Just by sitting in on draft screening interviews with Gold Coast SUNS list manager, Scott Clayton, and recruiting boss, Dom Ambrogio, it’s not difficult to tell they’ve been in this business for a long time. It is definitely not their first time to the rodeo. They are calculated and concise, and know precisely what they’re looking for.
 
Like most, if not all clubs, Gold Coast’s recruiting team seek advice from the club’s sports psychologist, Sean Richardson, during the interview process to uncover a more in depth analysis of the character of potential recruits.
 
The use of sport psychologists inside football clubs is far from new, but apart from their day-to-day work with players and coaches, they have become increasingly more involved in the interviewing of potential recruits. After all, recruiters want to properly look under the lid of prospects, so they do require specialist advice.
 
The character of players has always been of high importance, but particularly at an expansion club that is still trying to construct a firm foundation and develop a strong culture. Therefore the interview process is invaluable in the entire recruiting spectrum.
 
“The role of the sports psych is to give advice. We will brief him on what we’re looking for. Though what you see is the best indicator and say if we have question marks here, here and here, we ask for his professional opinion. So he runs that part of the interview process, (but) we’ve already interviewed them extensively,” Clayton explained to goldcoastfc.com.au in the lead up to the draft.
 
“Our interview process has evolved over a lot of years, with a lot of consultation with a lot of different sports psychs so there is a lot that’s gone into the body of how we go about an interview,” Ambrogio said.
 
“We get through that, and then refer to the psych at the appropriate time. We get him to drill down on aspects of the character that we want to know more about.”
 
The interview process is iterative. It doesn’t have a set end date, with follow up consultations with different parties ongoing and simply part and parcel of recruiters doing their due diligence.
 
Ambrogio and his team not only consult coaching staff and talent managers, but also speak to schoolteachers and curriculum coordinators, along with family and friends, agents, management teams, employers and anyone who has played a role in the prospective recruit’s life.
 
But the main value of a sports psychologist comes to the fore when they can professionally delve beneath the surface and unearth patterns in behaviour and link character traits to actions.
 
“(After the combine) we would follow up again and go through all the psych reports and we would even get in external consultants to get their opinion as well as balancing that up with reference checks from all around the country,” Ambrogio said.
 
“We consult independent people, coaches, managers, talent managers, school teachers – all that kind of stuff. If you find a flag somewhere, we can investigate it and find out what you need to find out.”