THERE isn’t much down-time in the life of an Ovens and Murray coach.
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“It’s not a job where you can pick and choose. It’s 24/7, you have to do something every day or you’ll pay the price,” Lavington’s James Saker says. “In saying that, you can’t use the hours as a badge of honour. It’s really important to prioritise and focus on key things.”
The Panthers coach gives us a rare insight into life inside the four walls of Lavington ahead of Saturday’s clash with Wangaratta, estimating the job takes up to three-to-five hours a day during football season.
SATURDAY, POST MATCH
Most of the group makes its way back to the Springdale Heights Tavern for a feed and a few beers. Jason Hollard has organised a night at the Bandits, which the boys enjoyed even though the scoreline wasn’t ideal.
Quiet night for me. I’m home by 9pm but struggle to sleep after a game – win, lose or draw. The first quarter of our match is already up on the O and M website so it was good to get a look at that before going to sleep.
SUNDAY
First things first. Coffee. Then it’s down to Waterworks for a non-compulsory recovery session. We trust our players to do their own recovery on Sunday but there’s always a regular crew at the river at 9am – myself, Kade Stevens, Adam Butler along with the Hargreave and Garland boys.
I generally try to make Sunday a day where I’m at home with my fiancee Bianca but that’s intertwined with the formalities of reviewing our match and going through our stats, along with keeping an eye on the footy and racing channels. From my point of view, if you don’t have a good Sunday and get through a bit of work, you’re chasing your tail for the rest of the week.
I watch the rest of the game to make sure what I thought I saw yesterday is what I actually saw and then I will base the individual feedback I give players off that. I generally won’t watch any footage of the opposition until Wednesday but I’ve got a bit of spare time and have a look at the first half of the Wangaratta-Yarrawonga game.
Check in with Ben Murphy and Layne Heinjus, who suffered injuries yesterday, and then I’m just about done.
MONDAY
Alarm goes off at 6.15am to be at work in Wangaratta bright and early. I’m the sales manager for Porter Plant and look after North East Victoria.
I got most of what I needed to do yesterday done but I check in with ‘Stevo’ as captain and organised an indoor session at Trinity College for tomorrow night, just to mix things up.
I get to the club around 5pm and am pleased to see a fair few of the guys already have their recovery underway. I go for a run and a bit of a stretch. l try to squeeze in a massage if there’s time before 6pm but no such luck tonight.
Now it’s time for a debrief of the Raiders game with the assistant coaches – Mark Sarau (director of coaching), Jason Hollard (senior assistant), Matt Sharp and Andrew Robertson (midfield), Shane Wellington (forwards), Brant Dickson (backline) and Mitch Palmer (reserves). I’ve got a terrific team of assistants, I’d be lost without them.
Plenty of ideas are thrown around and everyone gets an equal opportunity to have their voices heard – even in the first 15 minutes when we pretty much just hang crap on one another.
Wang is coming off a good win so we throw up a few scenarios about what they do well and how will we counteract that. Do we run with one of their midfielders? Will we be too tall if we go with Koschitzke, Yensch and Luff? The side is probably 90 per cent picked. We will just see how the rest of the week goes with injuries. It’s amazing how often something bobs up.
TUESDAY
It was a fairly low-key day when it came to footy stuff. I made sure all the players knew about our change of venue for training. A couple of them asked for feedback from the weekend so I gave them a call.
I gave our assistants the night off. Mark Sarau thinks it’s because I’m keeping this diary and I wanted to look like I do all the work.
We have a 10-minute review of the game as a playing group. We discussed a few good things and identified a couple of areas we want to improve in. A few of the players offer some feedback, which is good, and the general feeling is that our belief should grow out of a win like that.
Tom Yensch is presented with a jersey by the leadership group for typifying the way we want to go about things. It’s an initiative Sean O’Callaghan revived and that’s just one example of the brilliant volunteers we have at Lavington. They do a stack of work that I’m very grateful for.
We have a good 70-minute session at Trinity. The ball was flying around and it was a good chance to work on our structures using the basketball court as a footy oval. It’s good to mix things up occasionally and hopefully the fact we were indoors and a bit warmer meant that the players were paying attention when we were focusing on our stoppage set-ups.
I’m home by 7.45pm. I fire off a few emails to Jase Hollard and some of the executive committee regarding list management for next season and watch the second half of the Wang-Yarra game.
The Simpsons Movie is on in the background and then I get sucked into the Nick Kyrgios match at Wimbledon. I’m not that patriotic, though, and go to bed when he loses the third set.
WEDNESDAY
As far as footy goes, it wasn’t too hectic. Had four 10-minute conversations with four of the assistants – Dicko, Jase, Mark and Wello – about various things for the weekend’s game.
It’s my turn to cook dinner and, by lunchtime, I’m still not sure what I’m going to prepare. I eventually settle on chicken schnitzel but the phone rings halfway through cooking and Bianca finishes it off. I’m a lucky man. It must be difficult being a footy widow but she is an incredible support.
It can be mentally tough in the colder months, but I sneak in a gym visit as well. ‘Butsy’ continually tells us that “doing something is better than doing nothing”, not that Matt Pendergast ever took notice.
Once I’m home, I cut up two minutes’ worth of vision from our Raiders game and three or four edits from the Wang game for our team meeting tomorrow. For example, Matt Grossman is one of the best defenders in the comp but he’s been spending more time forward. It’s handy for our defenders to see some edits of things they can expect.
THURSDAY
From a football point of view, there’s a continuation of an email chain amongst the coaching group about training tonight. For the past five weeks the assistants have taken training on a Thursday night, which allows me to mix with the playing group and offer immediate feedback. It’s Dicko’s turn to take training tonight.
I got a text off ‘Murph’ halfway through the day that his ankle is no good and he won’t be right to play Wang.
Training goes for an hour, which is slightly longer than normal for a Thursday night but, after being indoors on Tuesday, we wanted to make the most of a couple of longer-ground drills.
We have a quick meeting but my lap-top is playing funny buggers and the vision I had prepared wouldn’t work so I’ll post that on Facebook later. We head upstairs for a meal and teams before it’s eyes down at 8pm. ‘Stevo’ and the leadership group have got bingo up and running again, which has proved very popular.
FRIDAY
If the week’s gone well, which this one has, it’s a pretty quiet day. If I feel the need, I will call a couple of players but that’s not necessary today. I am confident everyone is in tune with what needs to be done.
I like to try and squeeze in a massage on a Friday but that can sometimes be difficult with work fluctuating.
Jase Hollard couldn’t make training last night so I catch up with him for a coffee before heading home to unwind with my Friday night staple – a half Margherita with olives, half Hawaiian (so Bianca gets a slice) pizza from McLovin’s.