A nod here to David Teague imo
Took over as caretaker coach and in his first game captain Patrick Cripps had 38 dispsoals and 3 goals, and tweaked his back so badly he could barely run for the next two years. The following week Charlie Curnow a) kicked 7 goals and b) wrecked his knee so badly he wouldn't play for 2.5 years, until Teague was gone. Co-captain Sam Docherty had cancer, twice. It wasn't exactly a stable structure... i won't list the other players injured in his reign but it was a lot and he had terrible luck. Despite this, he does an ok job as caretaker coach so he gets the gig.
Then, new coach Teague implements a new, attacking system that was a complete reversal of how they had played under their prevoous coach. All geared up for the first match, which was a sold enough effort against eventual premier richmond. Then we went into lockdown and the team had to wait 3 months to play again and were unable to train together for most of that time. The team spent Teague's first season in the COVID bubble, not really able to practice the new system fully. That hurts everyone, of course, but for a young team learning a new system it is brutal. Nonetheless, 7-10 is an improved win/loss record.
Started the second season (which would also be covid affected) a bit up and down.... had a surprisingly tough fixture (i guess locking in rd1 vs Richmond sucks when they are the dominant team). Trode water despite a pretty bad run of injuries... then had a couple of bad weeks just before the bye and that was it, really. The club instituted a 'review'... actually did ok and the team was 8-11 with a prayer to make finals, but an away loss to GC sealed his fate and that was that.
Not saying Teague was a great coach, but i can't think of many modern era coaches given less of a fair crack at it. Not even two full covid affected years with a young, injury depleted squad and a winning record better than his predecessor by a long way.
Took over as caretaker coach and in his first game captain Patrick Cripps had 38 dispsoals and 3 goals, and tweaked his back so badly he could barely run for the next two years. The following week Charlie Curnow a) kicked 7 goals and b) wrecked his knee so badly he wouldn't play for 2.5 years, until Teague was gone. Co-captain Sam Docherty had cancer, twice. It wasn't exactly a stable structure... i won't list the other players injured in his reign but it was a lot and he had terrible luck. Despite this, he does an ok job as caretaker coach so he gets the gig.
Then, new coach Teague implements a new, attacking system that was a complete reversal of how they had played under their prevoous coach. All geared up for the first match, which was a sold enough effort against eventual premier richmond. Then we went into lockdown and the team had to wait 3 months to play again and were unable to train together for most of that time. The team spent Teague's first season in the COVID bubble, not really able to practice the new system fully. That hurts everyone, of course, but for a young team learning a new system it is brutal. Nonetheless, 7-10 is an improved win/loss record.
Started the second season (which would also be covid affected) a bit up and down.... had a surprisingly tough fixture (i guess locking in rd1 vs Richmond sucks when they are the dominant team). Trode water despite a pretty bad run of injuries... then had a couple of bad weeks just before the bye and that was it, really. The club instituted a 'review'... actually did ok and the team was 8-11 with a prayer to make finals, but an away loss to GC sealed his fate and that was that.
Not saying Teague was a great coach, but i can't think of many modern era coaches given less of a fair crack at it. Not even two full covid affected years with a young, injury depleted squad and a winning record better than his predecessor by a long way.
