We always think its got to be the quality of players, but sometimes you’ve got to sit back and think, is it the quality, knowledge and the experience of the coach that really counts?

I’ve been doing my B coaching licence with the likes of Richard Garcia, Carl Valeri and Jason Cullia, who is someone I still think was one of the best Australian midfielders we ever had.

These are guys who I would like to think could come through and the teach the kids, because they’ve played at the elite level.

There were so many technically-gifted players in the old NSL (National Soccer Legue) and most of the Socceroos started their careers in the NSL.

I don’t think the quality of players in the A-League compares to the NSL.

It’s a different time and the game evolves, but there’s maybe only a handful of players in the A-League you could say are beautiful to watch.

I don’t know where we’ve lost that, but I think NSL used to produce so many of those players.

I’ve been in a classroom with these guys for nine days with a lot of football knowledge and you can see they’re trying to find a way to fix it.

We want everyone to be coaches and I might be wrong saying this, but I think it’s the players that have played at an elite level and have a lot more football knowledge that should be coaching.

The FFA (Football Federation Australia) and PFA (Professional Footballers Australia) have put this particular course on for this group of players and people who have had knowledge in the game to try to help that and fast track players to become coaches.

It’s been a real eye-opener to see what people’s thoughts and philosophies are and where they think the game is.

I used to give my coaches a hard time when they did drills and ask why aren’t we doing something fun, but now I realise they’re actually going through a process.

It’s not always going to be enjoyable, but there’s got to be an outcome of what you’re putting together. 

It’s been awesome and I’ve learnt so much, which I hope will allow me to give a bit more input with the team at Murray United.

I didn’t tend to think too much about coaching when I was playing because if you’re trying to make a career at the elite level, your full focus has to be on being a footballer.

Now that I’m coming towards the end of my career, I’ve started to see that coaching might be the role for me.

I got the passion for coaching when I started training with Murray and seeing some of the young kids not making runs where they should.

When you say something and they take it on board and then it happens in a game, it gives you that passion.

As sportspeople, we want all the success straight away, but there’s a process and it takes time.

That’s what coaching is.