In Australia its September, which is that time of year which brings about finals, and in particular Grand Final or what we often refer to as that One Day in September or the Big Dance.
Leigh Mathews (Brisbane & Collingwood Australia Rules Football Coach) put it the best way, "You play throughout the season to qualify for the finals, because that is where its at."
As a Coach, I have had the opportunity to coach in grand finals and major tournament finals now on a total of 8 occasions, and its not an easy thing for a Coach because once you have done everything in the case of a Grand Final during the week with training etc, and you have made your final address to the team before they go out there, there is not really anything else you can do, the outcome is out of your hands and in the hands of the players on the ground. In some ways over the years I have actually been more nervous in minor finals that my teams have played in in order to qualify for the big dance, why you ask, because it's actually harder to qualify for a Grand Final or major tournament final that it is to play in them.
Anyway I thought I would share with you all, my approach as a Coach to a Grand Final and the week leading into it.
Well how I believe as a coach you need to approach the week leading in both for yourself and your team is to keep things as normal as possible, and allow yourself and your team to soak everything up and enjoy the moment, because they don't come along all that often. Generally I keep training as light and low key as possible mainly focussing on set plays and we will do some game simulation practice at training. After training I traditional remind my players to not do anything silly over the remaining days before the big day such as sky diving or bungee jumping, I call this my don't put yourselves in harms way talk.
After the training session, the next thing for me is I like to go out for dinner either by myself or generally with my Assistant Coaches or some friends the night before the big day, then its home to watch some sport or something on T.V before having and early night. Then we move to the day, I will generally start with a light breakfast, I tend to not eat a great deal normally some cereal or may be a bit of toast, but nothing heavier than that. Then the rest of the day really depends on what time the game is.
Now in terms of how I approach the actually Grand Final itself, well I generally like to get to the venue about 30 minutes before the players, and have a brief chat to my support team, and work through any last minute thoughts. Once the players start arriving I keep it relaxed as possible I will just let the players go about what they want to do. Once everyone settles into the rooms and we are all ready to go, then I will lead a very brief team talk, where its pretty much just going over the key points and saying, ok you know what to do, then the Captain and leadership group will speak then we head out for the warm-up.
From this point it's really over to the players to be honest, there is not much much more as a Coach I can do, the next task for myself as coach is to remain as calm as possible on the bench, I believe that this is the most crucial aspect, if you are calm then that will keep your players calm and in control no matter what the game throws at you. In a Grand Final the biggest thing to remember is to enjoy it as they don't come along that often, and that its a 50/50 chance, form throughout the season and position on the ladder counts for naught in a Grand Final.
At half time the focus again is on being calm and just going over the key points and reminder everyone to play there role, control the things that we can control and play it out right to the end.
Post game is also crucial, if you win as a Coach you want to let you hair down and celebrate with your players and share in this moment, but there is one thing I always do at the end no matter what, and that is seek out the opposition coach and shake there hand and share a few words, then I find the umpires and thank them. Once thats done its over to my players and the first person I go to is my Captain to share the moment with them, and moment that can if you win it never be taken away from you.
So in summing up I say to all Coaches keep it simple and straight forward leading into a Grand Final or major tournament final and also keep it calm and simple on the day as well, its to late to go changing things, if it wasn't working then you wouldn't have got here in the first place, so there is no need to change.
The biggest thing I say to all Coaches remember to enjoy the day and enjoy the opportunity.
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