Bear's Gridiron in Australia Forums

Me(NSW), Paul Manera(NSW), John Roe(ACT), Garry Wilson(VIC) and John Leitjen(Lives in VIC but has no League affilation).

Also, Andrew Ogborne applied, but way after the deadline and his initial application wsnt accepted.

I withdrew my application and I believe that John Roe also withdrew his application leaving Paul, Garry and John as the only remaining applicants.

Warrior27

"Rust Never Sleeps"

You may be right that my initial application for the Outback position was not accepted, but I have not been told that by Gridiron Australia.  I am still hopeful that my application will be considered on its merits. 

On a related matter, I would be interested in any grassroots feedback on a radical idea I have for a co-ordinated national team playbook. 

It is obviously very difficult to draw an all-star team together from the various states into a cohesive national team.  Yesterday's heavy loss by the Junior Outback team to American Samoa reinforces my view that the existing model of bringing together an all-star team for the first time shortly before a game or tournament and then training intensively in the days immediately before the game or tournament is a flawed model. Please understand that I am not in any way criticising anyone involved in the recent Junior Outback game. 

I have in mind a different model. 

The first part of the plan would be to prepare offensive, defensive and special teams playbooks for the Outback well in advance.  The offensive and defensive systems would be designed to give our national team the best chance of success against its likely World Cup opponents and to best take advantage of the abilities of our players in international competition.  The process would involve heavy consultation with the full Outback coaching staff and, also, with the head coaches of the state teams.

The second (and radical) part of the plan would be to require each state team to use the national playbooks for their teams in the Senior Nationals.  This may not be feasible for the 2010 Senior Nationals (although I would like to explore the possiblility), but perhaps Gridiron Australia could stage another senior tournament before the World Cup in 2011. 

First, the Outback coaches would hold a clinic for all of the state team coaches to make sure the systems were properly understood.  The state team coaches would then take the playbooks back to their states and coach their teams up for the tournament.  

A fair degree of flexibility would be built into the arrangement.  Each state team would be allowed a fixed number of plays (say 10) which they could add to the core plays.  These plays would be approved by the Outback coaches to ensure they fitted within the overall system, but would be unique to the individual state team (and unknown by the other state teams).  This would provide flexibility to the state coaches to adapt the playing systems to better suit their personnel.  A good deal of effort would need to be expended on this aspect of the plan to make sure each state team was able to adapt to suit its strengths.  While each state would have the same core playbooks, its coaches would have the freedom to call their games as they pleased.  They could run or pass and call their plays in whatever mix they liked.

The advantages of this model are immediately obvious.  All potential national players would be getting repetitions at the core plays in the national playbook.  Probably even more important would be that they would be learning the language of the system - the formation calls, the blocking calls, the blitz calls.  It would be an untold advantage to the Outback to have all the players coming into the team speaking the same language. 

By allowing the states the freedom to tailor the playbooks to their strengths, the senior tournament would become a testing laboratory for the systems themselves, testing and exploring the limits of the playing systems in a truly competitive environment.  A tournament played under these conditions would also be an ideal scouting tool, with the Outback coaches better able to compare apples with apples - with the players competing within the same systems - and better able to determine whether a player would fit the national system. 

The idea would obviously only work with a high level of co-operation with the state coaches.  However, my sense is that the states, and particularly the national players within those states, are more motivated than ever to try to put together a national team which truly reflects our national abilities.  Hopefully the state coaches would have a significant imput into the design process of the national playbook. 

As our state leagues are spread out so far across the country and our governing bodies and players do not have the financial resources to bring our national team together as often as is necessary to build a true team under the existing model, we need to think outside the square.  While my plan involves an unprecedented level of co-operation between the states, the recent success of the Senior Outback gives me hope that the time is right to take a bold step to advance the national team. 

I would be interested in any feedback.

Andrew Ogborne

Edited: 4/01/2010 2:27:18 PM by No Axe to Grind

Andrew, it was my understanding when i submitted your application for you that it was rejected due to the lateness ( At leas that is what i was told by the chairman) and that it would be considered if the applications were opened again....but again, i could be wrong

Thanks for the heads up.  GA are obviously giving the coaching situation careful consideration, which is all anyone can ask for.  I completely support the process and am happy to await the final outcome.  In the meantime, I am interested to know whether you have a view on the co-ordinated national playbook idea I floated in my previous post.

Andrew Ogborne

Andrew's plans seem very good for the overall growth in Gridiron.

Roe no sorry Hollywood has put in a lot of effort and passion into the program over the last 10 or so years like Manera. Also he knows many of the current playing corp

John Leighton has spent time overseas and will also know many of the overseas players strengths and weakness that play in europe. but as he hasn't spent the time in the australian ranks will not know the players

Paul is the most techinical coach in Australia, and has done so well for NSW. He may have not done well in the NSW league with his time at UTS and Bondi. But his time at UTS he built the program up and he seems to be doing this know with Bondi after there problems of late. But this doesn't reflect on him as a coach at all

I honestly like Andrews ideas and i hope who ever gets the job(if he doesn't) put some of these idea's into action. But this is more like a coaching director for GA role than HC for the Outback team.