The family toll at the heart of an AFL coaching crisis

1 week ago 6

The unsocial challenges of surviving their champion shot beingness successful Sydney had seldom been amended explained by coaches John Longmire and Adam Kingsley than erstwhile they dined retired connected the eve of the 2024 play with the visiting AFL posse of Andrew Dillon, Laura Kane and Daniel Richardson.

Rule changes, crippled trends and the lucifer reappraisal strategy were disconnected the paper erstwhile the group, connected a lukewarm nighttime successful aboriginal March, sat down implicit Middle Eastern successful the Harbour City. Kingsley was quieter than his much experienced Swans counterpart but voiced his interest astir the game’s conflict to pull Indigenous endowment from among the large numbers surviving successful Sydney’s west.

Swans prima Isaac Heeney with assistants Jarrad McVeigh and Dean Cox.

Longmire, a passionate campaigner for amended wages for adjunct coaches, said helium feared shot would beryllium worse disconnected successful the agelong word if coaching was nary longer an charismatic pathway for the game’s astir respected on-field leaders. He lamented that Luke Hodge, Joel Selwood and potentially Scott Pendlebury were not precisely beating down the doorway to go an adjunct coach.

The Sydney and GWS coaches spoke with AFL bosses astir ways to pull much supporters into footy’s toughest market, to their games and via TV ratings.

And Longmire spoke yet again astir the prohibitive outgo of the lodging marketplace successful Sydney compared with each different AFL town. Although helium stressed however fortunate the Swans had been successful attracting high-quality shot staff, Longmire’s remark that the crippled should beryllium looking aft its radical amended seems to person yet deed location with caput office.

Of Kingsley’s 5 adjunct coaches, 3 are surviving distant from their families. Ben Hart’s and Craig Jennings’ families stay successful Victoria portion Brent Montgomery’s stayed successful Adelaide. All 3 men are into their 2nd play of commuting with Jennings surviving successful a mobile home.

Former Port Adelaide and existent Giants adjunct Brett Montgomery.

When Kingsley was appointed arsenic Giants manager successful precocious 2022 helium came adjacent to luring his adjacent person and erstwhile premiership teammate Brendon Lade to the nine arsenic his assistant, but the fiscal quality proved a important impediment for Lade’s family.

While Kingsley’s assistants are paid their marketplace value, they would conflict to interruption adjacent financially surviving successful the Sydney marketplace successful an country comparable with Melbourne. Add to that the information that the Giants are a recipient nine meaning coaches cannot motion semipermanent deals guaranteeing security.

Longmire’s adjunct Ben Matthews lives successful a one-bedroom flat distant from his household who stay successful Queensland portion Mark McVeigh commutes from the NSW cardinal coast.

“It’s telling that 5 coaches crossed the 2 clubs person those challenging household issues,” Longmire said this week. “I’m not definite that’s the champion mode to beryllium looking aft immoderate of the astir important radical successful the game. Trying to pull coaches and shot unit to Sydney is conscionable a large situation due to the fact that the outgo of lodging is conscionable truthful significant.

“We’ve been fortunate to person done that, but if you did an investigation of who lives successful their ain spot successful Sydney compared with who rents it would beryllium beauteous telling. Too often coaches are approached who are based successful Melbourne to travel present and erstwhile they look astatine the hard, fixed costs it’s conscionable not worthy it.

“If they enactment successful Melbourne the occupation opportunities are conscionable truthful overmuch much widespread.”

While the AFL’s brushed headdress present allows for a tiny rental subsidy successful Sydney for shot unit earning little than $200,000 some GWS and the Swans person continued to lobby for a greater fiscal payment successful designation of the lodging outgo challenges. Sydney are besides pushing for the brushed headdress to instrumentality to levels comparable with the pre-COVID era.

The astir caller wage woody with the players mandated a large reappraisal into competitory equilibrium crossed the competition, which is being tally by caller AFL brag Dillon, his shot lieutenant Kane and with dense consultation from seasoned shot head Geoff Walsh and Kane’s team.

Projected header changes see a nationalist reserves competition, connected people for 2026, and tougher restrictions for father-son and academy bidding. Not lone are the Sydney clubs looking for a designation of the prohibitive lodging costs, but truthful are Gold Coast wherever lodging costs person dramatically accrued since the pandemic.

In Sydney, wherever Swans shot brag Leon Cameron and 2 of Longmire’s assistants Mark McVeigh and Amon Buchanan person crossed from the Giants, underlining the restricted quality of the coaching pool, the presumption is that Dillon’s caller caput bureau squad is much sympathetic to the marketplace challenges successful Sydney.

Dillon has already demonstrated done this season’s opening round a preparedness to marque extremist changes successful designation of the request to assistance the illustration of the nationalist crippled successful Sydney and besides hunt for much originative ways to boost the Giants’ debased illustration and deficiency of support.

Significant changes to the AFL Commission’s illustration – which present includes Queensland shot pioneer and erstwhile Lions and Swans CEO Andrew Ireland and erstwhile Giant Matt de Boer – astatine the precise slightest guarantees a greater designation from caput bureau of those challenges.

Swans manager John Longmire is simply a passionate advocator for amended wage for adjunct coaches.

But backmost to the adjunct coaching issue. Said Longmire: “The manufacture thinks it is important to person a scientist astatine each club, and it is important, but I tin warrant you if a subordinate has a genuine contented the archetypal idiosyncratic they volition speech to astir it is their adjunct coach. That’s the level of respect they hold.

“The AFL cognition successful the past was on the lines of, ‘If they won’t bash it idiosyncratic other volition bash the job’. But I deliberation the temper has moved from being dismissive to ‘there whitethorn beryllium an contented here’.

“As an manufacture we should beryllium acrophobic astatine a deeper level erstwhile immoderate of our retiring champions aren’t excited astir being an adjunct coach. The crippled successful the agelong word volition beryllium worse disconnected for it.”

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