UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
JH. A lot has changed since this time last year. You left JPC and are now at Brisbane Force, why the move?
SM. The college offered me a full time position which unfortunately I could not accept, I had been battling with some serious issues with the Korean administration who clearly have their own agenda at the college which unfortunately dose not include the Aussie lads, being part time allowed me to still be my own man, full time would have seen me having to compromise my principles and that just wasn’t going to work.
JH. How difficult was it to just walk away with all the success you have had at the college over the past 2 seasons?
SM. Whilst we where on tour last September one of the Korean lads was asking me about next season, I felt at that time it was all over and that I would not be back at JPC the next season, however it was impossible to explain to a 15 year old kid what was going on. I loved every minute of the time I spent working with the Korean kids, they where great! I still see them from time to time and they always come over to say hello and talk to me, nice kids!
JH. Who and what is Brisbane Force?
SM. John Ogden and Jim Rieley approached me just before the last tour to help for the coaching staff for a new club, which effectively would take over an old club Inala City, with the focus set firmly on Youth Development.
JH. The season is well under way, how is the Force travelling?
SM. Fantastic! There are lots of things that need sorting out off the pitch and we realise that it will take time to do all the things we want. $80.000 has been spent on the first pitch alone with a pop up sprinkler system so things are moving in the right direction. On the field we lost our first 2 games, but haven’t looked back since. We have only let in 3 goals in our last 7 games and have not lost since game 2.
JH. You have a very young side for a senior first team, how are they coping with the physical element?
SM. You can’t hit what you can’t catch! We have been to fast and mobile and we have been moving the ball around well, it has been great to see some of these young lads steeping up into seniors and coping so well
JH. You have some ex PSA Tour players with you at Force, how are they doing?
SM. Great! We have Dritz, Macca, Tytko, Croydon, Duchy, Habib, Gilly, and it is great to see them continue to develop which may not have happened at other clubs. The emphasis throughout the coaching staff is how and what we are trying to do as players rather than just the result that’s not to say we don’t want to win. What we are
saying to the players is, if you play the way we ask and the way we set out our training sessions, the results will come.
JH. How has it been working out as Technical Director of Coaching and what does it involve?
SM. John Ogden 1st Team coach and I sat down at the start and discussed what would be the best roll for me at the club, The last 2 seasons had taken a lot out of me and I felt the responsibility of coaching just one team all season was going to be to much so I float between the Youth Team and the First team, which has worked
out great, I have set out a coaching syllabus and schedule that has been adopted by John and Mal the youth coach.
JH. When I was coaching at clubs in Australia there didn’t seem to be that much co-operation between coaches at clubs. How have you found it working with John?
SM. It has been working out great John’s brother Andy is also helping out; Roddy Mackenzie is doing reserves and Mall Gillott the Open Youth side. It is very much a team effort. There are nights when John just can’t make it due to work commitments and I step in with Andy and the players have responded really well. All the players now
that we have our sessions well planed out and they are not getting contradictory information, the same has happened with the Open Youth side, I had to take the fist few matches for Mal due to work commitments and it worked well I know exactly what he had been working on in training the week before and all I did was move things on to the next level, that’s the beauty of us working to a coaching syllabus.
JH. You must have similar coaching philosophies?
SM. I feel John, Andy, Mal, Roddy and I really do have a very close philosophy with regards to the way we like to see our teams play, the real difference here is that we are sticking as closely as possible to our principles about the way we play and that is reflected in the way we train. It has been great bouncing ideas of the other
coaches and listening to the way they see things, I have a great deal of respect for these guys and it has been great working with them, as I said before it is not win at all cost at the Force, we want the players to develop good habits that will help them in later years, if we manage to achieve that then the results will follow.
JH. This year’s tour is only under 6 month away. What is the 2004 squad looking like?
SM. I am very exited about this years tour as I have never taken over a squad this young (under 14) By the time they reach the UK they will have to play the academy under 15s so it will be very interesting. The majority of the squad are from Rochedale Rovers U14 team with 2 lads from the north side of Brisbane. I think they will do very
well, at this point in the season they are unbeaten and are playing some very good Football.
(LOOK OUT FOR 2004 TOUR SQUAD PROFILES & ITINERARY COMING SOON)
JH. Who have you got lined up for the lads to play on this tour?
SM. As always Ipswich Town are going to be the focal point of the tour as I honestly believe they have one of the best youth academy’s in the UK , there hospitality is second to none, Charlton are back on board along with Cambridge United and for the first time Norwich City who have just been promoted to the Premier league. There are
many other clubs who have been talking to us about the possibility of matches and we will be naming them very soon. Peterborough United will still be on our itinerary although they now have no academy, the Posh always allow us the freedom of the stadium and Barry Fry has been very good to us over the years, it will also be good for the Rovers lads to see Shane Huke (ex Rovers and PSA) who will be starting his 2nd
year as a full time pro at the Posh (Peterborough United FC)
Good luck for the season look forward to your visit later in the year.