From the classroom to the stadium
by Charlotte Knottenbelt
As
two of the most senior figures in Australian football, Mark Williams and
Steven Trigg are not afraid of sticking their necks out. Williams has
coached Port Power to the top of the AFL ladder and taken the flak when they
bombed out in the finals, while as CEO of the Adelaide Crows, Trigg has
boosted membership renewal rates and negotiated sponsorship deals to bring
his club into its strongest economic position.
So what was it in these men's pasts that gave them the skills and the know-how to get to where they are today and inspire others to come along with them? In a word, teaching.
Successful careers as professional footballers notwithstanding, both Williams and Trigg gained the qualification that helped them on the road to their current roles at UniSA's antecedent institution, the South Australian College of Advanced Education.
Both graduated with education degrees in the early '80s and both went on to teach physical education at secondary schools for several years.
Williams says the lessons learnt at the college and in front of the classroom were invaluable. "Right to this day I still feel like a teacher," he says. "And I feel proud of the people I studied with who have gone on and done well with their teaching background.
"As students we all felt we could only go on to work as teachers, but the qualification can lead you in so many different directions. I feel lucky to still be making a living in this industry and I thank SACAE – the lecturers and the institution – for a lot of that."
Trigg
is living proof of the many directions possible. After five years teaching,
he made a break to coach at Sturt, which led to an HR role at the club. He
worked in training and development for Lloyd Helicopters for six years and
joined the Adelaide Football Club (initially working in communications and
membership) in 1997. Alongside all of this, he continued to play and coach
footy, and also spent some time as a sports presenter on ABC TV.
With his eye on a future role in management, Trigg returned to UniSA and completed a Graduate Diploma in Management in 1999 (he's since built on the diploma to complete an MBA specialising in sports management.) While praising the quality of the UniSA grad dip, he says that in his position there's no substitute for life experience.
"Understanding the pressures of being a coach and a player, hands-on people management, the ability to negotiate – these sorts of skills are fundamentally formed by your life experience, but fine-tuned through study," he says.
With 47,000 paying members, $4 million in sponsorship and more than $5 million worth of infrastructure to take care of, Trigg needs all the experience he can get – and a thick skin doesn't go astray either.
"We finished fifth last year, with 11 teams under us, but the expectation was that we'd do better than that so we came in for some criticism. The fact is there can only be one winner each year and sometimes it's worse coming second than tenth. The team that loses the grand final gets subjected to more scrutiny and criticism than those that finish well down the ladder."
It's a sentiment that Williams can relate to. "In the past three years we've won more games than any other club, but all most people remember is who won the premiership," he says. "People can be assured that we're looking to improve on last year."
And if living up to the hopes of thousands of Port supporters wasn't enough to keep him busy, Williams is branching out and writing a 'push-button AFL book', The Night Marcus Won the Flag, with his sister Jenny.
"We've got two aims - to encourage kids to read, and to teach them about football."
Teacher, coach, author … you've got to ask what's next. "What about vice chancellor of UniSA!" he jokes, but with the determination he's already shown already, you wouldn't want to write him off.
As for Trigg, he's quite happy where he is. "I just love what I'm doing right now," he says. “I feel I've got a heap of energy to throw at this, and I hope that means I'm here for a while yet."