Sheedy prefers the carrot to the stick

A "spray" from the coach of any sports team is entertaining, but GWS Giants AFL coach Kevin Sheedy believes abusing players is an 'old school' tactic that gets in the way of educating players, and there's no room for it in today's game.

Sheedy's message that education and communication is more important to a player's development than an old-fashioned spray is one that coaches of all sports would benefit from taking on board, but his team is in it's second year of competition, so his view that the carrot is more effective than the stick is reassuring from the man in charge of moulding "basically an under-20 side."

"Most of them don't have a car licence and are heading towards their 21st birthday in the next year or two." Sheedy said about his young side.

His views on the futility of belittling players by berating them have been formed over a lifetime as a player and a coach in the AFL, it was a match in 2001 when he was coaching Essendon against North Melbourne when the power of positive reinforcement helped the Bombers to notch up the greatest comeback in the AFL.

Essendon were more than 10 goals down in the second quarter but Sheedy was surprised at how  positive his coaching group remained. The coaches made the decision that "It's no good ridiculing players and taking their heart and soul out." Sheedy said "We had to get them to believe immediately that the game was still there to be won"

Getting players to believe they could turn around a 10 goal defecit by helping them look on a negative situation positively was probably easier when coaching a reigning AFL premier, but coaching a group who have probably never eaten a push pop or seen an episode of The Goodies is a different prospect. Under the care of Kevin Sheedy, the Giants look like they're in safe hands. The wise man says that helping young players to find their mojo is more important than winning games

"When you're in the situation of building a young team, you better give them belief and confidence they're moving in the right direction, even though they're being beaten by an opponent."