Shaun Hart is probably best known for his tenacity, courage and unwavering dedication during his fifteen season, 273-game, three-premiership career with the Brisbane Lions. Now he’s applying all he learned as a player to his new role as a Gold Coast Football Club Assistant Coach. Hart took a little time out to tell us about how he’s settling in at his new footballing home.

So are you enjoying your new job?

Absolutely I’m enjoying it. It’s a huge challenge, of course. We have lot of young guys who are very raw but very talented so I’m really enjoying working with them and passing on all the footballing knowledge that had been passed onto me over my journey. So I’m loving the role and especially enjoying looking into the future and seeing the potential that’s there to be developed and believing there’s some real success there to be had in a few years down the track.

Was coaching always a goal for you?

Later in my career, maybe in the last few years of it, I’d thought a bit about becoming a coach after my playing days ended. I’m pretty passionate about setting other people up for success, so I saw coaching as a way for me to do that.

How did you get the job? What was the process?

In terms of my qualifications for the role, I’d done a year as senior coach at Broadbeach in the AFLQ in 2008 and I’d done a lot of mentoring in schools and other work with young people’s development. As for the mechanics of applying: I knew the footy club was starting up and knew they’d be looking for a couple of assistants after ‘Bluey’ McKenna landed the top job. Peter Blucher [then Brisbane Lions Media Manager, now player manager] has always been a bit of an ally and he helped me get my portfolio in the right kind of shape. After that I applied like everybody else and managed to get myself onto the shortlist. I did an interview with Bluey and [then GC17 Talent Development Manager] Bob Batty and got a call a few days after to let me know I’d secured one of the two positions.

What are the most challenging parts of the role?

Definitely being able to communicate your coaching messages to a range of different types of learners with different kinds of attention spans. And there are so many different kinds of individual needs to be addressed. That’s the greatest challenge, really. Covering off on every individual need.

GCFC certainly has plenty of young kids on its list and you've mentioned your experience working with young people. Which parts of that experience do you bring to the job here?

I think you realise that with every player there’s an individual life story bubbling away in the background. Regardless of their age – they could be 17 or 23 – these guys have all got different things going on in their lives that are relevant. They might have some family stuff in play, or they might have personal battles going on, or they might have been pumped up all their lives because of their talent and they could be getting a bit ahead of themselves. The point is everyone brings their own story to a footy club, and a big part of my role is to unpack all that and then find the key trigger points that help best coach and communicate with these guys so I and the club can make sure we maximise the boys’ development. I think these are all things my previous experiences can help out with.

You, together with fellow Assistant Coach Ken Hinkley, Senior Coach Guy McKenna and Football Manager Marcus Ashcroft work pretty closely as a team but are there any particular specific responsibilities that you take on?

It’s definitely a team-oriented job, but my specific role is the defensive game plan coach. So everything that helps minimise opposition scoring and helps us win the ball back, I’m in charge of coaching that.

Defence is a big part of the game now, isn’t it?

It certainly is. We spend a lot of time on it and it’s something that I bring with me from my days at the Lions where we had a very strong defensive unit and a strong culture that encouraged everyone fulfilling a role for their team. So armed with that knowledge I have to find answers to the questions like: how do we structure up in the back half? How do we get the ball back of opposition players so we can get it up forward and initiate scoring opportunities? How do we teach the little bits and pieces that help stop the ball getting into the opposition forward’s hands too easily?

You still look pretty fit. Are you still training? Any chance of adding to your 273 AFL games if injuries hit at some point next season?

[Laughs] The only chance I have of playing next year is if out of the 55 guys we’ll have on the list we had 34 injuries and we were down to just 21 players.

So you’re not ruling it out, then?

[Laughs nervously this time, then winces slightly] If I had to, if it was to ensure the Gold Coast Football Club brand wasn’t in any way tarnished, I’d probably go against the grain of my age and sacrifice my body if we found ourselves one short.

Thanks Shaun.

No worries at all.