Former Gold Coast Suns Coach and Eagles Great, Guy McKenna, joined Scott Cummings and Tim Gossage to discuss the aftermath following the departure of Adam Simpson yesterday.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SEN WA Breakfast
Guy McKenna - West Coast Champion (10/07/2024)
(upbeat music) - This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use, but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year, and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible savings, they're not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. - Ryan Reynolds here from Int Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. - Mint Mobile unlimited, premium wireless. - Have it to get 30, 30, 30, but to get 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 50, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. So. - Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. - $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time, unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month, slows, full turns at mintmobile.com. - The guy McKenna, he's of course at West Coast here goes legend, and a man who's been in the coaching of the Gold Coast, sons, a man who's still passionate West Coast and had a lot to say. And I'm sure he's, I think he grew up a North Melbourne fan, so he would be all aware of Adam Simpson and what he's done for footy as a player and a coach. And he's been in this hot seat before and he's good mates with Don Pike. So you've got a bit of, you've got a foot in every can. - Good morning. (laughing) - Like an octopus almost, although legs not arms. Yeah, look at, it was obviously a big day for the club and also a big day for Simo. And I think you fellas touched on that family. Should I just, I heard your intro and I'm talking about that. And I mean, I mean, I've been a little bit different. I think the club and Johnny Wither for the time, the chairman, when I got the Tijuana later, it was in October and it was almost, well, it was after the season. So I never had to go through what some of the coaches have gone through like in the season when obviously the furnace is really hot and burning. And obviously, you know, Simo's end up getting synced now and it is tough. And I know what it's like on the family. I still talk to people about the fact, you know, after we decided to pack up, sell the home and move to Melbourne. That's what the family decided for the best thing for our kids. And I remember I spent seven days, we drove the Volvos, you fellas from Gold Coast to Melbourne. It took us seven days. We took it nice and, you know, nice and easy. We drove down. I had my son, Jesse in the coast, 13 at that stage. And I learned more about him, it's quite sadly, in seven days that I had done in the last six years up on the Gold Coast and sort of hit me about the impact it has on your family. And it was, yeah, it was really quite sad. And as I said, I was there for him physically up there. You know, we'd play tennis and we'd play cricket in the carport, we'd have a king of the footy and all that sort of stuff. I was always there physically for him, but mentally I just, I know myself, there was times clearly I was, but there was a lot of the times where I was there physically for him and just not mentally attuned to what he's needs were. And it is, it takes a big toll on the family and obviously the coach himself. And I'm sure Simo's, you know, feeling a bit of that now, you lose, you lose that time. I think the work life balance has certainly got better in the AFL with time off and certainly for the players, I still think the coaching fraternity is still a bit behind and all that sort of stuff because you are, as a senior coach, you are, I think Pikey said in his press conference that you are the main person. And so you feel obliged, not a feel obliged, you just want to stamp your impromator on the group and get them up to playing as best football as you possibly can. - Comic- prem, I guess. During the peak times of Adam Simpson's time at West Coast, he was so, so family conscious. I remember the day they, you know, I remember the day that Josh Kennedy dressed up in Frozen and all the kids were dressed up in the favorite characters and all their dads were dressed up in their characters and they did it inside the, at the footy club. - Bring your kids to work. - Bring your kids to work. They were always at the footy club. COVID hit and they were, there are no, every football club is the same, but I think West Coast were more attached and had kids, more kids than any other team going around. - Yeah. - By a mile. And I reckon that took the wind out of the sails the whole COVID and they never really recovered. I just want to ask you a question in regards to player unrest. So, in the last couple of weeks, there's been reports of text messages and look, and there is a senior player who's come across my desk at who it is. And I've been seeing a senior player, right? Who was leading the charge a little bit of what did you charge? - Sorry, mate, can I jump in? If it's been reported that three players, three players text messages has got out, mate. I would have re-signed him. It was only three players. - Yeah. - My God. - I see it that beautifully. - Yeah. - Oh, mate, there's normally 10 or 15 players that are either in one week and out. The next they're the ones that generally start causing fire and some friction. And because they're the ones that, as a coach, you don't fully trust if you know what I mean. Nothing about them being distrustful, it's just they're not senior players yet. Whereas there's the first sort of 10 to 15 of the first, pick their sort of low maintenance players. You just pick them because you know they're going to produce, you know, they might produce an eight, they might go down to a six, but they're very rarely going to go below a five whereas some players are very, 'cause they're young kids, or one thing I did learn at Gold Coast, they're young kids in young teams will be consistently inconsistent. So it's trying to manage that. They don't see that. They just think they're performing as, oh, they are, they're performing as best they are, but it's just not up to that level. So yeah, look, ultimately, mate, that would happen at every club. But just the fact that it gets out, that's a sad thing, unfortunately. I'm sure, I mean, there'd be disgruntled players that sit here right there. Why? 'Cause they can't crack it into a potential premiership team. But you don't hear about that, of course, because no one's really digging the dirt, no one really wants to sort of set the dominoes in motion if you know them, mate. - Any journalist across the country could say, I've seen text messages from any picker club that players are disgruntled. We said this when it first came in that it was just there's always going to be players who aren't wrapped with a coach and they're playing waffle at the moment. - From your vantage point, do you think Adam Simpson it sounded like he said, I used the quote, "We love Perth and we love everything it's given us, "but I love footy too. "It just gives it, I've just got a feeling, "he'll freshen up and get back in somewhere. "Do you think he can coach somewhere else, "as a senior coach?" - Oh yeah, look, I don't, well, I mean, once you've sort of been burnt or singed, if you know what I mean, I think, I mean, he would be, oh, look, he's a premiership coach, that's a little bit different certainly to my side of things. I mean, he probably could walk in and go straight into a senior coach. He'd wanna do that within the next couple of years, but I think, from what I know of a simo from afar, I think he would, he has no ego about him, so he'd happily go in as a senior assistant somewhere else and help a young developing coach or go in and sit alongside, you might go back to, or you might even end up at North Melbourne with Clarko, who knows it, she's old club. They're probably ready to start the rise and it might be a chapter in his book because I still remember, and this is a tough thing for coaches, of course, 'cause, you know, when they take over, I don't remember Mick Mulhair saying that when I first joined him at Collin with you, it said you've never coached the side until you've coached the side of the bottom four, because you have to bite and scratch and you go into a boxing match with almost one arm tied behind your back, because you just don't have these levers to pull, but, you know, when you're at a good side, you've got four or five, six, eight, 10 players, you can throw out the opposition when you're in a young developing side, like Simo's got now with West Coast, you know, Oscar Allen's just come back. I mean, he's obviously a club captain, a very good player, Harley Reid, but he's still a kid, you know, he can't expect games to be won on the back of this young fella. I mean, in time that he will, but, you know, it's like a J. Oh, well, the J. Geromeer and a David Sweller, for us back at Gold Coast early days, but it takes time for these kids to fully develop from kids into men. You know, some do it really quick, and those two boys mentioned that Harley Reid's gonna do it quicker than normal, but there's Mark and Blight once told us that the Gold Coast made it, the 80/20 rule applies. 80% of the kids drafted will take three or four years. I mean, we've just been on radio talking about Max King and comparing him to Tom Hawkins. And I think Tom Hawkins, you know, obviously he's an absolute champion and a superstar, but it took him five years to fully develop into the player he was. And they're all jumping on Max King. And I said, he's just hit his 50 and he's actually kicked 159 goals in his first five years compared to Tom Hawkins, who's kicked 109. Now, I'm not gonna say he's gonna go on and play throughout games and kick, you know, over a thousand goals or anything like that, but just, hey, just give him some time, you know? It takes time. - So with the playing list, put your club hat on there, Blue, with the playing list where it's at right now, is it a matter of, which lever do you think the club should pull? Do they go to an untried? Do they go to Adaine Cox, who's been away from the club for a long time now and got a lot of IP and Ash Hansen, Jamie Graham. They're just a few names that have been thrown up. Or do they go a senior coach who's been there, done that, been in the system for a long time and is a proven developer? New coach, tried coach. - Yeah, good question, Scott. I mean, yeah, I mean, the tried coach, as long as he's been down the bottom, if you know what I mean, and sampled that. Because again, look, I still think, like even, you know, I'm not patting myself on the back to say here, 'cause I've been to a few of the West Coast functions and supporters have been up and about, thinking about this year and how good it's gonna be. And I'm sitting there going, I'm hosing them down, I just wait off on, hang on. Those, the senior players, you know, they made the call, you know, two years ago, they got rid of some, the ones they kept unfortunately, they kept the right ones, I think, in a playing point of view. But unfortunately, they all broke out, so they had no senior players, that was a bad year. So they're not gonna carry that legacy into this year, and then lose some more players, and I think the players that, you know, earn, and some of those players that retired, I mean, they're finishing their top 10, like, oh, you would have had to twist their arm again to go around again. But unfortunately, they've retired, and there's just left too few to carry, you know, a team full of kids have been there, done that, I don't know what it's like. So I always thought that this year was gonna be worse than last year. And at this stage, it's sort of tracking that way. So right now you go, what do I need to get out of the season? You know, and so there's things to be done there. But the answer question about the coach, yeah, I mean, the names you mentioned are really good. I mean, Dean Cox has spent, you know, 10 years in Sydney. So one thing I do here with, I highly speak it out, and it's very much himself as a person, as well as his values. And he's lived that, the Sydney Swans bloods culture, and he knows what that's like. And then the good thing for Coxie, I suppose, he's been there now in that time. I think Sydney have dropped, dropped, I think they've won seven games in one of the seasons. I think when Coxie's there, but most of the time under, but they still, over every other year, I can no play final. So he sort of understands what success and how to build. And certainly with Sydney over the last five years, especially how to build a young side up into a premiership contender. - Brilliant stuff, Louis. A lot of tech's coming through, your passion, your insight, your empathy, you can still hear it in your voice for the West Coast Eagles. So in simple terms, what were the next few days bit like for Adam Simpson in your opinion? - Oh, no doubt it'd be around the family hugging and kissing and making up for the last, you know, was 11 or 12 years he's been coaching. But yeah, I think he will sit back. I think you're right. I think you'll have some time off, bit like Damien Hardwick did, get the cigar out and reflect. Well, it's funny, you never really, I still haven't really reflected too much on the, you know, even our playing day. So I know we're back to the '94 and all that sort of stuff. But certainly, you just don't have time to sort of sit and reflect. But if he does have some time, have a break, you know, recharge, refresh. And then really, you know, I did the right thing. I hopefully buy my wife at the time in chick just to turn around and say, okay, what do you want to do now? I think the next thing we have to do is sort out the family and the kids. What's most important? And Jesse was moving into high school. So we decided for his opportunity was to go to Melbourne. And I dare say, Simone will turn around to his wife and say, what do we need to do? I think he said at the press conference, he's got three kids at a Finnish school. He might have one. He's a one to go. Yeah, so I think that will determine a fair bit, I would think. And then after that, mate, yeah, he'll sail off to the sunset. And if there's an opportunity in football, wherever that is, I'm sure he'll take it up. It's fine lying between being a coach and not being a coach. And we've got to remember that I never say this publicly 'cause I don't publicly stick up for blue, but he was a shoulder injury away from playing finals. In that year, and then Gary was able to go down and go and coast me south. And that's a simple fact that he's a very, very final. He wasn't a bad coach, I don't think. He's a very good coach. He's an even better basketballer. Get up here for a shot at a time. Average bloke, average bloke for good culture basketball. Yeah. Thanks, mate. Good on you. Love the passion from Guy McKenna who's been there, done that.