Football Department Watch

[Quigley]

Personally i would be looking at the most successful AFLQ coach of the modern era, who has got the old Dunstall lounge as a weights room, a football budget that you can fit on the back of a 1 dollar scratchy, but has managed to develop young footballers brilliantly and have them playing with spirit and dedication to the club. John Blair

That is a good suggestion acuguy and one I had not considered. The question might be whether Blair was interested but if you offerred him an assistant position with involvement in the academny he might be tempted. He would be an excellent addition to the development side of things.

 

[chopperduck]

I'm a bit in the dark about who might be available for any coaching or footy department roles. We could try targeting someone at another, but what names are out there that are available that people know of ?

 

[Quigley]

Hard to say chopper. The recently ex players are the ones who are most likely to be on the market. Then you have the guys who are current assistants and who might move to increase their chances of getting a head job like Leppa did last year. Similarly you have the guys who have just missed out on the Port role (Chris Scott, Brenton Sanderson, Leon Cameron, Ken Hinkley and Bret Montgomery were the guys in the running) who maybe would move to round out their resume. Then you have the guys who are coaching at the lower level and are looking for an AFL opportunity - here I am thinking of Nathan Bassett who is getting big raps.

We could really be targetting anyone. Always hard to know.

Acuguy got me thinking with the Blair idea and one other guy who I would maybe look at is Murray Davis from NT perhaps in the player welfare role. We have consistently failed to get the best out of our indig guys in recent years and rarely take them now. Davis now has some good experience in this area and this could be a real asset. His high performance work might also see him act as a valuable assistant in that area.

 

[Antman78]

Neale Daniher- did some good things for Demons with an average list but currently at the Eagles.

Any chance to get someone like Dermott Brereton?

 

[The Flying Belgian]

one other guy who I would maybe look at is Murray Davis from NT perhaps in the player welfare role. We have consistently failed to get the best out of our indig guys in recent years and rarely take them now. Davis now has some good experience in this area and this could be a real asset. His high performance work might also see him act as a valuable assistant in that area.

I played a little bit of school footy with Muzz. A very good football brain.

 

[POBT]

Thought it might be useful to have a list of assistant coaches from the successful clubs. Might be a couple of inaccuracies - have taken the names from club websites.

Collingwood

Geoff Walsh Chief of Football
Michael Malthouse Senior Coach
Tracey O’Connor Executive Assistant
Nathan Buckley Assistant Coach
Scott Watters Assistant Coach
Paul Hudson Assistant Coach
Mark Neeld Assistant Coach
Max Hudghton Defensive Coach
Gavin Brown VFL Coach/Development

St Kilda

Greg Hutchison - Football Manager
Ross Lyon - Senior Coach
Steven Silvagni - Asst Coach
Brian Royal - Asst Coach
Leigh Tudor - Asst Coach
Danny Sexton - Asst Coach
Andy Lovell - Asst Coach

Geelong

Mark Thompson - Senior Coach
Blake Caracella - Asst Coach
Matt Egan - Asst Coach
Nigel Lappin - Asst Coach
Brendan McCartney - Asst Coach
James Rahilly - Asst Coach
Dale Amos - VFL Coach

Western Bulldogs

Rodney Eade - Senior Coach
Leon Cameron - Asst Coach - Midfield
Peter Dean - Asst Coach - Defence
Paul Williams - Asst Coach - Forward line
Peter German - Development Coach
Chris Maple - Development Manager/Coach

Sydney Swans

Paul Roos - Senior Coach
John Blakey - Asst Coach
John Longmire - Coaching Coordinator
Peter Berbakov - Assistant
Mark Stone - Assistant (stoppage coach)
Stuart Maxfield - Development
Stuart Dew - Development
Daniel McPherson - Development

Fremantle

Mark Harvey - Senior Coach
Chris Scott - Asst Coach
Dean Wallis - Asst Coach
Todd Curley - Asst Coach (midfield)
Barry Mitchell - Asst Coach (midfield)
Michael Prior - Skills Coach

Hawthorn

Alistair Clarkson - Senior Coach
John Barker - Asst Coach (forwards)
Brendan Bolton - Box Hill Senior Coach
Chris Fagan - Asst Coach (head of coaching and development)
David Flood - Asst Coach (development coach - 1st, 2nd, 3rd year players)
Rick MacGowan - Asst Coach
Adam Simpson - Asst Coach (midfield)
Ross Smith - Asst Coach (defence)

Carlton

General Manager Football Operations
Steven Icke

Senior Coach
Brett Ratten

Assistant Coaches
Mark Riley
Matthew Lappin
Brett Montgomery
Robert Harvey
Craig Bradley (part-time)

Development & Academy Manager
Darren Harris

Development Coaches
David Teague (Northern Bullants)
Mathew Capuano

 

[POBT]

A couple of points that I noted when scanning through the off-field set-up of these clubs:

1. Most of them have someone from a sports science background as a "high performance manager" (or similar). Very few, if any, had a football background.

2. Most, if not all, have an experienced football person in some sort of football operations role.

3. I did not notice any club which combined those two roles.

 

[Chasing the Dream]

Also, the lions look to be having a few vacancies at seasons end and could do no worse then giving a guy like Goodwin his first start.

I'm with TBD on this one, not a great fit for us.

Did I hear today that he signed with Essendon???

Personally i would be looking at the most successful AFLQ coach of the modern era, who has got the old Dunstall lounge as a weights room, a football budget that you can fit on the back of a 1 dollar scratchy, but has managed to develop young footballers brilliantly and have them playing with spirit and dedication to the club. John Blair

And a smoking hot daughter

Enough to convince me to sign him up

 

[chopperduck]

A couple of points that I noted when scanning through the off-field set-up of these clubs:

1. Most of them have someone from a sports science background as a "high performance manager" (or similar). Very few, if any, had a football background.

2. Most, if not all, have an experienced football person in some sort of football operations role.

3. I did not notice any club which combined those two roles.

Very good point. This was the kind of setup we had, but we lost our footy department head and voss got Collins to take over. I don't think this was the ideal setup voss wanted though. I really feel if er can get a good replacement for Lambert, as well as get our footy department head back, putting voss back to coaching and Collins back to his high performance role, we will be sitting a lot better.

 

[western royboy]

Very good point. This was the kind of setup we had, but we lost our footy department head and voss got Collins to take over. I don't think this was the ideal setup voss wanted though. I really feel if er can get a good replacement for Lambert, as well as get our footy department head back, putting voss back to coaching and Collins back to his high performance role, we will be sitting a lot better.

I think you are right along with a number of posters, two things to note.

Voss has his own thoughts on how the Football Department should be structured. I am hoping part of the "review" looks at whether this is right or wrong and what decisions flow from that.

Externally we are viewed as a basket case at the minute, combine that with our poor off field position, we might not be able to attract and appoint all the people that we need.

I note POBT post about the positions at various clubs, with regard to the Pies there are still a few other development coaches not on that list such as Licuria and Luke Beveridge. Both are severely underrated but not many are likely to uproot a young family unless the opportunity and associated $$ are massive.

This is why our off field needs to be up to scratch as a starting point - IMO.

 

[Antman78]

Very unlikely but is it worth looking overseas for assistant coaches! Sports like NFL / college football or even Gaelic football, granted that they aren’t AFL related but they would bring something different to the table i.e. recovery, fitness and mental training, we should leave no stone unturned.

 

[Hollow Knight]

The real question is... who do we replace them with? We may need to get the chequebook out and offer some big money.

Some names off the top of my head...

Nigel Lappin
Chris Scott
Adam Simpson
Craig McRae
Scott West
James Hird (pipe dream... but you never know)
Luke Darcy (really rate him, but we already have a ruck coach)
Dean Laidley (if he can stand being an assistant again - great tactical coach)
Shane Woewodin
Blake Caracella
Alan Richardson
Jade Rawlings

I mentioned Woewodin last year, and it looks like he is now ready to throw his hat in the ring at AFL level.

He has absolutely massive wraps on him. Hope we have a good look, though it sounds like there may be a bidding war.

 

[irel]

I like the suggestions by acuguy and Quigley. We need to look beyond the established retiring name players such as Goodwin, Simpson etc...
The suggested coaches such as Murray Davis and John Blair are not household AFL names, however their record indicates they are more than competent in player development and have lead and coached teams in the lower leagues.

I would also like to suggest that we look at someone like David Noble from Adelaide as a Football Operations person. He is someone who has the football background has been in an assistant and development roles with several AFL clubs and has been steadily progressing up the rankings.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Keeping in mind we already have Rob Kerr to do list management, what would be the major roles and responsibilities of the Football Department Manager that we are currently trying to fill?

I literally have no idea what a footy department manager does.

Obviously they MANAGE the FOOTBALL DEPARTMENT, but what does that entail?

 

[western royboy]

Keeping in mind we already have Rob Kerr to do list management, what would be the major roles and responsibilities of the Football Department Manager that we are currently trying to fill?

I literally have no idea what a footy department manager does.

Obviously they MANAGE the FOOTBALL DEPARTMENT, but what does that entail?

I would have thought one of the Football Manager's key roles was list management and contracts. Rob Kerr's appointment is weird given he's Melbourne based for a club that is based in Brisbane. Different if he was recruiting manager.

The Football Manager also organises the day to day week to week stuff, liases with the Medicos and Coaching Staff to keep things ticking over.

As noted we are going through a revolutionary change to the normal model under the guidance of Vossy & Dan Collins.

So the norms don't appply here.

 

[irel]

Keeping in mind we already have Rob Kerr to do list management, what would be the major roles and responsibilities of the Football Department Manager that we are currently trying to fill?

I literally have no idea what a footy department manager does.

Obviously they MANAGE the FOOTBALL DEPARTMENT, but what does that entail?

Yeah, it's confusing but in my mind I have a Neale Daniher, Neil Balme type image. However, maybe Rob Kerr is that person for Voss.

 

[Quigley]

We need someone to whinge at Geishen until we get a fair deal. That will be the football manager's number 1 task next year.

 

[Grimreepah]

Link

BRISBANE Lions have considered paying their departing veteran football staffer Craig Lambert to stand out of the game for a season so the club does not lose the popular Lambert and his expertise to another club. ''There's a conversation that's happening with Craig that's not completed,'' said Bowers yesterday. ''The terms of his agreement are that he is contracted and we planned on him being here next year and now he doesn't want to continue with the club so we need to work through that.''

Voss was not available for comment last night but Bowers indicated suggestions that only Jade Rawlings would remain as an assistant coach were ''not my understanding''.

 

[acuguy]

Geez i wish my employer would pay me to take a year off. This is the fundamental problem with this administration. You are either in the IN group or you are on the outer!

 

[chopperduck]

As much as we value Lambert, is it really wise in our situation to be paying someone to not work for us ? I think id rather us move on.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Geez i wish my employer would pay me to take a year off. This is the fundamental problem with this administration. You are either in the IN group or you are on the outer!

Totally agree acuguy, but the proposal regarding Lambert is not without precedent. This year the club has paid a significant number of players who appear to have taken the year off.

 

[western royboy]

Totally agree acuguy, but the proposal regarding Lambert is not without precedent. This year the club has paid a significant number of players who appear to have taken the year off.

Ha Ha...I see what you did there.

Reading between the Lions.....Lambert has an offer to go elsewhere. Vossy is worried about his IP going with him.

In the words of Harry Hoo "amazing"

 

[Lehmo87]

As much as we value Lambert, is it really wise in our situation to be paying someone to not work for us ? I think id rather us move on.

On SEN this morning, they put forward the theory that they'd rather pay out the rest of his contract (it ends at the end of next year, I believe) and increase the chances of him returning to us rather than have him go to another football club and lose all that Intellectual Property (especially the info on the Lions he would have) to another team. Not a bad theory if you ask me.

 

[Mr Ripper]

Do we actually have any intellectual property worth protecting?

 

[chopperduck]

I can understand it in theory, but it's the same kind of senario in paying players extra money to retain them, it's dead money. I don't think we can afford to be downing money on people who won't be making a difference next year. Just seems to me we waste a lot of money, and we aren't in the position to do so.