Yacakandandah coach Darren Holmes reveals the day he was out-coached

In a fascinating and brutally honest self-appraisal, the Yackandandah coach also said he will never berate his players again after doing it against Thurgoona in round four.

But it was the round seven loss where the AFL 63-gamer learnt his biggest lesson.

"If coaching has taught me one thing, it's have I got a lot to learn," he suggested.

"That day (against Kiewa) they made the mistake of putting the coach's box close to our coach's box and I stood between the two, listening to Adam.

"I probably shouldn't say that because they'll probably move the coach's box now (laughs), but I learnt a lot just watching him, looking at the rotations, the way they were working and then transferring what he was saying to how they were then doing it, I went, 'yeah, righto, that where it's at'.

"I would say I was slow to react and made some wrong moves."

The 47-point loss was to be the club's only one as the Roos went from a decade out of finals to claiming top spot and sealing the minor premiership when the season was cancelled last Thursday, due to the COVID lockdowns in Victoria and NSW.

"I said to the guys after that game, there's a lesson we've got to learn from it and we did," he declared.

Holmes has stated publicly before that he was over footy following his AFL career and a number of injuries back at Lavington.

That's why it surprised many when he was named the Roos' coach in July, 2019.

The first year was written off by COVID, but to lead a club from outside finals to the minor premiership is extremely rare, at any level.

However, he would like one moment back when the ladder leaders led an injury-riddled Thurgoona by just 11 points at three-quarter time.

"We were terrible and I thought, 'we're going to lose this, we're playing this bad'," he revealed.

"I gave the players an almighty spray and I then remember turning to my assistant coach and saying, 'I can't be that coach, I can't berate guys, it's not how I'm built', I'll get cranky with them, 'lift your game' that sort of thing, but I don't do that anymore."

The Roos might have won by 33 points to retain the shock undefeated start, but that wasn't the point.

"I'm always honest, I don't have an ego, I'm quite happy for somebody to tell me if I'm doing it wrong," he explained.

"I have some terrific people on the bench, which makes me see things with clarity when I haven't been able to previously.

"Don't get me wrong mate, a couple of blokes have had some very blunt conversations with me and I had to say, 'yeah, you're right'.

"If you can't admit you're wrong, aren't you saying you've learnt everything there is to learn?"

So has does Holmes explain the resurrection?

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"Our guys wanted to be better and they bought in."

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