Cameron ready to step into spotlight

GWS Giants assistant coach Leon Cameron at Skoda Stadium. Picture: Phil Hillyard. Source: The Daily Telegraph

DURING his time at Whitten Oval, Leon Cameron had a knack of stumbling across Kevin Sheedy in Melbourne's northwest suburbs.

Sheedy was coaching the enemy, Essendon, as Cameron smoothly plied his trade for the Bulldogs, but the pair always shared a chemistry.

"I was lucky enough to have a really good rapport with Kevin over my 20, 25 years of footy in terms of playing with the Bulldogs and then moving to Richmond," Cameron said.

"The Bulldogs and Essendon were sort of in that western region and we'd always cross paths.

"We'd always stop and have a chat.

" It wasn't just a hello. It was a really good chat."

That relationship, formed by Sheedy's cheeky way of breaking down barriers between clubs, was a factor when Greater Western Sydney came knocking late in Grand Final week this year.

As Cameron helped prepare Hawthorn for battle as a senior assistant, he was weighing up an opportunity to coach Port Adelaide when GWS swooped with a Sheedy "handover" deal.

Cameron would be Sheedy's senior assistant before taking the reins as senior coach for three years from 2013.

Sheedy, his old mate from west of the Maribyrnong, was part of the big sell. Cameron said: "I never knew we'd be working together, but when we sort of hooked up again and started working through how it was going to unfold, I just thought this was a huge opportunity.

"Having an opportunity to have 12 months with Sheeds was a big part of my decision.

"Where else can you go where you can come into a football club having 12 months leeway working with a premiership coach times four, while you find your feet before you take the main role?"

Cameron has spent the past five weeks at GWS's Breakfast Point base getting to better know Sheedy and sharing decisions in the best interests of the club daily.

"Kevin's experience is just invaluable for me," he said.

"We have a great rapport and a trust. He's doing the right thing and I'm doing the right thing for the footy club, and we have that (trust) already.

"We both make decisions on the day-to-day running of our football club now and we will both make decisions game day, as well."

Cameron's family will soon make the move to Sydney and life could not be sweeter.

It has been a dream transformation since the heartache of September last year when Cameron heard some taps on his front door at 11.45pm on a chilly Sunday.

Having an opportunity to have 12 months with Sheeds was a big part of my decision

Cameron, then an unbackable favourite to get the Bulldogs coaching job, learnt he had missed out to Brendan McCartney when selection sub-committee members Chris Grant and James Fantasia delivered the stone-faced truth.

"I'm not going to lie," Cameron said.

"It was disappointing.

"I'm a life member of that football club. I'd been there for 18 years. It's a great footy club and they'll always be a club that I will follow.

"It was a tough decision. To come around and eyeball someone and tell them they didn't have the job is a courageous decision.

"In the end, I admire people who make decisions for the right reasons. Brendan McCartney is a terrific person and he's going to be a terrific coach for the footy club. It probably took a couple of weeks (for me) to move on."

It all unfolded as Hawthorn had another tilt at a flag, this time falling agonisingly short against Collingwood in a preliminary final.

With the support of Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson and others, Cameron put his head down and another chance came as the club thrived this season.

"Port were running a process and the Giants came in a little bit later," Cameron said.

"Through that Grand Final week, my main focus was Hawthorn because it took me nine prelims (playing and coaching) to get through to a Grand Final.

"Under the AFL coaching agreement, there is a bit of a handshake arrangement that any clubs potentially looking are not allowed to have any dialogue with people still involved in

the finals.

"Port were fantastic in respecting that and the Giants were, as well - they sort of came a bit late, towards the end of Grand Final week.

"We met both clubs on the Monday after the Grand Final, still disappointed I'd lost a Grand Final.

"On the Tuesday and Wednesday, it evolved.

"Everyone thought it was my job (at Port) and I was just sitting back and thinking, 'They're wrong there'. It was no one's job."

The young list, the talent about to arrive, and the Sheedy factor made it impossible for Cameron to resist the Giants.

Cameron is in no mood for the kind of brash predictions that put Gold Coast chairman John Witheriff in the headlines.

"We've just got to keep improving each year," Cameron said. "They (critics) didn't expect we'd win two games last year. We've got to improve."

Witheriff's Suns could not find that improvement in their second year and GWS has gone to school on the unexpected challenges that hit the 17th club this year.

"I think what is good is some of our football team spent some time with the Gold Coast just after the season on the ins and outs of what was tough in their second year," Cameron said.

"The advantage is, we are following them. It's going to be tough and hard, but we're spending time preparing them for it. You can't knock how these kids play. They've got to grind it out."

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