Who's the worst coach of all time?

[The Old Dark Navy's]

yes it does: ask most Carlton supporters and they'll actually agree. Walls owes his premiership to Parkin's prior work.

You can also compare Fitzroy under Walls and Parkin as a further comparison point.

Carlton were gradually sliding down the ladder by the time Parkin left in 1985, culminating in an elimination final loss to the Roos.

I would say it was actually the recruitment of Kernahan, Bradley, Dorotich and Motley for the 1986 season that really sparked us up. We also nabbed Bernie Evans.

I'm happy to give Walls credit for that flag.

 

[Father Jack]

Agree with the calls of Garry Buckenara.

Hopeless record, his plan to turn Sydney around was to train the players harder and harder until they started to win. Players hid from him at training because they knew they would be too sore to play if they finished the session, while one poor youngster had to be taken home by his old man due to him suffering some sort of breakdown (IIRC he was forced to train injured).

I recall an incident where Buckenara had the players crawling through some kind of pond or something, problem was it had fairly sharp rubble on the bottom of it, one poor kid got quite cut up. Only have a fairly vague recollection about it, but am fairly certain the youngster ended up being taken home by his old man in that particular incident.

 

[Plugger35]

Worst coach: Terry Wallace for destroying Richmond.

Richmond were pretty much a rabble when Wallace took over but he didn't do much to change that in his 5 years there.

He did a pretty good job with Footscray in his first stint as coach.

 

[half_back_flank]

Lo and behold it's Brad Tunbridge everybody.

There was a lot more going on with Sydneys playing list at the time than just training issues and some of them couldn't run out games because they also had a group who were most undisciplined in their off field endeavour.

This pre dated the age of "Welfare officers" and the like, it was the coach's responsibility Buckenara's greatest failing was being unable to combat the party mafia. Ronald Dale had no such problems.

I was just going off on what i read in Paul Kelly's biography.

I recall an incident where Buckenara had the players crawling through some kind of pond or something, problem was it had fairly sharp rubble on the bottom of it, one poor kid got quite cut up. Only have a fairly vague recollection about it, but am fairly certain the youngster ended up being taken home by his old man in that particular incident.

Most likely what happened, I don't remember the incident because i was too young, only going off as a vague memory of Paul Kelly' autobiography as mentioned earlier.

 

[Mancey]

I'm a big fan of listening to Ken Judges views on football, i think he has a lot of knowledge. But his absolutely crazy vossy trades and drafting that he pulled while at the eagles really set us back a long time after he left. Sure the football department had something to do with these decisions as well, but he has to shoulder a lot of the blame

In 2000, he pretty much traded away all of our draft picks (oh except for our best one, at 5, which he used on Andrew MacDougall), Fraser Gehrig, and Mitchell White, and exchanged them for short timers like David Seirokowski, Richie Taylor, Michael Prior, Michael Collica, Mark Merenda (great player but his body was shot), Trent Carroll, and Greg Harding.

About the only good thing he did in that draft was use one of the compensatory picks we got for Gehrig on Daniel Kerr

 

[calyam]

Carlton were gradually sliding down the ladder by the time Parkin left in 1985, culminating in an elimination final loss to the Roos.

I would say it was actually the recruitment of Kernahan, Bradley, Dorotich and Motley for the 1986 season that really sparked us up. We also nabbed Bernie Evans.

I'm happy to give Walls credit for that flag.

I'd be giving the credit to the recruitment of some pretty special players. Walls was an ordinary, at best, coach.

 

[Ground N Pound]

Can honestly say (and being on the inner sanctum at Freo many years ago) that Damien Drum is by far the worst to ever coach an AFL club. Word got back that when he was assistant at Sydney, they were going to sack him anyway but decided to talk him up so other clubs would make a play for him and laughed their heads off once Freo appointed him. Only structure/game plan he had was "win the ball" and spearing James Clement- enough said...

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

I'd be giving the credit to the recruitment of some pretty special players. Walls was an ordinary, at best, coach.

The point is that Parkin doesn't necessarily deserve the credit for a flag that occurred 2 years after he was sacked. We might have had some choice recruiting but a truly woeful coach could easily sabotage a good team. We did lose the 86 GF under Walls, so he had to get them up again. He also coached Brisbane to their first ever finals appearance. He was probably no worldbeater and some of his methods (Shane Strempel) were questionable, but any premiership coach does not belong in this thread.

 

[pazza]

With all due respect, I think Wallsy was arguably ahead of his time as a coach.

It was he who created the "huddle" for kick-outs - initially at Fitzroy and had it mastered after coming to Carlton.

Another nomination...and I'm amazed Saints fans haven't brought him up yet - Graeme Gellie.

 

[Blues177]

I remember him being interviewed (as coach) saying someting along the lines he didnt want his players playing roughly....as it was just unecessary. (no not Dirty.. he really meant 'being rough'!!). I knew right there and then the Roys were totally ****ed.

but worst coach - who was the guy who coached Footscray in 1978,,, I forget the name but remember the sense that he was hopeless.

Was it the bloke who coached Footscray before Royce Hart...Don Mc Kenzie ?

 

[Cudi_420]

The point is that Parkin doesn't necessarily deserve the credit for a flag that occurred 2 years after he was sacked. We might have had some choice recruiting but a truly woeful coach could easily sabotage a good team. We did lose the 86 GF under Walls, so he had to get them up again. He also coached Brisbane to their first ever finals appearance. He was probably no worldbeater and some of his methods (Shane Strempel) were questionable, but any premiership coach does not belong in this thread.

Walls was just one of the last traditional coaches. Go down the center, hit the boundary, take some heads off. He knows very little about what it takes to implement a gameplan, and sometimes his rants are more incoherent than that buffoon in Matthews. He was great for that, but as the 90s ended he became vulnerable, and ultimately became an outdated coach with an outdated game direction. A good coach for his era, maybe, but a real shocker these days imo.

And I really can't believe Matthews coach 4 flags with some of the comments he makes. Wow. Epic fail sometimes.

 

[Underarm]

The point is that Parkin doesn't necessarily deserve the credit for a flag that occurred 2 years after he was sacked. We might have had some choice recruiting but a truly woeful coach could easily sabotage a good team. We did lose the 86 GF under Walls, so he had to get them up again. He also coached Brisbane to their first ever finals appearance. He was probably no worldbeater and some of his methods (Shane Strempel) were questionable, but any premiership coach does not belong in this thread.

In comparison to the 500 coaches who have never got a premiership, and then back it up with finals appearances with another club proves that you are probably above average coach.

FWIW, Matthew Primus could end up as a pretty bad one. IMO he is more of a Non Playing Captain and not a lot of thought was put into his hiring.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Can honestly say (and being on the inner sanctum at Freo many years ago) that Damien Drum is by far the worst to ever coach an AFL club. Word got back that when he was assistant at Sydney, they were going to sack him anyway but decided to talk him up so other clubs would make a play for him and laughed their heads off once Freo appointed him. Only structure/game plan he had was "win the ball" and spearing James Clement- enough said...

I still remember that idiot Tim Gossage on the radio when the announcement was coming through that Drum was to be Freo's new coach hyping him up as the brains behind Sydney's resurrection and Grand Final appearance in 1996

 

[CamTinley]

its a no brainer.............THE GEISH,failed miserably with richmond and is equally as shite trying to coach umpires

The Geish was a great coach at West Perth. No-one who coaches Richmond ever comes out with their reputation intact. Too many players dreaming of being a players representative there.

 

[andrew coombs]

Ken Judge was horrendous. Terrible people skills, appalling game plan, ridiculous recruiting, inablity to correctly rate players ( brought half of East Fremantle with him )...he had it all. The decision of West Coast to chase and appoint him as coach was a blunder of mind blowing proportions. The high draft pick he " earned " the Eagles ( with which they grabbed Judd ) was his only contribution.

 

[Esky Lid]

It was he who created the "huddle" for kick-outs - initially at Fitzroy and had it mastered after coming to Carlton.

quote]

No He Wasn't !!! John Todd had Swan Districts doing this in the WAFL during the Premieship Treble 82-84 and when Toddy coached the WA State of Origin team against Vic. on one of the Tuesday Games. He Implemented it then. WA were able to clear the back line easily and were able to run & Carry ball forward.

Wallzy copied John Todd !!

I think Toddy was named all-Australian Coach and took the Australian Team to Ireland !!!

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

Neesham was very innovative with the gameplan he used - just unfortunate he had a team of duds to work with

Connoly being mentioned is laughable - sure he stuffed our list up big time, but he took us to a prelim and our record against the premiers that year was at 100%

Drum is worthy of a mention - the curse of Drum carried on to his poor nephew as well he did recruit some good players though

Christ and that is just 3 Freo coaches

 

[Kaiser Powser]

Needs more Crazy Vossy.

But seriously Wayne Britain for me

 

[Ari]

Peter Rohde

What I was going to post.

Peter Rohde - Our Mastermind.

Maybe not of all time.... but at least from the coaches I have watched.

Watson, while bad, inherited a crap team.

 

[Ari]

Gerald Brosnan - University.

54 matches - 52 losses - 2 wins (3.7%)

3 wooden spoons in 3 seasons

Mind you.... who were his soldiers?

 

[DTRAIN87]

Why is Wayne Brittain up there for so many people when he was given the worst possible list and a list that was further compromised due to their cheating punishments. He would have had more success at trying to get two male chimpanzees to get pregnant then coach Carlton to September IMO.

 

[bedford]

Ross Lyon, Gary Buckanara, the Geish and Matthew Knights

 

[Kaiser Powser]

Why is Wayne Brittain up there for so many people when he was given the worst possible list and a list that was further compromised due to their cheating punishments. He would have had more success at trying to get two male chimpanzees to get pregnant then coach Carlton to September IMO.

Well bugger all BF posters will have any inner knowledge of coaches and how they operate. So we can only base our opinions on results. Obviously the players you had to work with makes a huge difference.

The fact that Brittain had the worst to work with is part of the reason i associate him with fail. Carlton were at rock bottom and he was the figurehead at the time.

 

[KennyHunter9]

Well bugger all BF posters will have any inner knowledge of coaches and how they operate. So we can only base our opinions on results. Obviously the players you had to work with makes a huge difference.

The fact that Brittain had the worst to work with is part of the reason i associate him with fail. Carlton were at rock bottom and he was the figurehead at the time.

According to Parko, Britts was effectively head coach in 98 and 99. Senior players loved him, but I am not sure he was great with junior players. And our drafting and "topping up" around then was horrendous, and he's have to cop some flak for that if he's getting the upside of the 99 performance.

Difficult to judge. Certainly there are others who have a more unambiguously poor record.

 

[KennyHunter9]

You'd have to say that no one has unravelled a club culture quite as quickly as Crazy Vossy.

Good to see they're going to let him complete the job.