BETWEEN them, Robert Walls, John Northey and Leigh Matthews have played and coached 1823 games in the AFL over 89 years. They have been involved in 22 grand finals and won 14 flags.

Suffice to say that I was in pretty good hands during my playing days.

As I contemplate the next step down my own football path, it's interesting to reflect on some of the experiences I've enjoyed under my three senior coaches, and the lessons I've learned.

It varied according to my own stage of football development. You are looking for and needing something different as a teenager, still finding your way, than you are as an established senior player.

For 15 years, I tried to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of whoever I was involved with. Inevitably, coaches, because of the major role they play, have the most lasting impact.

"Wallsy", my senior coach from ages 16 to 20, was the original hard-arse — if I'm allowed to say that. He was just what the Brisbane Bears needed during that 1991-95 era — a successful and well-respected football person given the unenviable job of virtually rebuilding the club from scratch after its demise during the Christopher Skase period.

In an era where we talk a lot about football honesty, which can mean so many different things, the former Carlton premiership coach was ahead of his time.

Ever forceful and often blunt, he told it as he saw it, regardless of the ramifications. And there were few who avoided being on the receiving end.

On a footy trip to Cairns in '94, during the daily happy hour session, there was a wall on which players would post some of the best sprays he'd given them, or special Wallsy-isms. It was full by day two.

I never really got to know him as a person when he was in Brisbane … he was only ever the coach.

I was scared of him, or at least intimidated by him. And I was disappointed when he left because I was just getting to that stage where our relationship could have been more.

The biggest impression left was the exhaustive preparation and professionalism that are required to succeed, not just in football but in life. And the lesson that no matter what happens, you've got to be true to yourself.

"Swoop" Northey, Brisbane coach for the next three years from 1996-98, was different. He was prepared to have more of a close personal relationship with his players, and, as long as they stuck to the fundamental team rules, he gave them a lot more freedom.

The Northey era in Brisbane was really two eras — pre-merger and post-merger. In '96, we were a happy bunch enjoying the opportunity to express ourselves in a football sense. And it worked because we played in the '96 preliminary final.

But the Brisbane-Fitzroy merger had an enormous, destabilising effect on the playing group and the club, although at the time nobody quite realised just how strong and pronounced it was. The coach was the victim.

I think the biggest thing I learned in this period was that even if you start with positive intentions, it can break down. Plus I saw how impactful and powerful external influences can be on a group and how quickly something small can become something much bigger.

Leigh Matthews, coach for my last eight years as a player from 1999-2006, was, and remains, a very powerful personality. Needless to say, it didn't take too much encouragement for us to get on his bandwagon. You always felt with Leigh that if you could hang on long enough, he would show you the way.

From the moment he walked into the Gabba to take charge of the Brisbane Lions after we had collected the wooden spoon in '98, he was the epitome of strength. He had a natural aura about him that made others follow. And there was never a suggestion of a split in the ranks.

He kept things simple and logical. His body language oozed assuredness, and he walked with such purpose.

Leigh empowered senior players and brought out individual leadership qualities. He wanted the senior players to be an extension of the coach out on the ground, making decisions on the run, so long as they were within the basic parameters of what he had set down.

When I think about the influences each of these three have had on me, I'm struck most by their ability to deal with people and get the most from them; to establish traits in players that were important for success; to see something in people and extract the most from them; to bring out those strong qualities and maximise them.

Most importantly, from a personal viewpoint, I was fortunate to have three coaches who helped make me believe that I had it in me.