Bon Voyage Footy

The Swans celebrating at their fan day on Sunday

As great as the weekend is when the AFL and NRL Grand Final are on the same weekend, the realisation that footy is gone for almost half a year is magnified on the Monday morning afterwards. I’ll miss footy, but fortunately I’m still basking in the glow of the Swans amazing victory on Saturday.

As I watched the Storm’s perfect defence and kicking game suffocate the Bulldogs into submission on Sunday, I realised that there are a lot of similarities between the two teams that claimed the premiership in the AFL and NRL. Plenty of people are commenting on the obvious similarity of the fact that they are the team from the opposite city, in that Sydney won the Melbourne sport and Melbourne won the Sydney sport, however it goes much deeper than that.

First of all the era of success for the two clubs began at a similar time. Paul Roos took over the coaching role at the Swans in 2002, however that was a transitional season and it was in 2003 when the team made the preliminary final that you could really see the culture change in the club. Craig Bellamy came to the Storm in 2003 and instantly got them on the right track, making the second week of the finals. The Swans of course won their first premiership of the era in 2005, whilst it took until 2007 for Bellamy to win one and it goes without saying that it turns out the Storm were cheating and lost their premierships until the one they won yesterday.

But the real similarities aren’t around the timing, but the way the cultures of the club and the style of play was changed and ingrained into the players to make winning a natural outcome. Both teams “play finals football all season”. They are built around structure, defence, knowing your role, doing the little things and just working harder than the opposition. When you play the Swans or Storm, win or lose, you know you’ve been in a war. They say defence wins championships and these teams prove it.

Both clubs have another similarity, which I think is a big part of what makes them so good. Both clubs have become masters of finding the rejects of other clubs and turning them either into stars or at least into solid contributors to do a role around the stars already there. Whether it’s Ted Richards, Rhyce Shaw or more recently Mitch Morton for the Swans or the likes of Jaiman Lowe, Brian Norrie and Sisa Waqa for the Storm, these clubs see not only that these players have something to offer, but they know that due to the strength of the culture in the club, they will be able to get the best out of these guys, whilst not asking them to do things they can’t do.

These guys made first grade elsewhere because clearly they had the talent to be professional footballers, but for various reasons were seen to not be good enough to stick at their previous club. If these players left their club to go elsewhere, it’s no guarantee they would turn out so well, but the culture inside the Swans and Storm is so conducive to success that they work their magic with very few failed projects.

Yes both clubs also happen to have some superstars which are required to be successful. Brian Norrie won’t get anywhere without Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater. But would those three guys have become the players they are at just any club? Sure they would have been very good players, but I think growing up inside that culture also helped get the best out of them too. They aren’t just super talented; they are possibly the three smartest players in the NRL.

If I were taking over as coach or administrator at another club, I would do everything possible to copy everything the Swans and Storm* are doing. Lucky for me personally, I already support the Swans and my NRL team is being coached by Bellamy’s former assistant coach and you can already see elements of the Storm culture in what the Rabbitohs are building.

For now though I’ll have to find other sports to write about, so I hope you guys like your English Premier League and American sports such as NBA and NFL, because The Back Sage doesn’t stop just because the footy does.

*Minus the, you know, salary cap cheating bit