ACT Brumbies coach Dan McKellar is planning a fact-finding mission in Europe at the end of the year and hopes to implement strategies to make mental preparation a major priority in Canberra.
McKellar, assistant coach Peter Hewat and Brumbies chief executive Michael Thomson visited the Geelong Cats in the hope of tapping into some of the AFL's top minds.
Brumbies coach Dan McKellar, with Raiders coach Ricky Stuart earlier this year.
Photo: Karleen Minney
They are also keen to visit the North Melbourne Kangaroos and McKellar will fly to Europe later in the year to spend time with Irish rugby clubs and potential English Premier League teams.
First-year Super Rugby coach McKellar is keen to cast a wide net for ideas to help the Brumbies re-emerge as a title contender in the coming years.
There are still three games left in the regular season this year, but the Brumbies need to win all three and rely on results going their way to make the play-offs for a sixth consecutive year.
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McKellar has previously spent time with Australian Diamonds netball coach Lisa Alexander and the Melbourne Storm coaching staff.
"I'm looking at a trip at the end of the year to go to places like Leinster [in Ireland], who obviously just one a couple of trophies in Europe," McKellar said.
"Those sort of places, you see that they're built off the back of their pathways. Leinster continually produce quality players and Geelong are no different in the AFL.
"It's not just high-performance things. It's also the commercial side of the businesses and how they built membership and bring in revenue.
"What I've found with the Diamonds is seeing how Lisa works and how much you can take out of that."
The Brumbies trio spent a day at Geelong's headquarters in the same week Gary Ablett is preparing to play his 200th match for the club, but the chance to visit both the Cats and North Melbourne was about more than just on-field results.
The Cats and North Melbourne have previously faced financially tough times and have had to rebuild their clubs, the supporter base and rosters.
The Brumbies are in a similar scenario. The club is hopeful of turning a profit again this year, but crowd numbers have dripped to their lowest mark since 1996 and they've won five of 13 games.
"You've always got to be trying to learn and improve by seeing what other sports are doing," McKellar said.
"The AFL do it as well as anyone and it's just good to see the facilities, the new building they've got [at Geelong] … and then just meeting with key staff.
"Guys like [recruitment manager] Stephen Wells and [football manager] Simon Lloyd … they've got an enormous amount of experience and how they develop talent and identify it."
The Brumbies have put renewed effort into developing their pathways this year, launching a new-look academy system and targeting a new generation of players.
But McKellar is also keen to focus on other neglected areas in sport, including athlete wellbeing and mental preparation.
The AIS has created an athlete wellbeing and engagement division to help take the organisation into the future, hoping it helps elite athletes perform at their peak and adjust to life after sport.
McKellar is also keen to spend more time on the mental aspect of sport to give his players the best opportunity to perform.
"I'm certainly looking at the mental side of things. We train and coach them physically every day, but the mental training and giving them the tools to deal with stress and pressure in critical moments, it's certainly an area where there's scope for enormous growth," McKellar said.
"There's always a psychological side of it. Next year I'm looking to use someone external to come in and make some change in that area, to give the players a resource to use."
The Brumbies will fly to Tokyo on Monday night to prepare for an exhibition game against Suntory.
McKellar is taking the bulk of his squad to Japan and use the game as crucial preparation to the final stretch of the Super Rugby campaign.
Chris Dutton is a sports reporter at The Canberra Times.
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