I received my copy of 4 Quarters in the mail today (AFL publication sent as part of AFL membership)

and read the following quote in it from a book due out in July....a biography of the great Norm Smith:

"I was tough with players. I was hard. I was demanding of them. You've got to be all these things, or it's no good being in it. You can say I lacked tact and you could be right. Sure, I could have tried a different approach. I could have been loved by the players. But I wouldn't have been successful and neither would Melbourne."

I'm not normally a big book reader, but I think this would be a fascinating read!

Thought others may be interested.......I hadn't heard anything about it before.

http://www.gspbooks.com.au/

I suggest Dean Bailey purchases a copy of this book!

One of his former "pupils" was at our table on Saturday night. One thing he said was that Norm Smith kept the players guessing, and that he kept his distance from the players. Seems that there was no comfort zone for the players, and that after a loss you could be in for a gut-busting training session, or a relaxing night akin to team bonding. Certainly a "command and control" era in terms of management.