Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.
IF ever he was asked, Shane Flanagan would look down at his iPhone for the answer. 209 days to go, 123, 77, 42, 11.
Not a day passed without the Cronulla coach snapping a glance at the days counting-down to his NRL return date at the helm of the Sharks.
On Sunday, just after 6.30pm, the clock finally stops.
On December 17, 2013, Flanagan was suspended for what would equate to 11-months out of the game for governance issues surrounding the club's infamous supplements scandal.
On November 4, 2014, Flanagan was cleared by the NRL to return to Shark Park to reclaim the reigns of a club decimated by more than two years of turmoil. Flanagan's return was the lead story. The beginning of a new chapter, the headlines suggested.
Yes, it was tough, I was pulling my hair out most of the time. Not being able to help the Sharks was really frustrating.
Shane Flanagan 
But the real story was inside those 11-months. Each day suspended, one day closer to a return.
When Flanagan sits down inside his coach's box high in the Andrew Ettingshausen grandstand of Remondis stadium, the plastic swivel chair will feel nothing like the emptiness which engulfed his loungeroom almost 12-monts earlier.
It was at his brick home at Bangor, in Sydney's south, that the suspended Sharks coach sat down alone to watch Cronulla lose to the Gold Coast Titans on a Monday night in round one last season.
In his lap were a notepad and pen. If Flanagan noticed something, he wrote it down.
Coach Shane Flanagan during Cronulla Sharks training at Remondis Stadium Source: News Corp Australia
The body language of certain players, who took the easy runs, who took the tough runs, who clocked off in defence, who wanted to win the match when it was there to be won.
Flanagan wrote reviews on every match.
As Cronulla's 2014 on-field woes mounted, culminating in the first wooden-spoon in the club's history, the foolscap pages piled up. Pages and pages of notes. This went on for 26 weeks.
Unable to have any association with the players or coaching staff during his suspension, Flanagan had only his thoughts and observations to preserve. But with the NRL refusing to guarantee his return, Flanagan wasn't entirely sure if he'd ever get the chance to use them.
Tonight against a pumped-up Canberra, Flanagan and his team get that chance.
Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.
What kept Flanagan penning those notes was a motivation to change. Not just himself, but so too the club that gave him his NRL coaching lifeline. So he jumped on a plane. Wanting to learn more about building success, a winning culture and a level of professionalism unseen at the Shire club, Flanagan organised day-trips to AFL powerhouses Geelong and Hawthorn.
Explaining to former Sydney FC coach Frank Farina, about his desire to use his time out as something more than odd-jobs around the house or mowing the lawns of his elderly neighbour, Flanagan was immediately offered unprecedented access to the A-League club.
"I just watched them,'' Flanagan said. "I just watched the way they did things, their operations.
"It was even an opportunity for me to watch other NRL sides. I would go to games and would watch teams warm-up. Assess how many staff they had, watch what their staff did ... I just made sure I used the time for good use.
Sunday night isn't about me, it's about an important step for us, not just as a team, but as a club with a new direction and for our supporters who will hopefully never experience anything like the past two years ever again
Shane Flanagan
"Yes, it was tough, I was pulling my hair out most of the time. Not being able to help the Sharks was really frustrating. But I wanted to make sure we were a stronger club for it, so I went to four or five AFL clubs as well.
"I looked at their facilities, I looked at their head offices and took on some ideas that maybe we could implement in rugby league.''
One of the more obvious changes Flanagan identified as a major weakness of the Sharks was the level of full-time professional support staff.
The only data Flanagan required to support his case were the names of 17 players, who were unavailable for NRL selection last August.
"I needed to make changes,'' Flanagan said. "I think it's a been a weakness of this club for six or seven years, through no fault of any of those previous coaches. As a club, we were run by a skeleton staff — and in this game you just don't survive.
Coach Shane Flanagan has completed an 11-month suspension Source: News Corp Australia
"You need to have specialists in every position. But our staff, we were a jack of all trades. We needed to break that mentality as a club and that included me where I would put my hand up to lay tiles in the gym or would we have coaching staff cooking the BBQ. We had our conditioner filling the water bottles. At every other club that wouldn't happen.
"Previous to this year, I had just four full-time staff and that is just ludicrous. Some clubs have four coaches before they even get to counting their staff.
"If we are to take that next step, we needed to be professional. I needed to delegate and that's probably what got me into trouble in the first place. Because our staff was so small, I trusted them to do everything.
"There were some good people in our club but we just needed to take that next step.
"Aside from Mark Noakes and our doctor (George Pitsis) whose first year was last year, my entire staff is new.
"Andrew Gray is our new high-performance manager and his resume with St-George-Illawarra is impeccable. We have a new physiotherapist, strength coach, conditioning coach, new dietitian, new assistant coach and new kicking coach.
"We needed to do things more professionally as a club and we have done that.
"And that means right down to the way we dress. Our brand within our community and among our fans is everything to us now.
"Sunday night isn't about me, it's about an important step for us, not just as a team, but as a club with a new direction and for our supporters who will hopefully never experience anything like the past two years ever again.''
.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Flanno: New era for Sharks after 11 months of hell
Dengan url
http://beritaolahragakuat.blogspot.com/2015/03/flanno-new-era-for-sharks-after-11.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Flanno: New era for Sharks after 11 months of hell
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Flanno: New era for Sharks after 11 months of hell
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar