It’s been five years since Tom Harley last worked in club land.

Since retiring in 2009, the two-time premiership player, who captained Geelong during their extraordinarily successful era in the late-2000s, has held roles at AFL ACT/NSW and in the media, but this year has taken on the role as the Sydney Swans General Manager - Football.

Heading into the Christmas break, Harley sat down with SwansTV to discuss his expectations and goals for the year ahead, as well as the challenges he expects to face in his new position at the Swans.

SwansTV: Tom, you arrived at the club a couple of months ago. How have you settled into your new role?

Tom Harley: It’s been fantastic, and it’s been overwhelming the welcome I’ve had, not only from the staff and the players, but the supporters in particular. My new role was announced at the Club Champion dinner, and I have really felt part of the Swans family from the get-go.

I guess when you start any new job, there is a lot of assumed knowledge that takes time just to learn and it’s probably a never-ending journey learning all of the information, so from that side of things it’s been great. Then, there are also just the technical aspects of the role in regards to compliance and Total Player Payments and contracts and those sorts of things, so it’s a bit to wrap my head around, but I’m absolutely loving it.

You had a wonderful football career at the Geelong Football Club and then moved into roles at AFL NSW/ACT and in the media. How does it feel to be back in club land?

It’s great. In the five years that I’ve been away from the coalface of competition I’ve really missed it. Obviously I played at Geelong and have some really strong ties to the Geelong footy club and I’m a Life Member there and that will always be the case, but being based up in Sydney for the past five years and working with AFL NSW/ACT, I developed a really strong working relationship with the Swans, so a natural affinity was probably born from that.  

I’ve loved it and I’ve loved getting back involved with the players and dealing with the coaches and I think, at the end of the day, I’m competitive, so as much as I loved working for the AFL, no one barracks for the AFL, and obviously at club level there are those passionate supporters and that’s probably the most attractive part of being involved in a club.

Once you arrived, what were some of the first things you wanted to get stuck into in your new role at the Swans?

The first thing was really just building those relationships. Any sort of role that you start, you just need to make sure you invest in personal relationships. In any leadership position, whether it’s captain of a footy club or a General Manager position, you just need to put deposits into the trust banks of all of your staff. There are no shortcuts to that and that has to be genuine. I hope that in the two months that I’ve spend here, I’ve got to spend time not only with the staff in the Football Department but throughout the whole organisation and the players as well. I think when you’re in a leadership position it’s about influence, and you can’t influence anyone unless you’ve got the credits in the trust bank, so that’s been the focus of my time at this point in time.

As far as doing things and changes, it’s an outstandingly well-run football club and a really high-performing Football Department, so it’s more about me learning the Swans way, than the Swans learning the way that I do business.

It hasn’t been too long since you were running around on the football field; what’s it like being essentially the boss of some of the boys you might have played against?

It’s a unique situation, but to be honest, it’s probably more so the case with the coaching staff. I played a lot of junior footy with Jared Crouch and Stuart Dew, and I was part of Port Adelaide’s primary list when they first started in 1997 with Josh Francou. I reckon I even played against the coach John Longmire at some stage, and Henry Playfair when he first moved to Geelong, lived with me, so at that level there are probably more of those relationships.

In saying that, way back in the day when we were both young fellas, I used to play on Adam Goodes quite often and he’s probably the last of the players who I played a lot against. As I was finishing up I remember players like Kieren Jack, Jarrad McVeigh and Joey Kennedy coming through. Of course, then there was Buddy who broke every Geelong players’ hearts in 2008, along with Stewie Dew, so I obviously played a fair bit of footy against him too.

You’ve been out watching the boys being put through their paces during the pre-season, has there been any desire to pull on the boots and maybe run a three-kilometre time-trial or two?

I definitely don’t want to get out there, but in saying that, I probably had itchy feet to get involved in some of the coaching side of things, but that’s not job and we have a fantastic coaching staff at the Swans. I do really enjoy being out there watching.

As far as the way the boys have prepared, a message to the supporters would be that they are in really good condition and they are certainly hungry. We’ve identified and acknowledged what happened at the back end of the year in the Grand Final, and we have an extremely driven leadership group in particular who drives the standards of the football players. We then have a really good, young emerging group coming through underneath that, so I’ve been really impressed with the professionalism, and I’ve been really impressed with the standards of the players who have come back in terms of their physical condition and their willingness to work. I think if you tick those sorts of boxes as a recipe for success, then the foundation blocks at this club are pretty solid.

Looking ahead, what are some of your plans and what do you see as the challenges the club faces in the near future?

The immediate challenge for us initially was the trade sanctions. I walked into that, but we had a presentation with the AFL Commission, which was really productive, and obviously we’d like to get back into the trading period as soon as possible and that was certainly the position we outlined to the Commission, led by our Chairman Andrew Pridham, Andrew Ireland and John Longmire.

Looking ahead, really, it’s just about improvement for us. We had a fantastic season last year and we did a lot right but didn’t get the ultimate prize. Football is a ruthless business, so if you’re not improving you’re going backwards and the challenge is for everyone, not just the players and coaches, but the whole club, to strive to improve. There should be no apologies for trying to improve and it’s called high performance for a reason, and in the sport that we’re in, if you’re not striving for that then you’re probably barking up the wrong tree.

With improvement in mind, the coaching staff will have a bit of a reshuffle heading into 2015, with Josh Francou stepping up as an assistant coach and Marty Mattner moving into a development role. Can you discuss the changes?

There have been some changes and it’s a really good outcome for everyone. It’s a really good outcome for the club and it’s a great outcome for the two individuals.

Josh had an outstanding career cut short by injuries at Port Power. I’m sure he was a podium finisher in the Brownlow at least once at Port Adelaide as a midfielder. He’s a school teacher by trade and he’s had coaching experience in the SANFL with North Adelaide and took them to a Grand Final. He came in as a Development Manager and did an outstanding job, and the move was always naturally going to happen.

Marty had his taste for coaching last season in the midfield role and he has more of an affinity with the development side. Jared Crouch has taken the management role within the development program from Josh, and Marty has come in as one of our development coaches alongside Nick Davis.

It’s a great result for both individuals and the club and I’m sure Josh, Marty and also Jared Crouch will all be successful in their new roles.

Finally, you will get a well-deserved break in a couple of days. What are your plans for Christmas and the New Year?

It’s all family for me. I’ve got a young, 22-month-old son, Jimmy, and my wife Felicity and I will be going to Thailand for a couple of weeks to visit family. My brother-in-law lives in Bangkok so a bit of R&R before we hit the ground running on January 5 and charge towards a camp in Coffs Harbour and our pre-season starting for us against the Brisbane Lions in Coffs Harbour as well.

We’ll all have a good break, re-energise, and launch into 2015 full of gusto.