While it was a regular part of my decade as Collingwood coach, it was something I rarely did in my second coaching stint at the Brisbane Lions.
The old fire-and-brimstone address is largely a thing of the past because if the players are ‘up’ too much it is very hard to maintain it for two and half hours.
If an over-the-top emotional ‘high’ is created pre-match and is not maintained by regular goals and the associated emotional involvement of the crowd, the ‘low’ can be significant. Even terminal.
Collingwood’s showing against St Kilda last Friday night was a good case study in this rollercoaster effect.
Coming off a lucky round-two win over Melbourne, when they performed like a team very low on emotion and energy, the Magpies went into the game against the Saints at the opposite end of the spectrum.
They displayed all the symptoms of registering off the scale in their emotional arousal levels.
It was one of those occasional openings where the pre-game aggression and intensity overflowed into plenty of push and shove, started by a hyped up Collingwood and responded to by St Kilda. The result was such that we saw two goals on the scoreboard before the first centre bounce.
While Collingwood conceded some undisciplined free kicks and 50m penalties, they also grabbed the early psychological initiative.
I also believe the quarter-time incident involving Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, when he got involved in a verbal exchange with St Kilda player Stephen Milne, was probably a reflection of the emotional state of the entire Collingwood football club.
They were not just a side going out to play footy - they were set for hand-to-hand combat.
I’m sure Mick will regret saying anything at all to an opposition player, but on the spur of the moment it was a reflection of the fire and aggression within the group psyche.
For most of the game Collingwood was the dominant side. The fact is you can be on top in every other aspect of a game but if you don’t kick goals you can’t win.
During the third quarter Collingwood were in complete control yet when I glanced at the scores, St Kilda were almost surprisingly still ahead.
The general play did not reflect a scoreboard which showed St Kilda just behind 4.5 to 4.8 at half time, and had them in front 6.6 to 4.14 at three-quarter time.
It’s part of life that each action has a following re-action. When Sam Fisher was KO’d and stretchered off during the third quarter there was an extended break after which the game changed completely.
From that point on Collingwood looked totally spent as St Kilda took complete control.
This sequence of events is totally in keeping with my experience with the delicate issue of optimising arousal levels and the resultant physical response cycle.
Invariably, both sides will start a game with a certain degree of adrenalin flow after a pre-game warm-up designed to get the body and the mind stimulated and ready for combat.
Without being a medical expert I have always summarised adrenalin as nature’s upper. It’s a natural drug produced by the body which stimulates high levels of strength and energy.
The immeasurable level of stimulation will be determined not just by the warm-up but by the reaction to the previous match and the week-long planning and preparation leading into every game.
From that point on, the adrenalin replenishment comes largely from the morale boosting nature of goals which is magnified by an excited crowd.
Anyone who saw the fourth quarter of Fremantle’s win over Geelong on Sunday, even if only on the TV screen, could feel the energy provided by the huge pro-Freo crowd and see the enormous boost this gave the home side whenever they scored a goal.
The Collingwood situation on Friday night was exactly the opposite. Because they only kicked four goals for the entire game, and none after half time, the adrenalin replenishment was largely non-existent.
Yes, St Kilda led by the inspiring Lenny Hayes regrouped extremely well during the break in play for the Fisher injury. But it was also a clear example of a side hyped to the eyeballs pre-match failing to get sufficient goal-driven adrenalin replacement and finding themselves totally spent.
That Collingwood kicked nine consecutive behinds after half time only served to exaggerate the situation.
I recall another example of this kind of stimulation cycle taking place when the Lions played the Power in Adelaide a few years back.
Scores were tight heading into three-quarter time and Port took their huddle to the outer side of AAMI Stadium in front of the Port faithful.
The noise this created was deafening but when it was followed not by a couple of Port goals but a couple of Lions goals, the momentum swung completely our way and we went on to take the points.
I recall speaking with Lions sports psychologist Dr Phil Jauncey afterwards. His view was that while Port had stirred their players' energy levels during the break, they always ran the risk of paying a high price and running out of emotional gas if they did not get rewarded and encouraged during the next phase of play.
It proves yet again that the mind and body are indelibly linked.
This is why pre-game pep talks are almost a thing of the past in the AFL, and why the art of getting that optimum arousal level at the start of a game remains a difficult balancing of short-and long-term gain.
And it’s why if you over-do it and get too up too early then you run the risk of being completely shot two hours later.
Read more Leigh Matthews
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
