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For the American football player, see Neal Craig.

Neil Craig
Personal information
Full name Neil P. Craig
Date of birth (1956-01-11) 11 January 1956 (age 68)
Draft 2nd overall, 1981 Interstate Draft, Footscray
Career highlights
Source: AustralianFootball.com

Neil P. Craig (born 11 January 1956) is the General Manager, Performance at the Essendon Football Club,[1] formerly the head of coaching development and strategy.[2] a former Australian rules footballer, fitness adviser, and former coach of the Adelaide Football Club, as well as a former caretaker coach of the Melbourne Football Club.

Playing career

Craig played a total of 319 games (and kicked 220 goals) in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) as well as 11 State of Origin matches for South Australia.

He played 126 games for the Norwood Football Club, debuting as a 17-year-old in 1973. He was a part of their premiership sides in 1975 and 1978, before leaving the club after the 1979 season.[3]

Craig played 134 games for Sturt (captaining the side in 1985 and 1986) between 1980 and 1986 and was also captain of South Australia in 1984.

He moved to North Adelaide, where he finished his career, playing 61 games between 1987 and 1990. At one stage of his career, Craig was pursued by Footscray, a Victorian team in the Victorian Football League (VFL), but declined the offer as he preferred to stay in South Australia.[4] At that time there was a great rivalry between the VFL and SANFL and both competitions considered themselves the best in Australia.

Post-playing career

In 1991, Craig became the coach of Norwood, a position he held until 1995. In 2002, he was inducted into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame[5]

Fitness advising

Craig hails from a fitness background and holds a sports science degree.[6]

He has worked with the Australian cycling team at the Olympic Games and with the South Australian Institute of Sport, as a senior sports scientist.[7] He has worked under cycling legend Charlie Walsh at the Australian Cycling Federation (where he was Sports science co-ordinator)[8] and also recruited Walsh as part of the Crows' AFL coaching panel.[9]

Adelaide

In 1997, Craig took up the position of fitness adviser with the Adelaide Crows. He is credited with helping devise the fitness regime that led the Crows to back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998 in which players were trained harder mid-season in order to reach peak fitness during finals matches.[10]

Craig left the club in 1999 to help the Australian Olympic cycling team prepare for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games but returned in 2001 to be an assistant coach under Gary Ayres. In late 2001 Craig was the favourite for the West Coast Eagles coaching job in 2002 but dropped out of the running. He took over the senior coaching position at the Crows in 2004 as caretaker when Ayres left the club after Round 13. He was then appointed full-time for the 2005 season and immediately led the Crows to their first minor premiership in 2005,[11] and took the team to two successive preliminary finals in his first two years as senior coach (2005 and 2006). Under Craig the Crows reached the finals for five consecutive years but achieved limited success, leaving Craig with a finals' coaching record of three wins and six losses. After a disappointing 2010 and 2011, Craig resigned on 25 July 2011 after a 103-point loss to St Kilda.[12] He left the club as the longest serving coach in the Crows' history.

Melbourne

After his resignation as Adelaide coach, Craig was signed as the Director of Sports Performance at the Melbourne Football Club on 29 September 2011, beginning in the 2012 season. His primary role was mentoring and assisting the players of the club, in particular the younger players, and to mentor and assist the other assistant coaches, including an assistant coach.[13]

Despite the off-season acquisitions of several experienced players, such as Shannon Byrnes, Tom Gillies, Chris Dawes and David Rodan, the Demons underachieved in the first half of 2013 AFL season, managing just 1 win in their first 11 games. As the result of this poor start to the 2013 season, after the Demons' mid-season bye on 17 June 2013, the Demons' head coach, Mark Neeld, was sacked. His sacking came within weeks of the departures of senior Demons' staff members Cameron Schwab and Don McLardy. Subsequently, Craig was appointed as the caretaker coach of the Demons for the remainder of the 2013 season.[14] Craig coached the Demons for 11 games, managing just 1 win, for a winning percentage of just 9%. Craig left the club after the completion of the 2013 season with former Sydney Swans premiership coach Paul Roos taking over the senior coaching role at the end of the season.

Essendon

On 10 October 2013, Craig was appointed to the newly created role of head of coaching development and strategy at the Essendon Football Club[15] and then on 15 April 2014, he was promoted to the position of General Manager, Performance. In this role Craig will oversee all team performance functions including coaching, development and high performance meaning that the coaching staff will report to him.[1]

Carlton

On 30 September 2015, Craig was appointed to Brendon Bolton's new coaching panel at Carlton, taking on the role of Director of Coaching, Development and Performance.[16]

Coaching statistics

[17]
Season Team Games Coached Wins Losses Draws Points % Ladder Position League Teams
2004 Adelaide 9 4 5 0 44.4% 12 16
2005 Adelaide 25 18 7 0 72.0% 1 16
2006 Adelaide 24 17 7 0 70.8% 2 16
2007 Adelaide 23 12 11 0 52.2% 8 16
2008 Adelaide 23 13 10 0 56.5% 5 16
2009 Adelaide 24 15 9 0 62.5% 5 16
2010 Adelaide 22 9 13 0 40.9% 11 16
2011 Adelaide 16 4 12 0 25.0% 14 17
2013* Melbourne 11 1 10 0 9.1% 17 18
Career totals 177 93 84 0 52.54% 8.33 16.33

* = Caretaker Coach

References

  1. ^ a b "Dons announce new football structure". Essendon Football Club. Essendon Football Club. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  2. ^ "Thompson named Senior Coach for 2014", Essendon Football Club, 10 October 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  3. ^ Australian Football: Neil Craig - Player Bio
  4. ^ Crows' imperfect science, Mark Stevens, 2 September 2006, Herald Sun
  5. ^ Hall of Fame Inductees Including Career Records, SANFL, accessed 8 September 2006.
  6. ^ X-Men Want AFL Pledge | Australian Football Association of North America
  7. ^ Thompson, L., Engineering the World's Fastest Bicycle, Powerhouse Museum, accessed 8 September 2006
  8. ^ Sheactive – Scientific Heart Rate Book (on ZoomInfo)
  9. ^ The Adelaide Crows Neil for their coach Craig :: ABC Adelaide
  10. ^ Craig still coach of the year? [Archive] – Injury Update Forum
  11. ^ Duffield, Mark (28 August 2005). "Report spoils Adelaide joy". The Sunday Age.
  12. ^ "Neil Craig quits as Adelaide Crows coach". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  13. ^ Denham, Greg (30 September 2011). "Demons win the services of Craig". The Australian.
  14. ^ "Former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett blasts AFL for helping to overhaul Melbourne's board". Herald Sun. 25 June 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  15. ^ "Mark Thompson named Essendon coach as Bombers confirm James Hird won't return to top job in 2014", Herald Sun, 10 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  16. ^ "Meet Carlton's 2016 coaching panel". carltonfc.com.au. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  17. ^ Neil Craig's coaching profile at AFL Tables
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