Mutt
Moderator
- Moderator
- #9,026
I remember Cameron Ling in early 2012, with Hinkley still not having been hired, saying something along the lines of (and I am paraphrasing) "No disrespect to McCartney or Sanderson, but in my mind Hinkley was the guy I would have hired first".
You also have one of the best administrations in the game, headed by Cook and Balme, making it clear that McCartney was not invited to apply for the Geelong coaching position, but Ken Hinkley was.
These are all people who knew these candidates better than anyone, not people making judgements based on 10 hours of interviews.
Yes, Port had the extra time down the ladder, but that doesn't change the fact that they were still quite a rabble at the end of 2012. If it was seen as a super young list brimming with talent and simply a matter of time before they rose up, some great coaches would have been knocking that door down for that job - but they weren't, Port were begging coaches to interview and they were being turned down (even by the likes of Ratten, Leon Cameron declined a 5 year contract to be Port's head coach to be an assistant coach at GWS).
That turnaround has been nothing short of phenomenal, and not in a hundred shots at it could I have seen McCartney having achieved the same results (in the space of 22 months taking them from rabble to within a kick of a Grand Final). Nor do I reckon Hinkley would have coached us to 30% win/loss and three consecutive bottom 5 finishes - we had a very disjointed list and all that, that's 100% accurate, but so is the fact that some coaches are better than others.
A premiership coach needs to be among the top half dozen coaches in the country - maybe in a few years he'll make me eat my words, but right now nothing is convincing me that McCartney's up there in that group. But as long as there no mass walkouts and as long as he doesn't go stupid at the trade table with desperate reaches to try save himself, I want McCartney there next year.
Where is the evidence for these claims? These are not your opinions, but the opinions of other credible people you are 'quoting' to add weight to your views: perhaps you should post links to the sources.