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Shepherd glad Peel took a leap of faithThursday, March 14, 2013 - 8:00 AM - by Chris Pike
CAM Shepherd has waited patiently for his belated chance as a WAFL senior coach, but now all he is focused on is helping to develop a strong, healthy and winning culture at Peel Thunder.
Shepherd played 153 WAFL games between Claremont and Peel and since then has developed in various roles as a coach with a variety of clubs most recently alongside Scott Watters at Subiaco, Tony Micale at East Perth and Greg Harding at Swan Districts the last two seasons.
While he has put his hand up for senior coaching jobs before and been overlooked, he has never let it get him down and he continued to work hard in whatever role he was doing at whichever club he was working at.
Shepherd was quick to apply for the Peel Thunder job once Trevor Williams departed midway through last season and was subsequently appointed for the next two years.
He was glad that Peel showed faith in him with the appointment and he's glad that he now has the chance to show what he can do as a senior coach.
"Going down to Peel is really exciting and everyone down there has embraced the changes that we have put in place so we are really looking forward to the season ahead of us," Shepherd said.
"I have been around for a fair bit of time and have enjoyed every moment at all the clubs, which has given me I think a really good understanding of the competition and what's required to hopefully be successful as a coach."
Shepherd has not let the disappointment of missing out on previous jobs he played for get him down and he thinks that's what has kept his passion high for the time he got the chance, which has now eventuated.
He is enjoying the work at Peel so far now leading into the Round 1 clash with Perth on Saturday at Lathlain's Brownes Stadium.
"Someone once said that you are constantly disappointed by not getting these jobs, but I'm really pleased that Peel took the step to appoint me as coach and I hope that I can repay them," he said.
Shepherd might have plenty of his own thoughts on how to prepare a playing group, how to train, what game plan to use and what things to implement, but he has no doubt he has also picked up plenty along the way from all the fellow coaches he has worked alongside."It has been a hard but enjoyable time jumping on board at Peel and working closely with Brad Bootsma and John Ditchburn and his team. Sometimes you appreciate it more when you have been disappointed a couple of times."
"I reckon you are constantly learning from the people that you are associated with. I have great respect for Scott Watters and even my time with Tony Micale was insightful, and Greg's handling of Swans last year was really good coming off a poor season the previous year," he said.
"You learn something from each of them, but you have your own style of play that you want to take and fortunately with Fremantle and the alignment now I've even been able to glean off Ross Lyon, Simon Lloyd and Ash Prescott some of the things that are important to Fremantle so we can have some sort of integration there."
Shepherd's focus now is not on building on his own reputation as a coach, but building up Peel to become a successful club in the WAFL competition for the first time since entering the league in 1997.
"I'm probably not worried about how I go because it's not about me, it's more about how we develop as a footy club and how the side goes," Shepherd said.
"This is a team that has come last 11 of its 17 years with a best finish being sixth so our real challenge is not wins and losses, but how we go about playing the game and how our structures are stuck to by the players. It's probably not necessarily exciting, but it's a season that starts with great expectation."
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