LAWeek - Coaching Clinic

Saturday January 14th, 2006

After gathering at the hotel around 7am on a chilly Saturday morning, we headed over to UCLA and the intramural fields near Pauly Pavilion for our morning session of the coaching clinic.  Most of the players in attendance were still wiping sleep out of their eyes as they strapped on their boots and changed into their club jumpers.  The loose joviality slowly picked up as friends reunited from around the country for the first time since the USFooty nationals in October.  Little by little, players began to get a light jog across the ground to get the blood moving, ultimately soaking the boots in minutes from the heavy early morning dew.
 
Swans:  Shortly, we were joined by Paul Roos and 10-12 of the reigning AFL Premier Sydney Swans.  To the best of my knowledge, the Swans were planning on running most of their younger guys and new recruits in the game the following day, so (poor us ;) ), we got to train with the big name veterans like Crouch and Hall who weren't dressing the next day.  Right about the time the Swany's were coming out to the ground, the light drizzle intensified into a full rain.  Cold miserable conditions, but not unlike Melbourne during football season really.
 
Nothing fancy about it--after a few comments by Paul Roos regarding his time with the Revo's, his desires for the success of USFooty, a quick comment on the evolution of the game of footy and the AFL in general, they threw us right into some drills of any normal training session.  We began with some handball drills, and eventually moved on to kicking in some drills that undoubtedly were a little more complicated than most of the Americans had been exposed to.  But, guys seemed to pick up the big concepts quickly enough.
 
After about 90 minutes in a pretty steady rain, concern for the field invoked our (and UCLA's) better judgement and we finished up our session with the Swans.  An amazing experience.  The best I can do to describe it to my non-footy-literate friends is to say that I got to attend a preseason camp with the "Superbowl" champs, and catch passes from "Brett Favre". 
 
Roos:  Late morning we had a short break and then waited under the tents for the Roos to get out of their morning lifting session.  We were scheduled to have a run with them also, but the weather inhibited that plan, so we stripped off our boots and put on the runners instead. 
 
We met the entire Kangaroo squad in small groups that did walk-throughs of a bunch of drills in the plaza outside Pauly Pavilion.  Just as beneficial as being on the field, we actually saw more drills and were able to interact more with the players.  I think by the last two or three swaps, we would spend more time chatting and asking questions with the Roos that actually going through drills.  They wanted to know everything from what footy was like in the US, to where we were from (busting out in Nelly lyrics when I said St. Louis), how long we'd been playing, and how we even found the sport.
 
The guys were incredibly friendly and very personable, and I couldn't help thinking that aside from living halfway across the world, that we could have been good friends.  They were generous with there erudition, and just as eager to learn about us as we were to learn about them. 
 
Ron Barassi:  As if meeting and training with two squads of professional footy players wasn't enough, the big treat of the day was still to come.  We left UCLA to head back to the Ramada in West Hollywood, changed into dry clothes as best we could, had a quick lunch and then settled into one of the meeting rooms to hear talks from a pair of gentlemen who, it is arguable, have had as big an impact on footy as any two men in the history of the sport.

Alan Aylett (photo courtesy of Paat Kelly)
 
Alan Aylett was our first speaker, and talked about the development of a club and the selection of a coach.  Alan was instrumental in orchestrating the rise of the Roos, their dominance through the 1970's and their continued success.  He has held a number of positions within the Roos organization, as well as well as serving as President of the AFL governing board, and hearing him speak from the business side of the sport was very interesting.

Ron Barassi (photo courtesy of Paat Kelly)
 
Next, Alan introduced (for my non-footy friends "Vince Lombardi") Ron Barassi.  Ron is a notable player and coach, having won a number of premeirships as both and being named as a legend of the AFL.  His career stretched from playing at Melbourne, playing/coaching with Carlton, and then being brought on by Alan to coach the Roos.  Ron's words were great advice for footy, but also for life in general.  It was fascinating to hear him speak about his playing career, coaching career, and some of the dynamics of the player/coach and coach/management relationship.  A legend in every sense of the word, he is a true ambassador of the sport and has taken a genuine interest in the development of USFooty.
 
 
The entire day was a wonderful experience, a day football fans in Australia would give anything to have lived.  A big thank you to all of the Swans, Roos, Alan and Ron for their time and interest in the growth of footy in the US.

- Dan Sarbacker
(621)