Nathan Buckley and Adam Simpson at Stanford’s football ground.
In November 2016, Collingwood's Nathan Buckley and West Coast's Adam Simpson sat down inside the office of Stanford Cardinals football operations director Matt Doyle.
The trio spent the next three hours discussing what philosophy and culture underpinned Stanford's successful football program.
Meanwhile, within Doyle's view, the athletes (there are about 105 on the roster) who make up the college football team gathered in preparation for a day spent meeting and practising.
The conversation marked the beginning of a week that saw this year's grand final coaches embedded in the college's football program by day and sharing beers, dinner and a few jokes back at their Californian hotel at night.
To the two young, ambitious and smart coaches the trip, organised by coaching mentor David Wheadon, was a golden opportunity to learn more about what makes successful sporting programs tick.
For Doyle it was another chance to meet bright coaching minds from a different sport and he was impressed with the pair from both a personal and professional standpoint.
So much so, Doyle was moved to contact a friend in Australia just before Buckley was reappointed coach in September 2017 to find out how the immediate future looked for the previous year's visitor.
"For whatever reason these two bought into it more than most, enjoyed it more and took more about it," Doyle told Fairfax Media.
As the duo moved from team meetings in the Andrew Luck auditorium, sat in on positional meetings in the Elway-Parker quarterback room and spoke to Stanford officials and players, many of the reasons behind the program's success became more obvious.
It was clear to the two men that the trust Stanford's head coach David Shaw – a naturally reserved man born five days later than Buckley in 1972 – put in those who worked for him was complete.
At Stanford, the 10 positional coaches directed areas ranging from wide receiver to running backs to quarter back to outside linebackers and defensive backs, meeting firstly as a group then as either defence or offence and then as small groups specific to their position and role.
These positional coaches not only planned but made decisions on who played with the head coach only asked for his input if the decision wasn't clear.
Inside this program, if a head coach overruled a positional coach on such issues, the move would be considered an undermining one.
The strength and conditioning coach had to be relied upon to deliver the players in the condition the coach wanted because in the off-season rules determine that the head coach doesn't have any contact with the players on the field.
Therefore to flourish, the head coach had to put the right people in the right positions and let them do their job, a theme flowing through the recommendations from Collingwood's review.
Doyle said such realities makes relationships between staff essential with Doyle, Shaw and strength and conditioning coach Shannon Turley having a symbiotic relationship.
"We obviously have quite a relationship, and we are all rowing the same boat and pulling in the same direction," Doyle said.
"That is where the culture comes in because you hire the right people to run your program."
Doyle said such set-ups work best when coaches care about each other and a family atmosphere is created.
"The coaches have to get along outside of football. They have to be able to go grab a beer with each other. It's important their wives get along. It sounds silly but it's important they have a family atmosphere," Doyle said.
"It will make them better coaches if they get along."
As Buckley walked the halls that feature images of former Stanford stars he began to realise the need for a revised leadership program at Collingwood, one that empowered the players.
A year later the experience also helped crystalise his thinking when last season's review was completed, with the coaching and conditioning set-up changing and former skipper Nick Maxwell appointed to run leadership programs.
Nowadays Garry Hocking loves, in Buckley's words, "taking the piss" out of the coach in the opposition meeting before they hit the training track, levity the 46-year-old enjoys.
Justin Longmuir was trusted to stiffen the defence and Matthew Boyd's recent playing experience helped balance the group.
Good friends Brenton Sanderson, Robert Harvey, Tarkyn Lockyer and Anthony Rocca were retained while Buckley learned to pull back as footy manager Geoff Walsh made sure the conditioning component improved under Kevin White.
No one denies that putting people in roles that suited them and trusting them to get the job done has been a major factor behind Collingwood's rapid improvement.
Simpson acknowledged the important role a connected football program plays in success when he spoke on Monday.
"I can't tell you tell you exactly what I have learned specifically but I have grown with the players and we have probably evolved as a footy department more than anything and I feel like I am a part of the collective," Simpson said.
Buckley and Simpson, who once roomed together in Canberra while completing a level three coaching course, both share a similarly dry sense of humour and down to earth values centred around respect and family.
By the end of the week, when they joined the Stanford Cardinals on the sidelines to take on Oregon State, Simpson had invested in some Stanford gear to wear, watching players Solomon Thomas and Christian McCaffrey, who are now in the NFL, strut their stuff for the Cardinals.
The pair also took the time to tap into other experts on campus, joining women's water polo coach John Tanner, decision-making expert Burke Robinson and head of business George Foster.
Wheadon told SEN inviting Simpson and Buckley was a no-brainer because he knew they would maximise the opportunity at the college in the heart of Silicon Valley.
"The best coaches around the world have a wide range of interests," Wheadon said.
"They meet people from sport and business and other areas of life because the challenges are often the same but the product is different."
As for Doyle, his memories of the pair are such that he hopes both succeed in Saturday's grand final after they finished first and second in the AFL Coaches' Association coach of the year award on Tuesday night.
But he's not too sold on the narrative that fun breeds success, indicating the reverse might be true too.
"Of course … winning is fun too, right," Doyle said.
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