DARREN Cahill loves the Port Adelaide Football Club and would do anything for it, so it might surprise some to hear that he initially declined an offer to join the board.
Cahill can boast an illustrious career in professional tennis where he won 15 career titles before guiding Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and most recently Simona Halep to World Number one as their coach.
Initially approached by Chairman David Koch to join the board during a trip to New York a couple of years ago, Cahill turned him down because he was too busy coaching Halep on the tennis circuit.
After parting ways with Halep to spend more time in Adelaide with his family, including his son who is about to go into year 12, Cahill had a rethink.
“Kochie actually invited me to coffee two or three years ago when we were across in New York - I think he was doing some work there for Seven,” Cahill said during an interview with Adelaide radio program SEN Breakfast.
“I went for coffee with him and he sort of sprung it on me that he would like me to consider being part of the board.
“Back then I was just starting with Simona so it was a bit difficult being away so much and whilst I thought it would be a great opportunity, if I was going to do it, I wanted to make sure I did it as well as I could and I was just away a little too much.
“So with the decision to stay home a bit more next year we went back and had a bit of a chat with both Kochie and Cos Cardone, who I am good friends with from the Channel Nine days and we decided to give it a go.”
Cahill’s links to Port Adelaide go back decades, as the son of former player and coach John Cahill.
The tennis great said he had stayed across how the club was faring during his busy international travel schedule and said more than anything he was looking forward to getting to more games at Adelaide Oval to support his side.
“I’m really happy to get involved,” Cahill said.
“It’s the first time I’ve sat on a board so I’m sure it’s going to be a bit of an eye-opening experience for myself.
“It is the club I grew up at. I was actually born on Grand Final day in ’65 when my dad was going out to play the Grand Final against Sturt so I’ve been running around that club since I was in nappies.
“I love the club and I would love to do anything for it.”
Cahill has a lot of experience in the professional sporting world and is particularly knowledgeable about high performance in sport.
But he says while that will be useful in his board position, it won’t see him interfere with the work of the football department.
“There’s a strong line between what the board gets involved with and what it doesn’t so this is not really a role where I’d get involved with the coaching team or the coach or the players, it’s really to be a conduit to what the board is understanding and to be a support to the coach and the coaching team,” he said.
“Over the years I’ve had a few taps on the shoulders to talk with a player or to take a few of them out to dinner and be a mentor to some of them and I don’t think that will change but it’s more of an overseeing type thing and to make sure that we’re ticking all the right boxes for the high performance.
“There might be a few suggestions I can throw in there but it’s more to make sure we have somebody on the board that has been there and done that and understands high performance.”
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