WITH long years of experience based in South Australia, Neil Craig brings knowledge combined with enthusiasm to his new role working alongside senior coach Mark Neeld. Here, he shares his excitement at becoming part of the Melbourne Football Club.
Choosing Melbourne over several options
Choosing Melbourne over several options
“You’ve got to make a decision, and my decision to come to the Melbourne Football Club was based on what Mark’s trying to develop here, and the vision that he has of the coaching structure, and developing this into an absolute high performance winning environment, underpinned by a really high degree of integrity with the way you go about your business.”
“That’s certainly been handed down from the CEO and the board of this football club - high performance, with high integrity, which suits me to an absolute ‘t’.”
Nervous moving to Melbourne?
“Absolutely [I was nervous]. It’s not just a decision about me.”
“It’s a family decision and I’m no different to anybody else. I’ve lived in Adelaide for 32 years and I’ve been in the same house in Adelaide for 32 years and I’ve had to go and look at new houses.
“I’ve moved my family over here - all of those things that take you out of your comfort zone, and that’s good for me. It’s always important to be out of your comfort zone - even as a 55 year-old.
“I don’t get anxious, but you’re out of your comfort zone and you want to do things really well for your family and make sure that they’re comfortable and enjoy the city.
“That’s where the Melbourne Football Club has been fantastic. They’ve been welcoming, and helped us find a place to live.
“The members need to understand that while they’ve been deprived of onfield success - and that’s what we’re here for - they should feel very proud of what their football club is starting to try and do now, and they way they are trying to treat people. We’ll make some errors, but we have to remember high performance with high integrity is a good mantra for this football club.”
Defining your new role
“That’s certainly been handed down from the CEO and the board of this football club - high performance, with high integrity, which suits me to an absolute ‘t’.”
Nervous moving to Melbourne?
“Absolutely [I was nervous]. It’s not just a decision about me.”
“It’s a family decision and I’m no different to anybody else. I’ve lived in Adelaide for 32 years and I’ve been in the same house in Adelaide for 32 years and I’ve had to go and look at new houses.
“I’ve moved my family over here - all of those things that take you out of your comfort zone, and that’s good for me. It’s always important to be out of your comfort zone - even as a 55 year-old.
“I don’t get anxious, but you’re out of your comfort zone and you want to do things really well for your family and make sure that they’re comfortable and enjoy the city.
“That’s where the Melbourne Football Club has been fantastic. They’ve been welcoming, and helped us find a place to live.
“The members need to understand that while they’ve been deprived of onfield success - and that’s what we’re here for - they should feel very proud of what their football club is starting to try and do now, and they way they are trying to treat people. We’ll make some errors, but we have to remember high performance with high integrity is a good mantra for this football club.”
Defining your new role
“I know the other thing that the club’s really keen on, and I certainly applaud it, is to be very innovative and to try and make the Melbourne Football Club, where possible, the first to do new things, to be ahead of the pack. If you put those three areas together, it’s a pretty exciting job.”
“There’s another aspect - I love the history of the Melbourne Football Club - members and supporters of the Melbourne Football Club should be really proud of it - it’s certainly attractive to me as part of my decision to come to this football club.”
What attracted you to Melbourne?
“I spent quite a bit of time talking to Cameron Schwab, CEO, and I had a great opportunity to talk to the board of the Melbourne Football Club.”
“Two things struck me from those conversations - the absolute passion that Cameron and the board members have for this football club to improve, and secondly they were up for becoming a high performance environment. That means there are going to be a lot of challenges, and certain confrontations at times - we’ll have to go down that path. For all those reasons, it’s been the right decision for me.
“My career with the SANFL was with a club called Norwood, which is red and blue. Todd Viney spent two years at the Adelaide Football Club, and played a significant role there. I really enjoyed working with Todd - his hardness, his capacity to think, and his preparedness to debate but still work very strongly in a team environment - I know Todd’s got great passion for this football club. I had a little bit to do with Brian Royal - he’s been in the game for a long period of time, and is highly experienced as a coach, and the Melbourne Football Club is very lucky to have Brian around as well.”
Moving to Melbourne
“There’s another aspect - I love the history of the Melbourne Football Club - members and supporters of the Melbourne Football Club should be really proud of it - it’s certainly attractive to me as part of my decision to come to this football club.”
What attracted you to Melbourne?
“I spent quite a bit of time talking to Cameron Schwab, CEO, and I had a great opportunity to talk to the board of the Melbourne Football Club.”
“Two things struck me from those conversations - the absolute passion that Cameron and the board members have for this football club to improve, and secondly they were up for becoming a high performance environment. That means there are going to be a lot of challenges, and certain confrontations at times - we’ll have to go down that path. For all those reasons, it’s been the right decision for me.
“My career with the SANFL was with a club called Norwood, which is red and blue. Todd Viney spent two years at the Adelaide Football Club, and played a significant role there. I really enjoyed working with Todd - his hardness, his capacity to think, and his preparedness to debate but still work very strongly in a team environment - I know Todd’s got great passion for this football club. I had a little bit to do with Brian Royal - he’s been in the game for a long period of time, and is highly experienced as a coach, and the Melbourne Football Club is very lucky to have Brian around as well.”
Moving to Melbourne
“Adelaide to Melbourne - it’s a country town to a city. And it’s a vibrant city, particularly if you love sport, which I do. We’re based here in the precinct adjacent to the MCG, and just the hive of activity here, with the Tennis Centre, and the building that’s going on - you’ve got Melbourne Victory, you’ve got Storm - I had an opportunity to meet Craig Bellamy because he was walking past our front door. That doesn’t happen in Adelaide. So, hopefully I can establish another great relationship with Craig, so that I can learn from him as well. I know my family is looking forward to Melbourne, because it’s new, and vibrant, and a big city.”
Music
Music
“I’m back in the era of Roy Orbison and the Traveling Wilburys, so there might be a bit of that floating around in the gym. Later on, we might get the younger players of this club some exposure - high performance music is what they need to be exposed to.”
