AussieRulesBlog

AussieRulesBlog was surprised to hear on the radio yesterday that Melbourne have only had one experienced coach since they sacked Norm Smith back in the mists of pre-history (1967) — Ronald Dale Barassi. That lead us to think again about our views on coaching selections.

Let’s start by looking at Melbourne’s coaches since 1967, especially their prior experience and elite-level Premiership exposure.

• John Beckwith (1968–70) — five years coaching in the country, one year assistant coach at Melbourne
  176 games (Melbourne) (1951–60), five-time Premiership player
• Ian Ridley (1971–3) — no prior experience
  130 games (Melbourne) (1954–61), five-time Premiership player
• Bob Skilton (1974–7) — two years captain-coach South Melbourne
  238 games (South Melbourne) (1956–71), triple Brownlow medallist
• Dennis Jones (1978) — coaching in SANFL and WAFL
  59 games (Melbourne) (1956–60, 1962)
• Carl Ditterich (1979–80), captain-coach — no prior experience
  285 games (203 St Kilda, 82 Melbourne), suspended for St Kilda’s 1966 Premiership
• Ron Barassi (1981–5) — captain-coach and coach at Carlton, coach at North Melbourne
  254 games (204 Melbourne, 50 Carlton), six-time Premiership player, four-time Premiership coach (all previous to being appointed as Melbourne coach)
• John Northey (1986–92) — fourteen years in VFL assistant roles, one year as coach at Sydney.
  118 games (Richmond), two-time Premiership player
• Neil Balme (1993–7) — twelve years coaching in SANFL for two Premierships
  159 games (Richmond), two-time Premiership player
• Neale Daniher (1998–2007) — assistant coach at Fremantle (AFL)
  82 games (Essendon), on Essendon’s list in 1985 (Premiership year) and 1990 (Grand Final year)
• Dean Bailey (2008–11) — development coach (Essendon) 2000, assistant coach Port Adelaide (incl 2004 Premiership)
  53 games (Essendon),

What emerges here is that there’s been no shortage of exposure to elite Premiership culture — admittedly more tenuous recently.

Melbourne’s sacking of Dean Bailey and Neil Craig’s resignation put the end-of-season focus back onto the crucial question of selecting a coach for an elite team.

Over coming weeks, AussieRulesBlog will start to look at some of the factors to be considered