ON and off-field they lead the playing group and work alongside the coach to get the best out of players and the team.
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As North Ballarat Roosters coach Gerard FitzGerald prepares to mark his 300th Victorian Football League game as coach, MELANIE WHELAN spoke to his captains about their time with Fitzy.
“I’ve lost count of the times I’ve shaken hands with Fitzy over the years,” Shaune Moloney (Roosters captain 2006-10) said.
“That’s just symbolic of him as a bloke.”
Moloney was lured away from Lake Wendouree to join the Roosters in 1998, during FitzGerald’s first coaching stint at the club.
He dismissed an initial call from FitzGerald as a prank from his mates and it took a follow-up call and meeting from FitzGerald to convince Moloney he had what it took to play VFL.
Moloney could hardly imagine the path it would take him down.
“We’ve had, to borrow a phrase from Charles Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times.
“When Fitzy first took over as coach there were the lean years, later there were three premierships, but the whole way throughout we’ve maintained a strong relationship.”
Marc Greig (Roosters captain 2011-12) who joined the Roosters in 1999, said FitzGerald’s coaching philosophy has never wavered – he was a footy coach who wanted to win but genuinely cared about the player as a person off the field.
Most players, like Greig, relocate to Ballarat from country Victoria and FitzGerald would meet with their families and help them find career paths at university or in trades.
“He helped me get an apprenticeship and I’m still with the same boss,” Greig said. “He’s there all along the journey.”
Michael Searl (Roosters captain 2013-) stepped up to VFL ranks when FitzGerald “had his hand in politics”.
For four years, Searl played under Steve Wright and Gavin Crosisca as FitzGerald spent a time at the helm of Springbank (2003) then Port Melbourne (2004) and North Ballarat Rebels (2005-06).
It was a period during which Moloney said did not feel right, especially when playing against a FitzGerald-coached team.
Moloney said he always harboured a hope that FitzGerald would return, and when Crosisca was offered an assistant coaching job at AFL club Carlton, Moloney gave his full support to a FitzGerald return.
Searl said he noticed a big difference in coaching when FitzGerald returned to coaching the Roosters from 2007.
“I was immediately impressed,” Searl said.
“After Crosisca I welcomed the challenge.
“Fitzy knew plenty about everybody at the club – Gavin Crosisca was more focused on the senior team, but Fitzy knew about every player.
“That’s why we’ve been so successful, the club is bigger than the individual.”
Greig had taken his game back as playing coach of the Warrack Eagles in 2006 when the club formed a partial alignment with North Melbourne, and return after two seasons.
He said the main reason he returned was the culture FitzGerald had established and the trust the coach instilled in him as a leader.
All three captains agreed the key to FitzGerald’s longevity as coach was his innovation and continual strive for improvement.
Moloney remembered questioning FitzGerald’s call to introduce a defensive press, the latest AFL trend, after the Roosters had won two premierships.
Ultimately, the decision helped the Roosters win a third flag.
Greig says it was the same with rotations.
“In the second grand final every player had a spell. Before that season, us backs had never come off the ground,” Greig said.
“It got us an extra couple of years in the game.”
Greig said FitzGerald’s vision extended beyond the football club and into the community, highlighted by his push for the Eureka Stadium supporting precinct and its potential to help develop courses at the University of Ballarat.
Greig said the changes in match technology – particularly the evolution of match vision – still occasionally baffled the coach, but he had a great support staff to help.
Moloney said FitzGerald’s timeless and strong values in respect and conduct, his passion as a coach and his drive to succeed were the same as when they had first met.
Searl, who returned to the club last season after a two-year overseas hiatus, said the main reason he came back to Eureka Stadium was the memories.
“As Marc Greig always said, you come to North Ballarat and leave a better person,” Searl said.
“I had a good relationship with Fitzy and I still have the same relationship with Fitzy now I am captain – the only difference is now he calls me skipper.”
Moloney retired as a player in 2010, Greig last season, and both will coach alongside FitzGerald today in his 300th game.
Searl will be sidelined with a broken thumb but will still be an important voice against Sandringham.
All three say they want more than a win.
Moloney said players are often motivated to play at their best, not to prove him wrong and not in spite, but because they never want to let FitzGerald down.
**On the eve of coaching his 300th Victorian Football League match, North Ballarat Roosters coach Gerard FitzGerald spoke to us about the key to his successful career.
IT'S GAME-300, HOW ARE THE PREPARATIONS DIFFERENT TO GAME-ONE?
Preparations are different this week because I've been in Melbourne for an ABC interview, there's been lots of phone calls and messages sent and it will settle down, because I'll just have to turn my phone off.
We're playing well and I just want to keep that going, therefore there's that due diligence so I don't get to tomorrow night and think I didn't do this or do that.
WHAT'S YOUR KEY TO LONGEVITY IN THE GAME?
I've been asked that a lot before.
Essentially about relationships. I was advised years ago by one of my mentors that invariably football coaches don't lose their jobs because of their lack of passion or knowledge about the game.
One thing I do appreciate is having good relationships, appreciating good relationships, it's part of my values. I 'd like to think I've had that at the majority of clubs I've been to. There's been some that haven't worked but the majority of relationships have been sound.
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU TO MARK THE MILESTONE IN BALLARAT?
It means alot. Even though I've had two other coaching opportunities in the VFL, I unashamedly call Ballarat my home because I have an enormous regard for the football club and how it's going but also a high regard the City of Ballarat. I feel the footy club is going places and the city is going places so it's lovely to be able to celebrate a milestone like this back in my own city at my own club.
WILL YOU USE THE MILESTONE FOR MOTIVATION?
No. Players would not so much be disappointed but surprised if I allowed a personal issue such as this to get in the way of preparations.
My players know I'm not into external motivation anyway. We teach our boys how to motivate themselves.
YOU'VE WON THREE PREMIERSHIPS WITH NORTH BALLARAT, BUT WHAT IS YOUR ONE FAVOURITE VFL MOMENT?
The 2008 premiership will always stand out.
We evolved into developing a model which relied on us bringing players to Ballarat, developing local players and developing a high-quality relationship with North Melbourne. People kept saying to me that's fine but do you think you can ever be the best in the VFL with that particular model you've got there?
I kept saying we could but knew we needed to win the premiership for that ultimate credibility to occur or that last barrier to us being the best.
There was the uniqueness and magic of that country club, representing a provincial city, that rose to the top.
melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au