No Senior Assistant Coach

Remove this Banner Ad

Aug 9, 2019
38,059
64,945
Victorian Central Highlands
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Panthers, GWV Rebels, Central Augusta
You’d think after defending the club for this long and being wrong every single time that you would have learned to pull your head in by now.

A senior assistant is about injecting some experience. Entirely appropriate given how green the coaching group is. On paper it looks bog average. A far cry from the best in the land we were promised.
Chris Fagan, Danny Daly, Dale Tapping, Murray Davis, Jed Adcock, Ben Hudson

So it's important what a coaching group looks like on paper now?
 

Log in to remove this ad.

conVINCEd

Norm Smith Medallist
Oct 15, 2003
6,185
6,443
Brisbane
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Adelaide Crows
And a 2 time premiership coach

And they’ve had Blake Caracalla and Justin Leppitsch as assistants for the last three years.

We have a rookie senior coach and babies or incompetents as assistants. Clarke is the one with experience and some semblance of success but even he apparently plays such a small role that he could handle another full-time job for half the year.
 
Aug 9, 2019
38,059
64,945
Victorian Central Highlands
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Panthers, GWV Rebels, Central Augusta
So you see my point then.
No I don't.

What something looks like on paper means * all in the end of the day.

I'll do my judging on what I see from the AFC on field in 2020 before I pass judgement, Nicks is in the driver's seat so he will sink or swim by his actions, if he sees the way ahead as giving his assistants more involvement while he settles in to his role I'm happy enough to go along with it......for now.
 
Last edited:

dylan123

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 3, 2008
8,692
6,560
AFL Club
Adelaide
What I still can't wrap my head around is what changes we were planning to make as a club heading into 2020 if Pyke didn't step down? From all reports, we saw no need for a review in the first place and if there was someone we were looking to bring in, they'd have still been available (now maybe Nicks opted against whoever this might have been or this person wasn't interested once Pyke dropped out). Was there even anyone? Or were we just going to back in the same failing group and hope for a different result? Pyke stood down on his own accord and public pressure forced a review which has pushed Campo and Burton out.

Huge lack of any kind of foresight here by the club and I guess this was probably an area Burton should have been looking after but yet another sign of failure from our CEO and/or board imo.

I'm all for Nicks waiting for the right person if they're not available this year but if this was all done much earlier like it should have been, we wouldn't be in a situation where we're writing off a season before it's even begun due to our own lack of doing anything.
 
Oct 28, 2014
9,580
22,920
AFL Club
Adelaide
No I don't.

What something looks like on paper means fu** all in the end of the day.

I'll do my judging on what I see from the AFC on field in 2020 before I pass judgement, Nicks is in the driver's seat so he will sink or swim by his actions, if he sees the way ahead as giving his assistants more involvement while he settles in to his role I'm happy enough to go along with it......for now.
You used Brisbane as an example which was silly. Fagan gives the group credibility, he has experience and premiership experience. He should make the others better.

We don’t have any of that.

One of the criticisms in recent times is that we haven’t put a solid team around our head coach. We’ve taken that to the next level.

There’s a lot riding on Nicks now.
 

crows dude

Norm Smith Medallist
Jan 20, 2005
8,344
6,635
adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Norwood
Hardly any teams have a senior assistant/director of coaching. The midfield coach is generally the right hand man. So I guess it’s Godden
 
May 10, 2009
57,822
42,120
Adelaide Oval
AFL Club
Adelaide
No problem going without one, but it’s hard to imagine there aren’t better options than Ben Hart out there. Having a senior assistant hasn’t translated to any genuine success for us, so interested to see if the head coach having more responsibility works better.

Mattner and Godden are green at AFL level but are experienced coaches at the lower level, hopefully without the Campo handicap both can improve as coaches again next season. Already like what I’ve seen from the defense under Mattner, Godden is the big question given it looks like Campo had all the power over his area (midfield).

Hart is just terrible though, the forward line was a shambles last season. Can only hope that was down to Pyke’s game plan and Hart will now thrive... have serious doubts though.
 
Jan 6, 2018
10,660
12,193
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Norwood
This is what we meant by sham review. They didn't want the review. They held it far too late. And they were shocked that it found what we all knew and actually had to go looking for replacements when there was nothing left on the shelf.

Typical Chapman Crows.

Even down to the spin.
The review wasn't a sham (well its probably too early to call it a sham yet).

The sky isn't falling in. Has preseason training even started?
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

mattymac

Why no midfield crowz?
10k Posts
Jul 9, 2009
18,167
32,188
Yes
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
No
The review wasn't a sham (well its probably too early to call it a sham yet).

The sky isn't falling in. Has preseason training even started?
Nicks will be Sando minus Bailey. We couldn't find a decent senior assistant. We can't find a footy ops manager with a track record of success.

We have a rookie coach and a SANFL bargain basement of assistants plus Ben no one wants Hart.

Far cry from the best football program in the land we were promised.

We just have to accept we're a bit s**t with no plan and low prospects for improvement. Currently nestled in amongst the St Kildas and Norths of the world. Last relevant last century.
 
Jan 6, 2018
10,660
12,193
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Norwood
Nicks will be Sando minus Bailey. We couldn't find a decent senior assistant. We can't find a footy ops manager with a track record of success.

We have a rookie coach and a SANFL bargain basement of assistants plus Ben no one wants Hart.

Far cry from the best football program in the land we were promised.

We just have to accept we're a bit s**t with no plan and low prospects for improvement. Currently nestled in amongst the St Kildas and Norths of the world. Last relevant last century.
Clearly there's a lot of things about the club that suck at the moment .. but seriously, preseason training hasn't even started.
 

ManInTheArena

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 21, 2008
6,321
6,593
Australia
AFL Club
Adelaide
It's a good result. Obviously everyone was contracted and we would have ended up with dregs. Could have possibly promoted Clarke and put a SANFL coach on until we sorted it out, but I can't see it hurting us long-term. At least it gives us a year to work on attracting a high quality senior assistant.

Why announce it like it was our first choice not to have one though? Pretty dumb.
 

Elite Crow

Cancelled
30k Posts 10k Posts TheBrownDog
Mar 21, 2008
56,538
77,659
adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
It's a good result. Obviously everyone was contracted and we would have ended up with dregs. Could have possibly promoted Clarke and put a SANFL coach on until we sorted it out, but I can't see it hurting us long-term. At least it gives us a year to work on attracting a high quality senior assistant.

Why announce it like it was our first choice not to have one though? Pretty dumb.
Because that’s how we roll.
 

mattymac

Why no midfield crowz?
10k Posts
Jul 9, 2009
18,167
32,188
Yes
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
No
I don't see how anyone can dispute that we don't have a clear plan or strategy for the future; it has been obvious for a long time, and there are constant demonstrations of it.
Like honestly if a plan sprang up and slapped us about the face we wouldn't know what it was.

With us it's always ad hoc measures trying to catch up to events happening around us.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back