The A-League managerial pressure cooker

Craig Midgley Robbie Hooker Brad Maloney Lee Sterrey Alex Tobin Ian Ferguson Harry Kewell John Anastasiadis Jean-Paul De Marigny Phil Moss

ha ha. When JA was under pressure last season and a small section of the crowd was calling for his head what options did Roar have? Ross? Phil Moss? It’s a limited pool that needs broadening and (to an earlier point) young Australian coaches who are not quite good enough would be better serving a long apprenticeship under a foreign coach sometimes.

I would have thought the math was very simple? 10 professional clubs = 10 first team coaches and 10 assistants. More clubs = more coaches. “The only reason there is no pressure on coaches in any Australian club sport is because there is no mighty financial disincentive for failure” ... forget “any” sport as that’s not the concern of this article but yes, agree with that for football which again a second division with pro/rel would help fix.

Post Hoc - Don't know to whom you are referring in this reply. You mention Alex Tobin,Steve O'Connor, and Kewell, all very good players in their day. Of the three, Steve O Connor is probably the best qualified coach having spent the last 30 years coaching at the AIS,Sydney FC and Hong Kong teaching young players the basics of the game though it does appear he did not pass the judges at FFA when the AIS was closed.Any reason's? Alex Tobin does not appear in too many coaching roles but does appear to be a very astute administrator of coaching programs,which is not actually a "hands on" job. Then we have Harry, who in his time would have worked under some well qualified managers but who has only begun his coaching "journey" recently by working with lower division players and clubs. If he continues to show an aptitude for the task he will I am sure go on to bigger and better things.

How would Tony Abbott go as a manager? He was a very good captain of "Team Australia". Do you think he would select Mike Jedinak for the Asian Cup? "This is a very strong team, and one of the reasons why so many members of the team are able to perform so well is because they've got a very good captain. It takes a good captain to help all the players of a team to excel." - Tony Abbott

MQ -Sorry my friend,I don't quite get the gist of what you are trying to say in this reply. No one ever suggested that being "exposed" to the ideas of the very best of overseas managers counts for "naught, but you have to examine the character and motives of the player involved to see if he has what it takes to become a good "TEACHER",after all ,if you are a parent, you should know that it takes a higher than usual level of education in a school to have the grades that allow you to become a primary schoolteacher. Now if that same youngster wants to move into higher education they have to undertake further education themselves and if they want to advance to a university level it can take up to another 5 years of study. So is there something about becoming a football coach,well versed in all the facets of the modern game, that suggests a successful coach does not require this same level of application to the task at hand?. If you think so then you should explain more clearly on your thoughts as to what makes a successful coach. Cheers jb.

Reuster Good questions well asked. I believe that either now or in the near future if an NPL coach is really showing promise they should be given "learning opportunities" with both Australian and Foreign A-League coaches to continue their progress and learning. If they can make it an assessable process where they are given the learning requirement to demonstrate what they have learned in a practical manner with their NPL teams it could even be considered Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) towards the next coaching qualification level.

I will be interested to see how Patrick Kisnorbo goes with the youth squad at City. Joe Montemurro took up coaching Arsenal Women last season, still there I think. John Hutchinson still at Seattle I believe. Lots of them around

You also have forgotten the greatest player Australia has produced team mate of Popa and Aloisi, Harry Kewell, but then again if the assessment about who MQ is right then not surprising he doesn't know that one. nor the likes of Alex Tobin, Steve O'Connor, two that spring to mind

jb An excellent post. I think you hit a key nail on the head earlier on in that the best players often don’t make the best coaches. Particular at a technical level where a decade or more of training courses and experience are required merely to become useful. The development of proper coaching “pathways” (to use the modern parlance) is crucial and an urgent revisit of the current situation is required bringing back in some of those excluded and crucially, developing a system that puts the best coaches with the best players as often as possible, and the best coaches with as many kids as possible as kids do develop at different rates and we are streaming them way too early imo. I don’t see anything from the FFA that says they see this as a priority but it should be. I’ve been doing some studying on Icelandic football in recent months, their efforts have been outstanding in going from also-rans to competitive European nation has lessons we could learn from I’m sure because they started by reinventing the coaching environment (although it’s a bit more complex than just that but the results speak for themselves).

"is our top league the place that coaches should be “learning” their trade?" My opinion is I would categorically say yes to that because hand in hand with better player development is better coach development. If our league isn't there to also help develop Australian coaches in addition to developing Australian players then what's the point of the league? Also depends I guess on the definition of "learning their trade" - do you mean the John Aloisi example at Melbourne City a few years ago which isn't really ideal, and how do we determine whether somebody coaching at NPL level is ready to step into an a-league role? It's an interesting point you raise and this is a good example of the discussion that the game needs to have.

Afternoon All As coaches go I believe in always being grateful for what you have. Kurz has proven his pedigree, I am still stuffed and amazed that Popa was not offered the national job, he's the best Australian coach. Arnold is good but Popa has the runs on the board. Babbel has started yet but if he's anything like Kurz watch out. Ernie Merrick is the battled hardened veteran as is Muscat. And Franko is spot on the likes of Anastasiades Kewell the Vidmar boys Mori and especially Okon shows just the first wave of successors who's going to emerge from the more educated and football savy younger generations. Lowy or not football is tracking towards a big future

I guess some of the shortcomings here are because we simply don't have enough Professional clubs for our managers to learn their trade at. The NPL doesn't seem to be an effective platform to prove your mettle for potential A-League managerial roles, and with only 10 teams and no 2nd division we simply don't 'see' enough managers to learn which ones are a cut above. Much like the A-League expansion itself, we need to stop just cobbling together ideas one at a time, and plan how to bolster our coaching stock over X years.

what you don't want Aurelio at Roar, Waz?

jb I guess being exposed to the very best overseas managers and latest ideas counts for naught. But if you've coached a reserve grade team to 3rd spot in some non-descript amateur league somewhere in the suburbs, that's the experience of a lifetime. Even better if you've completed a certificate with all the other mums and dads.

"The coaching pool is just too limited, which hopefully expansion and a second division will help fix." You're kidding, right? I cannot imagine a sport with a bigger, more diverse, talent of football coaches. Not just make-believe coaches. Coaches who have gained formal accreditation to coach professional clubs. Pick a country, any country, and there will be a professional coach looking for a job. Are they any good? Who knows. Ernie Merrick's credentials before winning 2 ALeague Doubles with MVFC was coaching semi-pro teams & a stint at the VIS. Who knew Gui Amor was any good? Who knew Ange Postecoglou was any good when he started at SMFC? The only reason there is no pressure on coaches in any Australian club sport is because there is no mighty financial disincentive for failure. Some sports they will reward you with even more money & better recruiting picks, for finishing bottom of the table. Far better to finish bottom than mid table in such competitions.

Paul Okon Damien Mori Ramon Tribulietx Tony or possibly Auerlio Vidmar Michael Valkanis Harry Kewell To think they'd be any better or worse than Rudan, Aloisi or Mulvey is just guess work.

MQ - "Coaching" is not a talent you pick up from playing the game at a high level.This is a mis-conception many many people fail to understand. We would not send our children to educational establishments if the classes were being supervised by cleaners and janitors, who, having worked at the place for ten years, and, because of that service,"graduated " to teaching level. Coaching of football is a subject that can be broken down into different subjects and it is the mastering of these subjects that first of all a successful coach has to master..Then of course having done that he has to learn how to pass that knowledge on to others, in short ,become a good teacher. Coaching in our game has become a joke,with well meaning men being sacked at the first sign of failure at whatever level they are working in.There appears to be endless numbers available to fill these vacancies but this leads us to ask the question,what qualifications do the "employers" have to pass judgement on a man they may only have hired some months before. Cheers jb.

Waz - A few years ago the FFA in it's wisdom put it out that ex- Socceroos should be employed in positions of high exposure and that edict has covered almost all facets of our game be it the coaching field ,publicity field or even administrative field albeit that at a lower level. At our highest football level ,the national team,we have seen a huge handover of coaching authority and there are plenty of learned pundits who would argue success or otherwise of this action., Today,after years of disappointing performances at all youth levels we are actually moving back,especially at HAL level where "foreign " coaches are once again being asked to improve our football standard, starting to fill jobs especially at clubs that appear to be struggling somewhat.,Stuart mentions Kurz, Babel and Joyce as examples. You got me thinking when you asked about "out of work coaches" and I began to search my memory bank and I have at least 3 acquaintances who have the highest coaching qualifications and yet I doubt if they have been at a game of football in the last 10 years,I don't doubt for a moment there are many,many more. So has the promotion of ex- Socceroos been a success? Many of them have "grown" into jobs but there are others from the past whose knowledge could surely be used,Schienflug,Rasic,and Blanco are good examples but is our top league the place that coaches should be "learning" their trade? That is the question that needs to be asked ,and answered if we are to have success at that level. In recent events, BVM at the World Cup, ,the FFA themselves don't appear to fully believe their own ex-Soccereoo edict.. Your thoughts? Cheers jb.

I reckon Waz makes a good point in relation to alternatives and it is difficult to see Mourinho heading down under after he is sacked later in the year! Mind, maybe it is a good thing at least for stability that the changes don’t come mid season although I would have been quite happy to see Wanderers part company with JG after his first outing at Melbourne City last season. I sat behind the bench and watched the actions and body language, and whilst I can’t claim to have heard what was being said, I did suggest that there would be problems with players and for the club as a whole and that he wasn’t the right person for the job. I hope Mr Corica gets given time in the job even if SFC are not the dominant side of the past two seasons. Player turnover, homelessness and a new coach are a recipe for unrest and discontent across the board. The days of a new season, a new coach are surely past? Pressure on JA? - well last year he must have come close to losing his job?Certainly there were enough negative comments on this site from the Roar faithful. I suppose it depends on where the bar is set. If making the six is acceptable, then maybe JA has a job for life. It wouldn’t satisfy me though. Last year, Brisbane were nowhere near the level that their fans have come to expect and limping in to the end of season party might have done more harm than good - by which I am suggesting that if top six was the benchmark, it was totally the wrong kpi in terms of overall ambition. Hopefully, we can keep this discussion going for a while...... we need more local topics to discuss - where’s Mike? Still on honeymoon?