Balme to preach multiplier effect as Crows board member
Neil Balme says he will perform an overseeing role on Adelaide’s football department after shunning retirement to join the Crows board.
Neil Balme will preach what he calls “the multiplier effect” in his new AFL role with Adelaide after shunning retirement to join the Crows’ board.
The 73-year-old has accepted a three-year term as a football director with the club.
Balme boasts a wildly successful resume which includes being a dual Richmond premiership player in the 1970s and a two-time SANFL premiership coach with Norwood in the 1980s.
He also coached Melbourne in the 1990s before working at Collingwood and then enjoying AFL flag success six times as a football manager – three each at Geelong and Richmond.
Balme finished his stint at Richmond last year and considered walking away from football – until Adelaide chairman John Olsen called.
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“Once I had that chat, I realised how much I wanted to stay in footy somehow,” he told Adelaide’s annual general meeting on Wednesday night.
“My connection to SA told me to think about this.
“You convince yourself that you can influence and there’s no great secret to it all, it’s just a matter of helping everyone do what they’re doing.”
Balme said he would perform an oversight role on Adelaide’s football department.
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“Just be there to encourage them to do their jobs,” he said.
“Because we all hear so much about footy nowadays and it’s all the same terminology – they talk about environment and culture and buy-in and all this stuff.
“Everyone knows the question… do we actually know the answer in the end.
“And the answer is simply how well you make that happen.”
The essence of his messaging would be to grasp the multiplier effect, Balme said.
“If we can get an environment where everyone understands what the power of the multiplier effect is, and what the power of what they’re doing is… it will be easier to be as good as they can be if the other blokes are helping them,” he said.
“It’s simple. But everyone knows the words, it’s a matter of what is the action and do you do it.
“It’s in every footy club. The answer is in the room. It’s a matter of whether you drive it or not.
“We have got so many people teaching them (players) to kick and mark and run and play and all this – and everyone does that.
“But do they actually put it together? Do they make it happen?
“When you see the sides that have won, they have made it happen – their multiplier effect has been better than the players they have got.”
