Game Preparation: The Pre-Game Direction in Australian Rules Football

In 1968, I was in my second year coaching the Queensland State Junior High boys team competing in the Australian National Football Championships in Melbourne. Our first match was played against Western Australia on the hallowed turf of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the home of our national game. It was a great emotion for the boys to play there and for me to be the coach.

Below are the notes I made to speak or make before our first game at this National Soccer Carnival. Prior to the team naming and pre-game address, I spoke with each team member and checked in on how they felt.

These are the points I made to the players. As a young coach, I now realize that I probably talked too much and said too many things. But, being from the developing state of Queensland football, we were in a teaching mode with our boys. We needed to continue emphasizing the basics of our game plan until they became second nature.

• Play whenever you can. playing tight; Lasted; In front; inside your shoulder and swing the ball wide across the baseline.

• Teamwork: Remember to back off; keep talking; watch carefully when the ball is two kicks away and keep grazing.

• The approach must be hard/hard. Dispute everything; smoke the ball; and chase everyone.

• Positional game:

The forward-flankers must play wide; look for crumbs; be firm in front of the goals; keep talking and look for your full house ahead.

Backs: must be tight; shoulder to shoulder with your opponent; play inside your man; and he used long driving kicks. With fullback kicks, the rovers should be at the front of the pack and the wingers behind the pack.

• Kicking – Always use passing punts or long driving kicks straight into the goal to the goal line from center. Take into account the effects of the greasy ball and the wind and use them to your advantage.

• Note that the oval has wide brims and deep pockets. Use the north side of the oval to attack.

• Warm-up: It is essential to do it well

• Football will skate. So keep an eye out for the ball flying over the back of the pack in high mark contests. Keep the soccer ball in front of you at all times and play with the ball when you don’t pick it up cleanly.

• Refereeing: Blow the whistle.

I made this point strongly because in the same game in 1967 in Hobart, Western Australia two goals were kicked when a defender told the referee that he had touched the marked ball twice. The Western Australian just kept playing while this was going on to kick two goals.

Some observations:

1. There weren’t many experienced coaches at youth clubs or schools in Queensland in the 1960s. So we had to educate the players on the whys and wherefores of the game. Given that, the length of my team speech might have been warranted. This would not be the case on the 21^St. century as I write this.

2. The team had a number of players on the squad who were at their second All Australian Carnival. His experience helped improve the team’s performance by keeping it competitive for most of each game. Fitness and skill levels let the team down as exhaustion neared the end of each game.

3. Players from the less successful youth clubs on our team quickly learned from our training program and outperformed their main club rivals. We often use these players in new positions to see them flourish.

4. The players found the softer ground in Melbourne difficult because they were used to the ball bouncing higher on the firmer ground in Queensland.

5. The players found the referee’s interpretation of the rules different from what occurred at home.

6. It is important for the reader to understand that the game has changed drastically since these notes were used. Some may seem irrelevant on the 21^St. century.