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Gary Ayres

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Mervyn Beasley

Mervyn Beasley

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Port Melbourne Football Club have been pretty average in recent years.
Gary Ayres took over as coach this year and is on the cusp of taking them to the VFL premiership(they are favorite for the flag and are thru to the GF).
If they happen to win would this increase his currency as an AFL coach or at least put him back in the mix as a prospective coach.

He was a contender for the job at HFC but didnt get it, and I was pleased about this, however, his record is nowhere near as bad as his reputation.
 

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The guy can coach, there's no doubting that, you only have to look at his success with Adelaide (whom he took from a bottom 8 team in 1999 to a top 4 team in 2002) and to a lesser extent Geelong (R/up in his first year, equal top of the ladder in '97) to know he has some genuine coaching ability.

But how many coaches in history have been at 3 clubs??? not too many (the only ones that spring to mind are Hafey, Barrassi and Jeans), I think his chances are almost slim too none.
 
I disagree - Ayres cannot coach at AFL level. He is bereft of ideas and alienates himself from too many players. He inherited a top 3 side at Geelong and left the club when the going got tough.

Like so many VFL players, Ayres is good at that level, but will not / should never be considered at the top level again.
 
He's a decent AFL coach if you don't take into account his average people skills and complete lack of ability when it comes to developing and maintaining a competitive list.
 
As a coach Ayres is a lethal dose of poison. Great player, and good in so many ways. But not a coach.
 
Mervyn Beasley said:
Port Melbourne Football Club have been pretty average in recent years.
Gary Ayres took over as coach this year and is on the cusp of taking them to the VFL premiership(they are favorite for the flag and are thru to the GF).
If they happen to win would this increase his currency as an AFL coach or at least put him back in the mix as a prospective coach.

He was a contender for the job at HFC but didnt get it, and I was pleased about this, however, his record is nowhere near as bad as his reputation.
Click to expand...

Wasn't he only a contender for the Hawks job because he is besties with Brereton? And my mail is only Dermie looked at him seriously anyway.

Surely he would not be trusted with an AFL level job again?
 

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I spoke to someone who played under him at Geelong. Interesting thing I gained from that conversation was that he was a great coach for ordinary / average players. They got a lot out of him and had a lot of respect for him

But he really struggled with coaching the great players. I think this was also evident at Adelaide

Also, I can never forget how he made Sean Rehn clean players cars after he was late to a recovery session. That kind of Sergeant Major crap is just ridiculous

They way I look at it is that he took over 2 Malcolm Blight teams that were absolutely purring and drove them into the ground. But maybe unlucky not to take the Cats to a premiership in either 95 or 97
 
Despite what the top post in this thread says, we aren't through to the Granny just yet. We play the winner of Frankston v Williamstown in the 1st Prelim.

Back on topic, I wasn't too happy when Ayres was announced as Port's senior coach, but he has been a revelation this year at the club, and I couldn't have been more wrong about him.

Perhaps the above poster is correct and he is not a great coach of superstars, but he has certainly performed exceptionally well coaching the stand-alone Port Melbourne, with only a handful of changes to the list since last year. Most of the development has been from within the existing list.

He has the side playing exciting attacking football, and brings a level of enthusiasm that I reckon has rubbed off on the playing list. From what I have seen at 1/4 and 3/4 time addresses through the home and away, he's an astute tactician that understands the game extremely well.

If he still has the ambition to coach at AFL level, I reckon he could do it... especially if he surrounds himself with the right assistants.
 
H was no where near as bad as people try and make out.

i desperately didn't want him at hawthorn, but that is because i didn't trust him with the rebuild one bit, and that we needed to get away from ex hawthorn coaches and get some outside influence to the club.

Knights, Judge, Schwab, far too many ex hawthorn coaches, and it kept us from moving on and changing with the times IMO.

His record isn't bad, and I can't see how Wallace was rated so highly before he got the Richmond job and Ayres so poorly.

Not a great communicator in the media IMO, but that doesn't make him a bad coach. Just not a great coach.
 
i don't see a lot of fact in many of these posts.
Rather sheer speculation.


If you want to see what Gary Ayres is like as a coach go and see for yourself!
Get down to the next Port game and listen to him in the huddle. I think you will be quite surprised.

I've seen just about every Port game this year and i don't think i've heard him rant or rave once! He is very level headed and doesn't rely on trying to jeer the players up to win games. He is an excellent coach all round in my opinion.

One indicator i notice with good coaches is the level of talk from the players in the huddles. If a coach is not much of a communicator and doesn't have good control over his charges, the players tend to open their mouths more and give their own opinion on what's happening, good and bad. When Ayres coaches there isn't a lot of talk, the players know exactly whats happening and what their job is without any over complications.
 

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Mervyn Beasley said:
Port Melbourne Football Club have been pretty average in recent years.
Gary Ayres took over as coach this year and is on the cusp of taking them to the VFL premiership(they are favorite for the flag and are thru to the GF).
If they happen to win would this increase his currency as an AFL coach or at least put him back in the mix as a prospective coach.

He was a contender for the job at HFC but didnt get it, and I was pleased about this, however, his record is nowhere near as bad as his reputation.
Click to expand...

Gary Ayres is a good coach. you don't coach for 10 years without having something about you.

At Adelaide he was charged with making us a consistent finals team, and he did that. we went close in 2002, and entered 2003 as premiership favourites after the recruitment of Carey. Injuries did not help, but we had a strong campaign. bottom line, he did exactly what was asked of him. 2004 we had the worst injury run in our history, worth noting that Craig couldn't do anything with that depleted team when he took over half way through either.

Geelong supporters always like throw their handbags out of the pram about him, but consider he took them to a grand final in 1995 (and some even thought they were a show against a great Carlton team). Geelong fans keep whinging about how they were robbed in 1997 - which begs the question: which is it? were you robbed of a flag, or was ayres shit the entire time.

He did pretty well at Geelong, and left them - and became our longest serving coach.

he's a real meat and potatoes type coach, discipline, simple accountable football. there are a couple of teams that could use him to right the ship.

not perfect, but a good coach.
 
Sttew said:
I disagree - Ayres cannot coach at AFL level. He is bereft of ideas and alienates himself from too many players. He inherited a top 3 side at Geelong and left the club when the going got tough.
Click to expand...

He inherited an aging geelong team, at the end of the contending years.
he did great in 1995 and 1997.

if he was so shit, why do you keep bitching about 1997?
 

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