Chappy by Paul Chapman

Author:Paul Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Hardie Grant Books
Published: 2015-10-08T04:00:00+00:00

Chris Scott was part of that Brisbane side—a bunch of ruthless animals who would punch your head in if those were their orders. We learnt so much from them. I was in Noosa when he was chosen as senior coach. I thought it was a strange call. Sando (Brenton Sanderson) and Kenny (Ken Hinkley) were the obvious choices. And Geelong being Geelong, I thought they would stick to their own. While I would have been happy with either of them, the club may not have progressed to the same extent. They had both done their training under Bomber so things may have stayed the same. When Scotty came on board, it was a clear sign that the club was moving forward. His appointment turned out to be a brilliant decision.

Scotty had a good understanding of the list and where it needed to be improved. We were good but as far as he was concerned, there were areas that needed a lot of work. The way he communicated with his players was first class. That’s what I learnt most from him. When I arrived at Geelong, messages were delivered short and sharp—you could hit someone between the eyes with expectation and information. That was the norm and you took it on the chin. Now emotion plays a bigger role and coaches realise that what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. I think that was Scotty’s greatest strength, interpreting the mental strengths and weaknesses of every team member. I thought he could have afforded to be more callous. He played that way so we were all expecting a similar personality. But he proved to be quite the opposite. He earned our respect straight away and from day one, we all wanted to play for him. While he was compassionate, he was also strong-minded. He had to be. As good as he was, he also knew that he could be gone in two years—such is the nature of the game.

Scotty was very receptive to questions being asked and our suggestions never went unheard. He was an open book—we always knew what was required to get the job done. Once we found the formula at Geelong, it came down to consistently putting that into practice. We set such high standards for ourselves that if we fell short of meeting them, it was inexcusable and there would be consequences. Even if we won we wouldn’t be happy unless we played to the full extent of our capabilities.

In the 2011 Grand Final Scotty was more concerned with us tackling the game as a whole team rather than focusing on our one-on-one match-ups. Although we did talk about nullifying the effects of players like Scott Pendlebury, it was more about us doing what we knew worked for us. Of that playing group I think Lingy (Cameron Ling) could become a senior coach. He is definitely the stand-out. Jimmy (Bartel) knows the game very well. Stevie ( Johnson) could too, whether as a senior role or an assistant or development coach.

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