Making his own luck

Sein Clearihan is hungry for another opportunity to coach his own side. 170313_19 Picture: ROB CAREW

“Everyone wants to hang their hats on winning games and winning grand finals, but you have to have a lot of luck to win grand finals.”

A self-described battler on the football field, Sein Clearihan has been around senior football since the early 1980s. He has since been around the block as an assistant coach, before finally getting a senior gig with Cranbourne’s VFL Women’s side in 2017, as NICK CREELY discovers.

Sein Clearihan coaches how he played – tough, simple yet extremely effective.

The Cranbourne assistant coach has been legendary local footballing figure Simon ‘Goose’ Goosey’s right hand man since first meeting up at Mornington in 1996 where they combined as a player and coach to win four premierships in a stunning decade of football from the ’Dogs.

Clearihan’s playing days – where he featured more than 300 times at least at senior level with clubs such as Black Rock, Cranbourne and Mornington – were some of his most treasured memories and were the grounding for his success in the coaching caper.

“I was just an average player who played for the club and did my bit, there was nothing fancy to me, I just trained hard and played hard and did my job – I just loved every minute of it, to be honest,” he said.

“Bob Murphy spoke about it the other week, but that two minutes before you run out with the boys – you just can’t buy that – and when you retire it goes very quiet, but you also do learn a lot more in the process.”

After the premierships, Clearihan won another premiership as an assistant coach with Mt Eliza before further success with clubs such as Langwarrin and Dromana before reuniting with Goosey as part of Cranbourne’s push for the incredible 2016 flag.

Clearihan said part of his coaching philosophy is inspired by his great mate ‘Goose’, whose conduct he greatly admires.

“You can’t yell at kids anymore because they go in their shells and you have to keep things simple for them – those are things I learnt from Goose,” he said.

“Everyone wants to hang their hats on winning games and winning grand finals, but you have to have a lot of luck to win grand finals.
“Seeing young blokes improve and perform and to play at the top level is important and extremely rewarding.

“There is not too many older blokes running around anymore – the twos at local level is more of a development league now, and if you blood them and teach them you are doing your job.

“Premierships are bloody hard to win.”

Clearihan said that it’s not necessarily raw talent that wins premierships, but instead having everyone around the club on the same page, from players, coaches, support staff, the board and, of course, the supporters.

“You have to have good people around you, and I think it starts from the top – it makes your job easier when you have decent people in your corner.

“Structures and things are done at training and on game day all you’re doing is leading them and if you have the right people around you, you’re half way there (to winning),” he said.

After more than a decade of being a seasoned assistant coach, Clearihan finally got the opportunity to coach his own side in 2017 – Cranbourne’s VFL Women’s side.

Stacked with elite talent from the first AFL Women’s competition, the Eagles entered 2017 with plenty of expectation.

But after several disruptions, including the announcement of the Casey Demons merging with Cranbourne in 2018 and the loss of players to injuries and representative, Clearihan decided he was not part of the club’s future plans and stepped down with just two rounds left to play.

He said that despite being disappointed and a little bit bitter, in the long run he feels it will help him as he searches for a senior coaching role in 2018.

“It’s a stepping stone for me – I’m confident I’ve left them in a better spot with their footy, and I feel like I’ve done my job,” he said.

“I’ve learnt how to deal with people of a different gender as well – it’s been hard in some ways, and mentally draining, but in other ways it gave me a lot of enjoyment.

“They probably struggled a little bit with the training demands earlier in the season – with the AFLW they knew they had to step up to that level, and they improved a hell of a lot – I had a feeling at some point of time they would drop off, and they did.

“They were getting done by 200-points last year, and the most they’ve lost by this season is about 60, so they have made fantastic inroads, but all the other sides have gotten even better with the injection of AFL players.

“I’ve also been able to promote a couple of youngsters in Sophie Phillips and Darcy Guttridge – Guttridge will go in the draft this year and Sophie has improved so much, and is only 17.

“But I’m a sentimental bloke and it was difficult to leave.”

With that hunger of coaching a senior side burning within him, he said the taste of 2017 has left him wanting more but is still firmly focused on helping guide Cranbourne’s senior side win back-to-back flags in the South East Football League.

“I’ve always been an assistant coach and been happy to do that, but I’m just waiting for the right opportunity, to be honest,” he said.

“I’m really excited for the next couple of years – it’s just about finding the right job.

“Right at the moment I’d love to coach next year, but I’m not sure where or what – it’s the most important few weeks of the year for the seniors trying to win back-to-back flags, and create some history.

“Once that’s done, I’ll sit back and have a look what’s out there, but I’d love to take a senior role on, absolutely.

“We turned the corner against Beaconsfield a few weeks ago and certain things in the game we haven’t seen for a while returned to our game
“It’s going to be an exciting final series and, hopefully, the luck’s on our side – the challenge is with us.”