Football provides opportunities for learning life skills the value of which persists long after arthritis sets in. More than the enjoyment of success, the comradeship and the pleasure of playing football. All individuals need to be "drawn out" by challenges i.e. by tasks that they find difficult. One of the most important lessons is that if you learn to push yourself you soon realise that what you previously considered to be your "limit" was in fact and underestimation and you were capable of achieving more. By achieving more you reset your limit at a higher level. Whilst that applies in football to areas such as running up hills, running distances, pushing yourself late in the game, bravery etc the lessons learnt can be applied to other areas. E.g. studying harder, tolerating annoyances, tolerating dags etc.

When considering player selection, try to select players that are going to win the hard games, particularly during the finals. I.e. if a player gets many kicks in the easy games but does not win the hard ball in the hard games then be reluctant to select him.

It is not enough to have 30 disposals. Work on a rough "possessions / opportunities"ratio. If you failed to win possessions 30 times, your ratio might be 1 whereas a guy with 6 chances wins 5 possessions and his ratio is 5.

When I first started coaching, I felt like I was a synthesis of all the individuals that had coached me when I was a player. Since then I've realised that many of the things that coaches do are basically nonsense and have very little to do with the team's performance, but rather are related to an individual being "seen to be coaching" by the players, officials or spectators etc.

One of the reasons that I try to get individuals to be responsible for their own skill improvement, motivation, etc. and why I often make the half time or three quarter time break a team discussion rather than a monologue is that I have found the players are just as good at determining their faults and the errors occurring on the field as I am, and their opinions are very instructive. Further more, it is hard to listen to one individual non-stop, and much more likely that players will listen to different people speaking.

Also, if I tell a player where he is making a mistake I may sound a bit like a schoolteacher and this approach is less likely to be effective than if the player himself identifies his deficiencies and he himself decides how they can be corrected. That's why I often start by asking "How do you feel about your game?" You are your own best coach.

Humour should be a part of training and team discussions before or during a match. A mixture of seriousness and humour, is the right blend for any football team. It's when the one dominates the other that football is either slack or boring.

It is essential that the team sets goals for each week and for each season. It is also essential that individuals set their goals before the season starts and during the season. If you set a goal, you have a chance of reaching it, whereas if you do not set any sort of goal you are extremely unlikely to get anywhere. When you set goals, either individually or as a team, you need to be able to conduct self-evaluation to determine whether or not you are achieving those goals, and if not, what you need to do to be successful at achieving them.

There are many things that other coaches do that you should consider avoiding e.g. in front of the rest of the club, to blame the team for losing without accepting a share of the responsibility; abusing or humiliating players in front of the rest of the team: making loud speeches before, during or after a game just because that is seen to be the thing that coaches should do, etc.

Despite the fact that football is largely a catch-as-catch-can-game, as much as possible everything should be rehearsed. That rehearsal is both mental and physical. The physical rehearsal of football events needs to be conducted in as much of a match-like situation as possible (see above comment on training). This includes not just the offensive skills (kicking, handballing, knocking on etc) but also the defensive skills of smothering, tackling, bumping etc. Even simple codes can be used, e.g. holding your arm in the air indicates that you will run a J or V. Even events like backing into a pack keeping your eyes on the football can be practised over and over again at training so that the individual gains confidence and is able to do it again in a match, i.e. even the courageous events of a game can be practised until they become part of the individual's natural repertoire. To quote the old BBC phrase "if you want something to look spontaneous, rehearse it".

"You get what you pay for" applies in football. You don't win a flag without significant cost. Most players remember the big wins and the finals wins and can't remember the cost, so it’s probably not that big a cost compared to the reward.