Luke Beveridge podcastle edit
Tue, Mar 04, 2025 7:05PM • 48:14
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Luke Beveridge, coaching philosophy, leadership, player development, team culture, emotional intelligence, risk management, player feedback, media interactions, player support, legacy, servant leadership, team success, personal growth, coaching challenges.
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Luke Beveridge
Paul Barnett 00:04
Luke Beveridge, good evening, and welcome to the great coaches podcast
Luke Beveridge 00:10
evening. Paul, yes, I'm a little bit concerned about the title of your podcast. You know, I suppose everyone who comes on probably feels like Am I worthy? Anyway? We'll just the coaches podcast will be good enough for me, but I appreciate you having me on.
Paul Barnett 00:28
Thanks, Luke. Look, if it's any consolation, everybody says the same thing, but it's
Luke Beveridge 00:33
you. I passed the first test.
Paul Barnett 00:37
It's not me that DJI was great. What I normally look for is whether your players have called you Great, another coach has called you great, and there's been a couple of instances of that. And most notably was Neil Craig. He was talking to me, and he just saying your praises. So he was the one that introduced us, and he brings me to your doorstep today.
Luke Beveridge 00:56
Oh, thank you, Neil, very kind words and greatness comes in many different forms, but Neil is a Dorian of our game Aussie rule. He's been an amazing mentor for so many, and he's achieved his his own greatness, and in in a parallel world, isn't he? He
Paul Barnett 01:14
has and he's a great he's a great student, I think, of leadership and coaching and human behavior. And I always walk away from conversations with him feeling challenged, which I think is, is the sign of a great coach as well. But I can I name drop a couple that you've worked with. I know you rate John Northey very highly. You've also had the chance to work alongside Mick Malthouse and Alistair Clarkson. So two, two modern day greats. Luke, watching people like this up close, what is it you think the Great Ones do differently that sets them apart?
Luke Beveridge 01:55
And I think one of the things that all those guys have done well, and I've witnessed it, is they do empower others. You know, when they and they ask others to to to perform certain functions that that are going to help everyone. [PB1]
And I mean John slew by John nordy. I love John for different reasons. I He is my first senior coach at Melbourne back when I was a youngster as an 18 year old. He's a great motivator, you know, and that was back in the part time days when most of us had jobs and, you know, and put football wasn't that lucrative financially. And John was a crusader, really, in a pioneer in creating storylines in our training world, but also allowing things to sort of manifest in a sort of a spiritual sense that glued us together. And I think, you know, it's hard, you know, the measurement of success is always diff you know, a different challenge across all the codes and the disciplines that we're all involved in. But in many ways, I think John was a very successful coach without achieving the ultimate glory, because I think he got an absolute, a hell of a lot out of all of us, and he was able to, you know, be the, the conduit to to the possibility of achieving something, you know, gold. But we, we didn't quite make it under him during those days. But I, I he has had a big influence on me, because whether it's 5% or 2% the that you may you may be able to have that effect on your on your group, because you've taken the time to create an authentic sort of path, it's all worthwhile, no matter how much time it takes. And I think John was willing to do that, whether himself or or bringing others in. You know Steve monaghetti. Steve monaghetti was part of that journey to the Ballarat world, Mount Barnett Buller, different challenges, different things that made us better and and I learned a lot from John, and I didn't know it, I was probably just taking mental notes, and you know that coaching wasn't even a twinkle in my eye back then we're
Paul Barnett 04:47
going to come back to your playing career a little bit later on, when if we get chance to talk about resilience. But you say coaching wasn't a twinkle in your eye, but your father and your grandfather were both Aussie Rules coaches at different levels. That they both, they both were involved at that level. Was it always going to be the case that you would follow them?
Luke Beveridge 05:08
Well, possibly. I mean, my grandfather, Jack bebridge, who played in Collingwood's machine, you know, we won the 2728 2930 premierships, you know, during a period of struggle in in Australia and in Melbourne, during the Depression days and things were hard and and Jack, he had unbelievable success. Jack, I mean, he, he obviously played in those four flags, but many VFL players. And it happened, you know, right up until, you know, I think, you know, the 70s and 80s, where you were paid better in a state, in the state leagues. And, yeah, we didn't have a national competition until, I think 1986 I think it was 85 six and and my my grandfather, Jackie, got loads of West Perth, and he played in a premiership at West Perth. He played in the Premiership coach Launceston. He he played in the Premiership at Horsham. He played in the Premiership at Colerain. Everywhere he went, you know, it's he either coached and played or or he coached Premiership. So he was an amazingly successful player and coach. And I didn't really get a chance to talk to him about that, because I wasn't really interested in in coaching. I was only a he passed when I was about 14, so and, yeah, dad was a passionate Junior coach. You know, he was the spirit in his coaching was was strong. The he he was really driven. I think he did it the right way. So there's possibly it was always going to happen, but I didn't mature early enough to make it happen quickly enough. You know, it took me a while to realize that there was something that I was passionate about, and that wasn't really until my mid to late 30s.
Paul Barnett 07:15
Look, I remember reading about you years ago, and the story was about when you were coaching some beads, when we're going to talk a little bit about what happens to beads for the next few minutes. But what caught my high when I was reading that article was that you asked the team to commit to a video review every week. It wasn't the video that caught my eye. It was the fact that what you were asking for was feedback every week, one on one, in a very intimate setting that's pretty intense. And I'm wondering, did you did you go into that with a view of, we're going to focus on your strengths, we're going to do your weaknesses? It's going to be a bit of both, or did you just let it evolve?
Luke Beveridge 08:00
Well, Paul first started giving me way too much credit to think that I can get through every individual every week. I must say, people say, I What's what's coaching AFL team like and how do you manage what you do? And I say to them, well, when 2000 and 2005 when I took over the saint beans, Mentone tigers, coaching, senior coaching role, I was working full time for the federal government. I had a young family. So we had two young boys. I was studying, I was on two undergrad subjects a semester, and I was coaching some beats, and I was obviously a husband and and it's the busiest time of my life, you know? I I, I didn't let anything slip. I socialized with our players our club. Many of the players were or are musicians. We had an amazing social culture, but it was an incredible time, and and and so. But during the week, there was no way I could review one on one, every individual's performance. But what we did, we had some software and a hard we were at a laptop guy named Francis Barnett, who, coincidentally And ironically, was a really mad Bulldog supporter well before I was any chance to coach the Bulldogs and and he had paid about seven or $8,000 for a laptop that we could use was already there when I started, but it probably wasn't being utilized well enough with software called Pro S, where you had the game type and you could edit the game and you can pull out the salient examples that were important learning. Uh, stitches in time that we could possibly benefit from. But so I must say, I was, I'm still, to this day, very appreciative that the players were thick skinned enough to sit through some of those reviews, because now we it's probably not quite as brutal when you think there's a part time amateur players in a full time AFL environment, if there's ever something really confronting for a player, we usually say, Okay, well, let's just deal that with that one on one. Let's not put that up on the big screen in front of everyone, because we've got to make sure we take care of that player. Whereas I was using, you know, maybe four or five examples each week, and it could have been anyone we'd look at positives, but they're usually examples where we thought we could improve and and it was a difficult one to turn up to a volunteer based amateur club and sit through that and Be willing to learn and improve from it. So it was an amazing sort of dynamic at the time, but we didn't. We didn't do it every week. You needed to time it and but it was well worthwhile.
Paul Barnett 11:12
Well, it's interesting because you say you were a young father studying, you were working for the federal government, two undergrad degrees, and you decided to coach. But if I'm right, if I've got the quote right, then I'd like to read it to you. You said I came out of my AFL days, not really feeling like I belonged anywhere. Melbourne for six years, Bulldogs for three years. St, Kilda for four years. Was a 13 year period when I came out was a big part player. Played some finals, but I just didn't really feel like I belonged. So clearly that need, that drive, was strong enough to get you to sacrifice some of your personal time to go along and get it, get involved with another club. But how has this idea of belonging shaped the culture that you've gone on to create with these other teams you've been involved with?
Luke Beveridge 12:04
Yeah, well, I think, I mean, the st beads experience is quite unique, because I, I was part of the alumni. I went to some beads in year 11 and 12 and and even the A section premiership team had 20 former students in it. The only two that weren't was a guy named Sam Anthony, who was teaching at the college at the time, and a guy named Jamie Maddox, who's been one of my right hand men at the Bulldogs for the last nine years. You know, Jamie's been amazing for me and and and I'm really proud of him on his journey and what he's doing. But i with i i, I enjoyed my time. I pushed myself to the limit at the three clubs I played for, but I think it's time to Dean on. I realized the reason I felt unfulfilled is because I, I was satisfied that I, I could to get the most out of myself. There's probably things I think about that I could have been better at or push the envelope on, but we didn't have any great team success. We didn't win premierships. We played finals. I was a, you know, I played, I played 118 games, but it was a struggle. You know, I had my day in the days in the sun, but I it was a real battle. I played a lot of seconds for you, so I came out of the three clubs with great friendships, with a lot of respect for people I was working and playing with, but I wanted to really feel like I belonged and gone on. Russell Barnett was coaching. Speed has been tiny. He'd been asking me for years to come down and help and and I, I thought, well, I've already got a connection. I went to the school. I know a few people there. Let's go. I'll go down and make a difference. And you know, I'm so glad I did. It was a leak. It to me. It didn't matter at that point in time whether or not we had any great success,
I just wanted to give something to go to a club that I didn't know much about, even though I'd been to the college as a secondary school student. So but I during that time, you know that journey of self discovery and and even team discovery and going from C to B to A in understanding the vulnerabilities when you play against better teams, it helped me shape most I suppose my risk management approach to the game and those government jobs that I worked in were all regulatory jobs. So the risk management frameworks, the change management the project management frameworks, they're all familiar to me and and to apply them in a in a sporting sense of the coach was a great adventure for me and and I really enjoyed it. [PB2]
So like at the end of the three years, I felt like. My time is up. As much as we'd had an amazing amount of success, because I was the sole voice. I was the Tim lamb was my right hand man. He coached the twos. He was my boundary coach with me, he was phenomenal. He's now Melbourne Football clubs List Manager. But I, I, I was sick of the sound of my own voice, to be honest, Paul, so I was ready for something else, and but I've I felt like I was a pretty good senior coach, but the role I went to into calling with a development coach was more coaching individuals. And once I that undertaking isn't that easy. You know, it's you get better at it over time, but you could feel like you could coach certain individuals in certain roles better than others. It is a huge challenge for any coach.
Paul Barnett 15:53
You went on, as you said to Collingwood, and then after that Hawthorn, how did your leadership start to evolve? Because I assume at this point you've had to let the government work, go and commit full time to these, these, these clubs. What did you start to notice change within yourself?
Luke Beveridge 16:14
I suppose I we, we get exposed to the word, you know, leadership, and we we hear and even the title of your podcast, you know, great, great coaches, you know, and you hear great leaders being bandied around. Well, I think I undergrad Faculty of Law degree. I wasn't a great student as a secondary school student, but I was a very good tertiary student because I was paranoid of failing, and I thought if I, if I got an A in a subject, it might be the end of might circumvent my my passion appetite to finish the course. So I studied hard, and I was a good student, and when I finished the grade, I'd now developed a passion for literature, even though it was pretty vanilla and not that exciting.
And so I think in because you have this sort of a contextual understanding of anyone can be a leader, and then who you gravitate to based on who you might respect and and who you think can have an influence in a positive way on you and people around you is is something that you that I started to seek out more and more, and probably started to understand different people more and more who'd been in my life, and respect the really influential people and the people who have cared for others as much as anything you know, I think you you mentioned to me before we got on here, and use the word selfless, and it's a great word. And, and all those servant leaders, you know, those selfless leaders who care about others before their own backyard, difficult to to follow through on. But I think some people are just built that way, and, and so probably have understood it a little bit more. It's it's shaped me a little bit. And ultimately, the sustainability of of your own leadership and your influence totally depends on the integrity in in your your own integrity and and the trust that others had for you and in you and and there's something that I'm paranoid about paranoid[PB3]
Paul Barnett 19:41
is such a strong word. I this idea of paranoid, being paranoid of failure. Is it? Is it? Has it driven you the whole way through? Is it? Does it grow now that you're running, you know, the Western Bulldogs, and we'll talk about that team in a minute. Has it grown or is it something you're managing better? Yeah?
Luke Beveridge 20:02
Uh, well, I'm not necessarily. I think failure not in a performance sense.
I'm not paranoid about failing in a performance sense. It's I'm paranoid that I'm I may let people down, you know, so you're I'm always checking myself to make sure that I behave in the right way under whether it's duress or or during the good times, to to ensure that people continue to have an affinity and a trust for you, because I'm probably the polar opposite as far as paranoia, because I, I've always just had the the basic approach to what I do in that, if I always ask myself hypothetical, if it finishes tomorrow, will you be okay? Yes, you will. And, and so there's a lot that we, we can do in life, and I enjoy what I do, and I and I think I'm reasonably good at it, but having an open mind at things, and a freer mind allows you to take the requisite risk that you need to in a role like like minded. [PB4] The
Dogs
Paul Barnett 21:18
come back to self reflection later on, if we can, and maybe the link with paranoia. But could we talk about the dogs? Because you go on this great run, you, you, I guess you do an apprenticeship under two greats, Collingwood, Collingwood and Hawthorn, malt house and Alistair Clarkson. In 2014 you get the gig at the Bulldogs. And then two short years later, they win their first premiership in 64 years. So it's starting to be a trend here. Luke, silverware seems to follow. But was there anything you did early on in your tenure, in those first three or four months, that drove the result that you had down the track?
Luke Beveridge 21:59
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, the starting point is always that connection and that, I mean, spirituality is a, you know, it's a big and all consuming sort of a word, you know, it's not necessarily just, but it's, there's a spirit in us, and there's, there's choices we we make along the way, but ultimately, yeah, what you're always trying to do is draw out emotions from people and and buy into to something that's bigger than all of us and, and I think, you know, I know that You've had, I think you've had Ric Charlesworth, yeah, on your pod. You know you've had him on your podcast. And I'm a great admirer of Ric Charlesworth from the farm, and I as a kid, I watched our hockey team, our men's hockey team. I think he's had a bit to do with the women's hockey team as well over the journey. And he said some it is really our mandate as coaches to instill enough belief, or convince your your players that you can, they can take themselves where they don't think they can go. And it's it's a collective force, and I wouldn't be able to do this on my own, or, I'm not sure we're all capable. But hey, how do we help people believe that we there's a possibility in it and and so first of all, we the relationship piece is absolutely critical in it. [PB5]
And I was probably lucky when I landed at the dogs, because there was a significant, significant amount of turmoil within the place and and so was a good starting point for me, because it wasn't a great deal of satisfaction with with too many things that were going on. So in, in a sense, I was gifted in an environment that I could really shape and take into the future of I was gifted a great person in Bob Murphy, who became our captain at the time, who, who is a great spiritual leader, you know, a magnificent person. And he was, he was so important to to the place at the time. But then, you know, it does it gets back to the actual game, you know, and how we want it to be played. So to actually establish a core system and and malleable Match Day plans that you can come in and out of that might change from week to week, but getting back to the core of what you do. And so it's to lay that foundation. And it was in very early days we saw some tremendous signs that it was working. And that's that makes it easier to get, you know, the player, buy in. Because, hey, this could be anything. I'm feeling it. We've, we've had a win here against it. So we played a style of game that and a brand of football that you. We haven't done before, and so I was it was handy to get some little wins early, because it meant that buy in was was almost irreversible.
Paul Barnett 25:11
Talk about Bob Murphy for we, if we can, for a minute. He's for many, many years, when I was living overseas, he wrote a piece every Friday in the paper, and I could religiously read it. He's such a good writer and I think the great leader. Obviously, I've never met him, but he had this great quote. He said, If Luke has a superpower, it's that he's impervious to embarrassment. There is so many people listening who would love to develop this superpower. In fact, I remember, years ago, I remember seeing Peter Brock on enough rope. He said, he said, It's none of my business what other people think of me. It's probably the second time I've heard something similar to this idea of being impervious to embarrassment. Luke, is it something we can cultivate, or is it just innate?
Luke Beveridge 26:01
Yeah, I don't, I don't necessarily think that Bob. I don't know if Bob really thinks that, you know, maybe, maybe I'm just too cool and I never embarrass myself. People ask me, you know?
And because there's all sorts of things and distractions, and there's the external world and and there's scrutiny, and none of us necessarily like conflict in our lives, and we don't yearn for it, obviously, but we deal with it in different ways. And I don't mind conflict, but you know, as long as it's not heartbreaking and and so I get concerned where people, when people around me, are affected by what I do, especially my loved ones. But I think Rocky you throw away around. Yeah, I'm not oblivious to it, but I I'm okay with it. Okay we even if I do embarrass myself, I say something in front of the players, or I do something for me, it's, it's not a big deal [PB6]
and and so maybe, maybe Bob's seen me embarrass myself too many times, and he thinks, how's he keep doing it and keep it straight face? Maybe that's it.
Paul Barnett 27:34
Well, Bob also said that you're emotional, but not erratic. Now, I've also read that you can be brought to tears through very easily, and you've got Mediterranean heritage maybe, maybe that having access to your emotions comes from that background. But you know, Luke this, there's a lot of there's a lot of courses that the expensive courses that people go on are about being authentic leaders and trying to find this balance, or access your emotions as a leader and not just be totally robotic. I know for I mean, I'm almost 52 and I could for the first 15 years, every course I went on was about being logical, logical, logical, and then it switched around the other way. Now they're telling you to access their emotions. But have you found this? Have you found this balance between using your emotions but not letting them override the message you need to deliver.
Luke Beveridge 28:25
Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a good question. It's a tough question. Paul, I found myself was down the coast, down near Western Port bay, great friend of mine. He's done quite well for himself in business, and he invited me down to his property, and we, you know, we shared a glass of beer, and his wife was there. One of his neighbors was there, and I was overwhelmed by this emotion of how proud I am of him, and and I got teary, and I had and I apologize, so I'm making you feel uncomfortable like I'm crying because I'm proud of you, and I've said to a few people, I'll cry watching cartoons and I'll cry watching Toy Story I did when my kids were young. And but I definitely am affected when things inspire me, and if we if I start talking, if there's a pre game message, if I become animated, and I start to recall things from the past, I will get emotional. It's i There's a there's a line that you cross, you know, it's not like I'm a blubber in mess, but I become, I become emotional. I if someone just, if there's action, you know. And because for me, what you do, and for all of us, really, I mean, you see examples of T max, you know, an extreme courage, and you, and you put that up in lights, and you say, hey, Marcus, this, this from what, this is, what you're doing for your team. Times boys, yeah and yeah. And you go down that track and you and I, that's when I become emotional. It's not I become I became emotional on the day when Bob nursery and Matthew Boyd retired, you know, I think that was at the end of 2017 so those, those occasions where there's been a history of inspiration, I get emotional, if it's real time, post game half time, yep, I get emotional, but it may happen and still over, you know, three or four times a year and and sometimes I apologize, and sometimes I don't, but, but I'm really emotional for any other reason that that someone, somewhere, usually within our full within our club, is has been inspirational enough to set me off, or or a mate has done well enough that he's he's made me cry. I wonder if
Paul Barnett 31:01
this is where the embarrassment come comment comes from, because there's many of us that wouldn't feel comfortable expressing that kind of emotion. We would just just obviously, the way we brought up and the way we made up, but I wonder whether there's something in there that the access, I must
Luke Beveridge 31:15
admit, I don't Paul, I don't enjoy it. I I'd feel, I feel a bit bit vulnerable when it happens. I'm concerned about what people think. So it's not like I'm out there and just letting that go. I that's so I'm sensitive to when it might be so in many ways, I try and have techniques that, because your players don't need that. You know, at the end of a game, it's okay, because it's not. There's no consequence, I mean, but I've been involved in games when there's been great trauma, in games when teammates have gone down with knee injuries or broken legs, and, you know, there was a game against security, we played the most unbelievable football, and at halftime, we're 50 something points up. Jack Redpath had done his knee. Mitch Wallace had broken his his tibia and his fibula, so his leg had flapped in the breeze, and when they came into the rooms at half time, Mitch was on an ambulance trolley screaming at the top of his lungs because he was in that much pain. I sat in there at half time and spoke to the players and said, Hey, first half, now we've got to knuckle down. There's an opportunity to get this team, you know, if we do all these things consistently Well, again, I didn't know that they they probably couldn't even hear me. They were lost in what was going outside the room, and we lost that game because it wasn't because we lost two players and couldn't cover them physically, is because we lost most of the team emotionally and they couldn't find a way to play football anymore. And it was a great learning afternoon, but it was a tragic afternoon and and it was a great an example of how the endocrine system, in all its complexities, can build you up, win in a team environment, and it can pull you apart if you if the if the temperaments are affected. And this was a day of a few, of a huge high, but just such a, I suppose, an exhaustive loss in the end of everything, and we had to pick ourselves up after that. It was, was a tragedy. So look, it's not, hasn't got anything to do with me, me being emotional, but it is a great example of how the game can be traumatic and it's difficult to deal with it all the time.
Paul Barnett 33:48
Luke, can I perhaps be a little controversial? You're a strong advocate for defending not just your players, but your club supporters, the people, the stakeholders, everyone involved. There's many examples of you taking issue with the media, particularly to support this. I'm not necessarily. I don't really want to unpack those. What I'd really like to understand is, Does, does that behavior? You know, you talked about leadership behavior before. Do you ever see that behavior impact the way the team interacts with other people? Do you see it flowing both positively and negatively?
Luke Beveridge 34:25
There's probably it's only really one or two examples of me really challenging individuals in the in the media space, and they've been times when I feel like those individuals have preyed on our football club or prayed on our players, or being unnecessarily critical of certain individuals, and I've, and I've felt an absolute need, a compelling need, to to, I suppose, stand up for for the club. But. Stand up for our players. I mean, as you as you can imagine, players wake up every day to scrutiny. They can go to their phone, and there might be, you know, social media messages about them. They can go and search for them, if they like, which is something that they do and and so with all the external scrutiny, it's just critical that internally they feel supported. And you know,
I think I mentioned it earlier, around one of my philosophies around, if it finishes tomorrow, will I be okay? You know that hypothetical use I will. But two of the simple ones that I live by is, never throw your players under the bus. They'd always stand up for them and and take the heat for them, you know. And in the good times, you spread the recognition, in the tough times, you wear the heat, [PB7]
you know, I heard Mike Tomlin mention that he he carries around those tape bags. He's been unbelievable, unbelievably successful coach in the Pittsburgh Steelers, never had a losing season, but he's aware that, and similar to me, that, you know, we've made two grand finals, one, one, but we've had five elimination final losses, losses. The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl 16 years ago, but they continually get bailed out of just wiped in the early parts of the playoffs. And so Tomlin takes on that. He's an interesting sort of role model, I feel, but he's well respected, and I roll in a similar way in regards to taking that heat. But yeah, internally the I think there's never been any doubt that the players know that I'll always have their back and and I'm okay with that, because it's for me, it's the only way that I can behave and and when I finish, I hope it's something that the players will always look back on and feel like I didn't waver from it. Time will tell. I'd like to
Paul Barnett 37:06
ask you the legacy question, but before I do, I'd like to ask you one more if I could, because there's a really, really interesting aspect to your leadership. I'd like to talk about and and I'd like to preface it with this quote, you say, I do see the young, five year old kid in all our players who wanted to be an AFL player, here is part of them that is living their dream, and I'm trying to help them continue on with it. They're obviously someone's son, and as a father, you have a responsibility to care for them and nurture them and to be their friend too. It's a great quote, Luke, and it was the last bit that caught my eye, and I had was lucky enough to spend some time with Paul ruse, and he talked about this line as well, between friendship and care as a leader, the people that you're leading and that you're responsible for. Can you talk a little bit about how you've managed that line over the years?
Luke Beveridge 38:01
Yeah, I think I mean your players, they don't want you in their personal space, that often, you know. So the kind of sort of personal relationship you might have with them is, is usually almost like a mentoring, sort of senior figure in their life, who who is more? And what it comes back to is being more interested in their lives than they expected you to be. You know, it's not just about their their performance on field and and what they're doing in their training endeavors. It's, it's about their lives in general and, and so those casual conversations are important.
I think it's the harder road, you know, and the most difficult we all do. I think, as coaches, is what is always deliver bad news, you know, and and that manifests in different ways. And the simple one is selection, and the the most dramatic and final one is whether or not they're still with you beyond the current season. And I suppose if you're willing to tread the line and cross the line and be close enough to them that your message can be delivered in a certain way. It's not clinical, and it's a preparation to get there. I just there's no other way to do it. It's a confronting thing. But I've always made sure that that I'm the one who gives the bad news gives and I'm not necessarily always the one that provides the good news, because I think there's too much in that for others to to experience that, you know, whether it's a young player playing his first game, asking someone else to communicate that to them so they they, you know, so many people who've had especially families, parents, brothers and sisters. But. We have coaches who have nurtured players, and might only be 18 months, they've had more to do with the individual than I have, so I'd much rather them deliver the good news, and the joy I get from that is substantial. [PB8]
But, yeah, I think it's something that I've always it's that. It's not courageous, but I think there's integrity in it. I never want to play, to think of why didn't be about the balls to come and speak to me. I was, I was admitted from St Kilda teams when I played with the saints, by watching the football show, I found out that I wasn't in the team a number of times that, and the Saints might have been the last team that came on at quarter past 11 at night, and you see the omissions and your name comes up, and you could cut the air with a knife quite often, my wife and I might be lying in bed watching the tally to find out what the team was. And that's a difficult term. That's a difficult one for you, your lovely wife, to process where at quarter past 11 or nine yards and just been told he's been dropped and, and for me, it was cowardly. And and so you learn what you you take the good bits out of the people who mentored you or you were involved with, but you're also with the things that shape you. You commit to making sure that you never do things in a way that you felt was extremely ugly and and I think they're the mental notes, they're the good, the bad and the ugly, and that was probably the ugliest. So I'm, I'm extremely the other way,
Paul Barnett 41:41
Luke, if I've done my research correctly, 13 years in the the AFL, the top league in Australia, 13 one year contracts.
Luke Beveridge 41:54
Uh, yeah, not necessarily true. I had, I've had two. What did I have? So I signed a two year contract at the demons, but I was traded halfway through it to the Bulldogs at the end of 1993 but when I went to the saints, I had a two year contract. So my first year at the saints, 96 and 97 that was a two year deal. And then I got two more one year deals after that, the 9899 and then I was fit. I was done. So lots of one year contracts and and not, not, not any. I remember one day Terry Wheeler was our coach at the Bulldogs in my first year, and then into the second year of so what did I do? Yeah, so moving in the second year, I had to agree to terms on a new one year deal. And wheels grabbed the players and said, Look, our club was poor, like we off field were in in strife. And and he said, Look, bebos made a huge sacrifice. He's been willing to cut his base payment in half, and, you know, contribute back to The Club. And, yeah, that's hilarious, though, because I had, but when you $10,000 into five, it's not a huge financial sacrifice, you know. And I'm starting back. I don't know whether wheels is trying to send a message to the rest of the group, maybe to more some of the higher paid players, to tip in a bit. No one knew what I was on, but it wasn't much.
Paul Barnett 43:43
Look maybe just one last question, if I could, I know you still got along to go. You're now the longest 10 year coach in the Bulldogs story in history. I don't know how long the club's been around. It must be well over 150 years, but do you ever think about the legacy that you're working towards as a people leader,
Luke Beveridge 44:05
not really, you know, I mentioned earlier on that the title of, you know, servant leadership. And I, you know, research. What that means. It's quite simple, isn't it? It's just putting others. I uh, others interests ahead of your own. It's quite it's that's basically it. And, you know, it comes back to that word, you know, selfless, or selflessness and, and I, I'd like to think that, when I am finished, that our players, the staff I work with their coaches. Everyone I've ever come into contact with will say, You know what? He was as interested in me as a person as he was in what I was doing for the football club. And if, if that's what they say, then that's all I'm after. [PB9]
Because I think the combination of both. Are critical and and I've always said it can't be personal, and definitely around performance, sometimes you're extremely frustrated with individuals, and even, you know, small collectives within the team, you've got to move on pretty quickly times because of what's at stake. You're even more sensitive to players in particular, who totally put in their own interests way before everyone else's. So it's hard not to consider that a bit personal, and we all sort of have to grapple with that, not Nestor on a weekly basis, but from time to time, but so, but I think, yeah, quite, quite simply, you know, the I mentioned, the absorb the heat, distribute the credit aspect earlier on. There's so many people who do incredible jobs at any football club and and so you because you're probably the one who is one of the, one of the key figureheads, who takes most of the heat. It's, it's been, I suppose, big enough to be able to do that, but making sure that some that in the media interesting like this, and I've always said to players who have had a difficult time with the media. I say, Well, if you, if you did a character assessment on 100 individuals in the media, you might get 97 or 98 who they might be critical of you. You play well the next week, they'll equally want to write a good piece and praise you and and see the positives in what you're doing. There's only there might be one or two who have an agenda here and there that you've got to work work through, but, but that's been a difficult thing to understand and accept because of the public nature of what we do. So and then it gets back to as you and I've been discussing protecting others through your through your voice and through your actions, and I feel like I've done that reasonably well for most of the time. But you know, as you alluded to, there has been, you know, one or two times when it's been a bit topical, and I might, may have lowered my guard a bit too much. And that's not, that's never Alright.
Paul Barnett 47:27
Look, I thank you for lowering your lowering your guard this evening. It's, it's terrific interview. So many interesting ideas. I wrote down the word here, elite honesty. I think, I think that's definitely something that that comes across when when listening to you and and talking with you. So I thank you very much for your time, and I wish you all the best for the season ahead.
Luke Beveridge 47:49
Thanks Paul, thanks for having me and I'll I must admit, I haven't listened to enough cast over the journey it's very privileged to be on so now I'll now go to buy a subscription to to listen to the rest, but
Paul Barnett 48:07
totally free to worry. Totally free. No worries at all. Thanks, Luke. Thanks. Paul.