On Thursday night, North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten was sighted inside the coaches box of AFL team Hawthorn, who secured a win over the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne.
As the Cowboys prepare for Friday evening's match against the Storm, Payten became a fly on the wall inside Hawthorn's coaching area, absorbing the environment of another coaching style in a separate sport.
The pair's unlikely relationship brewed in the pre-season, when Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell replicated Payten's Thursday night experience by watching how the Cowboys coaching staff operated in their trial match against the Storm in February.
Since then, the two have remained in touch to bounce coaching philosophies off one another and to gain objective perspectives on how each views the coaching styles during games.
A 329-game player at Hawthorn, and periodically West Coast, Mitchell began as an assistant coach at the latter in 2018. Similarly to Payten, Mitchell won a premiership as an assistant with the Eagles that year, as Payten also won a grand final as assistant coach in 2015 with the Cowboys.
Mitchell joked post-game that Payten was there to intimidate his Hawthorn players to lay tackles after the team managed a season-low the week prior, but relayed that Payten's presence and feedback was to develop his growth as a coach.
"The boys are making a bit of a joke that I had him just to make sure that they tackled well, because if not, they might get tackled by him," Mitchell quipped post-game.
"Todd and I've struck up a bit of a relationship, and we spent a bit of time together in the preseason. I went and looked in their coaches box. They had a practice game against Storm in their preseason down in Casey and I just shadowed him for a day, and just learned about how they go about things, what you can learn from other codes.
"They've got the Storm tomorrow night, so I had him along, and he came in the coaches box and was part of the preparation for the game and those things. I'm looking forward to chatting with him about what he learned, but more importantly for me, what he thinks that we could improve on, how we can do things better.
"He's got a fairly different demeanour to what I have, so learning from him is something that I've taken a lot of growth in my coaching, and looking forward to hearing what he thought about tonight."
Likewise to Mitchell, Payten would undoubtedly have drawn takeaways from his shadowing experience in the AFL system, which could spark a potential tactic to see the Cowboys pull off an almighty upset against the Storm.
The Storm head into Friday's clash as heavy favourites, with a win needed for the Cowboys if they are to maintain their spot inside finals calculations for another round.
