Round #03 - Can you coach effort?
Matt Rowell
For the Gold Coast, these away victories represent more than premiership points. It is hope becoming expectation, where consistent effort becomes not just an individual trait but a shared identity, personified by Matt Rowell but spreading throughout the team.
“The strongest steel is forged in the hottest furnace.”
Few coaches understand this better than Damien Hardwick. It's his natural state, further shaped by three premierships at Richmond, arguably the AFL’s most intense cauldron of expectation.
Now at Gold Coast, he’s applying this mindset to a group anchored by players like Matt Rowell, whose very presence defines what effort looks like.
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When examining elite performance environments, the question of whether effort can be coached emerges constantly. I firmly believe it can, but not in the shouting, red-faced, vein-popping 'try harder' cliché so often expected. The process is far more nuanced.
Talent does not fluctuate, whereas effort does. The capacity of individuals and teams to consistently give maximum effort provides access to the full range of individual and collective ability and potential, and it is often the difference maker.
When effort falls short, human nature seeks out blame, knowing it will find friends easily. But there is no solution, and therefore no future, in blame. As leaders, we must rise above this proclivity.
In past years, the Suns have consistently found themselves on the wrong side of the effort ledger, particularly away from home. Their recent back-to-back victories, a record winning margin against the West Coast Eagles in Perth, and a thumping win against Melbourne, a team with plenty to play for, at the MCG, signal something fundamental is shifting.
The Gold Coast's transformation speaks to something often overlooked in performance culture, the relationship between effort and identity.
For young teams finding their way, the question isn't simply "Can we win?" but "Who are we?"
Whilst Damien Hardwick is crystal clear on how he wants his teams to play, his genius may be more in psychological redefinition, helping players understand that effort isn't what they do, but who they are.
This subtle shift transforms effort from a variable resource into a non-negotiable expression of collective character.
Matt Rowell embodies this integration, where maximum effort appears as an authentic expression of self, and it is contagious.
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The prevailing belief is that great leaders have the capacity to 'extract' performance from a group, and there is some truth in this.
We all need a hurry-up from time to time. But this practice must be used sparingly to retain its impact and value, for it will have diminishing returns.
Hardwick can certainly extract – he is direct and uncompromising. But his deeper gift is the capacity to 'unlock' performance, often by recognising capabilities and opportunities that individuals have yet to see in themselves, and then by providing a pathway to achieve it.
The role of leaders, in sport and business alike, is to create the conditions for sustained discretionary effort, not through motivational speeches or fear, but by building environments where high standards become part of collective identity and individual purpose aligns with team goals.
As Phil Jackson, 11-time NBA championship coach and author of Eleven Rings, puts it:
"Most coaches I know spend a lot of time focusing on X's and O's. I must admit that at times I've fallen in that trap myself. But what fascinates most people about sports is not the endless chatter about strategy that fills the airwaves. It's what I like to call the spiritual nature of the game."
Jackson expands on this "spiritual" side of effort through his longtime assistant, Tex Winter:
"Tex Winter says that there's no substitute for hustle, and my addendum is, if you don't hustle, you'll get benched."
This is where the marriage of list management strategy, led by the experienced and insightful Craig Cameron at the Suns, who was also central to the Tigers' success era, and coaching philosophy becomes critical.
By bringing together naturally competitive and coachable players, and combining this with Hardwick's proven ability to develop team dynamics, the Suns are building something sustainable for the first time in their young, erratic history.
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Elite performance relies on both 'mechanics' and 'dynamics'. The mechanics represent the systematic approach to performance; the dynamics are the means by which we embed personal and team commitment to execution.
Phil Jackson again:
"The art of transforming a group of young, ambitious individuals into an integrated championship team is not a mechanistic process. It's a mysterious juggling act that requires not only a thorough knowledge of the time-honoured laws of the game but also an open heart, a clear mind, and a deep curiosity about the ways of the human spirit."
Damien Hardwick has changed the game by changing the 'mechanics' of game-style, but it is with 'dynamics' where he thrives.
The many personalities and their varying interactions, egos and insecurities, with their experiences shared, it is a veritable hormone soup of human behaviours. But a well-led team, with great mechanics and dynamics, finds a way unique to this group.
Owen Eastwood, performance coach, in his book Belonging, quotes former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith:
"Creating a champion team is a spiritual challenge."
He goes on to define spirituality in this context as individuals connecting to a purpose greater than their own, and a profound emotional communion between people. That is precisely what we are beginning to see at the Suns - effort no longer as isolated acts, but as shared devotion to something bigger than any one player, coach or game.
For the Gold Coast, these away victories represent more than premiership points. It is hope becoming expectation, where consistent effort becomes not just an individual trait but a shared identity, personified by Matt Rowell but spreading throughout the team.
Play on!
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