Coach Football department changes going forward

Remove this Banner Ad

Sep 22, 2008
25,524
34,634
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Thought I’d start a thread to talk about options off the field which we think would make a good fit.

This isn’t a Bevo bashing thread - there’s other threads for that and everyone’s opinions are pretty known there, but whether he goes next year or whether he’s here for 5 years is irrelevant, there needs to be changes to our whole coaching department. This isn’t to talk about our current failings, it’s to talk about our football department going forward - who should stay who should go, who should we target?

Having this list being lead by line coaches of the ilk of Sphanger, Webb and Bubba with development coaches like? Maddocks (who?) opposition & strategy coaches like? I don’t even know. Our coaching panel is a disgrace compared to what it was a few years ago with King, Corey, Moz, Hansen etc and compared to other clubs with plenty of winning experience. There is no excuse considering the talent on the list, good coaches would be jumping at the opportunity to work with this group, why aren’t they?

I understand we were probably hamstrung by the soft cap being introduced after Bevo signed a long term contract - that’s just bad luck, and last year with people leaving so late in the piece too, but we’ve had a year to sort this now. There is no excuses for being poorly staffed going into next year.

For a start there’s an increase of 500k in the cap but also we have to start being a smart, well run club off the field. For example there’s other initiatives like hiring female staff at a discount in cap which can help spread workload or like below -

“Clubs who are sponsoring the successful participants of the Women’s Coaching Acceleration program are eligible to receive Soft Cap exemption. There are currently nine clubs who are supporting applicants – Adelaide Crows, Brisbane Lions, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong Cats, GWS Giants, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Port Adelaide.”

Of course we’re not one of the clubs taking advantage of this, yet it’s so simple?

Now here’s the other thing, as far as I’m aware - there’s nothing stopping us from spending above the soft cap, it just means you get “taxed” on the excess spend, I believe 75c for every dollar you spend over the cap. We’re not poor - we’re sitting very well off field currently and will make another profit this year, it is in our best interests off field to invest and to maximise our on field performance, which at the end of the day is the best way to set us up off field too.

In reality there’s no need to run at a profit, any profit we make this year should be put into going over the soft cap next year. It’s only for the one year until Bevs contract is over and we can better manage our spending going forward.

No excuses for paying peanuts for assistants any more, you have a ******* Lamborghini of a list - stop taking it to bloody ultra tune for a service.

Anyway - options for this year? Whose available, who should we target?

Whether Bevos there or not a senior assistant with a heck load of experience is an absolute necessity. Ideally someone with no senior coach ambitions, someone whose been there done that and is no longer interested (or at least not now)

Cameron is just a no brainer, he’s a hardass, he’s worked under Rocket, Clarko & Sheedy - he has experience at the top level, he’s old & experienced enough to not take any s**t and not hold his tongue. Perfect.

Spangher just has to go, I’d move on Bubba into a development role too - he’s had great success with our young small defenders, I don’t think he’s a defensive line coach.

Webb I’d be willing to give another chance, as he seems like a good experienced football brain, and it’s probably hard to just cut the whole panel at once, he’d be the lucky one to get another chance. He’s done nothing with our midfield but I think hes on a hiding to nothing to be honest - I feel like he’s come in and been asked to be a mouthpiece for Bev and our existing midfield strategy, let’s be honest this is our same midfield for 8 years he hasn’t been asked to reinvent the wheel he’s been asked to do the exact same thing it’s always been doing. Bev needs to take a step back from micromanaging every line and delegate work to them, if Webb can’t stand up and put in his own input now in his second year, well time to go.

If Bev was to step away, who are our options? Let’s be honest, people would be chomping at the bit to coach this list. Coaching prospects are so desperate for a chance that they usually take on career killers like Blues or Norf - imagine you had the opportunity to walk into a club led by Bont & Macrae, with future stars like Jamarra, Naughty & Darcy. You can realistically compete for a flag next year, and you’re still set up for the next 6+ years.

It’s a dream list to walk into, we’d have every single prospect in the industry knocking on our door - even Clarko? Tbh I don’t even want Clarko, I’d rather find the next big thing.

Options?

Yze - 8 years at the successful Hawks under Clarko, now two years in charge of the most well drilled midfield in the league at Dees. This bloke breeds success, he knows the ins and outs of the best team defence in the comp currently, he’s ready for the next step.

Jaymie Graham? Has had 5 years at West coast including a flag looking after their incredibly successful forward lines & backlines - now this year he’s moved to Freo and is having success with their forward line (which is really well run considering the lack of real firepower) has coached his own WAFL side, and 3-0 in AFL games as a caretaker (not that I think that means anything tbh)

Ideally we need to look at, at a minimum, a senior Assistant, a new offensive coach & a new defensive coach. I also think Grants position should be under fire, if it’s his job to put together a good coaching panel - he’s done a terrible job.

No more jobs for the ******* boys either!

Any other options, thoughts?
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Leon Cameron - Ex GWS coach
Blake Caracella - Essendon
Adam Yze - Melbourne
Adam Kingsley - Richmond
Some highly rated assistant coaches the club should have a look at
 
Whoever the next senior assistant coach is they need to be defensively minded. Something I’m not convinced Bevo is. He’s got a game plan that he’s not willing to change. He just expects the players to execute it better. And I guess at times they do. It’s attacking, it’s high risk, high reward, but it’s defensively brittle.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Banned
  • #7
Whoever the next senior assistant coach is they need to be defensively minded. Something I’m not convinced Bevo is. He’s got a game plan that he’s not willing to change. He just expects the players to execute it better. And I guess at times they do. It’s attacking, it’s high risk, high reward, but it’s defensively brittle.
It’s not even attacking or high reward though - it’s prissy little handball happy bullshit with no direct ball movement which would be attacking, it’s extremely scared/slow and very low reward. It was fine when that handball happy style was on the back of absolute contested ball dominance, but now we’ve lost that edge it’s just useless
 
So much of the discussion about our off field woes focuses on Bevo … which is understandable. As well as the detractors it includes Bevo’s defenders. Those who point out that he has won us a flag and a second GF appearance in his 8 years at the helm. He’s the most successful coach in our history after all.

But we have been largely clueless since losing Corey and King. Did we give Bevo too much credit - and them not enough - for our two GF appearances?

If that’s the case it weakens the argument for retaining Bevo, especially if there’s truth in the rumour that he’s getting paid so much we have to hire a work experience kid (Spangher) as an assistant.

I’m struggling to think of a premiership side this century that didn’t have rock solid assistant coaches. Have there been any?

And even if we hire some good ones, will Bevo listen? Or will they go the way of Montgomery and anyone else who has had different views?
 
Out: Nepotism
In: Hiring based on merit/credentials
First we need to have a thorough and fearless review - and a strategy.

A purge without doing that will in all probability condemn us to cycles of aimless floundering for the next decade.
 
So much of the discussion about our off field woes focuses on Bevo … which is understandable. As well as the detractors it includes Bevo’s defenders. Those who point out that he has won us a flag and a second GF appearance in his 8 years at the helm. He’s the most successful coach in our history after all.

But we have been largely clueless since losing Corey and King. Did we give Bevo too much credit - and them not enough - for our two GF appearances?

If that’s the case it weakens the argument for retaining Bevo, especially if there’s truth in the rumour that he’s getting paid so much we have to hire a work experience kid (Spangher) as an assistant.

I’m struggling to think of a premiership side this century that didn’t have rock solid assistant coaches. Have there been any?

And even if we hire some good ones, will Bevo listen? Or will they go the way of Montgomery and anyone else who has had different views?
Yeah it’s a good point,

Honestly Its said a lot but I think it’s simply the reality that he is a really good emotional, motivator - he can get the best out of a group of people and really drive home a story as we know. He’s average tactically, no worse no better. He’s had some good wins tactically (3rd man up most noticeably) and some big losses too (outside 5) made some great positional changes and also some horrors.

2016 was the perfect storm, we had some absolute beasts - real grinding type seniors, your Boyd’s, Mozs etc they’d been there before and are genuinely as good as it gets for older heads in a team. Plus some elite young talent. We’d just had a few years of mind numbingly excessive contested ball development. We were man on man all over the field, every player learnt how to win a contest first and foremost, it was excruciating but it was a bloody crucial base.

He came in he released the shackles, he took our huge contested edge we’d learnt and added a bit of flair, a bit of run and dare - it was brilliant to watch, it was chaotic. He took a defence who had been playing one on one for years, who knew how to defend. And set up a zone which freed them all up, but they were still defenders who knew how to win a one on one first & foremost.

We were a good side that year, we weren’t a great side. But come finals we flicked a switch and his motivating style came in, he gave every single player on the field the belief that we could win. We weren’t losing to ******* anyone, throw 2012 Hawks or or 2009 Cats at us in that final series, we would have got it done.

But that’s not sustainable, it’s emotionally draining and just not there for us anymore. I don’t think we were ever a great side who was systematically better than anyone else, we’ve never been a well drilled side who grinds out wins - that’s why we’ve never finished top 4. Tactically he hasn’t lost it, we just never had it - that’s not what won us our flag.

We’ve had 3 good years under Beveridge, out of 8. You can argue last year was the closest to an actual systematically great side but it still wasn’t enough, and looks like it was the last hurrah for this group under this style of motivational coaching.

He gave us the belief to get out of the dumps, and took us to an unlikely finals berth, he then gave us the tools to put us in the position for an even more unlikely premiership! Lastly he again got us up for another run which fell embarrassingly short, but lets Be honest here - we’ve seriously underperformed in the other 5 years under him.


3/8 is not a good strike rate, I think he’s a bit of a fraud in regards to the hold he has over this club/the wider afl industry currently, he’s a good average coach who is great for a rebuild.
 
So much of the discussion about our off field woes focuses on Bevo … which is understandable. As well as the detractors it includes Bevo’s defenders. Those who point out that he has won us a flag and a second GF appearance in his 8 years at the helm. He’s the most successful coach in our history after all.

But we have been largely clueless since losing Corey and King. Did we give Bevo too much credit - and them not enough - for our two GF appearances?

If that’s the case it weakens the argument for retaining Bevo, especially if there’s truth in the rumour that he’s getting paid so much we have to hire a work experience kid (Spangher) as an assistant.

I’m struggling to think of a premiership side this century that didn’t have rock solid assistant coaches. Have there been any?

And even if we hire some good ones, will Bevo listen? Or will they go the way of Montgomery and anyone else who has had different views?

Brendan McCartney gets some of the credit for 2016 IMO. We could use some of his 'crack in' mantra at the moment.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Swans have scored the most points this year - get their forward line coach.

Demons have conceded the fewest - get their defensive coach.
And we have the highest free kick differential. I hope no one poaches our Free Kick Differential coach......
 
Leon Cameron and to poach Dean Cox.

He’s been at the swans for ages.

Time for Bevo to take a step back and focus on motivating and story telling.

My wish list.
 
And we have the highest free kick differential. I hope no one poaches our Free Kick Differential coach......
Careful what you wish for.

Give me some unsociable types who lose the FKD (nice acronym that!) but get the job done regardless.

Hawthorn (3-peat era) and Geelong come to mind.
 
Leon Cameron and to poach Dean Cox.

He’s been at the swans for ages.

Time for Bevo to take a step back and focus on motivating and story telling.

My wish list.
Id seriously tell Dean Cox, come to us as an assistant for the year and when Bevo's contract is up in 2023 you get the job.

At least you'd know Cox would play ruckmen properly.
 
Who ever we bring in, they need to teach Bailey Smith how to be a two way player
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top