Neil Craig

Neil Passmore Craig (born 11 January 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Norwood Football Club, Sturt Football Club and the North Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).

For the American football player, see Neal Craig.

Neil Craig
Craig in March 2017
Personal information
Full name Neil Passmore Craig
Date of birth (1956-01-11) 11 January 1956
Draft No. 2, 1981 interstate draft
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1973–1979 Norwood 126
1980–1986 Sturt 134
1987–1990 North Adelaide 61
Coaching career3
Years Club Games (W–L–D)
2004–2011 Adelaide 166 (92–74–0)
2013 Melbourne 011 0(1–10–0)
Total 177 (93–84–0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1990.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 2013.
Career highlights
Source: AustralianFootball.com

He later worked as a fitness adviser, and then became coach of the Adelaide Football Club, a caretaker coach of the Melbourne Football Club, the former General of Performance at the Essendon Football Club, as well as the Director of Coaching at the Carlton Football Club.

Since 2017 he has been high performance manager for the England rugby union team, working with head coach Eddie Jones.

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.[1]

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.[2] 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 and coaching 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.[3]

Fitness advising

Craig hails from a fitness background and holds a sports science degree.[4]

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.[5] He has worked under cycling legend Charlie Walsh at the Australian Cycling Federation (where he was sports science co-ordinator) and also recruited Walsh as part of the Crows' AFL coaching panel.[6]

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.[7]

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 he 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.[8] He was then appointed full-time for the 2005 season and immediately led the Crows to their first minor premiership in 2005,[9] and took the team to two successive preliminary finals in his first two years as senior coach in 2005 and 2006, losing and being eliminated by West Coast Eagles twice. Under Craig, the Crows reached the finals for five consecutive years but achieved limited success, leaving him with a finals' coaching record of three wins and six losses. The club under Craig had a disappointing 2010 season when Adelaide finished eleventh with nine wins and thirteen losses, therefore missing out of the finals. After another disappointing 2011 season, when Adelaide under Craig sat fourteenth on the ladder with four wins and twelve losses, Craig resigned as senior coach of the Adelaide Crows on 25 July 2011 after a 103-point loss to St Kilda in Round 18.[10][11][12] He left the club as the longest-serving coach in the Crows' history. Craig was then replaced by assistant coach Mark Bickley as caretaker senior coach for the rest of the 2011 season.[13]

Melbourne

After his resignation as Adelaide Football Club senior 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.[14]

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' senior 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 senior coach of the Demons for the remainder of the 2013 season.[15][16] 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 senior coach Paul Roos taking over the senior coaching role at the end of the season.[17]

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[18] and then on 15 April 2014, he was promoted to the position of General Manager, Performance. In this role Craig oversaw all team performance functions including coaching, development and high performance which meant that the coaching staff reported to him.[19]

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.[20] On 14 August 2017, it was announced that he would retire from his career in the football industry at the end of the 2017 season.[21]

England Rugby Union

From October 2017, Craig worked as "a consultant for highest performance to look how we operate and see how we can improve" with the England rugby union senior team.[22] Areas of focus included leadership, communication and teamwork.[23] Part of his role was also to be a 'critical friend' to head coach Eddie Jones whom he had worked with previously.[24] The team reached the final of the 2019 World Cup.

Gold Coast Suns

In December 2019, Craig joined the Gold Coast Suns in a part-time consultancy role for the coaching group. This involved a game day bench role in the 2021 season.[25]

Head coaching record
TeamYearHome and Away SeasonFinals
WonLostDrewWin %PositionWonLostWin %Result
ADE2004 4[n 1]50.44412th out of 16----
ADE2005 1750.7731st out of 1612.333Lost to West Coast in Preliminary Final
ADE2006 1660.7272nd out of 1611.500Lost to West Coast in Preliminary Final
ADE2007 12100.5458th out of 1601.000Lost to Hawthorn in Elimination Final
ADE2008 1390.5915th out of 1601.000Lost to Collingwood in Elimination Final
ADE2009 1480.6365th out of 1611.500Lost to Collingwood in Semi Final
ADE2010 9130.40911th out of 16----
ADE2011 4[n 2]120.250(resigned after R18)----
ADE Total89680.56736.333
MEL2013 1[n 3]100.09117th out of 18----
MEL Total1100.091---
Total90780.53636.333
[26]

Explanatory notes
  1. Craig took over as interim head coach after Gary Ayres resigned following round 13 with a record of 4-9, leading the Crows to a 4-5 record and earning the job full-time. Thus, the first 13 games are credited to Ayres and the final 9 to Craig.
  2. Craig resigned on July 25th 2011 following a 103-point shellacking at the hands of St Kilda in round 18 which dropped the Crows to 4-12 on the season. Interim coach Mark Bickley coached out the remainder of the season with a 3-3 record. Thus, the first 16 games are credited to Craig and the final 6 to Bickley.
  3. Craig took over as interim head coach after Mark Neeld resigned following the Demon's mid-season bye with a record of 1-10, leading Melbourne to a record of 1-10 across the second half of the season and narrowly avoiding the wooden spoon with a 17th place finish. Thus, the first 11 games are credited to Neeld and the final 11 to Craig.

References
  1. Neil Craig at AustralianFootball.com
  2. Crows' imperfect science, Mark Stevens, 2 September 2006, Herald Sun
  3. Hall of Fame Inductees Including Career Records Archived 20 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine, SANFL, accessed 8 September 2006.
  4. "X-Men Want AFL Pledge | Australian Football Association of North America". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2006.
  5. Thompson, L., Engineering the World's Fastest Bicycle, Powerhouse Museum, accessed 8 September 2006
  6. "The Adelaide Crows Neil for their coach Craig". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  7. "Craig still coach of the year?". Injuryupdate.com.au. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  8. "Past Senior Coaches (AFL)". Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  9. Duffield, Mark (28 August 2005). "Report spoils Adelaide joy". The Sunday Age.
  10. "Neil Craig quits as Adelaide Crows coach". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  11. "Neil Craig stands down as Adelaide coach".
  12. "Neil Craig steps down as Crows coach". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  13. "Neil Craig calls it quits". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 26 July 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  14. Denham, Greg (30 September 2011). "Demons win the services of Craig". The Australian.
  15. "Former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett blasts AFL for helping to overhaul Melbourne's board". Herald Sun. 25 June 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  16. "Mark Neeld sacked by Melbourne Demons, Neil Craig to take over as interim coach". ABC News. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  17. "Paul Roos named Melbourne Demons AFL coach". ABC News. 6 September 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  18. "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.
  19. "Dons announce new football structure". Essendon Football Club. Essendon Football Club. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  20. "Meet Carlton's 2016 coaching panel". Carltonfc.com.au. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  21. "Neil Craig calls time on his career in football". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  22. "Eddie Jones poaches ex-Carlton coach Neil Craig for England rugby job". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  23. Alex Lowe. "Neil Craig: Eddie Jones asked me, 'how can I get better as a coach?'". Retrieved 17 November 2021 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  24. "The Inner Chief: 123. Neil Craig, AFL Coach and England Rugby High Performance Manager on High Performance Environments, Your North Star and Decision-Making Under Pressure". Theinnerchief.libsyn.com. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  25. "Neil Craig joins the SUNS". Goldcoastfc.com.au. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  26. "AFL Tables - Neil Craig - Coaching Record". Afltables.com. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
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