Football Department Watch

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David Noble named as Brisbane Lions’ new General Manager of Football

The Brisbane Lions have confirmed David Noble as the club's new General Manager of Football.

Noble joins the Club with an impeccable track record having spent the past decade at the Adelaide Crows as assistant coach, list manager, and most recently Head of Football since 2014.

Prior to joining the Crows, the 49-year-old coached SANFL side Glenelg and spent five years as an assistant at the Western Bulldogs.

A two-game player with Fitzroy in the early 1990s, Noble played a significant role in the appointments of senior coaches Don Pyke and the late Phil Walsh at the Crows.

Noble will start with the Lions on Monday and his first point of business will be taking his place in the five-person panel selecting the Club's new Senior Coach.

Brisbane Lions CEO Greg Swann said Noble was an outstanding candidate and a perfect fit for the Club.

"David has an outstanding track record and is widely respected across the industry," said Swann.

"The Club is going in a new direction and we need the best people to lead that change - David really fits the bill across every criteria.

"He is an elite operator and the professionalism, knowledge and experience he will bring to our Football Department will be key to our Club's revival."

DAVID NOBLE

2 games at Fitzroy (1991).
Victorian manager of business services at AMP Society (1992-1995).
Head coach at the NSW/ACT Rams (1995-1997)
Assistant coach at the Western Bulldogs (1998-2002).
Senior coach at Glenelg (2003-2004).
Assistant coach at Adelaide (2005-2010).
GM of list development and strategy at Adelaide (2011-2013).
Head of Football at Adelaide (2014-2016).
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INSIDE THE LIONS' DEN
Chris Fagan has an open-door policy, but that’s no throwaway line.

Communication and messaging are buzz words in today’s era, which can be a trying experience when accounting for a list of players that exceeds 40 young men.

Relationships are key.

Brisbane players are enjoying their football in 2017. That feeling is across the board. While wins have been scarce, there is a bigger picture focus that is not only strategic, but long term. There’s a correlation between feeling fulfilled off the field, and playing well on it. Geelong, Sydney and Hawthorn have been well-regarded when it comes to developing players on the field, and ensuring they’re motivated in other areas.

Up north, there’s been a shift at looking at life after football and taking that more seriously. “We’re trying to be proactive with players by sitting down with them and asking them about their interests away from football,” says Andrew Crowell, who joined the Lions in December as their Head of Personal Excellence and Wellbeing.

“We ask them what they want to do in 15 years, and also what their interests are right now. The other area is around community and identifying what they want to do there — we may have a player who has a strong interest in domestic violence, or Indigenous affairs or homelessness. If we have that information, we can communicate it to other departments and make sure that when appearances happen or there’s club visits that they can do things that are of interest to them. It’s about the players getting something out of it.”

Perhaps these developments seem simplistic and obvious to outsiders, but the fact of the matter is that the Brisbane Lions haven’t excelled in this department in the past. The caring and nurturing environment that exists now simply wasn’t apparent previously. There was a level of impatience and inconsistency towards strategy and direction.

“Having someone like David Noble come on board has fine-tuned things,” Crowell continued. “We communicate better with different departments and it’s those little things that he has been able to bring to the table that have structured us up in better fashion.” One question that now gets bandied around the club is, ‘If you don’t perform over the weekend, what’s your release from football during the week?’

Jack Frost spends a day at a V8 Supercar mechanic, Marco Paparone designs t-shirts, Mitch Robinson has bought into a barber shop, Claye Beams, Darcy Gardiner and Sam Mayes are doing apprenticeships. “At the end of the day, we’re all adults playing AFL,” Lester explains. “We don’t need a school-like environment. It’s about you making the right decisions for you and your football, on and off the field.”

While the football club has bought into the playing group and shown more care, it’s imperative that those who take to the field do the same.Both Fagan and Noble have implemented Leading Teams into the football department, which interestingly enough, was a method the Lions had in place nearly a decade ago, with varying success.

The most recent iteration began at the start of this season, and continues on a monthly basis. The leadership group will meet to discuss, and there are all-in meetings that cover the entire playing group.

While Lester says, “It’s not rocket science,” he does stress the importance of recognising aspects that haven’t been fruitful previously. “It is acknowledging behaviours in the past that haven’t been helpful to us, and being able to realise that they’re hindering us as a club and as a team, and being able to turn them around. Most of it is common sense, but once you actually fix a couple of things the culture of the place shifts, and ours has dramatically.”

Fagan came to the club with a blank canvas when it came to his new players, but the most excruciating decision came relatively early in his tenure.

One of the great problems for Brisbane has been player retention, and it reared its ugly head for them at the end of 2013. Sam Docherty, Elliot Yeo, Jared Polec, Billy Longer and Patrick Karnezis all requested trades to their home states.Through those various moves, however, the Lions have yielded Lewis Taylor, Tom Cutler, Dan McStay and Nick Robertson — all of whom have enjoyed a consistent run in the senior team.

McStay recently signed on for an extra two years, and their No. 2 selection from the 2015 draft, Josh Schache, showed his commitment by extending until 2019.

“There’s a lot of boys that have come up from interstate, and I think the environment we’ve created here is really positive,” Crowell contends. “They want to be here, and they’re really clear on where we’re going. I’m pretty sure the players now actually know that the club cares for them as people.”

Speak to those close to Schache, and they’ll tell you that he battled while deliberating on his decision. The constant media speculation — the talkback radio discussion, airtime on various AFL TV shows, column inches and of course, the back page of The Age that depicted him in a Richmond jumper — all affected a 19-year-old who was making an impossible decision. While a large contingent of reporters had his leaving papers all but signed, the Lions never lost faith in their young cub.

They were honest, open and supportive, and let it be known that if he needed a spell at any time, that wish would be granted. Brisbane weren’t making decisions out of panic due to the speculation, they made calls based on what was right for a teenager.

“We were catching up regularly with Josh to make sure things were going well at home,” Crowell added. “We had consistent conversations with his family to see how they were going. Josh was talking to me about how he was going off the field — whether he was physically or mentally flat, and how he was coping with what he had to consume on social media.”

In May, and around the height of the speculation, Schache took some much-needed time away from the club in his home town of Seymour. And while the external noise bordered on the ridiculous, the internal feeling never wavered. A couple of days after returning north, he put pen to paper on a new deal.
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Some fascinating insights into the club and what they're doing off the field and for the first time in a long time, it feels like we're getting things right off-field.

No idea whether we are or not, but I don't see why we would look at bringing Craig Lambert back into the fold.
 

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Dylan12 said:
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I have no idea whether or not Ben Hudson is good at what he does as the mid-field coach but this particular interview was very ordinary - I now know that we "didn't get the chocolates" but not much else. Maybe the interview questions were limiting but...
 
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