In the first of hopefully a regular series, Crikey Sports had the pleasure to speak to Guy McKenna — who will be the inaugural coach of the Gold Coast Football Club which will enter the AFL in 2011.
LEIGH JOSEY: Thanks for your time Guy; I’m assuming life in the Gold Coast is keeping you fairly busy at the moment?
GUY McKENNA: Yes it is. It’s obviously a bit of rolling up the sleeves and getting busy with the boys at all sorts of levels on and off the field. It’s a nice busy – if you call it work you have your wires crossed. So it’s certainly enjoyable that’s for sure.
LJ: So you’ve spent a bit of time down in Melbourne, and you’re obviously a Perth boy – are you enjoying the weather?
GM: Oh! Well I tell the story that we went down (to Melbourne) for Anzac Day and I screamed at the boys to get in the water when we trained at Port Phillip Bay there – and I pushed and shoved and begged to get them in — about fifteen to twenty minutes. And that very next Monday we obviously flew home and we had a recovery session at North Burleigh and I had to scream and beg and do everything to get them out of the surf.
LJ: I can imagine:
GM: Yeah so the different latitude and longitude where we live certainly makes a difference in recovery and the lifestyle that’s available at the Gold Coast. It’s fantastic.
LJ: Absolutely. From what I can tell there’s been some impressive performances of some of the kids coming through. Most notably I think last week your Captain Mark Lock and young Zac Smith the ruckman. Can you tell us a bit about the kids and how they’re progressing?
GM: The kids are coming along really nicely. It’s a fair process and again it’s a bit hard to juggle as we’ve got eight boys on contract and they’re potentially on our list until 2011 so we’ve got to juggle all those sort of boys and juggle the rest who are trying to get a contract. So it’s about balancing them up and seeing how they’re going. At this young age of their development they all mature at different rates so it’s getting that balance.
Mark Lock’s our captain and he’s bobbed up and kicked multiple goals in most of the games and he’s probably our captain because he can play in all areas of the ground – so he’s fairly handy.
And Zac Smith, he’s our 204cm ruckman that’s only played AFL in the last three years of his life so he’s a good story coming from soccer and he’s developing really well. I think he leads the competition as far as hitouts go and he’s performing and training and playing very well.
LJ: And I suppose one of your many roles as being the coach is getting the young players to embrace the team and the club. How are you finding that and what are some of the challenges in getting that mentality happening?
GM: Well I think it’s fairly easy around a team environment. Yes we are a football team and yes we officially start in the AFL in 2011 so right now the competition we are in is a vehicle for these boys for one to be contracted to us and eventually, hopefully take part in Gold Coast 2011 or potentially end up on someone else’s list.
So it’s just a great opportunity for these local boys from Queensland and obviously the Gold Coast to have that opportunity. So from that side of things it’s easy. Then there’s the mechanics of how we get them to play for each other, other than themselves.
And that’s just the internal workings of what we put our values system on and the boys have helped drive that. They’ve formed their leadership group; they probably meet on a fortnightly basis and set out the course and direction for the football club. And again they need to own that – whether that’s TAC, VFL, QFL next year or the AFL – the values and lessons we learn and experiences are all the same.
Ultimately driving all that is their opportunity, the opportunity to be on a football club’s list come 2011.
LJ: So you’ve spent a bit of time at Collingwood (as assistant coach) — a very strong, successful, traditional club – and you were a champion at West Coast Eagles – another strong and successful club. And when you were at West Coast you saw another club come up through the ranks on your own turf in Fremantle, what’s it like being on the other side of the fence now?
GM: It’s certainly a different mind set that’s for sure. But again like most things in life you’ve got put your head down and your backside up and do the best job you can. I say to the players from week to week: just do what you can control and don’t worry about the end result. And if you’re doing the best job you can well you’re going to give yourselves every chance, one, to play week to week and, two, to be on our list. Don’t worry about what’s at the end of the tunnel – just manage and perform and do the things that you can control – and the boys are doing that.
Ultimately yes, we’re going to join in 2011 and Brisbane, our big brothers if you like to call them that, they’re going to have been in the competition a lot longer than us.
So the good thing for the AFL and certainly for the Gold Coast Football Club is we’ve had a couple of years to get it right. Unlike Fremantle, they were sort of thrown in after six or seven months of a license and they had to get it right over a preseason where we’ve got two years to get it right.
So we’ve got to make sure that every decision we make from recruiting, from sponsorship, from membership, from staff levels and all those kind of things that we make sure we get it right. So when we get to 2011 — I’m not going to say we’ll be bulletproof — but we’ll have made some very good decisions so we can certainly get in there and cut it with some of the better sides going around.
LJ: The AFL and the Gold Coast are pretty determined to get the best people available to administer the football club. It would be an exiting prospect to administer a club that would be so well looked after by the AFL.
GM: For sure, as you say, whoever ends up getting the CEO appointment, a GM needs to be appointed, a few key football people who will deal with the day to day running of the club need to be appointed. So like these experiences I had at West Coast, and watching Fremantle grow and develop as well, it’s making sure we’re in the market to get the best people available. Because again it’s a pretty unique club, we’ll have two years to build it and get it right. We’ve just got to make sure we get the best people available so when we hit 2011 we’re up and running and not lagging behind. And not being treated like the little brother that’s for sure.
LJ: So just a few quick questions to finish up Guy. The Gold Coast Football Club – it obviously comes without a name. I’ve heard Gold Coast supporters may like to think of themselves as the goldies, or the sharks. Have you got any thoughts on that?
GM: Not really. The thinking behind just the Gold Coast is the fact that every time we get spoken about we’re known as the Gold Coast because that’s where we come from and that’s where we play. Some of the sides when you look at the ladder it can be, “look at the Western Bulldogs, where do they come from?”
LJ: Which I guess raises an interesting point. As a former Eagles champion you’d know that West Coast fans sometimes reference themselves as “the Coasters” and there’s every chance Gold Coast fans may reference themselves as the same. It could be an interesting conundrum.
GM: It is, but most southerners, as we call them, just call West Coast, West Coast. The supporters themselves well they’ll just end up coming up with a nickname for the football club anyway. We’re just going to be known as the Gold Coast Football Club just like Manchester United is.
LJ: Not a bad club to emulate…
GM: Yeah, and we’ve got GC (Gary Clifford Irons) as our mascot now; a lifesaver which simulates the Gold Coast life style. So certainly everyone will know where the Gold Coast is and I think that’s important.
LJ: Talking about the mascot, it’s always hard when you start a new organisation, the public will like and dislike certain things. Just a query, I haven’t heard about Craig Turley in a while. The mascot isn’t actually your old premiership team mate Craig Turley is it?
GM: Ah no, and it’s not actually Nathan Buckley in disguise either with a chin that big. And if one of the boys in line for our CEOs job Scott Munn actually got himself into the gym it could almost be a double for him as well.
Again the mascot’s different and wherever that mascot goes everyone will know where the Gold Coast is and what is stands for: the beaches, the beautiful ocean and the great weather and lifestyle.
LJ: So Round One 2011 when you have your first game, is there someone etched in you really want to beat? Is it West Coast, is it Collingwood, is it Brisbane?
GM: All I cay say mate is that all I want to do is knock off our first opponent and then take it one week at a time.
LJ: Well said Guy and thanks for your time and all the best up there.
GM: No probs mate.
