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The Suns have set on Dew

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Fairly superficial take.

McKenna might have been "on track" on the surface, but the cultural issues in the team were immense. He had to go, and it's not surprising he hasn't landed a big gig since. They were getting by mostly on talent and the unbelievable play from Ablett more than anything Bluey was doing. "Give the ball to Gary" seemed to be the only instruction. Eade was never a supercoach, though was absolutely the wrong choice.
I'm aware there were cultural issues during McKenna's time. Perhaps they should've attempted properly addressing that, instead of bringing Eade in to 'right the ship'? Maybe they did, we'll never know.
 
I know what you mean. Geelong kids often dream about playing in front of 12,000 mostly opposition fans at home games. Every footy player under 30 would jump at that I'm sure.
When you're a young, single bloke, the bikini babes on the GC would be far more attractive than the meth-heads in Geelong.
 
It's his 6th year, he is on 500k+ a year. He needed to find a way to play finals to keep his job especially when there are other good candidates around.

I feel sorry for him but he got a better run at it than most.

Cant make the list mature faster. Had he had Rankine then maybe youd expect a rise but they are still far too inexperienced to expect a jump. Missing xfactor forward half and transition players. Had Hollands and Sharp been 24-25 maybe.
 

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CEO Mark Evans, five days ago:

"I've said time and time again, Stuey's our coach, contracted for this year and next year.

"(If he) does a good job, he'll be contracted well into the future.

“All I can say is that he's got my support to get on with the job, manage our players and staff as well as we can.”


The infamous “total support”
Often when the Board or CEO back their coach he is gone. I am unsure if Dew is the reason for their failure. My view is it would not matter who coached them.
 
I'm aware there were cultural issues during McKenna's time. Perhaps they should've attempted properly addressing that, instead of bringing Eade in to 'right the ship'? Maybe they did, we'll never know.
McKenna wasn't a great leader. He wasn't the sole reason for the issues, but he was very much a part of the problem and not the solution. He didn't have the respect of the playing group or the authoritative personality to do much about it. It's not a coincidence they went to a known hardline, authoritarian type coach immediately after. Again, if McKenna was just a victim of circumstance, then he should've been highly sought after, but he wasn't, and was out of the AFL 3 yrs after leaving the Suns.

Ablett was also a large part of the cultural issues, as captain he was responsible for some of the split in the playing group. On top of that, he also didn't have the hard edge to get people into line or the personality to create a unified group. Unbelievable player and ultimately was responsible for the vast majority of their wins at that time, but awful leader.
 
I don't think there are that many issues right now tbh. It's just on field. Players are signing up in record numbers for the GC, they have new facilities right next to the stadium, There's not really been many internal leaks to the media until very recently, and clearly we can now see why. Overall the culture seems quite good. Dew was part of that, no doubt, but couldn't translate it to onfield success.

I don't think they are that far away and I think that's why they've done this. Dew had 6 years and essentially in each of the last 2 or 3 they've had several times looking like they were finally arriving only to flop under any expectation.
That’s my impression too. That’s why I think Hardwick would be a good fit for them. If they need someone to give them on-field success and further improve the culture, then he can get that done.
 
When you're a young, single bloke, the bikini babes on the GC would be far more attractive than the meth-heads in Geelong.
The Bikini babes on the Coast who have no idea who you are vs the ones you meet who are, shall we say, keen to get to know you better...?

The external view may be better on the Coast it is true but once you are alone and the packaging is removed other things are more important even at that age.
 
Amazing to think this is the Gold Coast's 13th season and they've never been close to successful. Even Brisbane bears and Freo, considered slow starters for interstate teams, were hitting their strides and pushing deep into finals by the end of their first decade.

Gold Coast was a classic case of "Fools (the AFL) rush in'' - I remember only few years after their inception Demetriou conceded that the Gold Coast would never be a ''big'' club and implied he was more optimistic about GWS.

AFL so busy trying to push its expansion project it neglected the fans it already had (in Tassie).
 
Straight Swap

We'll take Dew as an Assistant to Josh Carr

They can have Ken Hinkley.
 
I would think there is real concern at AFL house, that the GC Suns was not the right choice for a licence back in 2009.

They have failed to make the finals in their whole short history, they recruited poorly initially, but did build a good list at one point, only for players like Lynch, Rankine etc to leave for better success elsewhere.
 
I’m not aware of their issues tbh. All I know of is their on-field issues in making finals.

The way I see it, things can change rapidly. Essendon is an example of this IMO. They were a shamble off the field during the supplements saga and at the end of last year. Provided they make finals this year, they’d have made finals the year after being a shamble with some off-field changes. Same thing happened after the suspensions.

Essendon made it because their list is decent. That’s how I see Gold Coast right now. Hardwick knows what he and Richmond did to get our players mentally strong enough for the season. I think he’ll be able to do the same for them and get them to finals within two seasons.

Well at least that’s my opinion on the matter. Hardwick will have some input into the list decisions as well, so we may stop seeing them stuff up so badly in trading/drafting.

I wouldnt be looking at Essendon and calling it a success story....yet

1 rebound year is nothing if you dont sustain it.

Look at Fremantle. Had a great 2022 and 2023 has been a bust.
 

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hahahahaha hows the photo from the official club article about Dew's sacking.......makes it look like the poor blokes passed away :sweatsmile:


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I wouldnt be looking at Essendon and calling it a success story....yet

1 rebound year is nothing if you dont sustain it.

Look at Fremantle. Had a great 2022 and 2023 has been a bust.
But it is for Gold Coast. They haven’t ever qualified for finals, so finals is a big deal. Once Gold Coast start making finals, then they can worry about winning finals/becoming Premiership contenders.
 

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I would think there is real concern at AFL house, that the GC Suns was not the right choice for a licence back in 2009.

They have failed to make the finals in their whole short history, they recruited poorly initially, but did build a good list at one point, only for players like Lynch, Rankine etc to leave for better success elsewhere.

They've always had plenty of top-end talent, but not really a critical mass of hard-working team first types.

I think the current build is better than previous attempts because a player like Rowell is extremely talented but also offers that team-first grunt around the ball.

Their list reminds me a bit of Carlton's right now; strong at the top-end but not much beneath it. Fixed easily enough with the right list management and coaching, how much Dew is part of the problem remains to be seen. Hardwick is the obvious candidate they'll want to chase, but he also had a lot of support at Richmond so might not be the fix they're hoping for if they don't make a few other changes.
 
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hahahahaha hows the photo from the official club article about Dew's sacking.......makes it look like the poor blokes passed away :sweatsmile:


View attachment 1734977
Way too much planning also went into that image. Thats someone in design who had this thing planned out 4 weeks ago
 

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The Suns have set on Dew

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