The local product, who played 83 AFL games for North Melbourne and Carlton, has been appointed the Blues’ interim coach, after Brendon Bolton was sacked on Monday.
Teague, 38, returned to the club where he played 50 games and won the 2004 best and fairest last year, where he has been an assistant coach since.
Teague said taking charge of an AFL side for the first time had been a whirlwind, but today’s contest meant business time.
‘‘It’s been busy, my brain’s been that active, but the time with the players I’ve loved, I’ve really enjoyed it. They’ve really bought in,’’ he said.
‘‘To be honest, the biggest thing I want right now is for the players to believe in themselves.
‘‘I want them to go out there and believe in themselves and play the game the way they want to play it and back themselves.’’
Teague said Thursday’s main training session had been top class, clearly seeing effort and hunger from his young 1-10 side.
He said if players attacked the Lions with a similar intensity, today had the potential to be a great day for the football club.
‘‘The way I want to coach is giving them belief to believe in themselves and really back themselves in, regardless of where I’ve been that’s always something I’ve wanted to do,’’ he said.
‘‘I want to be aggressive in offence and I want to be aggressive in defence, aggressive in the contest. If anything, that’s what I’m looking for, we need to bring effort.’’
Plenty of Teague’s coaching development happened at VFL club Northern Bullants, which he coached straight after retiring, between 2008 and 2010.
Playing under him at that time was former Benalla star Luke Morgan; the former Saint could not have spoken more glowingly of Teague’s influence.
‘‘He was a huge influence for me personally, at a time where I’d just moved to Melbourne,’’ Morgan said.
‘‘We struck up a connection being a country boy as well and understanding that move to the city and he certainly made it easier to play footy under him.
‘‘We had good team success without a premiership, making two grand finals and losing to a now-defunct North Ballarat side that was pretty strong in the mid-2000s.
‘‘He’s technical, his philosophy on games revolves around team defence. His philosophies might have evolved in the last decade, but he’s big on effort, his philosophy was largely the way he played the game — really tough and honest.’’
Morgan said Teague’s ability to help players get the best out of themselves would be vital a time when Carlton’s confidence was at a low, the same way he had when he coached the Bullants.
‘‘At that point Carlton was transitioning, Brett Ratten was coach and there were some highly disgruntled players at VFL level,’’ Morgan said.
‘‘David was able to manage those players to play good VFL football; Sam Jacobs played really good footy after not being able to do what he wanted at AFL level, and Dennis Armfield, he’s actually got a Bullant tattooed on his foot from his time playing there, he’s another one who would speak really highly of Teaguey.
‘‘He’s someone who will definitely be able to build personal relationships with his players, I’m sure he’s already got some.’’
Teague was a playing-coach with the Bullants in 2008, before coaching from the sidelines the next two seasons.
Since then, he has held assistant coaching roles with West Coast, St Kilda and Adelaide, before returning to Carlton.
While he indicated his focus was on the immediate term rather than auditioning for the permanent position, Teague said taking the reins of the Carlton Football Club was something he had dreamed of.
‘‘It was my desire (to coach Carlton), I have to admit,’’ he said.
‘‘As a player I always loved the strategy side of the game, I lacked a fair bit of talent compared to most so I had to try and use that to stay up with quicker, faster, stronger guys.
‘‘I have had the desire to be in this chair, and I’m glad it’s taken a little bit of time to get here.’’
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