Coaching Structure

[The Uncle]

Our football department this year lacked structure and was way too small. Our coaching department looked something like this:

Senior Coach - Dean Bailey
Assistant Coach - Mark Williams
Forward Line - Josh mahony
Backline - Brain Royal
Midfield - Scott West
Development Coach - Kelly O’Donnell
Innovations Coach - David Dunbar
General Manager, Football Operations - Chris Connolly

Mark Neeld has already increased the number of Line coaches and said at the Best&Fairest there would be 8 Full-Time coaches. I think our coaching structure will look something more like this in 2012.

Senior Coach - Mark Neeld
Senior Assistant - ? possibly Neil Craig
Assistant Coach / Backline - Jade Rawlings
Backline Development Coach - ?
Midfield Coach - Brian Royal
Midfield Development Coach - Aaron Greaves
Forward Line Coach - ?
Forward Line Development Coach - Paul Satterly
General Manager - Player Development - Todd Viney

That means we still have at least 2-3 coaching positions to fill, We will definately sign a new Forward Line coach and I'm confident we will sign an experienced Senior Assistant to mentor Neeld. We have also added David Misson as our Elite Performance Manager who will manager the current fitness and conditioning staff.

Finally we are spending the required money on our Football Department, we no longer have blokes like Connolly trying to do too many jobs at once. Hopefully this new structure that Neeld is putting in place can help solve the problems we clearly had off the field this year and starts turning around the problems we had on the field.

 

[Den11]

Our football department this year lacked structure and was way too small. Our coaching department looked something like this:

Senior Coach - Dean Bailey
Assistant Coach - Mark Williams
Forward Line - Josh mahony
Backline - Brain Royal
Midfield - Scott West
Development Coach - Kelly O’Donnell
Innovations Coach - David Dunbar
General Manager, Football Operations - Chris Connolly

Mark Neeld has already increased the number of Line coaches and said at the Best&Fairest there would be 8 Full-Time coaches. I think our coaching structure will look something more like this in 2012.

Senior Coach - Mark Neeld
Senior Assistant - ? possibly Neil Craig
Assistant Coach / Backline - Jade Rawlings
Backline Development Coach - ?
Midfield Coach - Brian Royal
Midfield Development Coach - Aaron Greaves
Forward Line Coach - ?
Forward Line Development Coach - Paul Satterly
Player Development - Todd Viney
General Manager / Director of Footbal - Josh mahony

Just the one add in of Mahony as he will still have a roll in our football department!!

Im getting excited about the new structure and especially the new talent. It seems as Neeld is getting free reign to fill the positions how he feels fit to!

The big thing in this process is how all candidates are talking up Schwab and his passion!! Hopefully has learnt from his mistakes!

 

[Gazza_11]

Wish Todd Viney would step in for Brian Royal as midfield coach.

 

[bing181]

The big thing in this process is how all candidates are talking up Schwab and his passion!! Hopefully has learnt from his mistakes!

Don't know that Schwab could ever have been accused of lacking in passion ...

 

[DEMON PRIDE]

Where has Paul Satterly come from??

 

[Samsara]

Where has Paul Satterly come from??

There is a thread about it, or you can just check melbournefc.com.au

 

[The Uncle]

Thanks den11, left out Mahony in 2012 because I was highlighting the 8 Full-Time coaches, I'm not 100% sure what his new role entails but I'm hoping he doesn't count as 1 of these 8. Looks like Neeld is placing a high importance on coaches who have delt with the development of players through TAC and VFL, but we still need an experienced senior assistant and another experienced assistant coach in charge of the Forward Line.

 

[DEMON PRIDE]

There is a thread about it, or you can just check melbournefc.com.au

Yep, might give that a look.

 

[Petterd4Brownlow]

wtb announcement of Craig

 

[stickman11]

Don't know that Schwab could ever have been accused of lacking in passion ...

did the previous coaches just feel insecure - I reckon we will be doing more training and less meetings than under the Bailey regime. A good thing. Nothing worse than talking and not doing.

 

[demonfan9]

After looking at the Melbourne FC website and reading some recent articles about our new off-field recruits, here is my understanding of the structure of the football department for 2012.

There are four sections of the football department;

• Coaching

• Performance (fitness & medical)

• Player Welfare & Development

• List Management

I believe that Neil Craig's new role, Director of Sports Performance, oversees three of these sections (Coaching, Performance & Player Welfare). Taken directly from the MFC article, his role is to "provide leadership, strategic direction and management support" to Mark Neeld, David Misson and Todd Viney (and their respective subordinates). "A key responsibility will be support, developing and mentoring the coaching team." The article made it very clear that the Senior Coach will still be calling the shots and influencing the direction we take, however Craig will act as a support and be able to liaise with the rest of the football department (as well as CEO/board) which allows Neeld to focus purely on coaching. He will report directly to the CEO, Cameron Schwab.

Josh Mahoney has been promoted to the role of Football Manager. If I had to guess, I would say that he is sort of an assistant to Neil Craig, and will probably perform more of the operational day-to-day tasks to which Craig has outlined. It appears that Chris Connolly's role as General Manager of Football has been expanded, to which Neil Craig has taken the senior leadership role which allows him to focus more on Coaching, Performance and Player Welfare, while Mahoney performs more of the adminstrative duties. As we know, Connolly has been moved out of the football department and into an off-field strategic management position.

Obviously, Mark Neeld is our senior coach. He will have three senior assistant coaches beneath him (Jade Rawlings, Brian Royal, and a yet to be appointed forward coach), while each of them will have an assistant coach (Aaron Greaves, Paul Satterley and a yet to be appointed backline coach). I also read on Demonland that each 'line' will have an IT support staff. I'm not sure if there will be another assistant coach appointed (opposition analyst?) as we've heard that there will be 8 full-time coaches. But if we include Neil Craig as one of those coaches, then there won't be another assistant appointed. David Dunbar is listed as Innovations Coach, so I assume that consists of opposition scouting. In 2011, Dean Bailey's support cast consisted of Brian Royal (backline), Scott West (midfield), Josh Mahoney (forward line) and Mark Williams (ball movement).

In the Performance team, David Misson has replaced Joel Hocking as the head fitness man. As far as I can tell, there have not been any other changes in this section, with Adam Paulo still the assistant fitness coach, Valeri Stoimenov strength and conditioning, Bohdan Babijczuk athletic development and Sam Pietsch physiotherapist. My understanding is that, like Neeld, Misson gets to call the shots in his area of focus, but he will come under the wing of Neil Craig, who will be there to provide support and feedback.

Todd Viney is the General Manager of Player Welfare & Development. He appears to have a few staff beneath him - Kelly O'Donnell (development coach), Ian Flack (player development manager) and Craig Lees (player resource manager). Like Neeld and Misson, Todd Viney will liaise with Neil Craig.

The fourth section of the football department is List Management. This appears to be a bit detached from the other three section. I don't believe that the List Management section, headed by General Manager Tim Harrington, comes under the scope of Neil Craig's role, however he would no doubt liaise throughout the year. Beneath Harrington is the National Recruiting Manager Barry Prendergast, with Gary Burleigh a level below, and then a network of recruiters based all throughout the country. I believe all clubs have a List Management sub-committee, which generally consists of several people including a Board member, General Manager of List Management, Senior Coach and General Manager of Football. This is to ensure that the List Management department's goals match up with those of the rest of the football club.

So there you have it, my take on the new structure of the football department.

 

[Captain Jack]

Great post df9, well explained.

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

Just a short note, I read somewhere that Misson brought his right hand man from the Saints across.

But his name escapes me.

 

[Crimson Azure]

Top post df9, sounds like we're building a huge support team to help progress the players.

Lyon apparently said on MMM before the GF that the Dees announcments haven't finished yet.

Sounds like each department crosses the others but without treading on each others toes.

 

[guitarded]

Leigh Brown from Collingwood just announced as forward coach.

 

[JA27]

leigh brown as forward line coach, did anyone see that coming?

 

[Demon 86]

Sportnewsfirst reported it a week and a bit ago- taken with a grain of salt as per everything on their site but there was warning I guess...

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

I like it.

 

[dubber]

Guys,

You have managed to secure some serious talent in the coaching department. You already have an awesome list, 2012 /2013 will be exciting times for the Melbourne FC.

good luck

 

[TrueRedBlue]

Just a short note, I read somewhere that Misson brought his right hand man from the Saints across.

But his name escapes me.

The exodus of staff from the (StK) club's football department continued yesterday, when it was revealed Robert Jackson, second in charge to departed elite performance manager David Misson, had followed Misson in defecting to Melbourne.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...for-top-job-20110922-1kn9j.html#ixzz1ZhGRotdl
​

 

[tasmanlvr]

Senior Coach - Mark Neeld
Senior Assistant - Neil Craig
Assistant Coach / Backline - Jade Rawlings
Backline Development Coach - ?
Midfield Coach - Brian Royal
Midfield Development Coach - Aaron Greaves
Forward Line Coach - Leigh Brown
Forward Line Development Coach - Paul Satterly
General Manager - Player Development - Todd Viney

EFA

Our football department just gets better and better.

 

[Weedster]

EFA

Our football department just gets better and better.

Just out of interest, what the hell is Kelly O'Donnell's role in all of this ?

 

[Deefolt]

Didn't Neeld ask the board for 7 full-time coaches... there will be more than that!

 

[Deefolt]

Just out of interest, what the hell is Kelly O'Donnell's role in all of this ?

never actually thought of him till you said that

 

[Gazza_11]

What does everyone ACTUALLY think about Brian Royal?