Ernie was born in Scotland, but he understands the game of Australian football intimately and was talking to us about the soccer concepts that could possibly have an impact in the AFL.
After the conference we spoke about the prospect of Ernie being involved as an AFL coach because I think having someone of his calibre at your club would give you a huge tactical and professional advantage.
Some supporters might not realise it, but soccer has already had an influence on the way we play the game of AFL. The concepts of flooding and zone defence originate from soccer, as does the use of formations.
Traditionally, Australian football was played with people in set positions. You’d have six backs playing on six forwards and six midfielders play on six midfielders, but that’s not the case anymore.
These days you might play five, four or even just the two forwards because you want an extra player in defence or more bodies in the midfield and this is similar to what happens in soccer when a team changes its formation.
These concepts are very much in their infancy in AFL, but they’ve been around for years in soccer.
When I was doing physical education 30 years ago I learned the concepts of time and space. These concepts are vital in the AFL now because of the speed of the game and the pressure it creates on the kicker and understanding them gives you a greater appreciation of what teams/players are trying to do.
If the player kicking the ball has more time and space they have a better chance of hitting their targets, which in turn leads to greater and more efficient scoring opportunities for their team.
In Australian football a player might create time and space for the ball carrier by blocking or shepherding or even instructing out loud. Players without the ball can also help by blocking or leading forward to create space.
Players might handball or kick backwards to spread wide and spread the opposition defence, this can create gaps for the attacking side.
At times we all get frustrated seeing these tactics, but by being patient and kicking the ball around you’re actually trying to open up the defence and find a hole (not every team has a Jonathan Brown sitting in the goal square).
You also try and get the ball into the hands of the players in your team with the best kicks to make the hardest passes because they seem to have all the time in the world.
The passes inside 50 are generally the toughest to make because there is usually a lot of opposition players in the area.
Again, you can look to spread the defence, hold possession of the ball, try and find a gap or look to get the ball to your best player to take the kick - these are all soccer tactics.
Soccer has also provided us with many effective training techniques.
My old physical education teacher Alan Launder wrote a book called ‘Play Practice’ that encourages decision-making in training and has resulted in the 6v4 or 16v12 drills we see used at AFL clubs today.
These drills overload opportunities for people to develop decision-making skills and create time and space.
At Port Adelaide we have close ties with Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar and also Neil McGachey, who played for Australia, and three years ago we had Darren Burgess working as our fitness coach.
Darren went to work with the Socceroos and two weeks ago he was appointed the head fitness and conditioning coach at Liverpool.
It’s a dream come true for Darren and I’ll be very happy too when he sends me my signed Fernando Torres and Stevie Gerrard top.
A lot of the coaches at Port Adelaide are Liverpool supporters, so we’ve got a few words of advice for him and Raffa Benitez as well.
There’s plenty of development left in football and as coaches we continue to look to different sports to gain a competitive edge.
The best teams will be the ones that can create the most time and space for their players to work in and I think Ernie Merrick could be invaluable in this sense.
Ernie’s had a lot of success in his career and if he doesn’t go onto coach soccer at a national or international level, I’m sure he will be in the AFL soon ... just not sure if anyone will understand a word he says.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
