Melbourne assistant coach Craig Jennings joins Gerard Whateley to talk about his trip to Arnhem Land and increasing the number of indigenous coaches in the game.

Thanks for the link, Andy. Good story!

Thanks for posting this...

After listening I was thinking a bit about it and maybe a way to get a more diversified coaching group would be to have some kind of rookie or category system where a club could take on someone. I guess a bit like an apprenticeship.

With the current FD cap it makes it harder for clubs to devote money to these type of initiatives but this could be outside the cap.

...and for those wondering what our coaching group has been up to over the break, this gives a bit of an overview of the passion for the game and people Jennings has. It can't hurt the club that he's out there not just in elite pathways but seeking a better understanding of people and cultures.

Also good to hear the involvement of Whelan and Jetta...the club is in good hands.

 

We are very, very fortunate to have this bloke on our payroll.

Great interview and was really impressed with the respectful and selfless approach evidently taken by Jennings from listening to the interview.  Selfless in the sense that he was looking at things from an industry/sport wide perspective and that by going with Chad Corns, I'm guessing he was really hoping for it not to become (or be seen as) a situation where it wasn't just one club going into these comunities to exploit them of telant without contributing something of substance to the community.

It was clear that Jennings got a lot out of the experience from a cultural learning perspective and what was not said is that it was probably in some sence a cultural exchange as I'm sure the local community would have learnt some things from Jennings as well.

In more of a selfish sence I'd be interested to know if Jennings learnt something from the indigenous coaching fraternity on tactics.  From what I understand, they play the game somewhat differently to how it is played at AFL level and would be interesting if there is something from that which could be applied to gain a compeditive advantage.

Edited November 18, 20186 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter