FRESH from his first week with the Sydney Swans, new assistant coach Leigh Tudor talks to www.sydneyswans.com.au about what attracted him to the Club…

You’re from Melbourne, where you were an assistant coach at St Kilda. How did the move to Sydney come about?
It had a lot to do with my relationship with John Longmire. We played together at North Melbourne and have been friends ever since, so I always thought that once he got the senior job, he’d be a good person to work with. Having a young family, the opportunity was probably now to do it. With St Kilda, they were moving to Seaford, which was a fair way from where I was living so everything sort of aligned and it was just the right time to make the move.

You’ve come from successful programs at Geelong and St Kilda. What are some of the common traits of successful clubs?
I would say really strong leadership from the coaching and admin staff, and strong leadership from the playing group. Geelong and St Kilda both had really stable boards, administrations, coaching and playing groups, and that really makes a huge difference.

That was probably part of the fascination to come here, have a look and work here. Being in Melbourne you always hear about the Bloods and the Sydney Swans Football Club culture, so it was always something that interested me as it was always talked about so highly. There is so much football experience here with Andrew Ireland and Dean Moore, along with John Longmire who has been in the game for a long time, so too John Blakey and Stuart Maxfield and all the other staff. 

Your main role will be with the midfield group. Do you have any particular coaching philosophies with the midfielders?
It’s an area that I think has been really strong at this Club over the years. I’ll sit down with Mark Stone and John Longmire over the next few weeks and really nut out how we go about it. I want to get a good understanding of how things are working now and that may mean that we don’t need to change anything too much at all. 

What are your early impressions of the Swans group?
There are some really nice young players starting to come through, who are going to be fantastic to work with. There is a little bit of pace coming through, and even the improvement of Kieren Jack and Shane Mumford to finish one-two in the Best and Fairest at such a young age is just a great effort. There is a really good mix of youth and experience in the midfield and hopefully that blend can work for us this year.