Daniher, Eade Read From Same Book But Tell A Different Tale
The Sunday Age
Sunday July 30, 2006
When stakes are high, mind games play a pivotal role in football
AFL coaches have had to become amateur psychologists as much as tacticians and managers in order to keep their sides up and running in a competition more even than ever.And Melbourne's Neale Daniher and the Western Bulldogs' Rodney Eade often seem to have had to play more mind games than most of their peers. As their sides meet today at the MCG, the stakes couldn't be higher, the Demons with eyes on the prized second spot, the Bulldogs still with hopes of landing a top-four berth. But the lead-up to what could be one of the best and certainly most entertaining matches of the season seems to have been as much about the power of the brain as the body. It began shortly after the Western Bulldogs were pipped by one point against Geelong last Sunday, Eade declaring his injury-plagued team couldn't win the flag, and would be doing well merely to hold any ground against better-qualified and more-seasoned rivals. He reinforced the point at training last Tuesday, pitching ahead to a window of premiership opportunity more likely to open next year than this.Realism, or a timely piece of reverse psychology? Clearly the latter, thought Daniher on Wednesday, when asked about his coaching rival's comments. "I think they've still got 16 of their best playing. It might be a bit of a call from Rodney to take the spotlight away from them because they've been the Cinderella team," Daniher said. "They're not the only team with injuries either. You've just got to be able to manage that throughout the year. We won't fall for that one." Nor would you expect Daniher to, because in nine years at the helm of Melbourne, he's had plenty of experience working with what have often seemed some pretty fragile psychological profiles. Much of Daniher's reign has been about attempting to instil a tougher mindset. In the first six seasons of Daniher's now 200-plus game tenure in charge, his team played out what threatened to become a self-fulfilling prophecy of "one year up, next year down", finishing in sequence fourth, then 14th, second, 11th, sixth, 14th and seventh. For the first half of last season, Melbourne seemed well on the way to breaking the cycle, sitting second on the ladder with nine wins from its first 12 games, before losing its next seven to slump as low as 11th. The Demons recovered to win their last three and sneak into the finals, but were straight out to Geelong. The pressure started to build again as early as two rounds into this season, by which time Melbourne had lost to wooden spoon candidate Carlton and those pesky Bulldogs, the Demons very quickly painted as 2006's first "crisis club". It was a story Daniher refused to buy into, preferring to concentrate on missed opportunities, the Demons' better patches of play in the losses, and their scope for improvement. The positive tack worked, Melbourne falling just short of all-conquering Adelaide the following week, then peeling off 11 wins from its next 12 before last week's slump at Subiaco against Fremantle. Daniher worked quickly this week, too, to extinguish the doubts that defeat may have raised, and the queries about hangovers from Perth trips, pointing to Melbourne's good win over St Kilda the week after it played West Coast away. If the Demons go down today, it certainly won't be through their coach's failure to inject a sense of self-belief in his charges. But you can be sure that his coaching opponent, having openly talked down his team's chances for much of the week, has also privately been massaging the Bulldogs' egos. And there's plenty of material at his disposal. Like the way his team has continued to win regularly despite the constant queue in the medical room, and the absence at times of virtually every tall player on the list. Like that round-two victory over Melbourne, when the Doggies hauled back at one stage a 20-point deficit for a 47-point win, a victory as much about toughness and mental resilience as leg speed and silky skills. And, of course, the motivational power of that heartbreaking last-minute loss to the same opponent on the same ground in round 21 last year, a defeat that ended a late surge for a finals spot. Today's clash between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs could prove no less decisive. But whichever team emerges with the points and a crucial leg-up to September, either Eade or Daniher will walk away knowing that this week their grasp of football psychology, as much as their tactical aptitude, played a very big part.
© 2006 The Sunday Age