Collingwoodfc.com.au has caught up with new development coach Steve Grace, who has arrived at the club for 2014 after spending three years with Fremantle. Grace has followed a similar path to that of fellow development coach Dale Tapping, for he never played a VFL/AFL game but has become a highly regarded coach in his own right. Grace and his partner Jennie have two young daughters and are pleased to be back in Melbourne after three years in the west.
Luke Mason: Having not played any VFL/AFL football, can you explain your pathway to Collingwood?
Steve Grace: I’d been a school teacher for nearly 20 years at Christian Brother’s College at St Kilda – Eddie’s alma marter – and was a physical education and health coordinator there for a number of years. Within that I’d always coached sporting teams, I coached the school side and then in my mid-20s I was playing country football and had an opportunity to coach, so I started coaching there when I was 26. I player-coached country football for a few years and then came back to Melbourne and had the opportunity to player-coach in the VAFA with my old side, the Ormond Amateur Football Club, for a number of years.
When I finished playing, I then was an assistant midfield coach at Sandringham and had the fortune of being there when we won three flags in a row from 2004-2006 and then got beaten in a Preliminary Final in 2007, so it was a great time to be involved there. From there, I had the opportunity to be involved at TAC Cup level. I was assistant coach at the Oakleigh Chargers for one year with the option of possibly coaching them the following year, so I took up that option and coached the Oakleigh Chargers for two years. I saw around 24-25 players in those couple of years go through and play AFL football which was really exciting and very fulfilling. I really enjoyed that at TAC Cup level and it was a very fulfilling coaching mandate.
I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to coach full time or not, especially with a pretty young family, but I received an offer from Fremantle and just as a family we thought it would be a good opportunity to take up. I took the family over and spent the last three years there, the first year under Mark Harvey and the last two years under Ross Lyon. I had some enjoyable experiences there and certainly the club has made some significant inroads as we saw last year. I made the decision to return back to Melbourne with the family and then had the wonderful fortune and opportunity to firstly interview with Collingwood and then was really happy to get the opportunity to value-add to a wonderful establishment and icon of sport in Australia. I couldn’t be any happier to be where we are right now.
LM: What, if any, relationship did you have with existing staff members at Collingwood before arriving?
SG: I had known Derek Hine (General Manager of List Management) for a number of years and I actually interviewed for the High Performance role here a number of years ago. That was down to the last couple and it was David Stiff who got the job. That was back a few years, but I’d known Derek Hine for a number of years and always kept in contact with him. After Mitch Hahn had left a role had come up and Rocket contacted me and I was lucky enough to have an interview. It was about the third interview I’d had in those last couple of days at different clubs but I couldn’t have been happier to be here.
LM: When did you realise you would like to become a senior coach at the highest level, and what were your experiences like when coaching younger players in the TAC Cup?
SG: The experience of coaching the TAC players is a bit unique from coaching your own side. I’d coached senior football clubs for a number of years so I really enjoyed the teaching aspect of TAC, the transfer of strong teaching principles that I’d learnt and applied over a number of years. You keep challenging yourself and hopefully if you’re good enough and you work hard enough you can keep learning and keep your networks open and keep speaking to really good people. Just having your belief fuelled by people that you trust and people that you respect and I was fortunate enough to have that happen and be encouraged, so I suppose that sort of fuelled the fire to keep challenging myself to see where I could end up.
For me, not playing senior AFL football, it’s always a challenge to break into the industry, but like others had before me, and Dale Tapping here is a good example, if you work hard enough and diligently enough and you believe in what you do, then hopefully you get reward for what you do. I suppose I’ve gained confidence in the principles that I think are relevant at many levels, not just TAC level but AFL football as well. Then, when I understood that those things were aligned, I thought, ‘why not pursue it?’ And I’m very glad that I did.
LM: What sort of message did Nathan Buckley (coach), Rodney Eade (Director of Football) and Craig McRae (Development Manager) impart when they discussed the job with you?
SG: It’s a very exciting time to be here, moving forward with a young coaching staff who are hungry for success, with good experience amongst the coaching staff and a great opportunity to be part of that and to grow with the club. That’s something that I’m really looking forward to doing and Rocket and Nathan presented that opportunity to me.
One of the single biggest things in the forefront of my mind was that I really wanted to get my roots into a big organisation of a club and be able to value-add to that and for it to be a career at the club, not a vehicle to go somewhere else, but to be involved here heavily. That was probably one of the key foundations.
LM: What were your experiences like over at Fremantle working under both Mark Harvey and Ross Lyon?
SG: I think it’s really important to learn off as many people as you can, and you don’t have to take everything. It’s a bit like a smorgasbord dinner – you don’t have to take everything, it’s in front of you so you can take the bits that you like. Mark Harvey saw the game incredibly clearly. He was a fantastic game day coach and very innovative with what he did and he kept the players fresh with those types of things. Ross Lyon was a very organised and very methodical coach. Just his sheer work rate and in terms of leaving no stone unturned was very impressive. He demands high standards and high expectations from not just the players but from his coaches – probably coaches more so than anyone else. It does engender, not urgency about you, but it ensures you’re making sure that you’re on top of what you do and it makes you think about things as well. He does keep the game very simple and believes in the basics and fundamentals. From him, they’re probably the two biggest things that I take. You really believe in your basics and your fundamentals and that can be your platform for success.
LM: What did you glean from the Grand Final year, and particularly the Grand Final week and experience itself?
SG: By Grand Final day, my club had relinquished my role. They released me a couple of weeks before. Another couple of coaches were leaving as well so they wanted to limit distractions but they also wanted the opportunity to come back to Melbourne and get themselves sorted. Clubs are very conscious of IP and those sorts of things. I sat in the stands as a spectator on Grand Final day, which was interesting. My game day role throughout the year was with the development players and game day education.
LM: As a development coach, what are your key principles and philosophies?
SG: Everything you do is related to performance. Performance isn’t just what you see when you’re out on the track or when you run out to play. Performance is everything you put in your mouth, it’s everything you do, it’s how you recover, it’s all of those. It’s the things away from the spotlight that are the most important in development. It’s establishing the basics, it’s developing strong fundamentals and the principles of preparation, the principles of professional preparation, making the harder choices. It’s adhering to the fundamentals. A really strong preparation, to train, to play, to recover, and establishing strong habits. They’re probably the key things. They might seem a little bit boring and not very sexy, but it’s just about establishing strong habits and strong fundamentals. I think it’s very important to find a rudder point with them that they can come back to and if they’ve got strong principles and fundamentals that they can keep coming back to, then that helps steer them on the course.
LM: What impressions have the Collingwood players made on you so far? Particularly the younger ones that you may spend more time with…
SG: I think the players are very hungry. Hungry to succeed and very thirsty for knowledge. They certainly have got a thirst for the physical side of the game, I’ve seen that. I’m very impressed with the younger players and, in particular, how good they are with their hands inside, how eager they are to be involved physically in that component of the game, which is supported by some of the statistics with how good we are through the midfield. Then when the senior players got on board I saw that rise and the younger players rise to it and meet that challenge. I think that work rate and that ethic is really good and it seems that they are hungry to go to that next level, yeah.
LM: Your portfolio sees you look after the defenders at VFL level. What is your impression of our VFL set up, and how does it differ to the way Fremantle approached its players at WAFL level?
SG: At Fremantle we didn’t have our own reserves side. It’s changed this year, but you were separated amongst the nine clubs in the WAFL so it was very hard to get players playing the way that the AFL club wanted them to play, or the way you wanted them to specifically train. You can see here that it’s going to be a strong pathway and to be able to play the exact way, adhere to the philosophies, adhere to the principles and the structures and be able to play roles that you want them to play. It’s a massive bonus and clearly the club has seen the benefit of that over the last four or five years. Hopefully I’ll be able to value-add on game day with the defenders in the VFL and then work closely with Ben Hart in following those things through during the week.
LM: What are the other development coaches like to work with?
SG: I think it’s a fantastic mix of coaches – not only the development coaches but also the coaches across the board. I made a comment in a meeting the other day that I felt the coaching group were very inclusive. By that I mean you felt free to make a statement or to add or to ask a question or to have something clarified. That was the first thing that struck me and that goes right up the top to the coach. I’ve been so impressed with Nathan. It’s extremely positive. The club’s in really good hands from where I see it.
The development coaches are a very good mix. You’ve got the passion of Tarkyn (Lockyer) and Pebbles (Anthony Rocca) who have been significant contributors to this club over the years and with that, they’ve got the club’s best interests at heart. Dale and I have a history of coaching against each other over a number of years and we’ve both followed a very similar coaching pathway. We’ve coached against each other at amateur level and TAC level and have kept in touch over the years. I have that relationship with him and to have a professional relationship is really good.
Then there’s Craig McRae (Development Manager). Craig’s energy and his enthusiasm for the role are outstanding, and the way that he thinks deeply about the game and development. I think it’s a fantastic team and a lot of clubs would be envious to have the people in here working at their club.
LM: What trends have you noticed by way of coaching and particularly development coaching?
SG: I think the basis is that you’ve got to know your players. You’ve got to know them personally, you’ve got to know them professionally, you’ve got to know their hooks. What I mean by hooks is what makes them tick, how they learn about their life. There needs to be a fair bit of buy in from the coach to the individual and I think that forms as a pretty good platform for you to work from. If a player’s form has dropped off or if there are issues off-field that are affecting them, if you really haven’t opened that door and all you’re talking about with them is football and you’re not really concerned for the other parts or facets of their life, it makes it hard to hang your hat on that one hook. That’s probably my big thing, and no amounts of technology or amounts of game knowledge can change that. I think that’s really important and it’s not a lost skill, but it’s something that can be overlooked with there being so much data and so much stats and so much learning.
Certainly technology has a place. It’s a balance. We all learn differently. As boys and young men, we learn in a range of ways and being able to utilise those ways is really important. That’s the basis of how I see it. The ratios here between development coaches and players are exceptional. Even with where I’m from it was 1:7, which was really good, whereas here it’s 1:5. It gives the coach a lot of opportunity to work with that player. You can be 1:1 and you can’t teach them or coach them correctly so the ratio doesn’t do it alone, but what else is in place supporting it here I think will help immensely.
Steve Grace's playing record
St Kilda under 19s - 1987-1988 (captain 1988)
Ormond Amateurs (VAFA) - 1989-1992 (premierships in 1989 and 1990; VAFA state representative 1989-1992)
Prahran (VFA) - 1993
Steve Grace's coaching record
Phillip Island - senior coach 1996
Ormond Amateurs (VAFA) - senior coach 1997-2000
Northern Bullants (VFL) – assistant coach 2002-2003
Sandringham Zebras (VFL) – assistant/development coach 2004-2007
Oakleigh Chargers (TAC Cup) – assistant coach 2008
Oakleigh Chargers (TAC Cup) – senior coach 2009-2010
Fremantle – development coach 2010-2013
Click here to view Steve Grace's coaching profile.
