GREEN FINGERS: Grooming cricket wickets at Taradale Park alongside talented youth footballers is coach Jamie Dunning's passion. Photo/Paul Taylor
Ask Jamie Dunning to describe himself as a coach and he pauses, thinks momentarily, then chooses his words carefully.
"I'm a little bit quieter," says Dunning, laughing at the suggestion that anyone would be when juxtaposed with Thirsty Whale Hawke's Bay United coach Brett Angell.
"As a coach, hopefully, a little forward thinking. I like to think I'm a pretty good man manager," says the 41-year-old Londoner.
Dunning has stepped up from assistant to acting coach for the Bay franchise team since last weekend when Angell was suspended for four matches for bringing the game into disrepute a fortnight ago in a tempestuous 3-all affair against Team Wellington.
The Finlay Milne-captained Bay United host Auckland City in a televised round-14 Stirling Sports Premiership match which kicks off at 4.35pm tomorrow at Park Island, Napier.
Finding a point of harmonious existence with anyone Dunning coaches is an essential prerequisite of his occupation.
"I like to make sure they're happy with what they do and happy with my decisions," he says, especially when he's at the helm of the Napier Marist flagship men's team in the Computercare Hawke's Bay Premiership during winter.
"You know I always ask their opinion. It's not like a one-way street where it's me, me and me. I like to involve them in everything," he says, adding Angell employs that in his routine as well.
Developing youth and watching them prosper at the higher echelons of the code give him immense satisfaction.
"I'd love to see these boys play for Hawke's Bay and then go on to [Wellington] Phoenix or wherever, into national league and the All Whites."
Dunning says the franchise youth team's results haven't always reflected success but he compares the Central Football's selection pool with major centres such as Auckland and Wellington.
"They have a huge range of boys to pick from. I only had one [player] over 17. All our boys are 16 whereas their boys are all 19 boys and no development."
In the next three years he envisages incremental improvements as the youth mature to stamp their supremacy if they remain together after close losses to powerhouses this season.
"They [other franchises] try to win it but you never see their boys go on to play in the first team so we want to try to do things differently here."
The Bay climes beckoned the Dunnings to the Bay after they had had enough of the humdrum of population, traffic and weather in the English capital.
"We wanted to bring up the children somewhere beautiful so ended up in Hawke's Bay, luckily enough," he says after settling here with wife Janis and their children, Elliot, 10, and Isabelle, 8, four years ago.
Dunning played for semi-professional club Slough Town and Maidenhead in the fourth-tier league in England as a striker but stopped playing at 32 after plying his trade in the United States, a tier below Major Soccer League (USL), and the premier league (below A-League) in Australia.
He stopped footing it when he was 32 and picked up coaching in his hometown before adding the Netherlands and the US to his CV.
"I fell out of love with football, really, because when I got here I wasn't going to be involved with anything."
That chemistry lost its fizz when it dawned on Dunning that playing wasn't going to offer him enough to eke out a living.
"The coaching there wasn't too great so when I came here I decided enough was enough and I wasn't going to do anything."
Nevertheless, about five months after arriving in the Bay and he made a few friends who encouraged him to join the Napier Marist club at Park Island.
Dunning played for the Marist Masters in the social fourth grade of competition before the club roped him into coaching to reignite his passion for the beautiful game.
"I couldn't have dreamt where it's going at the moment," he says, reflecting on how well the Marist Premier men's team went last winter under his reign.
His involvement with the Bay United franchise youth team went swimming well, too.
"When Brett asked me to be his assistant I jumped at the chance to gain more knowledge about the game," he says in his maiden stint with the senior franchise side this summer.
He finds similarities in the coaching philosophy of Angell, pertaining to going forward and the way he sets up play through the thirds.
"Last year I played three through the back so we try to train the youth boys the way he trains so once they step up into the first team, which is hard, they have a little understanding of how he wants them to play."
A few things, no doubt, are different in the way Dunning does his business.
"I like to, at times, maybe play one up front and, maybe, I like to get men behind the ball and counterattack a little bit more but that's all," he says, adding the attacking brand with keeping possession and keeping the ball rolling is in keeping with the Angell edict.
"It's been a fantastic experience for me and he's a fantastic coach with the team in the last few years so it's great for me to pick up ideas to try to sort of make them into my own."
While Angell is serving his four-match game suspension, Dunning says it's imperative to know he still does all the prep work leading up to games each week.
"He analyses the other sides and does the training so for me, really, it's just making sure they have the understanding and, especially, the night before the game when we have our team meeting."
At halftime Dunning conducts the pep talk on how he and Angell see the game transpiring and what potentially the latter would have wanted from the post-break minutes to the final whistle.
"When he's there he's asking my opinion at halftime so we've got a pretty good understanding.
"I understand what he needs and the way the team is set up and plays so you don't want to let anybody down ... do well for the club."
In the last six weeks with Angell he believes he's built a decent rapport to ensure the Bay United juggernaut doesn't shudder.
He chuckles at the role reversal as an assistant who Angell would traditionally sound out for suggestions before going on to make his valued judgements but now it's the other way around.
"I try to think along the lines of what he has been trying to tell me throughout the season about making the changes or if the team is suffering a little bit maybe bring somebody on who will bring a bit of energy or pace maybe under pressure or someone who can just keep the ball and slow the game down to keep possession."
While coming away with three points is an endorsement of sorts for Dunning that he's on the right wavelength he emphasises he was at the helm in the Tasman United game on November 13 at Trafalgar Park, Nelson, when Angell also was serving a match ban.
"You feel like you can't affect a game being a coach. You've done and said your bit before the game and, at some stage, you have to leave it up to the players."
When Angell returns from serving his suspension on Saturday, February 25, in the match at Bluewater Stadium against Southern United, Dunning will be off to Auckland to sit his NZ Football A licence, akin to national women's age-group coach Leon Birnie, of Napier.
He suspects the rules of engagement at premiership level coaching is on the cusp of changing but believes it's ideal for lifting the standards.
"If everyone has an A licence then it'll make a huge difference," he says, revealing he'll be away for a fortnight but will miss just one game and be back for the last couple of pool games and playoffs.
Dunning battled jangled nerves last Sunday in Palmerston North in the 3-2 victory over Tasman United.
"This Sunday coming up might again be different with the game on the telly," he says of Auckland City but reveals they are prepared against the Club World Championship campaigners.
"If we get three points we'll go past them," he says as fifth-placed Bay United will leapfrog third-placed Auckland on the premiership table - although the latter have a game in hand.
"It gives us belief and we're unbeaten in three [games] so we should be able to carry on to claim three points."
In all the commotion surrounding Angell it's easy to overlook the contribution of an in-your-face Cory Chettleburgh, who also is serving a four-match ban for his post-match scuffle against Team Wellington.
"It's absolutely huge. We missed him at the start of season, too, and he does make a big difference there," he says of the nuggety midfielder who served a seven-match suspension during the Lotto Central League campaign in winter but which was carried over into the summer national league.
Dunning says his absence offers another squad member the opportunity to stake a claim in the engine room.
Napier Boys' High School pupil Ross Willox comes to mind even though he's only 18.
"I've got a lot of time for Ross. I think he's a fantastic footballer but he's young and learning all the time.
"He's got a great engine on him and he's got good feet and he's can take on defenders. He just needs to develop so in the next few seasons you'll see he'll be one of the best products from the Bay."
Dunning says the squad is in good shape and changes are unlikely tomorrow.
MATCH FACTS
WHO: Hawke's Bay United vs Auckland City.
WHERE: Bluewater Stadium, Napier.
WHEN: Tomorrow, Sunday 4.35pm kick off.
LIVE: Sky Sport
REFEREE: Matt Conger.
AST REFS: Gareth Sheehan, Ashton Davenport.
4TH OFFICIAL: Matt Stoneman.
HAWKE'S BAY UTD: 1. Joshua Hill (GK), 2. Sean Liddicoat, 6. Alex Palezevic, 8. Finlay Milne (c), 9. Facundo Barbero, 10. Sam Mason-Smith, 11. Saul Halpin, 12. Ross Willox, 13. Ethan Dent, 14. Martin Canales Ramos, 15. James Hoyle, 16. Angus Kilkolly, 17. Fergus Neil, 19. Jorge Akers, 22. Daniel Mulholland, 26. Ruben Parker Hanks (RGK).
Acting coach: Jamie Dunning.
AUCKLAND CITY: 1. Enaut Zubikarai (GK), 2. Marko Dordevic, 4. Mario Bilen, 7. Reid Drake, 8. Albert Riera, 9. Darren White, 10. Ryan De Vries, 14. Clayton Lewis, 15. Mario Ilich, 16. Daewook Kim, 18. Danyon Drake (RGK), 19. Micah Lea'alafa, 20. Emiliano Tade, 21. Harry Edge, 22. Abdulla Alkalisy, 25. Sean Cooper.
Coach: Ramon Tribulietx.
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