Assistance the key to success?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Who would have thought that Mr Dickens would have been so attuned to AFL football in the 21st century? The opening line of A Tale of Two Cities could easily refer to Essendon and St Kilda. What’s more, there’s a common thread.

 

Over the off-season there was an exodus of sorts from the Saints. The entire roster of assistant coaches moved on. Although not linked to the Saints’ situation, the sacking of Matthew Knights at Windy Hill also presaged an exodus of assistant coaches.

 

Ross Lyon gathered a new group of assistants, as did new coach James Hird at Essendon.

 

Eagle-eyed readers will note that the Bombers have 3½ wins from six games, while the Saints have managed just 1½ wins.

 

Now, of course AussieRulesBlog isn’t going to put this discrepancy down to just a coaching staff changeover — there was the little matter of a certain 17-year-old and the repercussions thereof which may have distracted the Saints.

 

But, thinking about assistant coaches and what they can bring to a club, let’s look at the ins and outs for both the Saints and the Bombers.

 

St Kilda

Out	In
Bryan Royal	Peter Berbakov
Leigh Tudor	Robert Harvey
Andy Lovell	Steven King
Tony Elshaugh	Adam Kingsley
Stephen Silvagni

 

Essendon

Out	In
Scott Camporeale	Mark Thompson
Alan Richardson	Brendan McCartney
Ashley Prescott	Sean Wellman
Adrian Hickmott	Dean Wallis
	Simon Goodwin

 

It’s pretty clear, even from the outside, that the assistants at Essendon in 2011 have make a substantial contribution to the apparent turnaround in the Bombers’ on-field fortunes.

 

Simply by extrapolation, it would seem the change in the Saints’ on-field fortunes might have more than a little connection to the change in coaching staff. We commented on the scale of the Saints’ cleanout last November.