A draft prospect walks into a meeting room at the NAB AFL Draft Combine.
He’s set to meet Melbourne.
The youngster meets senior coach Mark Neeld, director of sports performance Neil Craig and the club’s head recruiter, Todd Viney. All three have coached at the highest level. All are men with strong reputations, characters and personalities.
Then he meets Tim Lamb. The youngster may feel relieved for a second that Lamb doesn’t have the football profile of the other three. But he shouldn’t underestimate Lamb’s ability - or his experience either.
In fact, Lamb is quite the asset for Melbourne and its recruiting team.
Aside from his strong football background at local and elite junior level, it’s his previous career which stands out most.
You see, Lamb was with Victoria Police for 18 years, including 12 as an investigator, as he explains.
“I finished up as a detective sergeant, so my background was extensively in the city, working in state crime squads and in the intelligence and covert support department,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“Primarily, it was as a detective with an investigations background - that’s been the main focus there.”
In the sometimes insular world of the AFL, Lamb brings a different perspective to the recruiting table. He is able to draw on his experiences, such as interviewing techniques and research skills from the police force.
“Without going into specifics … if there is some information that needs to be verified, it’s just a matter of doing some grunt work and getting out there and finding the right sources that can help you corroborate that information,” he said.
“There is a lot of information that flies around, which might be true or not. So it’s important that when you make an assessment on a player, you verify the credibility of the source and their motivation. In doing that, then you can give a bit more weight to the information. That’s something where my background has been quite strong.
“We’ve been really big on making sure that we’ve chased down all the rabbits down the holes and not left any stone unturned.”
When conducting the interviews at the Combine - and in the lead-up to the Draft - Lamb said that the club had entered them with a “really structured plan”.
“We’ve put in a lot of work watching players during the year … we’ve put in reports every week - we’ve got a robust information management system,” he said.
“From that information we’ve gathered throughout the year … we were able to gain a pretty good picture about the kids in planning for the interviews. We had a specific aim, and that’s come from the background [checks].
“There were no tricks or gimmicks, but there were buttons that you could push with these kids, because we’ve got really strong background knowledge on them, even before they walk through the door.”
During the interview process, Lamb said Melbourne had a core group of people involved, meaning continuity and consistency came to the fore.
“At the Combine, Mark Neeld was involved in basically every interview. For the couple he couldn’t be involved in, we had Neil Craig, so we either had the senior coach or the director of sports performance,” Lamb said.
“That’s really good for the kids as well. It’s a pretty intimidating environment for a 17 or 18 year-old kid to walk into, when you’ve got a senior AFL coach, a former AFL coach and someone of Todd’s stature.
“It’s another piece to the puzzle for us in our overall assessment, and how they respond to the questions that we asked them. As a general rule, they’re an impressive group, although some went better than others.”
Even outstanding father/son selection Jack Viney was put through a stringent interview, according to Lamb.
“He obviously interviewed really well. He had 12 months around the place to be interviewed, but we made sure he was put through the rigorous process as well,” he said.
“We didn’t leave him to the side. He didn’t get any favours because he was Todd’s son, and our members and supporters would expect that.
“We certainly didn’t take the decision lightly, but we’re delighted to have Jack. And he came through with flying colours.”
Lamb, who joined Melbourne as a national recruiting officer earlier this year, had previously been an assistant coach to former Demon, Bulldog and Saint and now Hawthorn assistant coach Luke Beveridge at St Bedes/Mentone.
There, he helped St Bedes/Mentone win consecutive premierships from C grade to B grade, and then A grade.
After that, Lamb moved to TAC Cup side Sandringham Dragons with Dale Tapping, now Collingwood’s VFL coach.
Lamb was also involved in the Vic Metro pathway, working with the futures program, which included Melbourne forward line coach Leigh Brown. He was also a line coach with the Vic Metro under 18s team, coached by former Carlton player Rohan Welsh, which he said was invaluable for his current position.
“I got to coach against the best kids in the country, so I got to assess them from that point of view,” Lamb said.
“Then an opportunity came up to interview for a role here with Todd [Viney] and Tim [Harrington], as an extra resource. I came in and had an interview and then another couple of interviews with Todd and Tim and was lucky enough to get the position.”
Although he has yet to complete a full year with the club, Lamb has relished the opportunity to work in a full-time AFL environment.
“It’s been fantastic, and the club has been really welcoming and has been really helpful,” he said.
“There was a period of getting your feet under the desk, but in season, there is so much travelling and following up that it’s hard to believe we’re a week away from the Draft.
“It’s been a good transition, helped mainly by the people here.”
Lamb said camaraderie was one of the great parallels between the police force and football. And while he acknowledged that there were genuine pressures in the AFL, he said his previous job had far more than his latest occupation.
“You spend a fair bit of time by yourself, but you catch up with the interstate guys regularly. I’ve come out of a team structure before, but there are obviously some differences working for the government to working in footy.
“There are pressures and then there are pressures. Working for Victoria Police has certainly helped me with the pressure that comes at this time of the year. We’ve got some important decisions to make, but there are those that have already been made.
“The similarity between the two jobs is that if you do your work properly, it looks after itself a bit.”
With the 27th NAB AFL Draft set to be held on Gold Coast next Thursday, Lamb said the club was “very comfortable with where we sit”.
“We’ve watched them play a lot and it was really important to find out as much about them as people, to make sure we’re bringing the right people into the club,” he said.
“We’ve got to improve and build on the culture that we’ve already got and make it a better place - both on and off field.”
