Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Interview with Glenorchy Knights coach Nick Harrison


Photo: Nick Harrison...appointed coach of Glenorchy Knights [PlessPix]

Nick Harrison has recently been appointed coach of Glenorchy Knights for the next two seasons.

He took over in a caretaker capacity half-way through last season after the sudden resignation of Eamonn Kelly.

I spoke to Nick about his appointment and the interview follows.

Walter Pless: How do you feel about your appointment?

Nick Harrison: Pleased. Obviously, there were a couple of other people interested [in the position]. On the plus side is having Anthony Grundy involved in it. He is the one who approached me after the Devonport game and said what he felt and that he wanted to get involved in coaching and step down from playing seniors, so we put a package together to submit to the club and then they had a meeting and offered us the job after asking some further questions and we’ve got a two-year contract, a two-plus one-year contract.

WP: You’ve already been coaching the club for the past six months. What changes can you see you’ll need to make?

NH: Obviously, we need strengthening in certain areas. We need to know which players will leave. When Eamonn [Kelly] left a third of the way through the season, all players stayed with us, which was pleasing at the time. There’s talk of certain players maybe leaving and we know some of our players have already been approached by other clubs. My concern was that if the club didn’t make a decision sooner than later, then we’d be behind the eightball.

If players leave, I’ll shake their hand and wish them well. As I said at the dinner the other week, where are you going to play where you’re going to better yourself? If players move on to better themselves, I’ll wish them well. So, what we need to know is which players will leave. We want a commitment out of the players who are at the club at the moment, I suppose, and then we’ll be talking to players on our wish list, that is, players we’d like to bring to our club, and I’ll be speaking to some of those. I’ll try and meet some of those players and talk to them and see what they think and try and attract those players to our club.

I’ve also said to the committee what I want in return. A lot of clubs don’t charge registration and that’s something we’ve got to address. All clubs have to be more professional in what they do, and we do too. Coming from England, as I do, you don’t hear about registrations. Players sign on and they get a club tracksuit, they get a club polo shirt and they get training gear. I suppose that’s a dream, but if you play that’s what you get. You’re expected to wear your tracksuit to all games, and all that sort of thing. If we can come up with something like that it’ll be good. The club has got to be proactive as well, and more active as well. The committee had been struggling with members. We need more members and more people involved. There’s work to be done on and off the field.

We’re going to have a club barbecue at the Prince of Wales Ground on the 31 October, which is a Sunday. The following few weekends there’s a senior licence course which Anthony and I will be going on, so [on 31 October] we’ll have an open day and welcome new and old players and welcome everybody there and let people know what we’re doing. We start [pre-season] training on Monday, 22 November.

We know we’ve got to strengthen the side. A goalscorer will be a priority, and there’s not many of them about. Corey Smith is an answer, depending on the situation. Hopefully, all players will stay and we’re looking at where we need strengthening. We need more depth in our squad to be competitive. We want to improve on this year, and there’ll be a lot of other clubs out there wanting to improve as well.

WP: What qualifications do you have?

NH: In Australia, all I’ve done is the junior and youth licences. I’ve done the Intermediate Coaching Course, but there was never eve a coach here to assess it. I’ll be attending the course in Campbell Town in November and, hopefully, Anthony Grundy will come with me on that course as he needs to be qualified as well. That’s the Senior Certificate Course.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

How come Nick was allowed by FFT to coach last year without a Senior Licence? FFT said 4 years ago ALL senior coaches needed a youth licence which was then to be upgraded to Senior the following year. Typical of FFT - unprofessional and left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing - and to think subs are paid to pay them!

Anonymous said...

This was never implemented by FFT and Nick does have a youth Licence.

Anonymous said...

what a backyard setup at knights next year very much on the decline i feel

Anonymous said...

Finished 3rd last year after losing their coach, not too bad of a result.

Suppose it's better than winning 2 games all season. Good luck Nick and Anthony.

Anonymous said...

what a backyard setup at knights next year very much on the decline i feel

October 13, 2010 9:43 AM


agreed. not sure how they see themselves as being the top challenger to sth hobart. Doubt they will even make top 4.

Eagles to be the big movers this season.

Anonymous said...

anon 9.43,

what a stupid comment!

There is a 5 year strategic plan at knights for women's, youth, juniors and men's.

Any club without this in place would be struggling.

The club is in very good hands in John Peter and the committee and the coaching staff being put into place currently will see the club go forward very quickly.

As far as seniors go, there is a much bigger push on the club working together and being involved in youth and women's by senior players. The idea is to create good senior players from within aswell as recruit well.

Nick and Anthony have already sat down and come up with a season plan and I am sure that very soon there will be something sent to the media with the finalised details.

Why make comments about things you are unaware of?

Knights will finish in the top 2 next year.

jerry kruijver said...

if nick gets the players on his wishlist and wins the title will he then cop the same flack as ken morton in regards to poaching?

Anonymous said...

yer corey would be an answer providing he doesnt get sent off every 2 games again.

Anonymous said...

i heard that knights missed out on a couple of players (ladic,crosswell,sanders) because there was not a coach appointed in time and decided to stay where they are now

Anonymous said...

By the sounds of it, these guys are pushing for a more professional approach, something which I feel has been lacking at Glenorchy for some years.

Good luck to Nick and Anthony.

Anonymous said...

Knights will finish in the top 2 next year.

October 13, 2010 10:58 AM


now that's a stupid comment

Anonymous said...

anon 7.31 am.
He would not be the only coach in the Premier League coaching without a certificate/licence.
No thanks to FFT there have not been any senior courses run for a very long time.What are clubs supposed to do if there arent sufficient people around with the qualification ? Not appoint a coach?
Having said that, just because someone has a piece of paper to prove they have completed the course means nothing. Anyone who can read and write can obtain a cerificate. Does that mean they know ,understand and can teach and show players about the game ?
I doubt it. There are a few of those out there also.
FFT cant impose a rule upon clubs when they have not had a suitable development manager to run course for a long time so that these coaches/clubs can comply .

Anonymous said...

Anon 12.19. Some clubs have announced coaches for next year not all.Knights were one of the first.Why would it be too late for Crosswell,Ladic etc to go there now ?
The season has only just finished.
I think you are away with the fairies.

Anonymous said...

I heard Rocket Sanders is going to be team manager in 2011?

Anonymous said...

have knights got any yuong good kids coming through ,will probably need them.

Anonymous said...

good luck googsey you have your work cut out there .you cant work with blunt tools .

Anonymous said...

knights in trouble if they have to rely on corey as a striker ,hope they have a plan B .maybe if they had a little bit of confidence in their youth last year they may well have been in a better position now instead of asst coaches at retirement age undecided as to whether the team needs him, hardly optomistic comments .anybody yhat thinks knights will finish even top 3 is dreaming .as they say time will tell.

Bryan Lazarus said...

I think South will win again next year.
Clarence or knights second.
Beachside will get up and take fourth.
Eagles, kingbrough and Warrane Warriors in the relegation battle.
And i think Zebras will struggle next year, pullen could take the best of them to beachside, they may even join as one in 2012 Bebras utd.

Bryan Lazarus

Anonymous said...

Nick: which club's clubs don't make their player's pay rego?

I can only guess it would be the no hoping clubs that can't get off the arses and get their own home ground!!!
Maybe Zebra's, Knight's, Olympic all those clubs that don't have all the overheads like Council rates etc.... what a load of shite.... FFT should credit the clubs doing the right thing, such as Lions and Clarence....

Anonymous said...

Did Clarence and Lions build there own ground?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Nick: which club's clubs don't make their player's pay rego?

I can only guess it would be the no hoping clubs that can't get off the arses and get their own home ground!!!
Maybe Zebra's, Knight's, Olympic all those clubs that don't have all the overheads like Council rates etc.... what a load of shite.... FFT should credit the clubs doing the right thing, such as Lions and Clarence....
October 13, 2010 8:40 PM



Well that maybe the stupidest post ever written on a blog about football in southern Tasmania. Congratulations! It takes thinking way out of the square to come up with this rubbish !!!

Corey Smith said...

Knights will finish top 3 minimum, stop writing rubbish! Even with what we have we would finish top 3, if we pick players up than anything is possible! Unfortunately you will always have people try and rubbish the top clubs as they dwell in hope of becoming a club of the same stature (I note that it seems to be knights, sth hobart and zebras that cop the most criticism on here.. coincidence?)... Good luck to everyone this season but lets let results do the talking at the end of the season.

Anonymous said...

I reckon Olympia might have copped its fair sdhare this season.

Anonymous said...

probably because they only won 2 games all season.