Spending days in camp as one of the A-Leagues All Stars coaches gave former Canberra boss Heather Garriock an experience like no other.
A few hours after the A-Leagues All Stars played Barcelona last week, I took a moment to look around the room as the post-match dinner wound down.
A few players were already leaving for late-night flights, but Dwight Yorke was on a Facetime with friends overseas, detailing what had happened, Robbie Stanton and I were digesting how the game had gone as Dwight’s two assistants, and players from all sorts of clubs were chatting around the dining tables.
We mic’d up Heather for the All Stars game. Watch the feature here.
I’ve experienced dozens and dozens of camps, with the Matildas as a player, and with teams up to and including Canberra United as a coach and the Matildas as an assistant, but the All Stars was a unique feeling and a unique environment that I was proud to be involved in.
The camaraderie of a dressing room is unimprovable when it’s good, and I had hoped this would be up there as I came into camp the Sunday before. Since I left coaching and went into sports administration, I have happily traded the intensity of a dressing room for the work-life balance and stability of my job at Australian Taekondo.
But it was actually even better than I’d hoped; Dwight’s leadership and charisma, Robbie Stanton’s deep technical understanding as assistant coach at Sydney FC, and my own challenging of everything we did to make sure were working as a team, did exactly that – it created a team of coaches with a brilliant dynamic.
The players were tentative at first with me, but I’m also not exactly renowned for being shy, and very quickly we were pushing them and challenging them, but also making sure everything we did was fun and enjoyable. On the pitch, they started to understand that I could add value regardless of my gender, and I loved the way we interacted.
You take influences as a coach from various sources. I remember the feelings I had as a player – you’re basically very self-centred and self-absorbed, so a coach has to remember the specific concerns of each player. When Kye Rowles, who’s had an outstanding season, gave away a bad pass and Barca scored from it, I had to tap him on the shoulder at halftime and reassure him.
Clearly coaching has the tactical and technical aspect as well, and I think Robbie Stanton and I worked well together there; he had prepared extensive plans and notes, but was happy to be inclusive and have them stress tested.
What really surprised me is how much my role as CEO of Australian Taekwondo has helped my coaching and leadership. Perhaps it should have been obvious, for they are very overlapping roles; leading a team and staying calm under pressure, seeking to instil high performance standards, managing individuals, all while trying to keep one eye on the far horizon and understanding the journey we are on collectively.
As a relatively trivial example, there was a point in the second half when Dwight was consumed with the emotion of the game, Robbie was thinking about our tactics for managing the game at 2-1, but I was working through the fact that we were trying to make 10 substitutions to make sure that everybody got to play a part against Barca – all without totally exploding the structure and plans.
In fact the subs just added to the performance, and we’ve seen video clips from the game go viral. I love seeing the kids in particular get their reward for hard work and fearlessness.
I must admit, I Ioved coaching again. It put the fire back in my belly, after the pressure and politics of running a W-League team had possibly extinguished it. I have to remember this was the pinnacle of A-Leagues coaching, with a team of top players, both Australian and from overseas, and some amazing support staff.
But it was also my first time coaching men for years; previously I had worked at Westfield Sports High and at Sydney University with male teams, and the change of environment here refreshed me.
So I’m deeply grateful for the chance to be involved, and so impressed with what was put on in a very short space of time. It was a shame we couldn’t hold on to that 2-1 win but in the end, there were no losers, just a win for the football community.
