An AFL coach who has never played the game?

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In the NFL, there are famous coaches who have never played football and a quite lot of famous coaches who played football but never at NFL level.

Had me thinking about this in the AFLs context and whether there has ever been a coach AFL/VFL who has never played the game?, or at the very least never played at AFL level?

Does anyone know if this is the case? or why not?
 

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TheHoneyBadger

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#3
Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney never played at VFL/AFL level, but was supposed to be very good in the Geelong league or something like that.
He got his start by coaching Ocean Grove to 4 consecutive premierships and signing at Richmond as an assistant, before an 11 year stint at Geelong under Mark Thompson and 1 year in 2011 under James Hird at Essendon. He was appointed as the head coach of the Bulldogs for 2012.
Neil Craig also never played in the VFL/AFL, declining a move to Footscray in the '80s, but played 321 SANFL games for Norwood, Sturt and North Adelaide. He coached Adelaide from 2004 to 2011 and Melbourne for half of 2013 after Mark Neeld was sacked - still fresh in the memory.
 
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#4
im pretty sure Wayne Brittin from Carlton he coached between 2001,2002, he played up in the Queensland league then suffered a back injury & never played at AFL level but coached for those 2 years
 

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#7
Wayne Brittain never played AFL. Crows ex-coach Neil Craig didn't either, but he played in the SANFL when it was strong; and of course Brendan McCartney.
 
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Thanks for the info, seems to be a few.

Reason I asked is that I understand in NFL that skills in strategy and psychology rate pretty highly as well as having an excellent technical understanding of the game. That is, all three can be learned by not necessarily being a player. Oh, and the third skill can be picked up in BF of course ;)
 
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Thanks for the info, seems to be a few.

Reason I asked is that I understand in NFL that skills in strategy and psychology rate pretty highly as well as having an excellent technical understanding of the game. That is, all three can be learned by not necessarily being a player. Oh, and the third skill can be picked up in BF of course ;)
yep all those things are not required for AFL
terry Wallace and jimbo hird proved a suntan is all it took
mark neeld had none of the above,but coaching Melbourne doesn't count
 

Albert Ross

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#10
In the NFL, there are famous coaches who have never played football and a quite lot of famous coaches who played football but never at NFL level.
There are very few who didn't play football, and playing football at college covers the years 18-22 and is basically semi-professional (at least) in standard.

And those guys generally went on to coach College football which in many cases has higher paid coaches than the NFL. They can be proven, in-demand coaches on their College achievements. We don't really have that anymore with the State Leagues so far below the AFL.
 

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#11
Caoches who never played AFL to my knowledge in living memory have not won a premiership or had a 2nd club of employment as a senior coach.

When things seem to start going wrong they seemed to be pushed earlier. Craig's a bit of an exception but he played SANFL when it was the premier comp in it's state.
 

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There are very few who didn't play football, and playing football at college covers the years 18-22 and is basically semi-professional (at least) in standard.

And those guys generally went on to coach College football which in many cases has higher paid coaches than the NFL. They can be proven, in-demand coaches on their College achievements. We don't really have that anymore with the State Leagues so far below the AFL.
Fair points, though I don't think the skill in general of college football is comparable to NFL.
 
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Caoches who never played AFL to my knowledge in living memory have not won a premiership or had a 2nd club of employment as a senior coach.

When things seem to start going wrong they seemed to be pushed earlier. Craig's a bit of an exception but he played SANFL when it was the premier comp in it's state.
col Kinnear maybe
carlton sydney
 

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Fair points, though I don't think the skill in general of college football is comparable to NFL.

Skill level might not be there, but lots of the tactical innovations come from there. The popular 'West Coast Offence' for example which is becoming prevalent was developed in the Colleges.

I was also using the Colleges to sort of suggest someone like Alan Joyce whose VFL career was over at 23 would be the equivalent of a college players in some respects. Career over at a young age and then work through the system to coach at the highest level.
 

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#17
McCartney done the hard yards, you wanna break into the AFL, do the hard yards.

Probably won't be done again for some time, it defies logic.
 

TheHoneyBadger

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#18
McCartney done the hard yards, you wanna break into the AFL, do the hard yards.

Probably won't be done again for some time, it defies logic.
I don't think it defies logic, it just defies the system really. McCartney so far is proving to be a fantastic development coach and hasn't been shown up for tactical nous either. He's definitely developing his own team, so we'll see how he goes when the Dogs get back up there.
I'd love to see more left-field selections, but I suppose you always go for the most well-known and best-qualified, which usually come from assistant roles at clubs like Collingwood, Geelong and Hawthorn.
 

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#21
Happens all the time in other sports. Dont know why theres still the idea that you must have played the game to be a good coach/manager at it.

Tottenham's and Fulham's managers in the English Premier league , Avram Grant and Andre Villas-boas, never played professionally.

1994 World cup winning manager with Brazil ,CARLOS ALBERTO PARREIRA, never played professionally.

“I never realised that in order to become a jockey you have to have been a horse first.”
 

Jamurp

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#23
Seems like it would just take an age to get near a senior coaching job if you haven't played top football, and even if you got close you'd probably lose out to some recently retired great of the game.
 
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