

Only one player can kick the goal, but it is a team that scores it
These beautiful images were taken by Michael Willson, the award-winning AFL photographer. He has a great feel for the game. For more of his work www.michaelwillson.com
More to the game
“What leaders can learn from football”
Business often turns to the football codes when seeking to understand the key concepts of team, particularly, the role of leadership in terms of establishing a winning culture and executing a game plan.
While this analysis provides some important lessons, the learnings go far deeper.
Success in elite team sport cannot be achieved without an uncompromising attitude towards the recruitment and retention of talent, and of course integrated and sophisticated coaching (teaching) at an individual and team level.
The following bog posts explore the complexities, and often contradictions, of elite sport.
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In the Arena
What’s Important?
One of my favourite thinkers is the poet David Whyte. He describes your ‘to-do’ list as the person you were yesterday.
read moreWhat book would you gift?
You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.
read moreDon’t think. Do.
Motivation is complex. Yes, goals are important and feedback is crucial, but my view is that a sense of progress is the most important aspect.
read moreMake the best mistakes you’ve ever made
With each iteration and each unsuccessful effort to produce a drawing I was satisfied with, I rubbed them out, but not completely, layering up until the final picture emerged, using the mistakes of the previous effort as a guide to the next attempt.
read moreOut of the hottest fire is forged the strongest steel
Discussions about culture make for a fascinating and often perplexing conversation. It’s as though people are searching for the secret herbs and spices, a means of short-cutting or ‘hacking’ their way to a high-performance environment.
read moreThe ebb within the flow
When looking at my work, he told me in his kind yet direct manner, that my art was too obvious. I was giving no credit to the viewer, no room for their own opinions.
read moreEverybody needs a hero
There is most likely something on your mind now that you need to resolve, but it is not only the complexity and ambiguity of the issue that can overwhelm, but your growing sense of isolation.
read moreThe Team
The pursuit of a career in a professional team sport is inherently selfish.
read moreDon’t Copy Culture
As a CEO in the AFL, forever focused on building a high-performance culture, I spent years visiting these great clubs, looking for the ‘secret sauce’.
read moreAs yourself three Questions every three months
Set aside three hours of non-distracted time every three months to ask three questions.
read moreComplexity and Contradiction of High Performance
We have just witnessed one of the great AFL Grand Finals, with the West Coast Eagles beating Collingwood by less than a goal, in a match the Magpies led for all but a few minutes.
read moreThe most important person in a club is the one with the ball in their hand
Decisions are best made at the level of organisation where there is the most expertise, knowledge and understanding. For leaders, this means ‘passing the ball’.
read moreAnti-Complicatedness
The often misguided goal of seeking ‘simplicity’ most likely results in default thinking – you find the right solution for the wrong problem.
read moreIt is the hard days that define us
These are the mornings when you wake up knowing that regardless of what happened on the weekend, and no matter how bad the defeat, and while you may be bereft of ideas and inspiration, sleepless night and all – you still had to lead.
read more“What is a club in any case?”
When I first got involved in league football, I was told that clubs are in the ‘Premiership winning business’. In fact, there are clubs which have this as their sole ‘statement of purpose’.
read moreAllan Jeans
Allan Jeans was never a dreamer, he was way too pragmatic for that, but clearly understood that he had the capacity to make or break dreams, and that often proved a heavy burden.
read moreAlan Schwab
My father Alan died 24 years ago this week. This is a photo of my father in the player race of the Punt Road Oval with Hall of Fame Coach Tom Hafey.
read moreMore to the game
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