Good luck trying to fire up the troops if you "haven't been there and done it".
A fair bit of it is brains and smarts, but passion, experience and respect make up a fair bit of the job as well!. Brains is one thing, but reality and experience is often lacking from the academic types.....common fault with academic types all round, ....in my experience.!!
Yes, you'll counter that Bolton goes alright without AFL experience, and, yes he does! But I'll counter that with Wayne Brittain, and, no, he didn't go alright.