AFLCA Coach Of The Year Award - Alaistair Clarkson has never won this award

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Woosha lost Cousins and Judd, the club prioritised re-building the club's off-field culture over on-field results and ended up with the 2010 wooden spoon as a result, then engineered a resurgence to the top 4 in 2011 with a midfiled boasting Matt Priddis, Scott Selwood, Adam Selwood and Patrick McGinnity, so I can understand why Woosha won it over Chris Scott that year, but they should just give it to the Premiership coach.
 
PJays said:
Flags have zero relevance

They have 3 minor premierships bw them.
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....and that is why it’s irrelevant. Why was Norm Smith an incredible coach- because he won minor premierships or won 6 flags? No-one cares how many minor premierships he won. You are correct that the coaches award is based on H & A results, but that is precisely why it is a useless award. Even by that criterion how did Hinckley win in 2013 when Port finished 7th?
 
I don't think he would be losing sleep over it, it is not a reward for the premier coach, its more like a 'most improved' player at any club, and you generally pretty much get only one swing at it unless you totally dominate a season like Bomber Thompson did in 2008 (only to be outcoached and to fall to a major upset). In a sense 2008 could have been Clarko's year, in 2006 it was 11th and 2007 it was 6th. The improvement was gradual and he has kept Hawthorn in the hunt most years since.

In the triple premierships, he was dominant of course but, like Dimma of late, how do you improve when you are already the best. .

The Coaches are a brotherhood and look after each other, they would try to recognize the member of their group who had made the greatest strides between seasons. Most of the winners of this award did it in years where they did not win the premiership. Not many coaches get to win premierships, they are a group who almost universally finish up their careers with a boot print on their ass. Let them enjoy the recognition of their peers, the ones who know best what it takes to coach an AFL side. Accept it for what it is, like the Brownlow being a recognition of the best midfielder each year.

I doubt Clarko will ever get a most improved, he is already the benchmark.
 

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This is sort of like "Mayor Quimby even released Sideshow Bob from prison. Vote one Sideshow Bob."

Who did Clarkson and Hardwick vote for in 2013 and 2020? Probability suggests they voted for Hinkley.
 
Tzatziki_Man said:
Can we take this award seriously? We simply cannot. For Ken Hinkley to have won this twice and Clarkson not once shows that coaches vote for the coach who gets the most improvement from one season to the next rather than who the actual 'best' coach is.
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Well, hard to say who is the best coach. Giving it to the premiership coach each year makes the award useless as well. So probably is the coach who gets the best out of a list not so much rated.
Having said that I a surprised Mark Thompson is chosen in 2007 and 2008. 9 Geelong players in the AA team in 2007. Hard to not win a premiership with that. So Clarkson with only 2 AA in 2013 or beating that Geelong team in 2008 probably was truely robbed.
 
GeelongGreatness said:
From memory they were never flag favorites until around the prelims so that would explain it.
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Good point. Speaks for the improvement theory from 10th to premiers. Next year was that 21 win season which is a good point for a coach of the year consideringt how few achieved that even when he failed on GF day.
 
OP: 'The fact Clarkson hasn't won a Coach of the Year award is proof that the award is stupid and meaningless'

Random muppet: 'It's a stupid and meaningless award, so who cares if Clarkson hasn't won it?'

Uh, yes, that's exactly OP's point.

The fact it is a 'Home and Away' award is not something that enhances the credibility of the award in excusing Clarkson's denial, but is one of the major reasons that it inherently lacks any credibility.

It would be like if I said 'I think awarding Detective Pikachu the Nobel Prize for Physics makes the award nonsensical and ridiculous' and someone retorted 'duh, dipsh*t, the reason Pikachu won was because the Nobel Prize for Physics is now voted on by random 7-year-olds based on their favourite fictional character'. Yes, that's the point.
 
Funny little stat. Go look at the 1990s Chicago bulls that won 6 NBA titles under coach Phil Jackson.

Bulls won titles in 3 in 1991-93. Then 3 more in 1996-8.


Jackson only won the NBA coach of the year in 1996. Even then that was only because the bulls went with a very good 72 wins and 10 loss record.

Most teams that finish top usually get 60-62 wins.
 
Absurd how Clarkson has never won it. Then you have Chris Scott on the other hand fooking absurd if he ever wins it (please dont tell me has won it previously)
 

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It's an encouragement award, often given to the surprise improver. "Your team played well and tried hard, but they're not likely to win it."
 
PJays said:
Hawthorn had easily the best list in the comp in 2013, and got a good run with injuries. He did what any good coach would've done during the H&A season- coached them to the minor premiership.

Rightly or wrongly, the perception at the time was Hinkley did incredibly well developing his team and getting the most out of them, given the list of players at his disposal.
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08
 
Yojimbo said:
Maybe Alistair Clarkson and Chris Scott intimidate the other coaches or maybe it is a good bloke type award not won by intimidating pricks.
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Unlikely when you look at all the coaches that have got jobs after being an assistant coach under Clarkson. Hardwick, Cameron, Beveridge, Ratten, Simpson and Fagan. Add in Dew who played under him
 
Chris Scott has the best winning percentage of any coach in history (100 games minimum). Thread should be about him
 
Tzatziki_Man said:
Four time premiership coach Alaistar Clarkson has never won this award. Taking charge of 15th place Hawthorn in the 2005 season - steering them to four premierships and five grand finals hasn't been enough for his peers to recognise him as the coach of the season.

Can we take this award seriously? We simply cannot. For Ken Hinkley to have won this twice and Clarkson not once shows that coaches vote for the coach who gets the most improvement from one season to the next rather than who the actual 'best' coach is.

Hinkley as an example, has had the same core playing group for close to a decade - Boak, Gray, Westhoff, Ebert, Rockliff, Dixon, Motlop, Jonas, Hartlett all over 30 and played together for years. Yet this recognition for Hinkley is absent of the fact from 2015 until 2019 - Port underperformed and wasted the core years of this group. They are thought of as young, however they are older than Richmond and much, much older than Brisbane.

Yet Clarkson - who during that time won three premierships and coached his team in four grand finals was not once deemed the coach of the season.

I find it bewildering that Clarkson hasn't won it rather than Hinkley winning it twice - by the way. Hinkley is just an example.



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There's a misconception that the team's result is the only factor in COTY and so the premiership coach is automatically coach of the year.

That's not the case, although it's a huge element, so are the results relative to the expectations of the group, which is why something like Dimma 17, Fagan 19 or Hinkley 20 are really worthy winners even though only 1/3 those actually won the flag that year. There are other factors too.

In regards to Clarkson specifically, he should have won at least one. I'd say across 13/14/15 that he probably should have 1-3 COTY in that period.

There is also a hell of a lot more to coaching than what we see on the surface as fans.

"The award is voted on by more than 150 coaches across the competition" - I'm pretty sure they have a pretty solid understanding of what makes a coach and the requirements of being a great coach and the relative achievements of the year.

It's subjective like any award, so there's always going to be disagreement, but I think it holds some value.

Some have mentioned it's a home and away award, does anyone know when it is voted on?
 
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Roby said:
Clarkson is a Dynasty coach and will always be remembered for changing the way AFL is played. He need not or would not care about a fairly irrelevant and inconsequential popularity vote.
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What did Clarkson change?

I'd say of coaches in the past 20 years, Paul Roos did the most to change the way AFL is played. Followed by Ross Lyon, who was a Roos protege.
 
Tzatziki_Man said:
Wallace at the Dogs actually perfected the flood, id say he deserved a mention here
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This is true, Wallace orchestrated the Bombers only loss in 2000. I just think Roos and Lyon more influential as they turned that tactic into a game style and achieved sustained success with it.
 
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