In his latest column with the Gold Coast Bulletin, star captain Gary Ablett gives readers an exclusive insight into his second career stint in the coaching box, and commends one of the club’s recently retired stalwarts in Nathan Bock.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again - I make a shocking spectator.

For the second time in my life I sat in the coach’s box on the weekend – which is a tough thing to do for someone as competitive as I am.

Even if I’m playing table tennis… I want to win.

I’d much rather be out on the field with the boys and be helping my teammates – particularly when the game is tight.

But for the rest of the season I’ll be sitting in the coach’s box alongside our midfield coach Matthew Primus and there’s a lot to get used to.

I though we were busy on the field but the coach’s box just doesn’t stop.

From match-ups to rotations and structures, the communication is intense and non-stop.

It’s so different from what I expected.

I knew our coaches worked hard during the week but on game day – while I didn’t think they were sitting back drinking coffee up there – I thought it was just us doing all the hard work.

But the blokes in the box just don’t stop. And the sheer volume is rapid-fire.

Centre clearances, tackle counts, contested balls – there is constant juggling of information and then processing that information to get the right message to our players.

And for us players – there is nowhere to hide. I was pretty quiet in the box during our win over St Kilda.

But I’m sure I’ll have more to say in our remaining four matches starting this Saturday against Carlton.

But what a steep learning curve.

To be honest, it is going to be so much harder watching than playing… I hate watching our boys under the pump.

But the terrific thing is the boys went out and got the job done without the likes of Charlie Dixon, Zac Smith, Nathan Bock and myself and this shows just how far we’ve come as a club.

That our blokes can lift when players are missing is a great sign of where we are heading as a club.

The next step for us is to be able to coach ourselves on the field better.

That great sides don’t have to wait for the coaches to send a message out via a runner – they instinctively recognise and react to situations.

Sometimes that five-minute delay in getting a message to a player, or the quarter-time huddle, is too long to wait.

If we can get all 18 blokes reacting the same with our game plan and structures, and being able to react instinctively to a situation on the field, then that is a sign of a great football team.

I’ve played only under two coaches but Bluey (Guy McKenna) is terrific at allowing our guys to grow and learn.

I could understand if he found the first couple of years frustrating.

As a young player, you will at times go outside the team structure because you may not yet have confidence in the game plan and if your side is not on top, you try anything to turn things around.

But Bluey has always been calm about his – he will challenge us when he needs to – but he is not a fire and brimstone coach which has been terrific for our team’s development.

Our win against St Kilda keeps the finals door open but we need to focus on our job against Carlton.

…

Speaking of efforts, I want to make special mention of Nathan Bock who announced his retirement last week.

He has been a great contributor to the club and a fantastic leader. It was tough for him to come to a club in 2011 when the list was so young. He really made an effort to look after the younger blokes and he will be greatly missed.