Toast Welcome to the Gold Coast Rodney Eade

[Matchu]

I did enjoy reading this

But what ever happened to our comparisons of the old St Kilda team

Unforeseeable cultural issues prevented the Suns from reaching the heights of St Kilda in the early 2000s. The Suns may still reach those heights in the near future but I think it's probably a faster process to rebuild a team (if you do it correctly) than it is to build a team from scratch.

The Saints obviously had a well established team culture at that point in time and they were able to climb the ladder relatively quickly through a combination of good drafting and a strong existing culture. That's my opinion.

 

[Matchu]

An except from an article Robert Walls wrote...

When we came together in 1991 at Carrara, he had just finished three injury-riddled years as a Bear. My two assistants were Eade and Norm Dare, who pushed the reluctant Eade to coach the reserve grade team. With great support from Norm, he took to the job like a duck to water. He was forever experimenting. He played three-man forward lines, flooded the backline with extra numbers and rotated forwards to the midfield and vice versa. He challenged 100 years of tradition. He questioned my ideas on football and selection. He both annoyed and excited me.

When the Bears won the reserve-grade premiership under Eade's radical guidelines, it brought joy to a young club that had never won anything. With a flag to his name, the offers came in. North Melbourne desperately wanted him. He asked what he should do. ''Go. Go and immerse yourself in the full-on footy culture of Melbourne,'' was the answer. So he did.

So there you have it. Rocket was pushed into coaching by the legendary (at least in Queensland) Norm Dare. For those who don't know, Dare made his name as the very successful head coach of Southport in the 80s and was subsequently offered the head coaching job at the Brisbane Bears in 1990. The Bears were of course based at Carrara so it was fitting to hire the QAFL premiership winning coach from Southport. He went on to coach Queensland in State of Origin competition before eventually returning to Southport for more premierships. In 2003, he was named head coach of Queensland's Team of the Century. He even coached a 16-year-old Marcus Ashcroft at Southport before he was offered a contract by the Bears.

Had it not been for the man so closely linked to Gold Coast footy, Rodney Eade may never have entered the coaching ranks. It all comes full circle and it's amazing to see some of the links between the 'Carrara Koalas', Southport and the Suns.

 

[Fat Pizza]

Norm Dare also played for Fitzroy in the 1960's & 70's.