AFL NSW-ACT's Ryan O'Keefe disappointed with turnouts for coaching workshops

O'Keefe spent a couple of days in the Riverina this week as part of his role as head of coaching and coach education and development for AFL NSW-ACT.

He conducted two coaching workshops in Wagga on Tuesday and one in Narrandera on Monday.

O'Keefe was disappointed with the turnout and believes clubs need to get better if they are serious about improvement.

"We had one in Narrandera on Monday night and there was really good representation from Narrandera and Griffith. There was a lot of clubs that weren't there. Not even sending one coach," O'Keefe said.

"And then even (on Tuesday) I ran two in Wagga and it was really well represented by Turvey Park and Wagga Tigers but there's still a lot of clubs that didn't have any representation, which is a little bit disappointing.

"When opportunities to provide some help and resource support are put there, you'd love to have at least someone there from every club to see what's going on.

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"It's not just even learning the stuff I go through but having those conversations, a lot of the good incidental conversations I had outside the presentation with the coaches that were there were really informative and some of those coaches were able to learn what stuff is available and asked questions about whether you could come to their club individually and it was yeah no worries, it's about starting to build relationships with the clubs, which I think is important.

"The good clubs do it, the clubs that have really good programs and a good foundation of a club, they're doing it and they're really proactive and probably the clubs that need help, they're not doing it.

"Is there a reason why they're not good clubs and why the good clubs are, I think it's pretty obvious and the good clubs are proactive, they attend these things and in all right, they probably don't have to. They're good clubs for a reason."

O'Keefe thought the sessions went well for the coaches in attendance.

"I think so. From my perspective, they went well, there was some really good conversations, the sessions I like to run are interactive, I don't want to just lecture the coaches, I want them to ask questions, I want them to get something they want to learn out of the sessions and the feedback I got was really positive," he said.

"I'm really passionate about giving back to that community level and grassroots and help coaches be as good as they can because I think a coach is one of the most important roles about creating a really good experience for kids or players and sometimes if you have a really good coach players will stay or players will come to a club."

After speaking with the local coaches in attendance, O'Keefe said he is confident there is a lot of good work being done in the Riverina.

"Just the fact there is a lot of good clubs and a lot of good coaches doing some really good work out there in the community," he said.

"Coaches are volunteers, doing their best and when coaches turn up and want to learn things, and the coaches that turned up to the workshops, I give full credit to.

"They're all volunteers as well and they want to do better and provide a good experience and environment for their team and the players they have.

"I think it's important that we all help each other and create really good community clubs because I think community clubs are the essence and backbone of what footy's all about."

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