From being abruptly cut by Richmond to becoming senior coach of the club’s women’s team, Ryan Ferguson’s newfound priority is highly clarified coaching and crystal clear communication.
Nothing less will do for his new charges, the former development coach in Richmond’s elite men’s program says.
“Making sure in your coaching that you coach the ‘why’ … it’s probably never been more relevant to me in my coaching,” Ferguson says in the second episode of The Originals podcast.
“The girls do think a lot about the game, they want to learn about the game and they want to be good at the game. And they need to know the ‘why’, not just ‘do this or do that’.
“It just accentuates the need to be good with your messaging, and clear with your messaging, and make sure that you are coaching in that way: ‘what and why we are trying to do something in a certain way’.
“It challenges you to be really good at your craft.”
The Originals: Series 2, Episode 2 - Written and presented by award-winning journalist and author, Sam Lane; subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
Ferguson details in the podcast how he was approached by Richmond’s Neil Balme about the vacant coaching position after the Tigers decided to replace Tom Hunter after just one season.
Ferguson who, as a development coach at Punt Road since 2015, had a unique hand and eye on green male Tigers developing into triple premiership champions, had only recently lost his job when Balme phoned.
“I’d just been let go from the men’s program so [Balme indicated there would be] no hard feelings if you’re not interested in hanging around any more ... but he thought I’d be a good candidate,” Ferguson recalls.
“I felt initially it fits in really well with me and my coaching journey, and what I’ve been a part of, and what I would feel my next step could be.
“I kind of got excited about it pretty quickly; being able to be involved in a program from its pretty early days and trying to have a really big influence across the whole program and step up and be a head coach if I was able to get the role.”
In between times Ferguson had applied for teaching jobs and was exploring other coaching positions - “Exploring what might be out there in a market that was diminishing,” he says.
“That was interesting. Challenging. It was only a short time, it wasn’t a long time, but it was something that I hadn’t really faced before.
“I’d been pretty seamless from my transition through from playing to coaching into full-time coaching and it was going quite smoothly and quite well. So to have quite an abrupt ending, and then the perspective that it happens in life and you’ve got to get on with figuring out what the next chapter is.”
The Originals is sponsored by WISE Employment, helping people who have employment barriers, including mental illness and disability, find meaningful work.
Find out more at wiseemployment.com.au or call 1800 685 105.
The Originals podcast; Series 2, Episode 1 - Returning with a strong sense of connectedness
Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
