Former Essendon coach Matthew Knights continues to make his mark on the game, with the Tasmania Devils now benefiting from his wealth of experience.
After a 15-year playing career at Richmond, Knights moved immediately into coaching, and took over the Bombers for three years. Since then, he's held a variety of roles, and was most recently employed by the Devils ahead of their VFL introduction.
Tasmania employed the former Tiger as the inaugural Academy Development Coach, which has worked wonders for the club.
"I'm blessed to have Matthew Knights here," Devils senior coach Jeromey Webberley told Zero Hanger.
"He obviously had a very long AFL playing career, but then also a coaching career that's freshened the place up and given us different viewpoints and ideas and been a great sounding board."
When asked about what Knights provides Webberley and the Devils, the Tasmania coach said: "I think there are two things.
"One is reaffirming my viewpoint in terms of how I like the game to look and some of the things that we're looking to achieve, so that you know just confirmation that we're heading in the right direction and that is the right message.
"Or whether it's throwing an idea there when we're under pressure, or we're going through a trough of form, or there's a hypothetical in place. Just that experience to lean on has been critical."
Webberley believes Knights' role as the development coach is a "niche" of the 55-year-old, and the Devils have benefited.
"I think Matt found a really good niche in terms of not coming in and taking over," he explained.
"He's been a fantastic sounding board and really empowered us to take charge of the team and push them in a certain direction that we've wanted to. He's been incredibly valuable in confirming and reaffirming sort of what we're looking to do, and then being there as a sounding board if anything comes unstuck."
