The AFL’s Senior Coach Level Four Program is the highest form of accreditation available to prospective future senior coaches across the league.
It is the same course Stuart Dew completed before earning the SUNS’ Senior Coach role, and now his Senior Assistant at the Gold Coast SUNS, Dean Solomon, has followed suit.
Solomon was part of the third intake for the exclusive course in 2017 and after two years has just finished the final component of the program.
“It’s been a really good process to go through,” Solomon told SUNS Media.
“I’ve done it with five other coaches across the league.
“Just getting an insight into the way they think and go about things, it was a really good thing to experience.”
The course is designed to give aspiring coaches around the league more exposure to life as a senior coach and fast-track their development.
This included being granted access to strategy builds, future planning, liaising with media and understanding the role coaches play in shaping the spirit of the game for the community.
The five coaches were consulted by Australian sporting and coaching legends during the period, with the likes of Australian cricket coach Justin Langer, English rugby league and Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett and iconic AFL Premiership-winning coach Mick Malthouse just some of the many advisors.
Each prospective coach was assigned one of these figures as a mentor, and Solomon was lucky enough to call Australian basketball and Brisbane Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis his mentor.
“He’s been a great guy to sit down and have a chat with and chat about all things coaching,” Solomon said.
“He’s obviously got a lot of experience and he’s helped me a lot over the last two years.”
Lemanis has been an outstanding sounding board for Solomon both inside and outside the course.
“He gets the most important part of it which is your relationship with your athletes,” Lemanis said of Solomon’s coaching style.
“I think Dean understands that and is continuing to work on building those relationships.”
The final aspect of the two-year course is funnily enough the same as the first exercise which originally secured Solomon a place in the program.
It is essentially a mock job interview, where Solomon had to ‘apply’ for a senior coaching role under the scrutiny of a selection panel.
“You have a 25-minute period to present your philosophy and how you would build this football club and what you’d implement in taking over,” Solomon said.
“The following 20 minutes consists of some questioning from the panel where they really try to stress-test your philosophy which is a really good experience to go through.
“And then the final 20 minutes was some really good feedback and in the coming weeks I’ll get some formal feedback also which will just help develop myself as a coach.”
Overall, Solomon says the course has worked wonders for his approach on coaching over the last two years.
He says he’s particularly developed strong interpersonal skills around emotional intelligence and now has tweaked aspects of his coaching to suit his philosophy.
“After going through this course and getting a really good handle on what’s required at a higher level, it’s definitely helped shape me as a holistic coach,” Solomon said.
“I’ve got a really good handle on what the greater club looks like and what your involvement would be as a senior coach.
“It’s just a great opportunity for any coach that has the opportunity to apply for the level four course and get accepted, it would just help develop all the coaches throughout the league.”
