AUSTRALIA'S Asian Cup-winning coach Ange Postecoglou has played a key role in selecting the next generation of potential AFL coaches as part of an accreditation program soon to be launched.
The AFL is close to finalising between eight and 10 successful applicants for its Level 4 AFL senior coach course, which will prepare assistant coaches for the demands of the top job before they apply.
The first influx of coaches to complete the course have been hand-picked by five separate panels that included Postecoglou, who led the national soccer team to glory in this year’s AFC Asian Cup.
Legendary hockey coach Ric Charlesworth also played a role in determining the successful candidates as the AFL looked to coaching experts from outside Australian football.
West Coast premiership coach John Worsfold, who is now chairman of the AFL Coaches Association, sat on a number of the panels, along with former Hawthorn coach Peter Schwab.
Rounding out the selection team were experienced club CEOs Trevor Nisbett (West Coast), Peter Jackson (Melbourne), Brian Cook (Geelong) and Greg Swann (Brisbane Lions).
It is understood the successful applicants, who are viewed as the next wave of senior coaches, will be notified next week before the course launches early in the season.
The new qualification, which will become mandatory for senior coaches, has been developed in consultation with the AFLCA and the League's 18 senior coaches.
Described as a PhD in coaching AFL football, the course's development has been led by the AFL's Michael Poulton with input from former senior coaches Brendan McCartney, Neale Daniher and Worsfold.
Poulton said the curriculum was based on a model from the International Council for Coach Education, which had then been tailored to the AFL by McCartney.
"The five key competencies are around setting strategy and vision; shaping the environment; building relationships; conducting training and competition and learning and reflecting," Poulton told AFL.com.au.
"They're across the board whether you’re a high-performance NFL coach or a high-performance AFL coach.
"We then pulled that apart and said ‘what does that look like in football and what are the experiences we need to achieve that’?”
AFLCA chairman John Worsfold has been involved in the new accreditation program. Picture: AFL Media
The AFLCA is co-funding the course and is keen to see less turnover in the game's most high-profile role.
Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Richmond are the only clubs to have not changed coaches since the start of 2010, with three coaches replaced at the end of last season.
Across all levels in the AFL – including assistant and development coaches – 106 coaches have changed clubs since 2010, with 157 new coaches entering the game.
"The tenure across our 180 coaches is somewhere between two and three years before they change jobs … so it's a very volatile job," AFLCA chief executive Mark Brayshaw told AFL.com.au.
"What we need to do is put coaches in a better position to succeed.
"Coaching accreditation will take the next wave of aspiring senior coaches and give them a better chance of succeeding, because the fallout from failing is dreadful for the individual coach, it's terrible for the players and the financial costs to the industry are horrible."
