The return of The Coach
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In October 1976 John Powers, teacher, journalist and playwright approached North Melbourne Football Club coach Ron Barassi with a proposal - to write a book detailing the inner workings of a successful Australian Rules football club. Barassi’s initial scepticism would quickly dissipate, and with the festive season looming Powers received his invitation to join the Kangaroos on its quest for the 1977 VFL premiership.
It’s doubtful that Powers could have imagined the drama that would unfold during his nine-month stint with the Shinboners, or the impact his work would have in both literature and sporting worlds.
Fast forward four decades and The Coach – A Season with Ron Barassi has now been published for a fourth time. Originally printed in 1978, it returned in 2005 as part of the Football Quarterly series. A third edition was released in 2007 as a tribute to Powers who passed away earlier that year in London. With the 40th anniversary of North Melbourne’s 1977 title triumph imminent, Slattery Media has decided to bring The Coach out of retirement.
It’s time to revisit this wonderful work.
The story of The Coach
At the time of setting off on his Arden Street adventure John Powers’ best known work was a play The Last of the Knucklemen. A movie version of Knucklemen would hit Australian cinemas in 1979.
Fundamentally, The Coach is a three-act play.
Act I - Pre-season
The lead character, Ronald Dale Barassi, charismatic coach of North Melbourne takes centre stage. Set against a backdrop of a blazing summer sun, the Kangaroos hyper-driven, sometime maniacal, mentor drills the importance of perfection to his charges.
“Practice makes perfect is bullshit. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
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The gruelling pre-season schedule includes a revolutionary (for its time) weight training program, in addition to old favourites such as circuit/ball work and a brutal running program of sprints and middle distance work. Modern day sports scientists would bristle at some of the approaches taken during the February/March sessions, especially the denial of regular re-hydrating. By twenty-first century standards preparation seems archaic when compared to the individually specified programs modern day AFL players undertake. Throughout the oppressive conditions, one objective – meeting and beating Hawthorn on the opening weekend of the 1977 fixture - continually pushes Barassi’s men where many would surrender.
Act II – The Season
North Melbourne’s mission to reclaim the title of the best on field team in the country got off to a perfect start. A 10-goal opening round belting of the despised Hawks provided the springboard for a sizzling 5-0 start. Some members of the fourth estate, notably Ron Carter of the Age, were gushing in their praise of the new look “muscled up” Kangaroos. Not so the coach who remained somewhat bemused with the kudos lavished on his men. Powers noted:
“Barassi’s own response to the 'bionic team' label was mixed. Occasionally he used it as a goad to his team when its performances were lacklustre.”
Defeat at the hands of Richmond in Round 6 ended the streak. The loss knocked the Roos from top spot on the ladder and Keith Greig’s knee injury turned an already dirty day diabolical. Requiring reconstructive surgery, Greig’s campaign came to an abrupt end. The loss heralded a form slump with North splitting their next 10 decisions. Media mavens curtailed bestowing bouquets and were now brandishing brickbats.
The drenching June rains that rendered Melbourne sporting fields nigh on unplayable also provided the book with its most controversial talking point upon release. Following North’s three-goal loss to South Melbourne at the Lakeside (emphasis on the first syllable) Oval, Brian Brandt and John Baghel photographed the players attempting to remove the Albert Park muck from their fatigued bodies. The snaps, scandalous by late ‘70’s standards are quite tame when viewed through the prism of today’s social media/clickbait society.
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Seven days after the Middle Park mud bath, the Roos faced Hawthorn at Arden Street. Played in ankle-deep slush the visitors trailed at the end of the first three quarters but hit the front when Leigh Matthews goaled at the 22 minute mark of the final term. With time running out the ball entered the host’s forward line. Malcolm Blight, so often the hero in a crisis, grabbed the soggy Sherrin and put boot to ball. His shot went wide, scoring a point and tying the scores. The siren sounds. A draw. Not so fast. David O’Halloran’s attempt to tackle had gone awry pushing Blight in the back. Free kick. The offer of a second shot at glory proved irresistible to the North champion.
Blight walked in and from 20 metres out missed everything. Hawthorn won. Powers eloquently described the reaction from the North Melbourne coaches’ box:
“Barassi, reacting as if a grenade had exploded in his chest, slumped back in his chair. Nobody in the box spoke. Barassi’s eyes clamped shut as he fought to control his internal agony. And, very silently, everyone else filed out of the box to give him time alone”
The loss saw North drop out of the all-important top three positions and even the most diehard Roos fan would’ve been excused for questioning their teams’ pennant bona fides. Not so their 41-year-old, three time premiership winning coach, who upon entering the sombre dressing room bellowed:
“We’re still going to win the premiership.”
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North’s football department left no stone unturned in its efforts to gain an advantage on the rest of the field. Powers delivered a fascinating insight into the clubs use of hypnotherapist Lee Saxon. Saxon, whose official title was club motivation counsellor, offered an alternative voice (good cop) to the often caustic, sometimes confrontational, continually cajoling one supplied by the commander in chief. A typical Friday afternoon/evening session would begin with an exchange of pleasantries between Saxon and his client. Saxon would commence the consultation seeking reasons to the players recent on field woes. Through a combination of listening, gentle probing and positive reinforcing, Saxon would endeavour to get the troubled soul back into shape – at least above the shoulders. The message, depending on who was on the couch, could take on a light-hearted tone or where necessary be delivered in a much firmer manner. The 45 minutes session would finish with the player feeling a little better about themselves and ready to take on all comers the following afternoon.
How effective were the visits to Saxon’s St Kilda Road practice? It’s hard to tell. We do know the sessions weren’t a hindrance. The Roos 7-2 record over the final two months helped them compile a 15-7 record. Their reward? A third place finish and a precious double chance.
Squeaky bum time awaited.
Act III – The Finals
Fulfilling a regular commitment on HSV 7’s iconic World of Sport, Ron Barassi’s displayed his frustration at his sides 38-point Qualifying Final defeat at the hands of Hawthorn the previous day. With all guns blazing, Barassi referred to his forwards as “prima donnas”, said the previous day's efforts had “disgusted” some North Melbourne people, and he warned anyone willing to listen that “we won’t put up with it anymore”. The admonition continued through to the Tuesday night training session where the coach silently retreated to the centre of the ground neither encouraging nor criticising his men. Powers described Barassi’s manner, and the eerie atmosphere that enveloped the Gasometer ground:
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“He appeared to be submerged in a mood of brooding resentfulness. His eyes watched everything, every move by each player, but his silence was more potent than any shouting”
Did the rebuff work? Was there method in the mentor’s madness? It’d be hard to argue otherwise. North’s performance on the training track improved in the lead up to a sudden death meeting with Richmond, manifesting in a massive seven day turnaround in fortunes at League headquarters. The taming of the Tigers set up yet another finals showdown with Hawthorn, the eighth between the two clubs since the ’74 post season.
Having used the silent treatment to advantage seven days earlier, Barassi tried a different approach, adding fuel to the fire. This time the target of his ire was Hawk captain Don Scott. Previewing the following weekend's Preliminary Final in his column in the Sunday Observer, Scott intimated that his sides must guard against “complacency and boredom” setting in.
It proved too much for RDB:
“I mean, what effrontery……what gall to publish something like that. The complacency bit I can maybe understand, but boredom?”
The ease in which North Melbourne disposed of the reigning premier startled the football world, the 11-goal thumping equated to a 105-point turnaround from the Qualifying Final played a fortnight earlier. So, did tedium set in? Was Scott’s dissing of his familiar foe the primary reason behind the Kangaroos massive reversal in fortune? The 100+ (106 to be precise) additional possessions and a dozen more scoring shots tell the true story - North were a team on a mission.
One challenge remained. Well, at least that’s what the football following public believed. How wrong they were!
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After two intense hours of Grand Final football on Saturday 24 September 1977, Collingwood and North Melbourne couldn’t be separated. A draw. North Melbourne 9.22 versus Collingwood 10.16. The 76-all tie obligated the two teams to return to the Melbourne Cricket Ground seven days later and do it all again.
When the North Melbourne match committee met to decide on the composition of the team to take on the ‘Pies the following weekend, temptation to make wholesale changes was resisted. Barassi announced the 20-man squad prior to the players taking the field for their final training session on Thursday:
“The decision to make no changes shows an enormous act of faith on the selectors part, because, at least three of you don’t deserve a game after last week’s performance. But, we’re backing you”
Two days later that faith was repaid in full, with interest. Leading from start to finish, North Melbourne defeated Collingwood by 27 points in the 1977 Grand Final Replay. It was the club's second title in three seasons; the second of its 53-season tenure in the Victorian Football League. In victory the club had made good on Barassi’s pre-season pledge - to reclaim the title of the best on-field team in the land.
So, with the prized pennant procured a triumphant North Melbourne could sit back, relax and enjoy the spoils of victory. Not so Powers, whose hard work was just starting.
Hitting the shelves
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George Plimpton’s Paper Lion (American football/gridiron) and Hunter Davies’ The Glory Game (soccer) were earlier contributions by varying football codes to the literary worlds 'fly on the wall' genre. With the release of John Powers’ The Coach: A Season with Ron Barassi in June 1978, Australia’s indigenous football code had its very own entry in this category.
Extracts of the book appeared in Melbourne’s popular daily tabloid The Sun and critics (both serious and lowbrow) provided positive feedback in their reviews.
In the July 1978 edition of The Australian Book review Ian Turner said the book was, “troubling in its revelations of the authoritarian structure of competitive sport" and that it, "not only centres on Barassi’s personality” but also “has a great deal to say about the dynamics of power and ambition”. He added that The Coach was "brilliantly observed and written” and “a book for everyone who is interested in football or any team sport”.
In his May 25 Inside Football column, “Amazing insight into The Coach", Kevin Sheedy was glowing of Powers’ work, saying, "'The Coach' could easily be classified as Australian football's bible”.
Sheedy, nearing the end of his playing days, would commence his own successful three-decade career as a V/AFL coach just a few years later. He was particularly fascinated by the role played by Lee Saxon:
“A particularly interesting part of the book is the piece devoted to a trip to a hypnotherapist by several players – yet another Barassi idea to get the best out of his players.”
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Sheedy expressed the hope that "The Coach is a forerunner to other similar books because they develop a better insight into our game”.
Almost two decades after its 1978 birth, The Coach still resonated with the football intelligentsia. Rohan Connolly’s column in the May 8 1994 edition of the Sunday Age, “Nostalgia not what it used to be”, contained the following tribute to Powers:
“Despite saturation electronic media coverage there remains a dearth of quality literature on football. John Powers’ 'The Coach', the chronicle of North Melbourne’s 1977 premiership victory remains the outstanding symbol of the genre."
There have been a number of notable additions to the 'insider' genre since The Coach lobbed in bookstores. Brian Taylor’s Black and White: The Taylor Diaries retold Collingwood’s drought-breaking 1990 premiership. Footscray’s miserable 1993 campaign was recounted by Martin Flanagan in Southern Sky, Western Oval. In recent year’s players, coaches and fans have provided 'season with' eye witness accounts of their teams’ efforts to procure a premiership – reviews have ranged from tedious to terrific.
In 1979 television waded into the field when Ray Martin took 60 Minutes viewers inside the Western Suburbs Rugby League dressing rooms for a first-hand look at the Magpies' game day preparations. Coined the “slap sessions”, the sight of grizzled warriors such as Tommy Raudonikis, Les Boyd and John Donnelly beating each other up, PRIOR to taking the field for 80 minutes of battle, made for compelling television.
Michael Cordell’s Year of the Dogs saw Australian Rules football make its (non-fiction) big screen debut in 1997, the AFI award winning feature¹ detailing the Bullies turgid 1996 efforts both on and off the field. In a year when everything that could go wrong did go wrong, Cordell caught it on camera. Unlike the '96 model of the Footscray Football Club, the film was a winner.
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Members of North Melbourne’s 1977 premiership winning squad celebrated the 40th anniversary with a reunion prior to the Roos clash with Collingwood last Saturday (5 August). Sadly some members of the playing list such as Mick Nolan and Robert Smith have passed away. No doubt their absences were deeply felt and many glasses charged in their honour. When stories, both far-fetched and factual were swapped, I hope the late, great John Powers and the gift that is The Coach, received the recognition it thoroughly deserves.
As far as final words go I thought it best to go to the source. In his 'Reflection' piece for the latest edition, Ron Barassi reminds us:
“The Coach tells it like it is. Its impact now is as strong as it was in 1978.”
The 40th anniversary edition of The Coach by John Powers is available via Slattery Media. To order, click here.
Footnotes
1. Year of the Dogs won an AFI award for best editing (non-fiction).
Comments
John Butler 29 August 2017
Keenly observed and a thorough context provided, as always, Mic.
This is one book I have yet to catch up with. This review strongly encourages me to remedy that situation.
Cheers
yvonne fein 8 February 2018
I knew John as a teacher at what was then Prahran College. I took his Creative Writing classes. He was a pretty good coach himself. I have since had 2 plays performed and 3 books published. So much of what I achieved was down to him. I didn't know he had died until I read this piece. It was a beautiful tribute to a good man and a great teacher.
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