IT HAPPENS to them all, in brief and unexpected moments. Dean Bailey will be sitting in a selection meeting at Port Adelaide, debating the prospects of a young and untried player, when a familiar voice pops into his head.

"You never know what you've got . . ." the voice reminds the Power assistant. "The next premiership player is out there. You never know what a young player's got until you play them."

For Damien Hardwick, it might happen walking across the oval after training, or down the driveway on bin night. The Hawthorn assistant will catch a glimpse of a wheelie bin, remember it being worked into a strangely effective pre-game speech, shake his head and smile.

The word "ruthless" is ingrained on Peter Berbakov's brain, and is said often to Sydney's defenders. And if Sean Wellman were smart, he would tweak a famous catchphrase and release a line of bumper stickers.

"There's a lot of little things that still come to me," said the premiership defender, an assistant coach at the Western Bulldogs this year and last. "I'll be working with a player, or a group of players, and a certain scenario will come up. Sometimes I'll be standing there and I'll find myself thinking: 'what would Sheeds do?' "

Kevin Sheedy will coach Essendon for the 635th, and final time, in round 22 (unless it makes the finals). But he will walk away knowing his thoughts, ideas and whimsical ways have filtered through most clubs in the Afland influenced a fresh generation of coaching prospects.

Twelve of the 16 teams have a former Essendon player on their current coaching panel. Mark Williams and Denis Pagan had doors opened by Sheedy, and until Melbourne farewelled Neale Daniher, there was one more name on the list. Mark Thompson and Mark Harvey were the babies of the 1984 premiership team, who became two of the best-ever Bomber defenders. Gary O'Donnell and Terry Daniher are former captains, and Hardwick played in grand finals with Blake Caracella, Darren Bewick, Wellman and Dean Wallis.

Then there is Bailey, a slow but smart onballer who played 53 games in the No. 31 jumper. There's Berbakov, a floppy-haired defender just starting to find his way when ankle and knee injuries left him stranded on 52 games.

And there's Paul Hamilton, a nofrills, no-fuss, 100-game backman. He played in the 1990 grand final, and will plot against his old team from the Adelaide box today.

It wasn't until Hardwick neared the end of his Port Adelaide days that he took a liking to tactics, and started to consider coaching. But when he thinks of what Sheedy taught him, it's his game-day tricks that spring first to mind. Sheedy's greatest ability, Hardwick said, was the way he could dictate and determine how other people thought, and what they were able to do.

"He's so unpredictable with the way he plays his side, and also with how he picks his side. That's the major thing I've taken on board," said Hardwick, who followed Alastair Clarkson to Hawthorn in 2005.

"The more things you can give the opposition to think about, the better off you are, and he's always had the ability to change up situations, get the upper hand, and effectively dictate things to the opposition.

"It's like he's always on the front foot. He's always making people wonder why he's starting Scotty Lucas at centre half-back, or why he's doing this or that. He's been able to make people second-guess themselves, and that's a great strength."

Bailey, who coached for two years at Essendon, agrees. To a degree, he says, Sheedy's beyond-the-square thinking is innate, unique and impossible to learn.

But what Sheedy taught him was never to throw his arms up, and that there was always another way to contemplate things. "I remember we were in a meeting one day, and we were talking about how we'd missed out on celebrating Sheeds' 500th game," Bailey said.

"There was some sort of miscalculation with it all. We were heading into his 501st game and we were all saying what a shame it was, that it would look a bit silly to put '501 games' on the banner. We looked over at Sheeds, and he had this smile on his face. He said: 'I've got an idea, why don't we all wear jeans to the game. We can call it the Levis 501 game, and promote it that way.

"That's just an example of how he thought. Things would just appear, and I'm not sure it's something you can learn. I think he's got that gene or chromosome, but what he does do is encourage you to expand your thinking.

"As a person or as a coach, he was always making you think: 'OK, there's a problem in front of me, how can I make it better? What's another way of looking at it? What's something a little bit different we can do?

"I don't know if anyone will ever do it like he did it. He makes you keep your mind open to new ways of doing things."

And also to who does them. Berbakov grew up in Sunbury and played in Essendon's under- 19 side, but had to spend three years at Glenelg before he got his chance. Mark Williams was his first champion; Sheedy his second. In his first year as the Swans' defensive coach, after starting there as a part-time conditioning coach, he tries now not to judge a young player too quickly, and to remember that they must be nurtured in different ways. "The thing about Sheeds was that he saw something good in everyone, and gave everyone a chance," he said.

"He never wrote you off, as long as you had a go. He had this word, ruthless, that he used all the time. He'd always say it — 'you've got to be ruthless' — and it's really stuck with me. I use it all the time."

Wellman and Hardwick saw and sensed similar things. "You might see a player running around who couldn't kick or jump. Or couldn't even run, for that matter," Wellman said. "But Sheeds would still find positives in that player. He gets you looking for the good things in people."

Hardwick spent most of his red-and-black days in defence, but understood he could be moved to any part of the ground, at any time. It was something he enjoyed, and that he wants his players at Hawthorn to embrace.

"You have to be flexible these days. It's something every player who comes into the competition knows and understands, but there's an enjoyment side to it that I learnt when I was at Essendon," he said.

"It helped on bad days. If things weren't going well, you weren't running around thinking, 'I'm going to be sitting on the pine any minute now'. You were thinking: 'I might get a chance up forward, or maybe in the midfield'.

"Sheeds always gave you a chance to get involved in the game. He never wrote you off and that's something I've tried to remember. He helped you find ways into a game, and that's important. It's something that helped me in my career, no doubt."

He thought in positive ways off the ground, too. Berbakov has never been surprised to see Essendon start a match well. "People talk about pre-game speeches and how relevant they are now, but his were special," he said.

"He had this way of making you listen, and making you focus. He motivated you. It's a special skill, I think. The last thing we heard from him before a game was always so good."

Even if it didn't make immediate sense.

Hardwick can remember a prematch address in which Sheedy spoke about rubbish bins, and how people moaned about having to carry them down their long driveway each week. Until . . .

"He spoke about the guy who thought, 'you know what? I'm going to put wheels on the bin'," Hardwick said. "I can't remember what analogy he was drawing, but he'd always make you think: 'there's a way; there's a way we can do this; there's a way it can be easy'.

"I remember him drawing it up on the board and thinking 'what's going on here?' but he had this amazing analogy and by the end it was: 'you know what, he's right, once again'. He's just a great motivator. He always believed there was a way, and he made you believe it."

At the Bulldogs, Wellman has reminded himself that people have lives, and problems, outside football. Understanding and having empathy for players, he said, can make them better ones. "Sheeds showed genuine care for people, and he had a team that played for him because of it," he said. "It's an important thing to do, and it's an easy thing to do." At Hawthorn, Hardwick has tried to surprise people, by thinking of things before they do. And at Port Adelaide, Bailey has remembered to take chances.

Sheedy taught him to have confidence in himself, but also to back others. "I can still hear that voice," he said, almost imitating his old coach.

"It was: 'You never know what you've got. You never know what this young player can do until you play them. And if you back him in, he'll exceed your expectations'.

"To him, it was all about finding the next premiership player. He'd say: 'that player's here, but we've got to put him on the ground'. He'd say: 'We don't know what he's going to bring, but it's going to be exciting, and if he can do the exciting things all the time then gee whiz, we've got a player'.

"There are a lot of things about Sheeds that will stick with me forever. But if there's one, key thing, then that would be it. 'You don't know what you've got until you play them'."

PAST OR PRESENT SENIOR COACHES

GARY AYRES (Geelong/Adelaide) Assistant coach at Essendon since last year after coaching Geelong and the Crows.
ROBERT SHAW (Fitzroy/Adelaide) Played 51 games for Essendon, retiring in Sheedy's fi rst season. Played a key role as assistant in Essendon's 2000 premiership. Now an assistant at Freo.
MARK HARVEY (Fremantle caretaker coach) A triple premiership player who did a long coaching apprenticeship under Sheedy before joining Fremantle last year.
MARK THOMPSON (Geelong) A premiership captain and two-time premiership defender who became Essendon reserves coach midway through 1996.
NEALE DANIHER (Melbourne) Played 82 games in an injury-plagued Essendon career. As an assistant coach, was one of the brains behind the 1993 premiership.
MARK WILLIAMS (Port Adelaide) Didn't play for Sheedy, but was reserves team coach for two years in the mid- 1990s.
TIM WATSON (St Kilda) A 307-game great who played in three premierships. Spent a year-and-a-bit as St Kilda coach in 1999-2000.
DENIS PAGAN (Kangaroos/Carlton) Led Essendon's reserves team to the 1992 premiership.
ROGER MERRETT (Brisbane Lions) Played 149 games, including in the 1984 and '85 premierships. Coached the club for a handful of games after John Northey was sacked in 1998.

CURRENT ASSISTANT COACHES

PAUL HAMILTON (Adelaide) A no-fuss defender who played 105 games between 1986-92.
TERRY DANIHER (Carlton) Dual premiership captain who played 294 games for the Bombers. Has coached the Essendon reserves.
BLAKE CARACELLA (Collingwood) 126 games, including the 2000 premiership. Now an assistant at Collingwood.
GARY O'DONNELL (Essendon) Former captain who played 243 games. Spent several years as an assistant to Leigh Matthews during Brisbane's triple premiership run before returning to Essendon.
DEAN WALLIS (Essendon) Battled many injuries but played 127 games, including the 1993 and 2000 premierships.
DAVID WHEADON (Geelong) Didn't play under Sheedy, but was an assistant coach during the 1993 premiership season.
DAMIEN HARDWICK (Hawthorn) A tough, 153-game defender who played in the 2000 premiership.
DARREN BEWICK (Kangaroos) A clever goalsneak who played 238 games between 1988-2000, and in the 1993 premiership.
DEAN BAILEY (Port Adelaide) Hard-at-it onballer who played 53 games between 1986-92.
ADAM KINGSLEY (Port Adelaide) Didn't play a senior game at Essendon, but was on the list for a few seasons. Played in the 2004 Port premiership.
TONY ELSHAUG (St Kilda) Joined Essendon in 1984, playing 65 games in four seasons, and was part of the 1985 premiership.
PETER BERBAKOV (Sydney) A 52-game defender whose career was ended by bad ankle and knee injuries in 1999 and 2001.
SEAN WELLMAN (Western Bulldogs) Played 178 games for the Bombers, and in the 2000 premiership.