Football Department Watch

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My Calling: Crowell (Josie Fielding)
Andrew Crowell has a distinct memory as a young man walking around Adelaide airport aimlessly. He was 26 years old and recently delisted after playing 44 games for the Adelaide Crows in four seasons. “I’d flown a fair bit when I was playing but never had to book a flight or check in for myself. When I finished playing AFL I had to catch a flight. I had no idea how to book a ticket and when I got to the airport I didn’t know where to go,” he said.

It’s a stark contrast to the man he is now. Each day he is helping young men navigate their life in his role as Head of Personal Excellence and Wellbeing at the Brisbane Lions. “What we’re trying to do is build really strong, independent young men,” he said.

Four years and 44 AFL games and it was over. “I think for me the initial emotion was relief. I felt like now I could be ‘normal,’” Crowell explained.
“But looking back it took me a long time to feel normal again.” Like the young man in the airport, he was lost. “You grow up wanting to do something…so then I achieved my goal and by the time I’ve turned 25 I’ve set out to do something and I’ve achieved it and then it’s over,” he said.

With no plan in place, somehow he ended up working at a panel beaters. He went from being a professional athlete to sweeping floors, sanding trucks and polishing truck rims. But he says it was exactly what he needed at the time. “It was therapeutic in a way because no one there was interested in AFL,” he said.

But he wasn’t done with Club land just yet. A year later, in 2004, the phone rang for a third time. Phil Harper offered him a job at the Crows as Junior Development Coordinator. Just like that he was back in the football bubble and loved it. Over three years his jobs at the Crows ranged from ground announcing to working with sponsors.

But his life really changed in 2008 when he accepted a job offer from Mark Bolton for the AFL Player Association’s new program called Ladder. “The gods were shining down on me at that time,” Crowell said. “Ladder was an unbelievable turning point for me because it was sort of where I found my niche in the world.”

Fast forward to 2018 and Crowell is at the Lions. He was lured north for the job by former Crows colleague David Noble in late 2016. When the players have finished training, many of them sneak off to his desk afterwards for a guitar sing-along and a chat. If ‘Crowelly’, as they all call him, is not furiously typing away on his computer, he is belting out a song on his guitar.

They come in and for twenty minutes the players have forgotten about the game on the weekend or if they’ll be up for selection or if they’ll ever recover from their injury and just relax. Regulars at his desk include Matt Eagles, Charlie Cameron and Cedric Cox. Music is his stress reliever and Crowell says it’s important for the players to discover what theirs is. “Knowing what it is that takes your mind away from football,” he said. “We’re just a speck on your life I suppose to what your career is like.”

His mindset for the players is all about empowerment. “The transition for a player starts when they get drafted. So, players by the time they finish their careers, they should be prepared for what’s next,” he said. With his team, they are keen on helping the players sign up for university courses, getting involved in community events or work experience.

This year the Club had four players graduate from a real estate course, Claye Beams finished his plumbing apprenticeship, and many have started a business certificate. “The reality is that every single player leaves,” he said. “Every player whether you play fifteen years or two years is going to leave the system and you’re going to have to step into something else.”

Not only does his department assist players with their careers away from football, but also what’s happening in their personal lives from a wellbeing point of view. “Mental health is an area we focus heavily on in our department. We provide a number of avenues for players, their partners and family members to access professional support when needed. In addition to this we provide ongoing mental health programs aimed to equip players with the tools they need to deal with issues when they arise”.

Recently Crowell was part of the exit interviews after six players were delisted, which he can relate to. This time he saw it from another perspective.
“I’ve always been on the player’s end of the delistings, whether it’s been through my personal experience or my role with the AFL Players Association” he said.

“Sitting down with Chris Fagan and David Noble at the end of last year. At the end of the day when we delisted our players they were gone. They were mentally shot.” As brilliant and exhilarating as the industry can be, he knows it’s equally as tough. “For us it’s about having good systems in place,” he said.

His team work directly with 46 players, as well as their parents, managers and partners and track every piece of communication. Every week he sits down with Noble to discuss every players' wellbeing and how they are progressing in aspects of their life off the field. It’s a demanding job, with a 24/7 nature but Crowell would not have it any other way.

“I love coming to work every day. It’s a demanding job but the people I work with are fantastic. Our players are driven, dedicated and eager to develop on and off the field and having mentors like David Noble and Chris Fagan have allowed me to develop and grow personally and professionally. It’s a privilege to be a part of what we’re building here at the Lions,” he said.

He hopes the Lions can foster an environment where the players enjoy their time, as it can be over all too soon. “You do have to make the most of it and enjoy it and appreciate what’s in front of you,” he said.
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Was looking at the club's staff site today and I didn't realise that brynley Abad had left us to go back to the Reds this season. Hopefully not too big Of a loss as it was my understanding he was a major part of our improvement in injury prevention and conditioning
 
A bit more about Phil Smyth's role at the club. I assume he'll be working closely with Hodgey.

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“I will probably stay with Brisbane this year out of loyalty to Fages and Danny Daly and coaches there. I was a player/coaches mentor, you can call it what you like, just a little piece of the puzzle,” Smyth told The Advertiser.

Smyth was coaching mentor to Damien Hardwick in Richmond’s surge to the 2017 flag then joined Brisbane for its rise from 15th to second after the minor round this year under Fagan.
 
jackess said:
A bit more about Phil Smyth's role at the club. I assume he'll be working closely with Hodgey.

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“I will probably stay with Brisbane this year out of loyalty to Fages and Danny Daly and coaches there. I was a player/coaches mentor, you can call it what you like, just a little piece of the puzzle,” Smyth told The Advertiser.

Smyth was coaching mentor to Damien Hardwick in Richmond’s surge to the 2017 flag then joined Brisbane for its rise from 15th to second after the minor round this year under Fagan.
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Never heard of him.
 
Dlions said:
Couldn’t get past the paywall to view the whole article. So thanks.
The name did kind of sound familiar, but I didn’t think it was associated with the AFL.
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Josh Walker always reminded me of him. You know, in his mid 20’s you could’ve mistaken him for being in his late 40’s with the loss of hair.
 

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Is the reference to showing loyalty to the coaches a bit of a stab at others in the football department e.g. Noble?
 
Sorry, I don't have telepathic powers, has Noble been disloyal to our coaches? When? How?
 
An interesting and moving background story on Fages from HS:

Chris Fagan fought tooth and nail to become an AFL coach but then, finally having achieved his dream in Brisbane, contemplated giving it all away.
While he was in the Queensland capital resurrecting the Lions, his father, Austin, was slowly losing a debilitating battle with a brain injury acquired from a fall.
While Fagan’s mother Beth – Austin’s wife of 59 years – and his brothers Grant and David and sister Anne-Maree attended to their husband and father, Fagan felt isolated so far from home.

Austin finally lost his two-year battle, passing away from pneumonia last December, aged 85.
“I watched dad go through that for a couple of years,” Fagan told the Sunday Tasmanian, while in Hobart last week on the Lions pre-season training camp.
“Mum did a brilliant job of caring for him and you get a new appreciation for people who care for people who can’t look after themselves when you see it first-hand.

“My sister and two brothers did a brilliant job as well and probably me sitting back up in Brisbane doing what I dreamt of doing all my life, there were times when I thought I should be down here looking after my old man after all the opportunities he created for me.”
While Fagan struggled being away from his ailing father, he flourished professionally.
Having not played VFL or AFL, Fagan’s coaching pathway came via Sandy Bay and the Tassie Mariners, before becoming an assistant at Melbourne. He then switched roles and clubs to become Hawthorn’s football manager.

As coach Alastair Clarkson’s right hand man, the Tasmanian schoolteacher was a key part of the Hawks four flags between 2008 to 2015.
After entering the AFL system with the Demons in 1999, he finally become a senior coach in 2017, aged 55.
Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan, with parents Beth and Austin Fagan in Launceston in 2019. Picture: Zak Simmonds
Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan, with parents Beth and Austin Fagan in Launceston in 2019. Picture: Zak Simmonds
Last season – his third in charge at Brisbane — he took the Lions from 15th to second on the ladder after the home and away season. He was awarded the AFL Coaches Association coach of the year along the way.
But being unable to share the success and trials and tribulations of coaching at the highest level with his father weighed heavily on the 58-year-old.
“There’s lots of good memories about the old man, he was a pretty good footy coach in his day and always a person I could talk to up until about two years ago. It was difficult after that,” he said.
“We couldn’t have conversations about games because he couldn’t remember a lot of things.
“The great memory I have, and the last time I saw him alive, was about four or five weeks before he passed away he made the effort to come over to Melbourne for my daughter Ellen’s wedding.
“He was in a wheelchair and he loved the night. He had some smiles on his face and we all got around him.
“They are good memories. At the end of it all you look back at all the great things.
“We all got up and spoke at his funeral and talked about the legacy he left. He was a great role model.”
Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan has paid tribute to his dad. Picture: Zak Simmonds
Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan has paid tribute to his dad. Picture: Zak Simmonds
Austin was a legend on Tasmania’s rugged West Coast, cutting his name – and his knees – on Queenstown’s infamous gravel oval.
He played at Smelters and Gormanston, and coached Gormanston and Lyell – clubs that are now only found in Tasmanian football history books.
While he never coached Chris, Austin was the Tassie Mariners property steward when his son coached the state’s best under-18 players from 1995 to 1997.
“He was mostly supportive,” Fagan said.
“If he thought I was getting a little bit carried away with myself, he would step in and tell me.
“The property steward sees and hears many things so he was always good value for me in regards to the boys and how they were travelling.
“When we had our road trips we would always come back together and sometimes I didn’t look forward to the trips home afterwards in the car because if we hadn’t played all that well or I hadn’t coached all that well he’d let me know what he thought.
“A couple of times I threatened to put him out of the car and he could walk home.
“He was just a great footy man, he loved the game.”

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CHRIS FAGAN ON:
The Lions in 2020: A pass mark for us with all things being equal and we don’t have a retched run with injuries - which can stop any team - is that we want to try and play finals again. That is what we are aiming to do and so far we are on track for that. In our 3km time trial we’ve had 18-20 PBs so that is a good indicator the guys have turned up fit and in the right shape.
Coaching Mitch Robinson: It is a weird word to use about Mitch, but it is almost joyful.
I think he’s matured a lot in the last few years. He still has his moments where he’s erratic and does some crazy things and I’d like to put him in a headlock and all that, but if you ask his teammates, they love him because he’s so passionate about the team, the game and he competes so hard. He leaves nothing in the tank. We didn’t have him for that last final and we missed him, people forget that he was pretty close to an All-Australian last year as a wingman – a new position for him. You just know with Mitch his heart is in the right place, he deeply cares about our footy club and wants to see us do well. You can rely on Mitch at training if the spirits down a little bit or in a game if things aren’t going so well, he’s still up and about and as a coach you love those blokes.
Recruiting former Hawk Grant Birchall: The way I’m looking at it, we haven’t got ‘Birch’ to the Lions for a year, I want him to play for four years. I want him to think like that. I don’t see why he can’t if he keeps himself fit. I want him to have a good little mini career at the end at the Lions after a great career at Hawthorn.
Cam Rayner: I reckon it takes four to five years to turn yourself into a legitimate AFL player. If you look at a guy like (Richmond star) Dustin Martin, who Cam gets compared to, I don’t reckon Dusty took off to year five, six or seven. It is a hard gig AFL footy. He’s trained more in the midfield this pre-season. I think he’ll improve again. It is going to take him a while to develop into a really good midfielder because he doesn’t naturally have a really good tank. We are happy with his development and we felt like this pre-season he’s taken another step forward and that’s all he can do.
 
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