D-Man
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- Oct 2, 2002
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Regrets, he's had a few
March 22, 2004
He was impatient and emotional as a first-year coach. Dean Laidley says he must now focus on more than just the score. Caroline Wilson reports.
Dean Laidley admits now, with some regret, that he let himself go physically in his first season as a senior AFL coach. He shouted at players when he shouldn't have, and allowed the emotion of some occasions to blur his judgement.
And the football world watched his boyish and occasionally tortured presence with a fascination that wavered at times between bemusement and admiration.
For the rest of us it was a wild and exhilarating ride. For Laidley, it was a public initiation that he believes has changed him. And the emotional changes, according to the Kangaroos' coach, took place long before a potentially career-destroying accident forced him flat on his back.
Just days after Laidley was entrusted with the task of rebuilding the North Melbourne football team, two of his senior players came close to death as a result of the October 12 Bali bombing. Had the tragedy not taken place, he would have retired both Mick Martyn and Jason McCartney.
The first tough decision he made was to retain McCartney on the club's list. Martyn was delisted and fell apart emotionally as a result. From that time on, it never seemed to stop for Laidley. Drama and emotion became the profitable but distracting theme of 2003, his year of living dangerously.
"I was flying by the seat of my pants," said Laidley on the eve of year No. 2. "But I did things a little bit differently from the beginning to the end. The thing I hope I learned was to be patient.
"The club was making the transition from being a powerhouse to a group with a rejuvenated list very quickly. The younger players did very well but I probably expected too much of them at times. A player like Drew Petrie was just terrific, but there were weeks when I expected him to run all day when his body just wasn't ready for that.
"The lesson I hope I learned was to be a teacher without blindly just wanting to win the next game."
The most recent evidence of Laidley's eye on the bigger picture took place three days ago when he called his entire list of senior players to the club and introduced three senior detectives from the Victoria Police sexual assault prevention unit.
The players were lectured for two hours on the definition of sexual assault, danger signs to avoid when out in public and the perils of drink-driving. The talk was graphic and punctuated with anecdotal cautionary tales. The club had planned the session for April but brought it forward following the St Kilda scandal.
And last week Laidley reluctantly allowed his young star defender Troy Makepeace to remain in Melbourne rather than fly to Perth for the team's last pre-season game. Makepeace's father is gravely ill and, with his brother's 21st scheduled for the same day as the West Coast game, the player asked the coach to allow the entire family to be together for the occasion.
But the coach has struggled with the concept of placing the bigger picture ahead of winning every week. His team has a plan, an ideal for 2004 he will not detail, but the overall theme is simple. "We are shooting for the stars," said Laidley. "Just like we were last year when nobody thought we had a hope."
And now he has been forced to impose the same patience upon himself since the training accident in which he broke three ribs in his back and was lucky to have not become permanently paralysed.
He is still weaning himself off painkillers, a process he hopes to complete be the time the Kangaroos take on Adelaide next Sunday. And the coming week will mark the first time he has not spent two full weekdays at home lying on his back.
Patience is a recurring theme at the Kangaroos. It looked for much of last season that Laidley would defy the odds and make the finals in his first season. But the Kangaroos administration, thwarted again at the end of the season when the Jade Rawlings deal was taken out of its hands, insists it has not wavered in its support of the coach.
Laidley has a three-year deal, but chief executive Geoff Walsh told The Age he was hopeful a new contract negotiation could begin early next year. "To be honest, Dean and I have not discussed it, but we would certainly hope at this stage to extend the deal," said Walsh.
Laidley, who turns 37 next Saturday, retired as a player in 1997 and now finds himself the father of a teenage daughter the same age as some of his players.
Brooke, 17, is studying VCE this year. Dean and Jo Laidley also have a 12-year-old son Kane and a second daughter, four-year-old Molly.
Eight days ago, when the Kangaroos landed home from Perth around dawn, Laidley told his players to go home and enjoy several hours' sleep before reporting to Arden Street for the club's family day. Laidley told the footballers who had played in the West Coast game that only one hour was required of them.
But after he left, new skipper Adam Simpson addressed the group and all voted to turn up on time and remain until the function finished.
Laidley, who came to the family day via the Victorian junior athletic championships where his son was contesting the under-12 high jump, has been attending leadership sessions with Simpson and his three official deputies Brent Harvey, Shannon Grant and Petrie.
The coach is confident that the Kangaroos will continue, by osmosis and not manufactured bonding sessions, to thrive once Anthony Stevens and Glenn Archer have departed.
When the Kangaroos' end-of-season holiday took place at Kankun at the end of last season, the entire senior list, apart from Ben Robbin, who was getting married, attended.
The higher-paid players helped fund those rookies who could not have otherwise afforded the trip.
To say that the buzz term "team bonding" has become an unattractive one in recent weeks would be an understatement. But a firm believer in player empowerment, Laidley denied that Archer and Stevens had become too dominant at Arden Street following Wayne Carey's departure.
"That's something else you can't manufacture," he said. "The reality is that when Glenn Archer speaks, and he doesn't normally say much, the players listen."
Laidley left the captaincy decision up to Stevens himself and agreed he would never have asked the former captain to relinquish the leadership of the team had Stevens not suggested it.
It was Stevens, too, who put forward Simpson's name as his replacement.
"I thought it was fantastic of him and Glenn (Archer) to do that," said Laidley, who could see not only Archer and Stevens but also David King and Saverio Rocca retire come the season's end. "It showed so much thought towards the club's legacy.
"While I would have let it ride with Anthony as captain, I'm not going to wait around and see good people go out the door and not fill the void. Last year we lost Byron Pickett, John Blakey and Mick Martyn. It doesn't matter who they are, they are always replaced. They have to be."
The notice board above Laidley's desk at Arden Street features an aerial photograph of the MCG on grand final day, 1996, when the coach was a member of the premiership team that included five senior players he will coach again this year.
Alongside that picture are a series of articles and thoughts on the business of winning and club and corporate ethos. Laidley's favorite is there to constantly remind himself of his No. 1 priority.
"My job is to keep the peace and quality in the joint and make sure it remains a place of opportunity," said the coach before his brow furrowed again.
"That is the key. Winning that game each week should be secondary. I must admit I still struggle with that concept from time to time."
March 22, 2004
He was impatient and emotional as a first-year coach. Dean Laidley says he must now focus on more than just the score. Caroline Wilson reports.
Dean Laidley admits now, with some regret, that he let himself go physically in his first season as a senior AFL coach. He shouted at players when he shouldn't have, and allowed the emotion of some occasions to blur his judgement.
And the football world watched his boyish and occasionally tortured presence with a fascination that wavered at times between bemusement and admiration.
For the rest of us it was a wild and exhilarating ride. For Laidley, it was a public initiation that he believes has changed him. And the emotional changes, according to the Kangaroos' coach, took place long before a potentially career-destroying accident forced him flat on his back.
Just days after Laidley was entrusted with the task of rebuilding the North Melbourne football team, two of his senior players came close to death as a result of the October 12 Bali bombing. Had the tragedy not taken place, he would have retired both Mick Martyn and Jason McCartney.
The first tough decision he made was to retain McCartney on the club's list. Martyn was delisted and fell apart emotionally as a result. From that time on, it never seemed to stop for Laidley. Drama and emotion became the profitable but distracting theme of 2003, his year of living dangerously.
"I was flying by the seat of my pants," said Laidley on the eve of year No. 2. "But I did things a little bit differently from the beginning to the end. The thing I hope I learned was to be patient.
"The club was making the transition from being a powerhouse to a group with a rejuvenated list very quickly. The younger players did very well but I probably expected too much of them at times. A player like Drew Petrie was just terrific, but there were weeks when I expected him to run all day when his body just wasn't ready for that.
"The lesson I hope I learned was to be a teacher without blindly just wanting to win the next game."
The most recent evidence of Laidley's eye on the bigger picture took place three days ago when he called his entire list of senior players to the club and introduced three senior detectives from the Victoria Police sexual assault prevention unit.
The players were lectured for two hours on the definition of sexual assault, danger signs to avoid when out in public and the perils of drink-driving. The talk was graphic and punctuated with anecdotal cautionary tales. The club had planned the session for April but brought it forward following the St Kilda scandal.
And last week Laidley reluctantly allowed his young star defender Troy Makepeace to remain in Melbourne rather than fly to Perth for the team's last pre-season game. Makepeace's father is gravely ill and, with his brother's 21st scheduled for the same day as the West Coast game, the player asked the coach to allow the entire family to be together for the occasion.
But the coach has struggled with the concept of placing the bigger picture ahead of winning every week. His team has a plan, an ideal for 2004 he will not detail, but the overall theme is simple. "We are shooting for the stars," said Laidley. "Just like we were last year when nobody thought we had a hope."
And now he has been forced to impose the same patience upon himself since the training accident in which he broke three ribs in his back and was lucky to have not become permanently paralysed.
He is still weaning himself off painkillers, a process he hopes to complete be the time the Kangaroos take on Adelaide next Sunday. And the coming week will mark the first time he has not spent two full weekdays at home lying on his back.
Patience is a recurring theme at the Kangaroos. It looked for much of last season that Laidley would defy the odds and make the finals in his first season. But the Kangaroos administration, thwarted again at the end of the season when the Jade Rawlings deal was taken out of its hands, insists it has not wavered in its support of the coach.
Laidley has a three-year deal, but chief executive Geoff Walsh told The Age he was hopeful a new contract negotiation could begin early next year. "To be honest, Dean and I have not discussed it, but we would certainly hope at this stage to extend the deal," said Walsh.
Laidley, who turns 37 next Saturday, retired as a player in 1997 and now finds himself the father of a teenage daughter the same age as some of his players.
Brooke, 17, is studying VCE this year. Dean and Jo Laidley also have a 12-year-old son Kane and a second daughter, four-year-old Molly.
Eight days ago, when the Kangaroos landed home from Perth around dawn, Laidley told his players to go home and enjoy several hours' sleep before reporting to Arden Street for the club's family day. Laidley told the footballers who had played in the West Coast game that only one hour was required of them.
But after he left, new skipper Adam Simpson addressed the group and all voted to turn up on time and remain until the function finished.
Laidley, who came to the family day via the Victorian junior athletic championships where his son was contesting the under-12 high jump, has been attending leadership sessions with Simpson and his three official deputies Brent Harvey, Shannon Grant and Petrie.
The coach is confident that the Kangaroos will continue, by osmosis and not manufactured bonding sessions, to thrive once Anthony Stevens and Glenn Archer have departed.
When the Kangaroos' end-of-season holiday took place at Kankun at the end of last season, the entire senior list, apart from Ben Robbin, who was getting married, attended.
The higher-paid players helped fund those rookies who could not have otherwise afforded the trip.
To say that the buzz term "team bonding" has become an unattractive one in recent weeks would be an understatement. But a firm believer in player empowerment, Laidley denied that Archer and Stevens had become too dominant at Arden Street following Wayne Carey's departure.
"That's something else you can't manufacture," he said. "The reality is that when Glenn Archer speaks, and he doesn't normally say much, the players listen."
Laidley left the captaincy decision up to Stevens himself and agreed he would never have asked the former captain to relinquish the leadership of the team had Stevens not suggested it.
It was Stevens, too, who put forward Simpson's name as his replacement.
"I thought it was fantastic of him and Glenn (Archer) to do that," said Laidley, who could see not only Archer and Stevens but also David King and Saverio Rocca retire come the season's end. "It showed so much thought towards the club's legacy.
"While I would have let it ride with Anthony as captain, I'm not going to wait around and see good people go out the door and not fill the void. Last year we lost Byron Pickett, John Blakey and Mick Martyn. It doesn't matter who they are, they are always replaced. They have to be."
The notice board above Laidley's desk at Arden Street features an aerial photograph of the MCG on grand final day, 1996, when the coach was a member of the premiership team that included five senior players he will coach again this year.
Alongside that picture are a series of articles and thoughts on the business of winning and club and corporate ethos. Laidley's favorite is there to constantly remind himself of his No. 1 priority.
"My job is to keep the peace and quality in the joint and make sure it remains a place of opportunity," said the coach before his brow furrowed again.
"That is the key. Winning that game each week should be secondary. I must admit I still struggle with that concept from time to time."
I love our club 
