Read the following article and found it interesting reading, now of course our sport is totally different but the truth is we are probably discarding many good people who have heaps of knowledge way to early.
What are others thoughts?
Super Bowl winning coach Andy Reid is nearly 62, where are all the 60-something coaches in the AFL?
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid is closing in on his 62nd birthday and has just won his first Super Bowl, 20 years into his career as a head coach.
Commentators on the coverage of yesterday’s Super Bowl spoke of him as a revered figure in the game. A person listened to when he speaks.
Which begs the question: Where are all the 60-something coaches in the AFL?
Australian Rules football has a culture to sack and discard where American sport has a culture that preserves and builds stocks of knowledge gained and accrued over decades.
One of our most refreshing “new” faces in AFL coaching is Chris Fagan, but Fagan is really an old face. He will turn 59 this year and last year was the oldest AFL coach by a fair margin.
Maybe his early coaching success is the product of natural ability ... or maybe it is the product of 24 years spent honing his coaching skill either as a head coach at lower levels or an assistant at AFL level before taking the reins at Brisbane.
Two of the next oldest along the line to Fagan last year — Alan Richardson (four years Fagan’s junior) and Ross Lyon (five years younger) were sacked by their clubs.
John Worsfold at Essendon (seven years Fagan’s junior) is on notice that he is to be replaced by Ben Rutten after this year.
If Andy Reid is evidence of anything that relates to AFL football it is how much of a rush we are in to hire and then sack coaches, and that the attitude reeks of an immature industry.
Reid was an assistant or line coach for ten years in college football in America before he got his first job in the big time at the Green Bay Packers.
He spent another six years at Green Bay as a line coach before he was made assistant head coach in 1997-98. He wasn’t appointed head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles until 1999.
He was coach of the Eagles until 2012 and took them to the 2005 Super Bowl, where they lost to new England.
He shifted to Kansas City after being told his contract would not be renewed and in seven seasons with the Chiefs has had winning seasons (where you win more than you lose) every year.
The term “winning season” is a pertinent one because it is a key tool for American franchises judging their coaches — whereas in the AFL you either are a premiership coach or you aren’t.
Those that aren’t are either treated with suspicion (can he do it?) or total disdain (they will never go anywhere under him).
Reid may not have won a Super Bowl until yesterday in 20 years, but he has had winning seasons in all but three of those years.
Even our successful coaches aren’t immune from being discarded. Three-time premiership coach Mick Malthouse was 62 when Carlton sacked him from his last post.
Two-time premiership coach Denis Pagan was 60 when Carlton sacked him. Essendon moved on four-time flag winner Kevin Sheedy before he had turned 60 in 2007 and he only coached again because the league needed a senior, ambassadorial figure at fledgling club Greater Western Sydney.
David Parkin, who coached three flags at Carlton and one at Hawthorn, retired when the Blues implemented a coaching succession plan to hand the reins to Wayne Brittain at the end of 2000, when Parkin was 58. Leigh Matthews, again a four-flag coach at two clubs, was 56 when he last coached at Brisbane.
Malcolm Blight, a two-time flag winner at Adelaide and a three time grand final coach at Geelong, was just 51 when unceremoniously dumped by St Kilda. Port Adelaide’s only premiership coach Mark Williams was shifted at 52 and hasn’t been given a senior role since.
Adam Simpson said something that stuck in the memory when hired by West Coast ahead of the 2014 season.
Others, he said, viewed the Eagles as conservative and insular because of the lack of change in key personnel. He viewed it as a strength.
Having people around the club like chief executive Trevor Nisbett and strength and conditioning coach Glenn Stewart, who had literally been there for decades, represented an enormous bank of information and experience to draw from, he said.
If this principle applies to other key personnel why wouldn’t it apply to the most critical person at the club: The coach? And isn’t there something wrong with an AFL culture that either prevents these people from evolving and adapting, or doesn’t give them the time to?
What are others thoughts?
Super Bowl winning coach Andy Reid is nearly 62, where are all the 60-something coaches in the AFL?
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid is closing in on his 62nd birthday and has just won his first Super Bowl, 20 years into his career as a head coach.
Commentators on the coverage of yesterday’s Super Bowl spoke of him as a revered figure in the game. A person listened to when he speaks.
Which begs the question: Where are all the 60-something coaches in the AFL?
Australian Rules football has a culture to sack and discard where American sport has a culture that preserves and builds stocks of knowledge gained and accrued over decades.
One of our most refreshing “new” faces in AFL coaching is Chris Fagan, but Fagan is really an old face. He will turn 59 this year and last year was the oldest AFL coach by a fair margin.
Maybe his early coaching success is the product of natural ability ... or maybe it is the product of 24 years spent honing his coaching skill either as a head coach at lower levels or an assistant at AFL level before taking the reins at Brisbane.
Two of the next oldest along the line to Fagan last year — Alan Richardson (four years Fagan’s junior) and Ross Lyon (five years younger) were sacked by their clubs.
John Worsfold at Essendon (seven years Fagan’s junior) is on notice that he is to be replaced by Ben Rutten after this year.
If Andy Reid is evidence of anything that relates to AFL football it is how much of a rush we are in to hire and then sack coaches, and that the attitude reeks of an immature industry.
Reid was an assistant or line coach for ten years in college football in America before he got his first job in the big time at the Green Bay Packers.
He spent another six years at Green Bay as a line coach before he was made assistant head coach in 1997-98. He wasn’t appointed head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles until 1999.
He was coach of the Eagles until 2012 and took them to the 2005 Super Bowl, where they lost to new England.
He shifted to Kansas City after being told his contract would not be renewed and in seven seasons with the Chiefs has had winning seasons (where you win more than you lose) every year.
The term “winning season” is a pertinent one because it is a key tool for American franchises judging their coaches — whereas in the AFL you either are a premiership coach or you aren’t.
Those that aren’t are either treated with suspicion (can he do it?) or total disdain (they will never go anywhere under him).
Reid may not have won a Super Bowl until yesterday in 20 years, but he has had winning seasons in all but three of those years.
Even our successful coaches aren’t immune from being discarded. Three-time premiership coach Mick Malthouse was 62 when Carlton sacked him from his last post.
The term ‘winning season’ is a pertinent one because it is a key tool for American franchises judging their coaches — whereas in the AFL you either are a premiership coach or you aren’t.
Two-time premiership coach Denis Pagan was 60 when Carlton sacked him. Essendon moved on four-time flag winner Kevin Sheedy before he had turned 60 in 2007 and he only coached again because the league needed a senior, ambassadorial figure at fledgling club Greater Western Sydney.
David Parkin, who coached three flags at Carlton and one at Hawthorn, retired when the Blues implemented a coaching succession plan to hand the reins to Wayne Brittain at the end of 2000, when Parkin was 58. Leigh Matthews, again a four-flag coach at two clubs, was 56 when he last coached at Brisbane.
Malcolm Blight, a two-time flag winner at Adelaide and a three time grand final coach at Geelong, was just 51 when unceremoniously dumped by St Kilda. Port Adelaide’s only premiership coach Mark Williams was shifted at 52 and hasn’t been given a senior role since.
Adam Simpson said something that stuck in the memory when hired by West Coast ahead of the 2014 season.
Others, he said, viewed the Eagles as conservative and insular because of the lack of change in key personnel. He viewed it as a strength.
Having people around the club like chief executive Trevor Nisbett and strength and conditioning coach Glenn Stewart, who had literally been there for decades, represented an enormous bank of information and experience to draw from, he said.
If this principle applies to other key personnel why wouldn’t it apply to the most critical person at the club: The coach? And isn’t there something wrong with an AFL culture that either prevents these people from evolving and adapting, or doesn’t give them the time to?