During his playing days at North Melbourne, Peter German realized the importance or working hard without the ball. He’s now implementing it at Coburg.
Defensive pressure. Defensive pressure. Defensive pressure.
It’s been drilled into every Coburg player in season 2015 and it’s a football mentality that senior coach Peter German is renowned for.
German played 185 games for North Melbourne between 1984 and 1994 but it was Denis Pagan’s arrival in 1993 that changed German’s outlook on the way football was played. It was also fundamental in shaping him as a coach.
“When I played – and I try to think back to when I played so you can have a greater understanding of what players are thinking – when I played in the 80s and early 90s, it was about possessions,” German explains.
“When Denis Pagan came in, there was a greater emphasis on ‘what are you doing when you don’t have the ball?’ I think that those last few years under Denis changed my whole outlook on football.”
“I became more game plan orientated, rather than just chasing kicks, and it became more focused on being able to defend and pressure.”
During his 20 years of coaching, German has held senior positions at Tasmania’s Burnie Dockers, WAFL side Subiaco and VFL clubs Casey Scorpions and Williamstown. He has also spent time in the AFL system with Hawthorn, West Coast, Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs in assistant and development roles. Since his first day as a coach – back in 1995 – German has prioritised defensive pressure.
“I’ve always tried to pride myself – and the teams I’ve coached – on defence and our scores against. But a balance is also important – it’s not a total flood,” he says.
“It’s being able to defend and defend full ground, so our forwards probably pressure more than our backs do. Most good sides nowadays set the game up from their back half. But it’s just making the players aware and more than anything I hold them accountable.
In just his second season at Piranha Park, German admits it will take time to implement this approach on Coburg’s young and developing playing list.
“With visual aids, we can teach and enforce and probably even at times embarrass players if they don’t defend how we want them to defend.”
“There’s a high-standard and they’ve got to understand that. I think they’re just starting to learn it.”