Using greatness to create leaders

The 2007 Geelong premiership team, which includes assistant coaches Brenton Sanderson, Ken Hinkley and Brendan McCartney, who are all now senior coaches. Senior coach Mark Thompson is now an assistant coach at Essendon. Source: adelaidenow

GEELONG chief executive Brian Cook has lifted the lid on the strategies that helped make the lieutenants from Sleepy Hollow among the most prominent coach candidates in the land.

South Australia is the chief beneficiary of the 2007 Cats premiership with the next winning Showdown coach being either Brenton Sanderson or Ken Hinkley.

A third assistant, Brendan McCartney, is now the senior coach of the Western Bulldogs.

Cook (below), who is widely regarded as the architect that turned the Cats from handbag carriers to slick hand-gun assassins, said the first piece of the puzzle was to secure someone who knew greatness. They appointed Mark "Bomber" Thompson as senior coach.

Other former Geelong players in Adelaide include Garry "Buddha" Hocking, a Port assistant and one of the best players to have worn the Cats guernsey, and premiership backman Darren Milburn, who now looks after the Crows' backline.

The qualities that made Sanderson an instant success, McCartney a surprise first-time appointment at his ripe age (50), and Hinkley the choice of Port Adelaide, were among a string of beliefs fostered at the Cats for the past decade:

LEAVE the club after your playing days. You need a break. If you come back, you'll be better then.

LOOK for ways to coach your own club, even if it is in a competition considered inferior to the AFL or the state leagues.

TALENT is important, but character is essential. How to manage people and how to lead is what makes a coach.

SENIOR coaches play a significant role in taking his assistants to the next level. In Geelong's case, it was both the man they brought in for his part of greatness and the one who developed the aforementioned trio: Mark "Bomber" Thompson.

Cook took over as Geelong chief executive in 1999, was instrumental in tandem with president Frank Costa in clearing the club's debt and oversaw an extensive review of the club's program in 2006.

Thompson was unimpressed at the time, but warmed when it became clear he was still the required coach - and on the brink of greatness.

Cook saw Port's move to hire Hinkley as a similar one to what they had done at Geelong with the signing of Thompson for the 2000 season.

"Sometimes, you just need to bring in people who have experienced greatness," Cook told The Advertiser. "And when I first came to Geelong, that person was Mark Thompson.

"He had been a successful captain at Essendon and was the first person we brought in.

"He played a large role in developing those guys (as well as winning flags).

"He comes across as understated, but he's very driven and a key teacher, really important in his assistants' development.

"But it was also the characteristics of those people (McCartney, Sanderson and Hinkley)."

Cook and his team looked favourably on those who had left Geelong and returned, be it to coach their own club in the bush or the suburbs or work under another regime.

Not only did it make them more rounded, it also gave them a minute to find perspective.

"Most of the time, they need a rest from the club," Cook said. "They've been here for a long time.

"And if they come back, they come back better for it."

Billy Brownless, an outstanding forward for Geelong who is now prominent in the media, was also quick to credit Thompson.

Brownless noticed a subtle change in Bomber's coaching at Geelong, and in a measured way, he allowed his assistants to grow.

"Later in his career, when he was pretty confident in what he was doing, he gave them a lot of responsibility," Brownless said. "But it was great group. Almost all had coached locally, learnt a lot under Bomber and just about all backmen.

"(McCartney) `Macca' was always a good teacher, you could see that (he would be a coach).

"Sando was a good thinker. Ken? I didn't pick him. He was a loose type of defender. His best game was some of the best you'd ever seen but then you didn't see him for a week."

Brownless is the favourite son, the prankster whose football career sometimes gets lost because of his media presence.

Cook gives his view of the 2007 assistants and adds Darren Milburn, who didn't serve an apprenticeship in local ranks but did follow Sanderson in moving to another club.

On Hinkley:

"He's creative and empathetic, but he can be ruthless."

Sanderson:

"He coached like he played, at 100 per cent."

Milburn:

"Dasher is one who engages the team, perfect in a one-on-one situation."

McCartney:

"He's what I call a meat-and-three-veg coach: He does the simple and basic things really well."

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