Adrian Pavese has spent more than three decades coaching some of our strongest AFL players from southern Australia. Photo: Danny Webster.
In his more than three decades as an Aussie rules coach, Adrian Pavese has mentored some of the best players in southern Australia.
Despite his more than 700-game coaching career, his early years were spent playing soccer and rugby league.
His AFL journey started when he struggled to make it to away games around the Riverina.
“You only played in Griffith once every four weeks. Dad was working, so he couldn’t [help with travel],” he tells Region.
“Then he caught wind that the Griffith Swans Juniors ran the bus every second game for away trips.
“It was five bucks to go on the bus, so he said, ‘No, you’re playing Aussie rules.'”
He played about 150 reserve grade and under-18s games before a mate asked him to take on a role as an under-11s coach.
“I was struggling to get a game and I got asked [to coach],” he says.
“As a young fella, I didn’t have the richest upbringing, but I was always interested in sports and stats. … Typical of me loving stats, I bought myself a little ledger, and I started writing down all the games I was coaching.”
In the decades since, Adrian has coached clubs and representative sides from across southern NSW and the ACT.
“I love seeing the best in people, and my coaching has never been about me,” he says.
“I wasn’t one of those coaches who said we have to win everything because I didn’t win everything [as a player].”
His skills on and off the field have led to him leading teams such as the Griffith Swans, Queanbeyan Tigers, Wagga Tigers and Gungahlin Jets.
Adrian has also taken coaching roles for the ACU Women’s University Nationals, the AFLW Greater Western Sydney Giants and the MIA NSW/ACT Rams.
He credits his decision to join the Giants AFLW’s coaching staff in 2011 as a turning point.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll have a crack at that’. That really rejuvenated my coaching career and my love for the game,” he says.
“The women were just outstanding … They want to improve and just hang off every word you say.”
Adrian at a Queanbeyan Tigers club event. Photo: Queanbeyan Tigers Facebook.
Adrian believes it’s “chalk and cheese” between how he learned to coach and how people learn the career today.
“It was just, ‘Let’s just get him’ or ‘Let’s just get her to coach’, and it doesn’t really matter – we just got to have a coach … [But now] you’re hoping that they continue by giving them support and resources and things like that,” he says.
“That was never around back in the day.”
A standout memory of his earlier days is watching Terry Daniher (AFL great and brother of the late Neale Daniher) coach in Wagga Wagga.
“I used to drive over on a Tuesday night and sit in the grandstand at the Wagga Tigers’ home ground,” he says.
“[I would] watch him train and take notes and hear what he was saying and how he went about it. That’s how I got my experience early.”
For Adrian, reaching 700 games in late May was a humbling milestone.
“You’re like a mentor, you’re like a second father … You don’t understand how influential that is until players move on,” he says of coaching.
“The messages I got leading into the 700th game were from players that I hadn’t spoken to or seen for 15 to 20 years.”
But is it time for him to hang up the clipboard and step away from it all?
Adrian’s signed on for what he says is “at least another year” with the Wagga Tigers and he also mentors several other coaches.
He says that his retirement from coaching is on the horizon.
“It’s been a 35-year devotion to coaching and football. I turned 54 this year, [but] the coaching has taken some toll,” he says.
“There’s been periods where you’re thinking, ‘What am I doing out here in the middle of winter’ – especially in Canberra, when it’s minus two at training.”
