young manager wants to progress.He has to have working knowledge of the above mentioned skills but to them you could add full comprehension of business management and all it entails,budgeting,income,expenditure,planning.leading and controlling the many facets under his direct influence,the list goes on and on. For example,the great coach Herrerra was known to be a very knowledgable amateur student of psychology and incorporated that knowledge in bringing the tactic of catenaccio to it's peak in 1965. jb
j binnie
Guest
Apaway- I don't get what you are answering for I don't recollect asking anyone a question obout coaching development. I have studied that subject at some depth & your time frame of 30 years is away off beam for it is widely recognised that it was an Arsenal manager,Herbert Chapman, who first started tweaking the world wide accepted 1-2-3-5 formation that was played in all countries playing the gameup to 1920. He is the man who is reported to have moved his centre-half back between his fullbacks and then issued his famous directive,"You have a point when you go on the field don't come off without it". There is no doubt this change was not widely accepted in the UK but a team of British coaches were already working on the continent and the 2 men recognised as making a huge contribution to change were an Englishman Hogan and an Austrian Meisl.This was in the early 30's.The change continued unabated and you may or may not know that deep in that football "desert" Russia,great leaps forward were being made by coaches like Maslov & Arkadiev and teams like Moscow Dynamos and Torpedo. Dynamo toured Britain in 1945 and didn't lose a game.!!!!! In Switzerland another Austrian Rappan ,recognising he had "sub-standard" international players ,started to develop ways to counter this "weakness' his work being noted by Italian coaches and taken to Italy where cattennacio was developd from Rappan's original idea. Meanwhile in South America tactical development was also going on and around 1950-1960 2 new systems started to emerge,4-2-4 and the deep lying centre as played by Hungary and Real Madrid with the famous de Stefano and Hidegkuti of whom everyone knows but few would realise that Austria played with a deep centre,Sindelaar as early as 1934.I think you will start to get my point. We have had literally thousandsof coaches in the game over the last 90 years but the real deep thinkers & change instigators about the game would barely fill a page in a normal notepad, So we have a lot of copying going on in the game but I prefer to think of coaching as I would a teacher,they should be used to break the game down to learnable sections & then teach this knowledge to their charges at whatever level.When you get into motion study,time usage,organisation,tactical deployment, the fitting of players to systems I prefer to look upon these men as managers and the requirements to be a successful manager are far greater than being a successful coach.,How many really good MANAGERS do we have in the HAL?????. jb
apaway
Roar Guru
J Binnie I'll have a go at answering it but there are so many pros and cons that I feel there is no "right" or "wrong" answer. In 2005, when Frank Farina was removed from the Socceroos job after the Confederations Cup, no-one was predicting that virtually the same squad would qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Guus Hiddink was the right choice for the right time and brought in the right methods to get the best out of the players. On a club basis, why is it that when a club sacks its coach, the new incumbent is usually able to manage an upswing in the club's fortunes with the same group of players? Alternatively, when a coach "loses" the dressing room, it is not the "dressing room" that is replaced! Coaching has evolved in the last 30 years as the global community has shrunk and playing styles have been studied, shared, adapted and reinvented. Coaching is as much micro-management as anything else these days and coaching techniques and resources now include video review, data analysis and a whole lot of off-pitch factors that go into making a player the best he or she can be individually, as well as an intergral part of a team structure. I never realised how much I DIDN'T know about the game as a player until I stopped playing and started coaching.
j binnie
Guest
Apaway - Jack Charlton did more than scare the pants off you, for he too told Craig Johnstone to go back to Australia on the first available plane for he would never,ever be a player.That's the same Craig that left Jack's club and went on to magnificent heights with Liverpool..Maybe that is why Big Jack never ever reached the same heights in his role as a football manager. jb ps Can you answer the question that I posed Towser,can you name the coaches of those 4 teams I mentioned off the top of your head??????jb
apaway
Roar Guru
Fuss Kossie lives and breathes football. His off-bench persona is very different from the guy who went toe-to-toe with Kevin Muscat. Great guy, always willing to talk football with you. And you're right; his second stint at Adelaide has been the proving of him. Great to see.
apaway
Roar Guru
Real I'll leave you and MadMonk to sort that out!
Towser
Guest
apaway Yes I do remember one Wednesday manager Harry Catterick he was in charge when i was a lad & Wednesday were having some success(did I actually say that). But I only remember him because I read Peter Swans(A participant in the famous bribe case) book in which he stated that Catterick was one the first of the managers in England who actually mentioned the word "tactics". Then again you could argue that I've got selective memory regarding Wednesday since then, given their track record compared to the likes of the mighty Bolton,Blackburn or unbelievably the seaside fairy floss mob in Blackpool,or indeed more like a Grimms fairy book story, Wigan a town when I was growing up that thought round balls were for playing marbles.
apaway
Roar Guru
Towser Exactly the way coaches would want it. We tune in and turn up to watch the players and the coaches who don't get this don't last long. But come on - I bet you can name all of Wednesday's bosses since Jackie Charlton (who scared the pants off this would-be player many years ago!)
Towser
Guest
jbinnie Being also of vintage years(although its debatable that like good wine I've matured) I too remember the age of "The player". In fact Its only recently that I've started to acknowledge the role of the coach. Ask me who was Wednesdays coaches growing up wouldn't have a clue. Players can reel them off. Not only that but can reel off Wednesday greats of the past handed down by older members of the family.cant remember them mentioning a coach. Same for International football, I remember the great players as mentioned Garrincha, Pele ,Di Stefano,Cruyff ,Maradona,the Kaiser & today Messi Iniesta & so on. When I watch a game now I still pay little attention to tactics formations,I watch the player was he good or crap. After all in the end no matter what a coach says or does he aint on the pitch,the player is,he's the one who excites the bread & butter of football, the fan & ultimately determines the outcome of a match. Ask me what I remember of the Roar in its short life as a professional football club off the top of my head,no its not how Ange ,Frank or Miron had them play, its Craig Moore's long ball up the middle to Van Dyk who scored. Craig Moores hard but fair tackling technique. Glimpses of Charlie Millers wayward genius, or Reinaldo's dribble down the left to score in a semi final. against Sydney FC, Adnans free kick in extra time against Sydney FC, or BIg Eriks header at the death in the Grand Final. Berishas 4 goals against Adelaide ,his Grand Final winning penalty last year. Tommy Oars free kick against whoever, or the cross from Robbie Kruse to Zullo to head in.
Realfootbal
Guest
As well as taking Adelaide to the wooden spoon and then presiding over the most dismal Olyroos campaign in our history. A very limited coach, operating way above his ability level. if Vidmar is any indication, the ACL doesn't say a lot about a coach.
j binnie
Guest
Kellett 1992 - Thank you for the reply.Unfortunately you are not as old as I am so probably don't fully understand the "growth " enjoyed by the profession of "coaching" over the last 30 or 40 years whereas I can remember superb football teams playng superb football, & could probably rhyme off countless great players, but at the same time would find the recollection of famous coaches very hard to come to terms with Let me pose you another question,you mention Guus Hiddink,an extremely well qualified and travelled professional coach and what he did for our so-called golden generation No doubts, but the obvious question then arises how would he have gone with a selection of players not as well "qualified "as those players.Get my point. You ask my opinion.Players win games of that there can be no argument at all. Coaches can be graded into multi-levels and there is little doubt that any extra curricular education into basic teaching skills, sports psychology,man management experience,.exposure to realistic business practices,and ability to "see" a vision for how he would like to play the game, and the ability to fit the players into that system all help in how high he can progress in that multi-level career, be it junior football up to internaional standard. I could go on and on as well but take the Brazil of Garrincha and Pele,the great Real Madrid of Di Stefano or Gento,Hungary with Puskas and Kocsis,Feyenoord,the first Dutch team to win a European Cup, there are four examples of great teams but,without hitting the Internet or the books, can you name who the coaches were who ran those teams.That to me says it all for very few could recall those names. So to me the coach is only part of a team that prepares a team,at whatever level, for the game at hand but out on the field it is players who play,and win or lose,games. My opinion. Your pal in the game jb
Cameron
Roar Guru
Jb, I will answer your question! Coaches or players? Now I would love to hear your opinion, but I shall offer mine. I believe without the chicken you couldn't have the egg and without the egg you couldn't hatch a chicken. Same principle applies for your question. Both play a vital role in the success or fall of a football team. Coaches like Postecoglou, Arnold from Australia seem to posses a unique ability to motivate and create self belief, other coaches like the fall of Vidosic had a football mind but didn't not necessarily mean he had the man management skills to explain, reason or divulge specific information to the team to allow optimal performance. The two coaches mentioned first seem to have every aspect of their coaching ability understood. Transitioning from Brisbane to Melbourne would not be easy but victory sit in 3rd place and have done so with more ease then frustration. Of course the team is still learning but with player development and backing from a coach players have confidence in will see victory develop a mindset to take them to one of the two trophies. Now in regards to the players. When ange took control at Brisbane Roar he identified and was aided to find the right formula or nucleus of players that would deliver success for Brisbane. Kosta Barbarouses classic example - didn't succeed at Wellington but he saw something, an ability to provide something unique to the setup of the Roar. I could honestly go on and on and on but I will continue to provide examples from around the world and within other sporting codes that the coaches that you find succeeding most often are the ones the players don't second guess and find a sense of direction and purpose. Australian coaches do not lack this aspect and therefore I believe someday soon our coaches will believe they posses the ability to lead our country instead of relying upon other aspects of, western culture or eastern culture to lead our teams to flory. Guss Hindink was superb but at the same time he had a golden generation of socceroos! So who earnt the success? Jb you tell me. regards Kellett_1992
Realfootbal
Guest
This isn't Phoenix bashing. I was simply stating empirical facts. I absolutely support NZ in the A League. We are too small without NZ, and I would like to see at least 2 NZ sides in the comp - Wellington and Auckland, plus perhaps Christchurch. The attendances for the Nix in Christchurch and and Auckland suggest that the support is most certainly there. The point I was making is that the "ugly football" isn't working. It isn't bringing in new fans - it isn''t even holding their support steady. Speaking as one who spent more than a decade in NZ, I can assure you that the code war experience holds true there too - teams have to play attractive football to hold support. A results only mantra will not work, and is not working. Herbert is a negative, tactically limited coach, utterly lacking flair or tactical imagination. It is patently unrealistic to say "Phoenix are here to stay". If they keep on losing money, if their attendances keep on sliding, and their new owners walk - always a possibility - they will be as dead as Fury and GCU. FFA could never, ever justify supporting an NZ franchise with FFA money. It would not happen. They would instead turn to Canberra or Wolllongong, if they were going to spend that kind of money.
wisey_9
Roar Guru
I really don't understand all of this Phoenix bashing. While they aren't my favorite team, I see that they play a pivotal role in the make up of the HAL. Herbert has built a team capable of making the finals for the past 3 years on a shoestring budget, and are in a good position to do it again this year. Granted, they at times play some pretty ugly football, but who doesn't? This is the team who has given us the likes of Paul Ifill, Marco Rojas and Shane Smeltz - all of who have a chance of making the HAL Team of the Decade. Plus, having a HAL team established in New Zealand adds another 4.5 million potential supporters to the A-League pool. Time to move on. The Phoenix are here to stay.
Realfootbal
Guest
I spent 11 years in the Auckland region, and witnessed first hand the demise of the Kingz. There is certainly enough support in Auckland to sustain a team - don't judge this on the Kingz and the Knights. They were clubs run by incompetents. Wellington, by contrast, is a small city, and a rugby heartland. To make any impression, the Nix have to play an attractive brand of football. Herbert is the wrong man for job. The Nix attendances are poor and sliding, but the jury is out as to whether better football would arrest that slide.Auckland is several times more populous, with a bigger proportion of migrants in its population. In my view it is self evident that the A League franchise should be in Auckland. Perhaps rebadging the side as an NZ team and playing half and half is the answer. My feeling is that we need NZ - they add a market of 3 million to the A League pot, potentially. But for that potential to be maximised, Auckland must have a team. Almost half the population of the country lives in Auckland. I just wonder how long the Nix owners are going to be prepared to keep on losing money.
Bondy.
Guest
Towser, They should relocate to auckland into a rectangular pitch and sack the coach,prefeably get a kiwi or someone like a M Mulvey.
j binnie
Guest
Apaway - Agreed 110%, not a changeover that many fans comprehend. jb
j binnie
Guest
Kasey - No argument in the points you make concerning "aspirational goals" as long as the obvious doesn't get subjugated as was the case in Apaway's offereing. However I was surprised you did not make comment on that question I posed Apaway. Who wins games,coaches or players.? Your thoughts on that deep question would be appreciated. also the aside, is cost a factor?????. One should also remember we have had an Australian Socceroo coach,not for a month or two but a 6 year period. Was he successful??? Careful examination of results he (or his players) achieved make intersesting debate. Cheers jb
apaway
Roar Guru
MadMonk It's a good point, especially given the way the ACL is structured similarly to what a coach could expect if he was in charge of the national team - mini-league format, home and away ties etc And perhaps this is a reason for Aurelio Vidmar's ascension to the national program, given he took Adelaide to the final of the ACL.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Agree. I think it would be superb if some of our best coaches ended up furthering their careers in tougher environments overseas. The A-League simply doesn't have sufficient spaces to allow upcoming coaches to be given a chance. Phil Stubbins who is now with Bangkok Glass is a case in point.