Andrew Russell

And so we're not talking about perfect environments.

We're talking about environments that change moment to moment, and that's football clubs.

And because of the stress involved in football clubs, that can change extremely quickly.

But it's no different to anything in all of our lives.

And your on-field leaders, I mean, they really drive it, you know.

Without that on-field connection between the players, then you might create a good team and you might win a lot of games.

Certainly very difficult to win premierships.

And probably more important than premierships is what you see is the teams that are constantly up the top.

You need a lot of things to go right to win, but teams that are constantly up the top, it's just like, well, something is going well in that environment that gives them a chance.

Well, and it takes the pressure off the designated leaders in the team.

So, you know, the captain, the vice captains.

These are the guys that are going out there every week and there's lots of pressure on them.

The guys that are at that level that aren't recognized externally as the leaders, you know, so important.

I mean, look, a guy like Jared Roughhead Hawthorne was enormous in that space.

You know, his ability to get that forward line to gel.

Right.

I was talking to Tommy Lonegan when he came to Carlton and he said, gee, you know, we really struggled playing against Hawthorne's forward line because we just never knew what they were going to do.

That must have been so well structured.

And I said to him, you know, I talked to Ruffy about this and we actually had a bit of a laugh because their line meetings would be going to the cafe, having a chat, having a coffee.

and saying, boys, let's go out there and have fun tomorrow.