Academy coach Kelly O'Donnell looks at how Brent Moloney and Aaron Davey have grown as leaders
LEADERSHIP can be thrust upon someone.
There are natural leaders, but not many of them.
Usually, people find something they take ownership of, which gives them a sense of leadership and responsibility.
Having spoken to our leadership group, the common theme, which permeates through is their focus on helping others to better themselves and the team.
For example, it could be Nathan Jones enhancing his leadership through trying to help the first and second-year players, or Jared Rivers influencing the young backs or working with Jack Watts and Liam Jurrah on how to position themselves better against backmen and how to negate forwards.
In this article, I’ll focus on two players, Brent Moloney and Aaron Davey, who have grown into leadership roles.
Three years ago, Brent was individually focused, but was given the opportunity to become involved in our boxing program, with our young players.
He took on some responsibilities, when our then boxing coach Rod Ryan was unable to, due to other commitments.
Brent found something that was valued, that he enjoyed and that he was good at. He was also able to impart his knowledge and skills onto young players.
From there, his interest in the younger players grew and his ownership in the boxing program increased.
Brent then took the boys away on a boxing camp to his hometown of Warrnambool. He was an integral part of that camp and organised much of it.
The club had no money to run the camp, so it was paid for by the players. A lot of that money was generated by Brent’s enthusiasm to make the camp work. And the young players were fantastic.
From there, Brent improved his skills, such as responsibility and received some great feedback, due to his involvement in those programs.
He then sought more responsibilities and had a change of attitude, in regards to how he could influence the club in a very positive way.
Brent was then elected as an MCC player representative and then continued his involvement with his boxing and the standards he set.
This led him to being appointed to the leadership group and now as a joint vice-captain.
From Aaron’s point-of-view, when I first came to the club, he and Matthew Whelan were talented players, who all of a sudden had a young Austin Wonaeamirri to influence and guide.
That helped Matthew and Aaron enormously in the way they went about their footy.
They made choices and changed the way they went about their preparation, which in turn helped Austin.
As history has since shown, we have drafted further Indigenous players, with a young Aborigine joining our list each year.
With Matthew now retired, ‘Flash’ has become the elder of the Indigenous players.
This has given Aaron a platform to lead, through the weight of numbers of Indigenous players. They look to him for guidance, and now Aaron sets the standard and shows responsibility to others.
The overriding key message with leadership is finding a platform, which you can influence, and then taking ownership and responsibility with it.
From there, it’s about making it work. A change in attitude also comes along when people are given responsibility.
LEADERSHIP can be thrust upon someone.
There are natural leaders, but not many of them.
Usually, people find something they take ownership of, which gives them a sense of leadership and responsibility.
Having spoken to our leadership group, the common theme, which permeates through is their focus on helping others to better themselves and the team.
For example, it could be Nathan Jones enhancing his leadership through trying to help the first and second-year players, or Jared Rivers influencing the young backs or working with Jack Watts and Liam Jurrah on how to position themselves better against backmen and how to negate forwards.
In this article, I’ll focus on two players, Brent Moloney and Aaron Davey, who have grown into leadership roles.
Three years ago, Brent was individually focused, but was given the opportunity to become involved in our boxing program, with our young players.
He took on some responsibilities, when our then boxing coach Rod Ryan was unable to, due to other commitments.
Brent found something that was valued, that he enjoyed and that he was good at. He was also able to impart his knowledge and skills onto young players.
From there, his interest in the younger players grew and his ownership in the boxing program increased.
Brent then took the boys away on a boxing camp to his hometown of Warrnambool. He was an integral part of that camp and organised much of it.
The club had no money to run the camp, so it was paid for by the players. A lot of that money was generated by Brent’s enthusiasm to make the camp work. And the young players were fantastic.
From there, Brent improved his skills, such as responsibility and received some great feedback, due to his involvement in those programs.
He then sought more responsibilities and had a change of attitude, in regards to how he could influence the club in a very positive way.
Brent was then elected as an MCC player representative and then continued his involvement with his boxing and the standards he set.
This led him to being appointed to the leadership group and now as a joint vice-captain.
From Aaron’s point-of-view, when I first came to the club, he and Matthew Whelan were talented players, who all of a sudden had a young Austin Wonaeamirri to influence and guide.
That helped Matthew and Aaron enormously in the way they went about their footy.
They made choices and changed the way they went about their preparation, which in turn helped Austin.
As history has since shown, we have drafted further Indigenous players, with a young Aborigine joining our list each year.
With Matthew now retired, ‘Flash’ has become the elder of the Indigenous players.
This has given Aaron a platform to lead, through the weight of numbers of Indigenous players. They look to him for guidance, and now Aaron sets the standard and shows responsibility to others.
The overriding key message with leadership is finding a platform, which you can influence, and then taking ownership and responsibility with it.
From there, it’s about making it work. A change in attitude also comes along when people are given responsibility.
