While building relationships as a new head honcho would be tough at the best of times, the 38-year-old is just one of the majority of Australians unable to attend their workplace due to coronavirus regulations, meaning communicating with his charges has been limited to technology.
But while no day-to-day training or matches are on his plate, Teague said life as a senior AFL mentor remained a blur.
“It’s a lot busier than I thought it would, I thought ‘we’re away from the club, we’ll have a bit more free time’, but running into someone in the hallway is very different to ringing someone up for a chat,” Teague said.
“Phone calls go for a lot longer and you get a little bit more in-depth, so that side of things has been really good. Trying to stay connected is the challenge at the moment, so that’s where we’re working really hard at the moment through some Zoom meetings, we’ve been watching some vision together, keeping everyone connected is the biggest challenge.”
As has been the talk of the football town, Teague was asked in his midweek press conference about a floated proposal to place AFL clubs in quarantine hubs to play round-robin matches in specific locations.
Taking a glass half-full approach, the Blues coach said all options should be explored to bring football back as soon as possible, with the season currently delayed until at least June.
“I think right now there’s a lot of speculation and a lot of great ideas, people are trying to be innovative and come up with ways to get our game back up and going,” he said.
“So I love the innovation and I love the thoughts, as a club you try and prepare for as much as possible, but with so much speculation you can’t spend too much time on each proposition at the moment. But if it gets the game up and going I’m all for it.”
He said the playing group — that includes Benalla’s Caleb Marchbank and Echuca’s Brodie Kemp — was yet to discuss the proposal as a whole, but he said any player not comfortable with the hub concept would be respected.
“On Friday we’ll meet together with all the players as one group and they’ll have a chance to flag any concerns,” Teague said.
“But so far the general feel I’ve had from our playing group is they’re keen to play, maybe that’s the majority and there might be some others that are't that way inclined, but so far our group is pretty keen to play.
"Everyone's different and as a whole, if there was a player that said ‘I don't want to go play’ for whatever reason — for his family or for mental health — I think our club would absolutely support them to make that call and there'd be no pressure to do it.”
Other topics covered in his presser included the folding of the Northern Blues; while Teague was sad to see the club he played for and coached go under, he understood the financial reality that meant Carlton needed to cut its funding.
“It was really sad for me, I played there and I started my coaching there,” he said.
“From that point of view it was extremely disappointing. Having lived it, I do understand the challenges of the Northern Bullants, Preston and now the Northern Blues, I do understand the challenges they were having. It was really sad, and in the end it became a decision that had to happen with the financial position the whole AFL is in right now.
“I was really sad, but you have to make these decisions in the best interests of the club.”
14°C