Nick Bendel
Voss on the fast track to failure
May 26th 2008 06:58
It is hard to know which is more illogical: the fact that inexperienced former athletes routinely get awarded head coaching positions, or the fact that very few people are shocked that it should happen. If a corporate organisation, such as McDonalds’s or City Rail, was to whimsically rush a neophyte into its boardroom, the cries of outrage and disbelief would be deafening. Yet when a club promotes a retired player to a position for which he is manifestly unqualified, nobody bats an eyelid.
Why, exactly, has the Gold Coast decided to make Michael Voss its inaugural coach? Yes, he was a champion player; yes, he occasionally provides interesting insights from the commentary box; yes, he has done some coaching courses; but what experience does he have, what meaningful qualifications does he possess? None and none, it turns out.
Voss has never worked as a head coach. Voss has never worked as an assistant coach. Logic suggests, therefore, that literally scores of people- that is, all current and former coaching staff- would have been more appropriate candidates. But that has not stopped the AFL’s next club from choosing him as its first boss. The only conclusion to be drawn is that Voss’s Brownlow Medal has been rated more highly than, say, Kevin Sheedy’s 27 years as a head coach, or John Longmire’s five and half years as an assistant. One can only wonder at the irrationality of it all.
As a legend of the game, Voss will initially receive more respect from the Gold Coast players than any unknown coach could have expected. He will only be able to exploit this for so long, though. Soon enough, his charges will be evaluating him not on his past deeds, but on how he conducts training, how he formulates game plans, how he responds during the heat of battle, and how he manages a large group of diverse personalities. And if they decide that he is not up to the job, their respect for him will inevitably diminish. Conversely, an anonymous appointee would win over the group if he was able to demonstrate that he knew what he was talking about.
Coaching an AFL club is a challenging and pressure-filled task, in which even the most illustrious have been known to fail. Denis Pagan’s unhappy five year stint at Carlton is a prime example. It stands to reason, then, that those with greater experience and qualifications are more likely to thrive than those without. In other words, it is possible that Voss will prove, from the very beginning, to be competent- just as Shelley the burger girl or Abdul the train driver might have risen to the challenge had those earlier headlines been true. Appointing a Sheedy or a Longmire, however, would have been a better guarantee of success.
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