Senior-experienced assistants now more than a pattern

James Hird and Mark Thompson. Mark Neeld and Neil Craig. Brenton Sanderson and Dean Bailey. Nathan Buckley and Rodney Eade. And now it seems the Saints are chasing Dean Laidley to assist the newly-appointed Scott Watters. Thus far, only Brendan McCartney is soloing in his debutante year.

 

For what it’s worth, AussieRulesBlog thinks the Saints’ strategy is the right one, and Laidley ticks a lot of boxes despite his involvement with Port Adelaide recently.

 

Of recent debutante appointments going solo, Chris Scott is the standout, but the bootstudder could probably have coached that Geelong team to the Grand Final. John Longmire gained credit for a competitive season from his Swans. Brad Scott has impressed, especially in his gig on Foxtel’s AFL Insider. Damien Hardwick hasn’t set the world on fire, but he is coming from a looooong way back. The recently-sacked Mark Harvey seemed to take a while to come to grips with the top job, and that may have cost him the gig in the end as expectation crashed into practicality — that and a black cat breaking a mirror under a ladder’s worth of injuries.

 

It’s worth revisiting the ‘winning’ experience of the senior coaches for 2012.

Club	Senior Coach	Premierships as player	Premierships as coach or assistant
Adelaide	Brenton Sanderson	0	2 as assistant to Mark Thompson
Brisbane	Michael Voss	3	0
Carlton	Brett Ratten	1	0
Collingwood	Nathan Buckley	0	1 as assistant to Mick Malthouse
Essendon	James Hird	2	0
Fremantle	Ross Lyon	0	0
Geelong	Chris Scott	2	0
Gold Coast	Guy McKenna	2	0
GWS	Kevin Sheedy	3	4 as coach, 1 as assistant to Tony Jewell
Hawthorn	Alastair Clarkson	0	1 as Hawthorn coach, 1 as assistant to Mark Williams
Melbourne	Mark Neeld	0	1 as assistant to Mick Malthouse
North Melbourne	Brad Scott	2	0
Port Adelaide	Matthew Primus	0 (In Port’s 2004 squad, but recovering from ACL)	0
Richmond	Damien Hardwick	1	1 as assistant to Alastair Clarkson
Sydney	John Longmire	0	1 as assistant to Paul Roos
St Kilda	Scott Watters	0 (On WCE list for 1992, but not selected for GF)	1 as assistant to Mick Malthouse
West Coast	John Worsfold	2	1
Western Bulldogs	Brendan McCartney	0	2 as assistant to Mark Thompson