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Transcript: Josh Rose Talks Mariners Culture (EP1)

 

Intro (with music): Welcome to The Culture of Things podcast with Brendan Rogers. This is a podcast where we talk all things, culture, leadership and teamwork across business and sport.

 

Brendan Rogers: Hello and welcome to Episode 1, our very first episode of The Culture of Things podcast. I'm Brendan Rogers and today, I have the great privilege to introduce a friend of mine, a guy I've known for a little bit of time, Josh Rose. Josh, how are you, mate?

Josh Rose: Good thanks, Brendan. How are you?

Brendan Rogers: Very well, mate. Thank you very much for agreeing to come on to our first episode. I appreciate having you.

Josh Rose: Not a problem at all.

Brendan Rogers: Mate, before you tell us a bit about your esteemed football career, we've known each other for a little while, about 20 years now. So, you're just telling me off air about the big decisions you made and moving to Brisbane. Tell us a bit about that. 

Josh Rose: Yeah, look, I was thinking about it on the drive over here and I'm thinking about how big a change it was for me at the time. A young boy moving from Rocky to Brisbane. And, I think a few people close to me in Rockhampton told me to, you know, challenge myself a bit and try and take it to a higher level. And, you know, one of the biggest things looking back was the decision to go to Wynnum Football Club. And I think one of the best things there were the people that surrounded me. Just a really good mix of, you know, experienced players. I think we had Stevie Forshaw who'd played at the highest level, someone like that to look up to. Guys like yourself who had been around the league for a while. So, it was good for me as a young player to just be surrounded by good mentors, good people. And you know, it was a really good bunch of boys.  

Brendan Rogers: Unfortunately, my football career never took off like yours, but it sounds like I contributed to helping you. Is that right?

Josh Rose: Yeah. Look, everyone helped in their own little way.

Brendan Rogers: Fantastic. Thank you, mate. I appreciate it. So today, I want to talk to you, obviously you're an ex Mariners player. You've also played overseas professional football in Romania. Today, I want to focus a little bit more about Central Coast Mariners and your experience there because you are one of the players that was around Central Coast Mariners and playing for that club for quite a long time. You were brought across there by Graham Arnold in 2010 and Arnie, I think fair to say based on the results, built up a pretty solid team. So you were part of that starting point, and, you're also there during the, I guess the not-so-good days and the issues, the performances on the field wasn’t as great as what the community and the fans would have liked. So, how about you tell us a little bit about your footballing journey just to give the listeners a bit of a background on what you've done so far?  

Josh Rose: Yeah, look. I think my football was a hard graft always. I think coming from Rocky as an 18/19 year old, I didn't have that tag of someone who'd come through an Institute or an Academy. So, I think that followed me around a lot in this country, especially in Australia. You know, it probably wasn't until I took the plunge and went over to Romania where I probably earned a few more stripes and a little bit more accreditation, I think. But you know, it's sometimes, it's really, you got to take yourself out of that comfort zone to prove yourself, I think. And I was never afraid of doing that, which definitely helped in the long run. You know, you just got to go and do things with no fear. And I think moving to Romania was a big change for me, but it really opened my eyes up to what football means to the people in that country.  

And then, you know, how grateful they are just to play the game at that level. So, to see that and to bring that back to Australia and even to instil that in my own kids is, or the kids at the Academy is you know, something unique, I think. So, that was a massive help along the journey. But yeah, look, moving to the Mariners in 2010, I think it was one of those big decisions that we spoke about before with moving to Wynnum at 18/19. It was a choice between Brisbane or Central Coast. We chose the Central Coast to move away from Brisbane. We'd lived there for a long time, so we wanted to, my wife and I, wanted to challenge ourselves and take ourselves out of the comfort zone. So at that time, Central Coast were a very successful club, I think they played in two grand finals while they'd won a premiership.  

So, you know, it wasn't a decision that you'd go, you know, I'm going to a club that's struggling or whatever. And Graham Arnold, the next Socceroos coach, I saw it as a fantastic opportunity to improve my game and meet someone who I held in high regard. So, you know, I came here with an open mind and it really turned out pretty great for the first few years. Yeah. It changed after a little while, you know, things go around in cycles. I think a lot of football teams and things like that can go in cycles. So, you know, I was there when the team was on top of the league and I was there when the team was on the bottom of the league. So, you know, there's definitely, a few differences that I've noticed that we'll touch on today, I think.

Brendan Rogers: Definitely. Let's talk about the early days so that, the ‘glory days’, I guess we can call them that sort of 2010 to 2013, as you said, they were a quite successful club, I think, fair to say, punching above their weight, you know, when the A-League first started as well right through to that timeframe. Graham Arnold obviously thought a lot about you as a player because you were the first, you were his first signing, I understand as well. Is that right?  

Josh Rose: Yeah, I was I think. (Laughs) To be honest, I think Arnie had heard about me from Romania, he hadn’t actually seen me play. So, I was in conversation with him. There was talk of me coming to trial for the team and I said, yeah, I'd agreed to it. But, I was actually training with Gold Coast United with Miron Bleiberg at the time, so I was sort of tossing up between them as well. And then Arnie was still involved with the Socceroos at the time and he had Jason Culina and Jon McKain in a camp with him and I think they both said to him, look, if he's, if you're gonna sign him, sign him quickly. Arnie pretty much rang me straight away and said, we'll get the deal done. So, thanks to those two for helping get it over the line. But yeah, it was a good choice in the end.  

Brendan Rogers: Tell us about those, I guess those years. So, in this interview we really want to contrast those glory days versus I guess where the Mariners had been over the last several years, unfortunately. So, just tell us a bit about your experiences as a player, your interaction in the team, really diving into it from a teamwork and from a leadership perspective and Graham Arnold's influence in the group in those first few years.  

Josh Rose: Yeah, look, Arnie was fantastic. He really bought-in to the Central Coast culture back then. I mean that's the first thing you notice coming to a club like Central Coast back then. The culture was talked about throughout the league massively, you know, and it didn't disappoint. It was a fantastic bunch of boys. It was really, it was a place that you loved coming to train everyday. It  didn't feel like training. It didn't feel like work. It was just somewhere you loved being. Yeah, it really showed on the pitch. Everyone had trust in each other. Everyone respected each other. And I think back then, it’s just the vibe through the whole organisation was just a really good vibe and look, don't get me wrong, results help that. Results definitely helped that, you know, it's easy for things like that, an atmosphere or environment to change when results change. So, luckily enough back then, we had good results. I think we rarely lost two or three games in a row and, and you know, we continued to punch well above our weight, year on year. So, you know, I think that really helped with everything from the office staff all the way through.  

Brendan Rogers: You mentioned the word ‘culture’ a couple of times and being a great culture. You also mentioned the word ‘trust’, which I know, again, talking offline is a really important part of building teamwork and leadership. So, what was it about the culture and you talked about getting, coming into your workplace, which was the training pitch and you know, it wasn't a chore. It didn't feel like work. What was it about the environment that really made it such a great culture?

Josh Rose: Yeah. Look, I think everyone knew that if they did their job and I did it properly, or they did it to a 100%, then that was well-respected. You know, we knew that mistakes would happen. We knew that, you know, as players, we had trust in Graham Arnold and Mossey and Clarkie and JC and everyone else in the coaching staff that, if we lost the game or if you were struggling in the first half, then, you know, we trusted them. We knew that if we worked hard and limited our mistakes, we'd get to halftime and they'd be able to change something and majority of the time we'd come out and get the win. And those things help build trust. And then that helps build the respect that we have for each other. So over time, that just built and built and it was you know, it just created this great environment that really, you know, kept building year on year.

Brendan Rogers: And from it, so you spoke a little bit about the coaching staff and the respect, the mutual respect you had players and coaching staff. What about amongst the playing group? What were you guys doing as a group to really foster and build those relationships and trust amongst the group?

Josh Rose: Yeah, look, we were genuinely all good friends. You know, we had a crew that sort of traveled from Sydney for training every day and they’d travel together. Some would stay for the week at a caravan park and things like that. We had boys who would go for coffees. We had the families. I mean Arnie as a coach would always organise, like get-togethers and make sure families were always there.  

We did, you know, plenty of community engagements where we were there as a team, coaching staff included. We were just always together. We always had that genuine respect for each other. I don't know if everyone were really good mates off the field that, you know, you're never going to be really good mates with everyone, but you just had that genuine respect when you're on the field or on the training pitch, you just, he's your teammate, you do anything to help your teammates. And that's the feeling that we had.

Brendan Rogers: Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, you're in the trenches, so to speak, when the going is tough, you knew that you could rely on your teammate, which makes a massive difference.

Josh Rose: Yeah. Definitely. Definitely.

Brendan Rogers: Let's talk for a little bit about Graham Arnold's influence on the team. Again, You know, he signed you and you spent a number of years with Arnie. He's had a very successful coaching, now coach of the Socceroos and doing great things with Clarkie. So just his leadership on the group, tell us a bit about that and how it impacted you.

Josh Rose: Yeah. Look, I think he genuinely cared more about, you know, he genuinely cared about the person. Firstly, I think you got that sense. I think, you know, the few people that try and probably say they care about the person but you know, little things they do probably don't show that; where, he genuinely did. I think he did a really good job of masking the boys of probably outside influences, whether that was within the club or outside the club, whether it was, you know, organisations trying to attack our organisation or you know, the clubs struggling, which we did in the year we won the grand final.  

Obviously, there was a financial struggle. You know, the players were sheltered from that, I think. You know, Arnie obviously had all the inside information and sort of drip fed what he felt we needed to know. And then he reassured that what we need to concentrate on is our job, which is the football side. And if we take care of the football side, he can take care of the rest and you know, that helped us really concentrate on what we needed to be doing.

Brendan Rogers: Great to hear again, you know, allowed you to focus on your job. And even when you said  offline that, you know, when the pay wasn't coming in, that's when you sort of wonder, or you thought that, okay, there might be a few problems here, but you were really, Arnie sheltered the players from that and let you focus on the job at him, which was winning football matches.  

Josh Rose: Yeah, that's right. That was our job. And, you know, I think he even paid a few of the young boys out of his own pocket and ‘til they were sorted and made sure everyone was good and he was in constant conversation with everyone and making sure everything was fine and things like that. And like I said, he'd let us know on the situation as to how much we needed to know and, how much we didn't need to know and things like that. So it was always good and, you know, we felt like we had, we genuinely had someone behind our back, fighting our fights so it was good.

Brendan Rogers: And as a player, to know that your coach cared about you and your leader of the team cared about you that much, how did that make you feel on the pitch and training?

Josh Rose: Oh yeah, definitely, you know. And not even just Arnie, I mean Hutch was our captain back then and you know, we had the leadership group of guys like Patty and Mile Sterjovski and the sort of guys and you know, you knew they always had your back as well. It was, they were part of that coaching staff and they were our leadership group at the time and they always looked out for us as well. So it was not just, you know, fighting for that 90 minutes for the coaches. It was fighting for that leadership group, fighting for each other and you know, fighting for the young boys, making sure they had a good foundation to build into and things like that. We were all just one really good unit, I think.

Brendan Rogers: Sounds like you'd walk over hot coals for each other, yeah? 

Josh Rose: Yeah. It was pretty much like that, you know.

Brendan Rogers: Talk about the community. ‘Cause again the Mariners from my perspective an outsider looking in, and being on the coast for a period of time, the Mariners seem to be a lot more involved in the actual Central Coast community back in those glory days. Tell us a bit about that, and your involvement, and the players in the community and how that seemed to spur you guys on as a team and to really create, help create something special. 

Josh Rose: Yeah. Look, we did a massive amount of community work back then. I think we did the club nights with a lot of the local clubs and we did a lot of coaching - coaching, club nights, sign autographs, gave out posters, little things like that. And I think, you know, the kids and the parents and all the local clubs, they felt that genuine connection with Mariners back then.  

And you know, we'd see the kids on the Saturday or the Sunday behind the fence and they'd give you a big wave and we'd wave back. And you know, when kids get that, it's, I think, you know, it’s that genuine connection, I think. Even for me living here so long, and I say, you know, I can walk through Erina Shopping Fair and people smile and wave and my eldest sons like, who's that, and I'm like, I have no idea. You know what I mean? But that's the Coast. That's what I love about the Coast. You know, that is the Coast. You can just, they'll just talk to you if you had a bad game. Like, ‘Oh, what happened?’. But they won’t say it in a negative way, they'll just genuinely ask, you know, and that's the Coast. That's the way it was back then. I mean, now that results aren't the way they are, I'm not sure they still are like that to players. I like to think so, but probably not all the time. But yeah, that's, I genuinely do love that about the Coast. And it's probably one of the big reasons why we stayed here, you know. And yes, I still get the odd occasional wave through the shopping centre, which is good for the kids to laugh at. But it's great. I'll have that kid waving.

Brendan Rogers: Yeh, their dad was famous at some stage, is that right? (laughing)

Josh Rose: Yeah, apparently. (laughing)

Brendan Rogers: They probably don't always think that you’re famous (laughing). So going back to, and I know it's not all about sort of Arnie but you know the head coach is the head coach. They sort of live by the sword, die by the sword and you had, there was a strong coaching group and they had a lot of respect for each other. What was the involvement with Arnie through the club and the coaching staff through the club?

Josh Rose: Yeah. Look, I mean he would obviously run, have to organise our preseason around all the community work, which you know, he probably obviously wasn't always happy with but he understood that that is part of the Mariners. This is what the Mariners do. So you, being the coach, you need to organise around this ‘cause this is a big part of what we are, who we are and what we do. And yeah, like I said, he wasn't always happy about it, but he understood, he bought in, he knew that for the club to survive, for the club to build a good foundation and ideally, what's the point of doing all our training if we're getting two people to the stadium? You know, we need them to come out and support us. That's the only way the club's going to survive. So we knew that and he knew that and he understood that and that's why he did it his best possible, a way to integrate that within our season and within our preseason and to try and get the community on board and that connection as much as possible. 

Brendan Rogers: So all that engagement and the importance about engaging the community was part of the culture, you know, people looking after each other and there was respect amongst the coaching staff, in the players, you know, a strong bond with the playing group it really, I mean that obviously fabricated into some pretty decent results on the pitch.  

Josh Rose: Yeah, definitely. We had some fantastic years. And, you know, like I said, even through those three years, there were times where we felt we weren't playing great football or whatever, you know. But you know, we never really turn on each other. It was always that trust that we'd get out of it which I think good organisations or you know, whether it's sporting team or business, you know, you've got that trust with each other through those tough times, you know, that you can get through and then a lot of the time, you genuinely do.  

Brendan Rogers: So let's, before we move on to the not-so-good days of Mariners and just, you know, you're experiencing contrasting some of these stuff you talked about, you just mentioned around sport and business and you know, you're running a successful academy, Rose Football Academy, on the Central Coast. Very well supported and you're just telling me you retained a 100% of your previous, you know, client base from last year, which is absolutely fantastic for business. How has your sporting experiences both locally and internationally helped you in business?  

Josh Rose: I think it's helped massively in business. I don't think I've changed too much of the sort of person I am. I'm pretty easy going sort of person. I've got, you know, maybe I need to be a bit harder sometime, I've realised. Which has probably helped me a little bit going into the business side and seeing how it works at times. But I don't want to change who I am too much. You know, who I am has got me to where I am today. So I'm not about to completely change who I am or my morals and my personality. So, you know, that's helped me heaps.

I think I provide a culture and environment where not only kids can express themselves and grow as people, whether that's with football and life in general, but I think I give my employees, my coaches that, you know, trust to talk to me and tell me and then, you know, I've got a head coach that will occasionally tell me I need to pull myself into line. And I love the fact that I've got that, he's got faith and trust to be able to do that sometimes. You know, to come to me and go, ‘you know, what, just take maybe next two days, training sessions, you just take a step back and just watch, maybe you just need to relax a little bit, calm down. Maybe there's too much going on. And I love that, you know, and I can take a step back and know that, give him full control and he's running everything and you know, the same principles all the way through.

So, I love the fact that I've created that environment and you know, that's, I think that's because I've just remained the same personality and the same morals from sport and business.  

Brendan Rogers: Yeah, that's brilliant. And I have to say to our listeners, I've visited Rose Football Academy a couple of times, spent some time with you down there and you're definitely, what you're saying is true. There's a great feeling there. The kids are having a great time. You’re really building a strong environment, a strong culture. And obviously as I said, you know, you had a 100% of your clientele return. So, that's a pretty good definition of success, right?  

Josh Rose: Yeah (laughs). Nah, it's good, you know. We're doing something right down there. I think the feedback's fantastic. And as with anything in business, you know, we just keep working, keep implementing new things, keep challenging and keep progressing as we go.  

Brendan Rogers: Let's talk about the Mariners currently or the, you know, I guess the, I'll say the second half of your stint, not necessarily when you returned from Melbourne City, but there was, maybe, a turning point in the Mariners or maybe what you started to see as a turning point where things were, things were changing, they weren't, the feel around the club wasn't as good. So, can you tell us a bit about that and some of the changes that you saw?  

Josh Rose: Yeah. Look, obviously the first big change was probably results (laughing). Results on the park, which, look, let's be honest, it doesn't really help everything else. For a football club, results on the pitch will really help everything else as it goes. But look, yeah, I think as we spoke offline, I think two of the biggest things for me that I noticed from the first few years to probably what's happening now and things like that is trust and fear.

You know, trust from people in higher positions, to trust people in their roles to try and change and implement new things that may or may not work. And then fear, maybe, there is that fear from those people that the trust is not there. So, they have that fear maybe to keep things to the norm, which we know is not working now.  

So they're too scared or they've got that fear where they don't have the trust to change or to implement new things. Whereas speaking from experience, I think if you've got trust, you've got no fear to come out with new ideas to try and implement new things. And it's not so much of, “No, that's not working. Go back to normal.” It's, “Hang on, it might not be working, but how can we change that to maybe, you know?”. What they completely come up with might not be the answer, but they might be on the right track instead of just completely blocking it out, it's like, “Well, yeah, you're on the right track. Just not quite there.” How can we work together to try and implement something that may work? So, I think that's where we're at now.  

Maybe a little lack of trust, which instils fear in everyone from possibly the CEO to the players. So yeah, how do you change that? It’s something that they possibly need to look at, I think.

Brendan Rogers: You as a player, and again, you know, contrasting for the early days to then and you know, really valid points, you know, trust and fear, they, or lack of trust and fear, feed off each other. What was the impact on you as a player? What was the impact you saw on your teammates and the impact on teamwork for your team actually winning games?

Josh Rose: Yeah. Look, I think as a player, you knew when Arnie was coach, it was his system. I think one of the biggest changes I noticed as a player was the coaches after Arnie were almost told how they were, had to play.  

So then, did we have the right players to play that system? Did we have, you know, the right foundations to instil that sort of game style and come away with the right results because essentially, you need results. So, probably not. Come to think of it, but, at the time, I think they were told that they need to play that style. So, there was no trust in giving that coach a job and saying, okay, we'll give you your trust to coach the team and manage the team and to do a good job and bring the club results.

And then, it just slowly cannonballed from there I think. And now, you've got a situation where it's probably in dire straits and how can we change that now? It's a big, long process now.

Brendan Rogers: And just flowing that word ‘trust and fear’ into, ‘cause we spoke a little about community and the engagement you had as a player and all the other players in that sort of 2010 to  ‘13, ‘14 period. What's happening in the community with the Mariners now from an outsider looking in, I see personally, very little engagement with the community. What's your feeling about this and the impact on trust within the community?

Josh Rose: Yeah, look, I mean look and we come back to it again - the results and obviously the community has got a bigger disengagement now and it's only getting bigger every year, I feel, with the results going the way they are. Look, the good thing is the Central Coast community, you always get that core base. As with any club, you've always got that core base through the tough times and lets, you know what, kids, as much as they are kids, the young kids, they just love seeing the players.  

The results for them are just the result. It probably comes a lot from the parents on the drive home from the stadium, what fills their mind, you know, but the more the young kids see those players, the more they can relate to those players. So for me, instead of having fear of getting out in the community because of the results, I think they do a big push into the community.

Brendan Rogers: Let's go into that then. I guess you know, simply what you, you've seen it, you've experienced it overseas, locally. You've seen a lot of things for your football career. Some good, some not so good. If it was Josh Rose, you know, head of Central Coast Mariners, CEO, what would you do? How would you change the approach that the Mariners are currently taking to get that glory days back?

Josh Rose: Look, first and foremost, definitely connect to community again - whether that's through majority of fan engagement days, the old club nights that we used to do and look, they're not easy. It's a lot of work on the players. It's a lot of work on the coaching staff to implement that into a preseason, into a yearly schedule and probably, you know, recruitment.

You need the right people to be able to connect the community. Well, I think we talked about Patrick Zwaanswijk offline a little bit. I mean like him engaging for the community, I mean he'll chew the year off anyone and he really bought into those sort of, you know, those sort of nights. He loved talking to people, he loved engaging with the community and you know, we need people like that.

We need people, and I'm not saying they're not there now. They probably just had not been given an opportunity to show that they can do that now.  

I think probably through lack of fear of getting out there and that, but look, I'd probably say Central Coast have probably the most forgiving community out of every A-League club. I don't think, yeah, if you're a Victory or one of those sort of clubs for one, you can't walk around town and probably even get recognised unless you're one of the top three.

We're here on the Coast, you know, you get recognised. You do, you get recognised. It's a community that wants to be involved. It's a community that feels like they can talk to the players - whether good or bad. And they just wanna, you know, at the end of the day, I think it's just them letting the players know, “We do care, but we're here for you, you know. We're here for you. Just keep working and just, you know, give us a bit back.”  

Brendan Rogers: It's interesting cause when I look back and again, being fortunate enough to know you for a period of time, I had some involvement with the likes of Patrick and Gumpsey and Kwas and these sort of guys. And the real test for me around community is that when people are playing for a club, and when they're not playing for a club, they're here, they're living, actually most of these guys, Macca, I mean Macca’s in Newcastle, but these guys are in the community. They stayed in the community. Some of them weren't, you know, they came from overseas, but they're still living here. And that to me, that's a real test. You know, about the  essence and the fabric that was the Central Coast Mariners in those days when you were there compared to now. I think there's people, the players seem to come in and out, it’s just a job for them. It's not a community thing.

Josh Rose: Yeah, definitely. I mean, you can add Monte to that list.

Brendan Rogers: Monte. Good example.

Josh Rose: Hutch, he’d still be here I think, and he probably can't wait for the day he comes back. But yeah, I mean, Patrick can't get rid of him. (Laughs) I mean, that’s what you mean, so yeah, definitely I 100% agree with that. I signed the two-year contract and then the plan probably was to move back to Brisbane or whatever, you know, I don't know. And yeah, I think by the first six months, we weren't going anywhere, you know. That's the way it was.

And a lot of the boys back then, the people coming in, they saw that people had been here for five or six years so then you've probably got, and this is where the fear comes in. You can probably say that the security was a bit better back then because you got guys there that have been, he's been here for five or six years. He’s nothing special. Like, I’ll sit here and admit I was nothing special. I gave a 100% everyday and I did my job and I was lucky enough to work under a good manager, but by no means was I anything special.  

But I carved out a long successful time because of just doing the simple things well and you know, and I think that gave people a little bit of confidence in going, you know, maybe if I work hard I can stay here for a couple of years. It's not a bad place to live. It's quite good and we were a successful club at that time. And you know, I think we can get back to that.

Brendan Rogers: So what is your hope as an ex-player? What is your hope for the Mariners moving forward?

Josh Rose: Oh look, I've got three young boys that love their football and actually can kick a ball around a bit better than me than I could have at their age. So, you know, I cannot wait to see them in a Mariner’s jersey. First and foremost, I want the club to be successful for a long time.  

You know, I want it to be sustainable. Like, let's be honest, you can't keep bleeding money, so it does need to become sustainable. Secondly, then, we build on the competitive side. We need to be competitive to engage a community. You know, we need to really bring that back. But, you know, I think we touched on this as well, a few homegrown players would be fantastic to help engage that community as well, which I think they've slowly done with Lewis Miller and there’s a couple of good young youth, league players now coming through.

But yeah, just a good solid club, you know, that's what I want. I want, like I said, I can't wait to see my boys in a Mariners jersey. You know, I want them to relive my emotions about playing for the Mariners and, you know, they might not be winning things or that, but just the feeling of putting on the jersey and representing the community and things like that.  

I want them to feel that when they put on the jersey. And that's, like I said, it comes down to sometimes the parents driving home from the stadium, the negative talk and things like that. You know, through everything I've constantly told my boys that, you know, the Mariners, they're an A-League club, they're a professional club right in our backyard. You know, we need to support this. We need to work together. And I hope that we can, you know, that they can implement things that will help us be more competitive and grow as an organisation.  

Brendan Rogers: And we hope to have an A-League club and a professional sporting team on the coast for many, many, many years to come.

Josh Rose: 100% definitely.

Brendan Rogers: Mate, as a final sort of close off. How about you, if you're okay with it, let listeners know how they can get in touch with you if they want to ask you any questions around, you know, what you've really thankfully shared with our listeners today.

Josh Rose: josh@rosefootball.academy - email through any questions. I'm happy to chat about anything. You know, I love talking about leadership, whether you've got kids in football and want to know what direction to go, I'm happy to chat about football or you know, development stages, things like that.

Brendan Rogers: Excellent, mate. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and I know that you know, we focused a lot on your experiences at the Mariners and for me I found it absolutely fascinating talking to an ex-player and just understanding, I guess the workings in those early days versus now and your experiences. So, thank you very much for sharing those. There's another opportunity and you know, the stuff that you're doing through Rose Football Academy is fantastic.

As I said earlier, I've been up there a couple of times seen you in action - what you're doing, the love that the kids are getting for the game, which is, you know, again, up to, you know, thanks to you and Kwas, you're doing fantastic things. So, I think there's another episode in itself just to talk about the culture you're building in your own organisation you've got complete control of and the trust you've built and the engagement with the group. But as far as this conversation goes, mate, I really want to say thank you very much for your time, I appreciate it. It's amazing. I really had no idea when we first met 20 years ago that we'd be sitting across the room at each other and doing a podcast together. We've had 20 years to prepare for this moment. (Laughs)

Josh Rose: Yeah, definitely.

Brendan Rogers: So mate, thank you again. I really appreciate your time.

Josh Rose: Not a problem, Brendan. Thanks, mate.

(Music plays)

Brendan Rogers: I hope you enjoyed my chat with Josh Rose today. Josh really has a wonderful insight given his experiences at the Mariners during the glory days and the not so glory days. I'd like to share my top three takeaways from my chat with Josh.

The first takeaway I'd like to share is, Josh talked about the fact that the playing group loved coming to work. They loved coming to the training ground and spending time with each other. It wasn't necessarily about them being all best mates off the pitch. On the field, they had a level of trust and respect for each other and they knew that they would do anything to help each other as teammates. Everyone knew each other as real people. They knew what was happening in each other's lives.

They would organise get togethers for the players and their families and the players also spent time with each other in the communities so they really had a lot of opportunity to spend quality time with each other, not only on the playing pitch but outside of the playing pitch where they got to know each other and they enjoyed each other's company. And that really helped drive a positive culture at the Mariners in their glory days.

My second takeaway was really around leadership and Josh talks specifically about the leader, Graham Arnold, and the coaching staff, genuinely caring about the players. I love the story that Josh shared about Graham Arnold, where Arnie paid some of the younger players out of his own pocket when the Mariners were having some financial difficulties and not able to pay the players. It really showed a level of support and care for the players. Arnie also had constant conversation with the players, he looked after them, he sheltered them from some of the issues in the club so that the team and the players could focus on their job at hand, winning football matches.  

The final point which I took away from the conversation with Josh was really around teamwork. And Josh talked about trust and fear, and in particular, he mentioned during the tough times and the not-so-glory days at the Mariners, there was a real lack of trust which instilled fear in everybody. And it's so true. When people in a team don't trust each other, fear comes through, they're fearful of sharing new ideas, they’re fearful of trying new things, of implementing new things. They’re fearful of providing feedback to each other and it really drives a terrible culture and it really works against the concept of teamwork and building high performing teams.

They were my three key takeaways after talking with Josh: culture, people loved coming to work and spending time with each other. Leadership. the leader and the coaching staff genuinely cared about the players. And teamwork, trust and fear. A high level of trust is so important because it takes fear away. When you don't have trust, fear builds in the group which works against the idea of building high performing teams.

I hope you enjoyed those takeaways. Please think of that in relation to your own work environment and how it can help you.

If you have any questions about what you've heard in this episode today or generally, any questions around culture, leadership, and teamwork or any feedback you'd like to send me about future episodes and what you'd like to hear on the Culture of Things podcast, please send me an email at brendan@thecultureofleadership.com.

Until next time. 

 

 

Outtro (with music): Thank you for listening to The Culture of Things podcast with Brendan Rogers. Please visit thecultureofleadership.com to access the show notes. If you love The Culture of Things podcast, please subscribe, rate and give a review on Apple podcasts and remember a healthy culture is your competitive advantage.