I played a season in the AFL under Rodney Eade & Damian Drum at the Sydney Swans, did a pre-season under Neale Daniher at the Melbourne Demons, had 2 seasons under Graeme Yeats at Sandringham and played under David Noble at the RAMS - but it was the advice I got from coaches at the Pennant Hills Demons that showed me that you have to keep giving life a crack no matter what comes along to try and stop you.
The first piece of advice I got was from Trevor Daykin when I was just a boy - Trev used to tell us that no matter what the score was, whether you're 100 points up, 100 points down, or scores were level, you keep trying just as hard. It sounded like good advice in theory, but when his son Matthew kicked a goal on the siren to beat Baulkham Hills in a Grand Final after it looked like Penno were certain to lose, I knew it was advice I'd draw on again.
I was still a boy when I moved into the senior club at Penno and played under club legend Steve Barratt, but after getting pumped by Wests by 96 points in the Grand Final qualifier, I thought it might have been Barro that needed some advice. How he responded to that loss however, taught me a lot about how to deal with a crisis - not so much by what Barro SAID, but what he DID. He stayed calm and kept making good, rational decisions. He didn't freak out and start dropping players and bring in new blokes, he made a subtle change to the game plan that he thought might confuse St George in the preliminary final enough that we could beat them, then face Wests again in the Grand Final. This approach worked a treat - we beat St George in the preliminary final by more than 50 points (16-12-108 to 7-10-52) to put us into the GF against Wests - our young side won the mental challenge - scores were level about 2 minutes from full time, but Wests won the physical challenge and kicked 2 late goals to win the premiership.
Some of the best advice I got was from a Penno coach who took us nowhere near a Grand Final, but I've lost count how many times I've repeated things I learned from Danny Ryan when times have been tough. The team got a lot of pearls from "Big Dan" - some full of wisdom, some full of something else - but one of the best was "focus on the game plan and the result will take care of itself," which to me always meant you should make your decisions with conviction, then stick to your guns no matter what comes along to try and knock you off the path you're walking.
One of my most important coaches was the man who coached me in my 100th game, Jarrod Myers. I actually don't remember anything Jarrod said, but he won the Grand Final that year so he must have been good.
So if you're a Pennant Hills Demon, listen to your coach - even if it's Clarkey - you may not realise it at the time, but they will be giving you all the tools you need to give life the biggest crack you can.
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