Strikers Coach At Large – Part Three
David Large: "Generally speaking....GENERALLY speaking, I would be very calm"
In this third, and final, instalment of an interview conducted with Brisbane Strikers head coach David Large a month ago (incidentally, one week after his team’s 4-4 draw against the Far North Queensland Bulls and after the Socceroos had departed the World Cup with a 2-1 win over Serbia), Large talks about his own approach to coaching, his plans for a phased handover to Chay Hews and what comes after….and what went wrong in South Africa!
Brisbane Strikers Website: Coaching – there’s lots of aspects to it. How would you break down the components of the job?
David Large: As in?
BSW: In terms of…..tactician, player-manager, psychologist.
DL (laughing): I think we’re a psychologist all the time, to be honest. I think my main focus in the job is making sure that we keep the boys focused on a week to week basis on the job ahead. And to do that, I try very hard in my training sessions to make sure that we’re re-enacting, as much as possible, the movements of play that we do in a game. I do like to play a lot of possession games, a lot of passing drills, we’ll call them, where there is a lot of interaction with ball movement. So that is a major part. Player management is, I think…..if I’ve got a weakness within my coaching ability, I think that would be one that I would like to improve. My Yorkshire upbringing certainly makes me very abrupt, and I say what I think, and sometimes I could really button my lip, you know? But, in saying that, players know exactly where they stand with me. But I would like to improve that – even at my age, I would still like to improve that. It is a major part of the coaching and I’m finding that, coming back into senior football, I have been a little bit fortunate in the way that I was with Stuart for eighteen months, where I saw a master at work in knowing how to manage people very well – and he did it so well! And I picked up a lot on that and I have to say that there’s certain things since Stuart’s left that I haven’t changed, and I would like to think that I’ve tried to emulate him in that area as best as I possibly can.
BSW: Are there any particular parts to the job that you really like?
DL: The parts that I like in the job are exactly what I liked when I was playing – and that was training. I love coming on to the training paddock and working with the boys. I love to interact with them. I have found, since Stuart’s run away and left me, I don’t have that ability to have as much of a laugh with the boys. I feel that I have to sort of come away from that a little bit now, probably because of how Stuart was, and maybe I’ve noticed that Chay has actually started taking over that role. Maybe he picked up on what I was doing and he’s taken it over, and it really puts a smile on my face because, again, he’s doing a terrific job doing it.
BSW: Is there anything different about coaching at this club as opposed to coaching at others around Brisbane?
DL: I think it’s the same job. The expectations are always high from wherever you go – whether you’re coaching at A-League (level) or whether you’re coaching at Capalaba Under-12s, you know? I think the expectations are always the same. So no, I think coaching is coaching. I think that’s why we go and learn to be a coach and do the courses, so that we can apply the logic in a day-to-day vein.
BSW: What is David Large like in the dressing room? Is he cool, calm and rational or is he inclined to peel paint off walls?
DL (hesitating before laughing): I shouldn’t say what I was going to say. Generally speaking….generally speaking I would be very calm. I’m not a person that will go into a dressing room and focus on what we’ve done wrong. I would more focus on how we can make it better. I have, in my time – and I’ve really only done it once in the two years that I’ve been here – spat the dummy a little bit and gone off and made my opinions felt. But I would have to say that that’s probably out of character.
BSW: Would you care to elaborate on when that time was?
DL (laughing again): It was very recent, and we were getting beat 3-2 at the time and had just scored a goal one minute before half-time.
BSW: Incredibly recently! You are working with Chay Hews now as your assistant, with a brief to prepare him to hopefully, one day, take over from you. How do you envisage taking him on that transition?
DL: This year the plan was really to try and not trouble Chay with anything other than his playing options at this point in time. I’ve certainly watched Chay and I’ve actually noticed within him in this very short time, that all of a sudden he’s starting to think now of the coaching side of things. He’ll come and ask me questions that he probably doesn’t necessarily know the answers to, or he might think he does, but he’s coming to get something from me that’s going to give him some positive thoughts on it. So I think he himself has already started looking at coaching.
My intention is not to worry him too much about that, but, I mean, on Tuesday this week he took the whole session. I didn’t do anything. And the smile on his face at the end of it really was enlightening for me, and it gave me a lot of encouragement to realise that there’s going to be a time when he’s not only going to take over from me but he’s going to be a very, very happy coach and a good coach, you know?
From this year I intend to involve him quite heavily in the off-season in terms of our preparation for next year – in terms of our recruitment and also getting involved in the planning of how and when and what we are going to do in the pre-season. I’ve already spoken to him in terms of where I would like to see a few changes from what Stuart did. We’ve spoken on those lines and both Chay and I have agreed, quite amazingly, that we should go down a certain track. So I actually want him to be not the instigator, but certainly the decision maker in terms of how we prepare and also to help me with, as I say, the recruitment. I think that’s important for him, because he’s not going to get too much more of an opportunity than this year before the following year comes and I might have moved on and he’s taken over. So I do need him to get involved in that.
BSW: So at this stage you might be thinking about moving out of the coaching role here, particularly of the senior team anyway, by the end of next season perhaps?
DL: I’m hoping that.
BSW: Do you see yourself remaining involved in some capacity at this club?
DL: Absolutely! I’m not ready for the scrapheap, I don’t think, and I still think that I have a part to play and would really like to be within that set-up. I don’t want to walk away. I think what I can offer Chay, particularly in his early years of coaching, is to take a lot of the load of the subsidiary part of the teams, like the 19s and all that sort of thing – the coaching development that we do at other clubs, and things like that. And probably just allow Chay to manage and coach the first team. I would like to think that I could help him in those sorts of areas.
BSW: Are you enjoying your football at the moment?
DL: Absolutely. I said to Stuart last year – and I’ll never forget what I said to him at the end of the year – I said that this has been the best year of my football life, including coaching and playing. And that has never changed this year. I am still absolutely loving it.
BSW: Do you foresee a time when you won’t want to be involved in the game at all?
DL: I’m sure my wife will! But then again, she has been a very supportive and patient partner. But I have to say, without her, I wouldn’t have been able to have done what I’ve done. I’ve probably neglected her for far, far too many years and that’s why this year was….not my swan song, but was certainly a winding back one where we might have a little bit more time to do family things, or husband and wife things. But when I fronted her with it (the opportunity to be head coach) she said “go for it, you need to do it”. I’m so lucky!
BSW: This is a testing one, maybe – out of all the players at the club at the moment, if you had to nominate one or two, perhaps, who are showing the potential and the signs of going on to a big future in the game, at this point in time who do you think it might be?
DL (lengthy pause): Very difficult, to put that on paper. But I will. I will because that’s who I am. I actually feel that the one with the most potential that I’m seeing at this point in time is probably Dylan Goodman. I think Dylan has ingredients in his game that are special. His pace is certainly not lacking, and he’s developed through the junior systems and taken on board everything that I feel that he needed to have at this point in his career. There’s obviously a long way for him to go, however, I think that with a little bit of better application and commitment to the cause I think he could be a very special player. So I’ve already told you one boy that I might be looking at for next year!
BSW: We’re nearly at the end here, David, and the questions are getting harder. We’re going to put you on the spot now. What the hell went wrong for the Socceroos against Germany?
DL (laughing again): Err….I think…well…Dave Large wasn’t coach! No, I think the thing that bewilders me…I can only look at it as a coach, and the thing that bewilders me is that Verbeek came into this job and put a system in place, and through a lot of criticism from outside sources he stuck to his guns, stuck to his guns and at the end of the day he always came away smiling because he got the results that he needed. For some reason he went away from that philosophy in that one game, and I have to say that that’s the only thing that I can think went wrong. He comes back after that, goes back to his original systems, we go and almost beat Ghana with ten men, we go and beat Serbia. I really think that he just got it wrong (against Germany) and he should have stuck to his guns.
BSW: OK – as we come into the last sixteen, who is your tip for the World Cup?
DL (breaking up and laughing loudly once more): I (initially) said Italy (more laughter)! I said that Italy would win it again, so do I have the right to change?
BSW: You can change now, with the benefit of some hindsight.
DL: I never thought that they would, but I have to say that I think Spain are probably now my first option. But I certainly believe that Maradona has got something special happening with Argentina and it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see them take it.
BSW: Thanks very much, David.
