Brenton Sanderson

So, you know, that old.

That old mantra, put the mouth guards in, let's go.

It wasn't that extreme, but yeah, we tried with a lot more purpose.

So we trained contested drills, high intensity, a lot of collisions.

So you open yourself up to risk of injury, but you must replicate match conditions and that intensity of training.

And interestingly, after the session, a lot of boys did say, I actually preferred training like that.

I actually enjoyed that more than the way we have been training.

So we tried to replicate that, um, that really hard aggressive style that's required to play really strong senior men's footy.

It's changed a lot.

So I started 20 years ago, 2006, and I think 20 years ago, coaching leaned heavily on authority.

It was that because I said so.

Um, it did carry a lot of weight, but I think today's footballers respond a lot better to explain decisions and shared ownership.

Um, so they still respect expertise, but they want to understand why it's, it's a lot more around that.

And there, there are a lot more willing to ask questions.

Um, and I think now the good coaches are the facilitators more than the dictators, if that makes sense.

So, I mean, I think the older models, um, it was a lot more blunt.

So, um,

It was blunt criticism, but now feedback needs to be more specific, constructive, and very much more tailored to the individual.

And I know a lot of people will cringe when they're listening to this, but it's modern management, I guess.

So yeah, I just think this group now that we're coaching, they've grown up with really constant feedback loops.