In the 80s, it seemed like Tom Hafey’s players dominated the ranks of senior coaches. In the 90s, there were a crop of Allan Jeans’ acolytes followed by a gaggle of Sheedy disciples. Leigh Matthews, Mark Thompson and Mick Malthouse have recently had their mark stamped on the game with a rash of former players taking the reins at AFL clubs.

Spot the common thread?

Winning culture. Time will tell who can best pass on the magic to their crew.

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.

Have we seen the last of debutante coaches struggling to come to grips with the myriad tasks they need to manage? These days, finding an experienced mentor/assistant goes right along with appointing a debutante coach.

Some readers may be old enough to recall the not-so-slow-motion train wrecks that were the emergence — and disappearance — as coaches of Tim Watson, Peter Rohde and Bernie Quinlan. Fair enough that the Rohde and Quinlan appointments had as much to do about money as capacity to coach, but they did fail spectacularly.

Two years ago, the Barcodes led the way by announcing a deal to have Malthouse move to a Director of Coaching role when Buckley took over. Never mind the tension between them, Eddie Maguire and fellow Board members knew their star needed a sounding board. With the increasing tension, moving Malthouse out and Eade in provides the experience as a foundation, just in case Buckley falls in a heap.

Last year at about this time, the Bombers engaged in their own changeover, engineering Bomber Thompson and a star-studded panel of assistants to ease James Hird into the role.

Now, Brenton Sanderson has Dean Bailey watching his back at Adelaide, while Mark Neeld will be able to lean on Neil Craig’s experience.

Brendan McCartney appears, at the time of writing, to be going without a “senior assistant” at the Western Bulldogs, while St Kilda are yet to announce a senior coach for 2012. It’s also worth noting that neither Brad nor Chris Scott have former senior coaches on their panels.

The ranks of suitably-experienced former head coaches are being thinned out, with only Malthouse and Mark Harvey among the recently dethroned who haven’t been snapped up by other clubs. Gary Ayers remains active, but may have been away from the top level for a little too long, while Matthew Knights appears friendless.

What does the employment of a “senior assistant”, especially one just turfed out of his own club, say to a new coach. Is it a positive story about fast-tracked development in the lead role, or is it an insurance policy?

AussieRulesBlog felt for Neil Craig last weekend. It really was the cruellest goodbye.

The team ran out for its first game under former assistant and now temporary head coach Mark Bickley and produced the sort of football that would have saved Craig’s job for him. Admittedly they were only up against the doormats of the competition in Port Adelaide, but it was still a Showdown.

If you fancy a bet — and AussieRulesBlog doesn’t — you could do a lot worse than covering the Demons to either beat the Blues or come within a whisker of it. But, you say, the Cats licked the Dees to the tune of 180-odd points just a few days ago. How can they possibly get up to compete against the Blues.

Well, of course, the answer is simple — the coach was sacked. And apparently the players think the world of him.

We haven’t worried about looking for statistics. It’s happened often enough. Coach sacked mid-season after players give nothing, players play out of their skins the next week.

Yeah, well thanks for that guys. Just a bit @^%$*#~ late!

Having sat in the Great Southern Stand last night and endured the humiliating shellacing handed out by the Hawthorn ‘Reserves’ last night (the Hawks were without putative best-22 members Franklin, Roughhead, Renouf, Gilham, Stratton and Murphy), AussieRulesBlog wonders what Matthew Knights must be thinking now.

Under both Knights and replacement coach James Hird, the Bombers have provided plenty of examples of capability to play the game at an exquisitely high level. Sustained intensity, quarter on quarter, week on week, month on month, seems to be the missing ingredient.

There was no shortage of effort at the ball in the Bombers’ insipid performance last night, but there was little or no unrewarded, off-the-ball effort.

AussieRulesBlog has never engaged in round by round or game by game analysis, and we don’t intend to start now. Nevertheless, pre-season competition aside, the similarities between the team’s effort under Knights and Hird is remarkable, especially given the messy nature of the latter’s ascension to the role.

We would also be remiss did we not marvel at the exquisite disposal skills of Sam Mitchell. If he is not one of the five best players in the competition, then we know nothing about the game. It’s not til you see Mitchell live that you really appreciate the quality of the ball that he provides.

“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

Essendon

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.

When the Bombers announced Scott Lucas was joining their coaching panel with a brief to work with the club’s emerging forwards, AussieRulesBlog was less than impressed, but we’re now prepared to admit we hadn’t considered the matter fully.

Holding forth on the matter with our sibling, we highlighted Lucas’ legendary lack of handballs as an indicator of an individualist rather than a team contributor. We didn’t see Scott Gumbleton, Jay Neagle and young Joe Daniher popping goals from 55 metres and didn’t relish the idea of them learning individualist traits. Our view was, and remains, that Lucas’ best season was his first Crichton Medal-winning year at centre half-back.

Our sibling, also a keen Bombers supporter, gently reminded us that Lucas could hardly have clocked up 270 AFL games if he wasn’t doing what the coach had instructed him to do. And here we come to the point of this post.

For the media, punditocracy, blogosphere and fans, sitting outside the fence and not privy to the detail of team planning, team dynamics and coaches’ instructions, it’s easy to pontificate on player performances — and we do! But we are, to all intents and purposes, doing so from behind a blindfold.

So, dear reader, when next you gird your loins to pour forth a stream of abuse at Player X — we all have one, don’t we? — take a moment to remember that they’re probably doing what they’ve been told to do and are, despite appearances to the contrary sometimes, trying their best to win the game for their team.

After writing about the Ashes disaster and the possibility that James Hird and Nathan Buckley might write further storied chapters in their lives yesterday, we happened upon an interesting story in a non-sports blog.

Seth Godin is an American marketing guru. His blog is a collection of thoughts on the general theme of small, independent business entrepreneurs. Not the place you expect to see sports-oriented wisdom, but we liked this one.

Zig Ziglar [a sales guru] used to tell a story about a baseball team on a losing streak. On the road for a doubleheader, the team visited a town that was home to a famous faith healer. While the guys were warming up, the manager disappeared. He came back an hour later with a big handful of bats. "Guys, these bats were blessed and healed by the guru. Our problems are over."

According to the story, the team snapped out of their streak and won a bunch of games. Some people wonder, "did the faith healer really touch the bats, or was the manager making it up?" Huh? Does it matter?

Are James Hird and Nathan Buckley faith healers (in the sense of Godin’s blog post)? Do their very records and stature in the game lift the morale and enthusiasm of their teams?

In the end, Godin is right. It doesn’t matter how the team is empowered, but it does give pause to think . . .

In the wake of England’s rout of Australia in the just-concluded Ashes series, there are calls for changes in Australian cricket. We think the emphasis will fall on coaches and selectors (we’re influenced by this article by Test great Dean Jones). And this brings the question of coaches’ influence on elite sportspeople to the fore, yet again.

Coaches’ influence and background is a question AussieRulesBlog has looked at a number of times — here. In AFL ranks, it seems only those with playing experience at that level get a gig — Neil Craig and Wayne Brittain being the most recent of a tiny handful of exceptions, and Brittain had served a substantial apprenticeship under David Parkin.

In speculation over AFL coaching vacancies there are often VFL coaches mentioned, especially North Ballarat’s Gerald FitzGerald recently, but none have so far got to hold the reins at an AFL club. At one time Joyce Brown, former national netball coach and mother of Carlton firebrand Fraser Brown, was being seriously touted as a potential VFL/AFL coach, but AFL keeps very much to the tried and true formula.

In contrast, cricket, as Dean Jones points out, doesn’t currently have a coach at Sheffield Shield or national level with substantial Test-level experience.

It’s worth noting two things about the cricket situation: coaches, at least at the national level, traditionally play more of a supporting role to the Captain; and John Buchanan, with a mere 7 first-class matches and 160 runs for Queensland, was Australian coach through one of Australia’s most dominant periods.

Another crucial difference between cricket and AFL is the match day role. The big decisions on the cricket field are the captain’s — field placement, bowling changes, batting order — while AFL captains choose which end to kick to and then take up a largely symbolic role, albeit often inspirational.

We are particularly interested in the influence of coaches at the moment as we contemplate the year ahead for our beloved Bombers under debutant coach and all-time club great James Hird and 2012 for the Barcodes under their all-time club great Nathan Buckley.

The most immediate contrast to draw is the raft of reports from players of the first Hird-directed pre-season being significantly tougher than those under Matthew Knights and, largely by implication, Kevin Sheedy.

Dean Jones makes the point that the resurgence of Australian cricket in the mid-1980s began with the appointment of Test legend Bob Simpson as coach. Simpson “was as hard as nails and rode all of us players 24/7” and “Three-hour fielding sessions were the norm”, according to Jones. Simpson was a gritty and determined opener, but capable of brilliance. Clearly Australian cricket at the time was at such a low ebb that Simpson treading on toes to take charge as coach wasn’t an issue.

In AFL, there have been few prodigiously-talented players who’ve gone on to achieve coaching success. As we’ve noted previously, the ranks of Premiership coaches in the last fifty years are dominated by gritty and determined backmen who made their mark in spite of limited talent.

John Coleman, Paul Roos, Malcolm Blight, Alex Jesaulenko and, arguably, Leigh Matthews are the naturally-talented players who achieved the ultimate success accounting for only ten of the last fifty Premierships (and Matthews contributing four of those).

Can James Hird and Nathan Buckley add their names to the ranks of Roos, Blight and co? If determination counts for anything, yes they can.

Has Hird arrived at the right time to take advantage of Matthew Knights’ list building over the past three years?

Does the 2010 Premiership dull the hunger of the playing group as Buckley takes the reins for 2012?

Will either or both of them make Bernie Quinlan look like a master coach? Sure, that’s unlikely, but it will be an interesting couple of years.

If you were on a jury trying the Bombers for murder and there was this much circumstantial evidence, the vote to convict would surely be 12-0.

AussieRulesBlog has already noted our disquiet over the sacking of Knights and the smoke of Machiavellian machinations surrounding Hird’s ascendency. The (according to the media) open secret of Mark Thompson’s arrival at Windy Hill and the ‘leaked’ evidence for accusations that he had been having a tete-a-tete with the Bombers for some time do nothing but add fuel to the suspicions of conspiracy theorists (and impartial observers).

We also noted our receipt of a personal call from Essendon CEO, Ian Robson, assuring us that there was absolutely nothing untoward in the recruitment of Hird

Nevertheless, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that someone at Essendon, presumably President David Evans and/or Robson, has decided to play very hard ball indeed! I hope the Bombers don't need the other clubs' support on anything important in the near future (10–15 years), because the most they'll get will be the remaining steam off some very, very old crap.

Of course, if there's a flag at the end of the rainbow, it will all be judged a masterstroke (in the media).

Reports that Geelong will announce Chris Scott as their new senior coach suggest that the Geelong Football Club has learned the lesson afforded when it appointed Mark Thompson a decade ago.

Thompson, it should be remembered, was a no-frills, no-nonsense half back through three of Essendon’s recent Premierships, the last as captain.

Immediately preceding Thompson, neither the flamboyant Malcolm Blight, nor the showy Gary Ayers could manage silverware for the Cats (nor a swag of ex-Geelong players since 1963).

It’s worth noting the adjectives we’re using for these three. No frills, flamboyant, showy. And which one brought home the silverware?

If the reports are proved correct, we think Scott is an inspired choice, for the simple reason that he had many of the same attributes as a footballer that Thompson had. The style was certainly different and the Scott boys certainly played for keeps, but would happily accept the labels ‘no-frills’ and ‘no-nonsense’ we think.

Twin brother Brad has had an excellent start to his senior coaching career, dragging the Kangaroos to the brink of finals contention when nearly everyone — not AussieRulesBlog, we hasten to add — had them set for the lower reaches of the ladder. No doubt that indefinable ‘Shinboner spirit’ played its part, but we think Scott also understands what is needed for his lesser lights to contribute at a level that helps the team get the greatest benefit from their stars.

There’s one other benefit from going outside of the Thompson coaching ‘family’ — a completely different message for the players, delivered with a new voice. Just as Thompson could be jaded after ten years, the players may well relish a new flavour to their footy and their pre-season.

Adding to the interest will be the new Hird regime at Essendon. It would be hard to imagine a greater contrast than between Hird and the Scott brothers as players. How well superstar Hird understands the minds of mere mortals will go a long way to determining how well the Bombers perform over the next four years.

Last week, we pondered the effects, a year on, of Brisbane coach Michael Voss’ brainsnap decision to recruit Brendan Fevola by offering up Michael Rischitelli and Daniel Bradshaw.

Well, the jury is in. Only the Tigers deemed it necessary to offer a player up without his asking for a move. It’s not all that clear to us why they would have done so, since a team that relied so heavily for scoring on one player, Jack Riewoldt, would seem to be in need of a forward foil with some goal sense. Andrew Collins has seemed, on the few viewings we’ve had of him, to have looked like he could provide a useful contest and some goal sense. Shaun Grigg seems to be more of a defender come midfielder. Curious. Nevertheless, we are Damian Hardwick fans, so we’re prepared to see what happens.

What has been stranger to watch has been the merry-go-round of assistant coaches this year. Of course, they all arrive at their new home terribly “excited” about their new team’s prospects.

Gavin Brown’s exit from Magpieland and Brendan McCartney’s “defection” to Essendon were the biggest surprises sprung. Outgoing Geelong President Frank Costa seemed resigned in a television interview tonight to the viewthat Mark Thompson will also bob up at Bomberland sooner or later.

Brown is probably the more interesting move. His three years coaching the Magpies’ ‘magoos’ suggests he harbours senior coaching ambitions. This year’s Malthouse–Buckley slow-motion coup agreement would appear to close off any avenues at the “Which sponsor do we have this year” Centre. We wouldn’t have thought that assistant to Ratten would look terribly impressive on a CV, but perhaps no-one better credentialed made an offer. Will Brown’s blood boil, or his head spin ’round a la Linda Blair in The Exorcist, when he has to sing We are the navy blues. . .?

The framing of the media coverage on the McCartney change has been interesting. A “defection”? Of course the spectre of Thompson turning up as Hird’s mentor, and persistent reports that it has been on the cards for months, seems to suggest some labyrinthine machinations, but defection? We should also note that McCartney had been ‘demoted’ from an assistant role at Sleepy Hollow to overseeing up and comers in the Academy squad this year. It’s hard not to conclude that Thompson had a significant part in that decision. The coach’s rooms at Windy Hill might be an interesting place to be if McCartney and Thompson are to be reunited.

On a recent visit to the grandly-titled Windy Hill ‘Precinct’, we didn’t detect anything resembling Checkpoint Charlie (younger people click here for an explanation), so would that mean that the Bombers are on the side of freedom and the Cat Empire are the forces of darkness? Well, cold-war defection did go both ways and we are thoroughly red and black! :-)

And there’s only 110-odd or 120-odd days ’til we’re back into the pre-season footy!!  :-(  We can only hope that the Ashes Tests will offer something more diverting than recent summers have managed. The Poms look to have put a decent squad together and the Aussies attack and batting have more holes than a colander. Please let it be close with a series win to the Aussies on the last day of the last Test.

Here at AussieRulesBlog Central, we thought the status of the words role model had been brought just about as low as was possible, but we reckoned without the charm of Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse.

Frankly, what Malthouse or assistant coach Paul Licuria may or may not have said to Saint, Steven Milne — and whatever Milne may have said to them — are merely indications of relatively tiny cerebral cortexes. It’s called sledging and we Aussies are supposed to be world champions at it, although the reported exchanges are hardly championship material.

For many years, the principle that “what happens on the field stays on the field” has provided a curtain for sledging and all manner of less-savoury actions. Participants in AFL matches in 2010 can not credibly claim ignorance of a multitude of high-resolution cameras examining their every action. What happens on the field is now public property, for good or ill.

The simple fact is that Malthouse and Licuria have no place having contact of any sort with an opposition player. The principle is well-established and Malthouse has been around the game long enough to know it.

We have an old-school belief that the more senior people in an organisation provide a lead for the rest. The team captain sets a benchmark and we expect the playing group to aspire to meet that benchmark. Similarly, we expect coaches to provide a model for those they are teaching to aspire to, not to mention the thousands of club supporters who might legitimately look to them to provide a model for their behaviour.

Malthouse, it appears, has lied. After the game, when it must have been clear to him that he had been caught on camera interacting with Milne, he denied speaking to anyone other than his own players. Come Monday morning, he’s offering apologies.

If there was any wonder at the time why Heath Shaw and Alan Didak were economical with the truth after their traffic brouhaha, there can be little now.

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse’s assertions that he was speaking to his own players at quarter time of the Saints-Collingwood clash last night aren’t supported by the video footage. Assistant coach Paul Licuria also pretty clearly had a crack.

It brings to mind Kevin Sheedy’s antics a few years ago at the same ground in a clash against the Weagles. Sheedy’s throat-cutting gesture to a Weagles player was obviously more over-the-top than Malthouse and Licuria exchanging pleasantries, yet the similarities remain.

In round 22, 2009, Alastair Clarkson crossed the line to hurl invective at Matthew Lloyd after Lloyd had put the one of the Hawks’ key midfielders out of the game.

We can hardly criticise coaches for being emotionally involved in the games they coach or for being emotionally-connected to their players, but there must be a firm line established by the AFL on this issue.

Watching the footage and taking note of body language, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Malthouse and Licuria were inflaming the situation.

I had the chance last week to hear Leigh Matthews speaking at a function. Four-time premiership player, four-time premiership coach — probably knows a little bit about the game. . .

The comment that interested me most concerned the modern, that is the “noughties”, coach. In 1986, when Matthews was appointed to the Collingwood coaching job, he was full-time, but most of his players and any assistant coaches were not. He was, effectively, the only conduit to the players.

Step forward to 2008 and Matthews’ final year as coach at Brisbane. Not only are the playing group full-time employees of the club, so too are the assistant coaches. Matthews’ role was no longer to coach, but to manage a group of men who did the coaching on his behalf.

This notion has stuck in my mind pretty firmly and is leading me to question my own pet theory about AFL coaches (see Coaching credentials, Coaching credentials, part 2 and Coaching credentials, part 3).

It is now the assistant coaches who have more direct influence over the average player’s preparation and mindset. The head coach manages and motivates the team of assistant coaches to manage and motivate the playing group.

Now, of course, this is a simplistic scenario and can only go part way to explaining how a football team at the elite level functions. Nevertheless, it does serve to illustrate that the need for a head coach to have those qualities that influence the bottom 15–20% of the playing group to excel is much reduced. The modern head coach is a senior manager/executive. I think this has been a subtle change, in process for perhaps a decade or more.

One thing that doesn't change, until there's some convincing evidence to the contrary — like a spate of Buckley-coached Magpie flags, is that really gifted players aren't your go-to guy to win the club premierships from the coaches' box.

North Melbourne's appointment of Brad Scott as senior coach for 2010–2 seems to tick plenty of boxes.

As a member of the three-peat Brisbane Lions of 2001–3, Scott has plenty of exposure to a Premiership-winning culture. More importantly in my view, he was a gritty, determined player of mediocre talent who achieved respect and a permanent place in a mega-successful team.

Harking back to an old theme of mine, it is Scott's playing credentials mixed with Premiership culture exposure that mark him as a potentially very successful coach. Remember that gritty players who got the most out of their (limited) talent are over-represented among Premiership coaches since 1960: Parkin (4 Premierships), Sheedy (4), Hafey (4), Jeans (4), Barassi (4), Kennedy (3), Malthouse (2), Pagan (2). Note also that Parkin, Sheedy, Barassi and Malthouse were all members of multiple Premiership teams as players before becoming coaches.

For North, Scott and Damien Hardwick ticked many of the same boxes, with Hardwick having a broader spread of experience with Premiership involvement at three different clubs, Scott having the three-peat and some years under Malthouse, while Crocker was a member of the ’Roos’ ’96 Premiership team.

Time will tell whether Scott has the other attributes that are required to lift a team, but the basics are there in spades! One also wonders whether Eugene Arocca’s former life at Collingwood gave him some added insights into Scott's potential. . .

Even before a new coach is anointed at Richmond, it appears Richo has a tick to go around again next year. Ordinarily, an 800-goal AFL player with fourteen or fifteen seasons under his belt would be a huge plus for a young list. Young players need role models, on AND off the field — it’s easy to mount an argument that Melbourne’s current woes are a direct result of a lack of leadership — but is Richo the guy you want your young players modelling themselves on?

I’ve acknowledged in previous posts that Richo bleeds yellow and black, but, sadly, that doesn’t outweigh the substantial negatives he brings to the table: unreliable goal kicking; unreliable decision-making; and protected status that means he doesn’t receive appropriate sanction for the other negatives.

Of these negatives, it’s the last that is most potentially damaging. A new coach will want to make changes to begin overcoming some of the poor habits accrued by the Tigers during the Frawley and Wallace (and Gieschen and Walls?) reigns. One of the prime sanctions to apply to players flouting team rules or not measuring up to team skill requirements is a trip to the VFL.

How many times has Richo suffered the indignity of being dropped? How many times have his clangers, or body language, torn the spirit out of his teammates? How many times should he have been dropped?

It appears as though the Tigers are going to have a cleanout. Bowden, it seems, is gone — how I will miss wondering why any player would fall for one of his appallingly theatrical baulks around an opponent. Johnson is gone, Simmonds and Brown look at least shaky. Admittedly, none have kicked 800 goals or, Bowden aside, been at Richmond for their whole career, yet none of them have the level of obvious downside that Richo carries with him

The only saving grace is that Cousins has been demonstrating, on the track and in games, exactly what standard the young Tigers need to attain to achieve success. Is it totally unrelated that a string of improved performances under Rawlings occurred with Richo in rehab?

I feel for the new coach. It must be hard starting an important new role with a millstone tied about your neck!

Last year, in the wake of drawn games in consecutive weeks, I commented on then-widespread calls for some means of breaking the draw in home and away matches.

This last weekend, we have two teams being coached by stand-in coaches — desperate for victories to enhance their chances at securing their role for 2010 and beyond — fighting out a thrilling draw. Not surprisingly, stand-in Richmond coach Jade Rawlings calls for a draw-breaking mechanism. Also not surprisingly, Patrick Smith, speaking on SEN radio, opines that there's a fundamental problem in having draws through the home-and-away season when there are draw-breaking mechanisms in place through the final series.

Rawlings position is understandable and sentimentally attractive — although the odds are his team would have lost. Smith's position is less understandable.

I, for one, don't understand why a draw is such a terrible result, especially when it's such a relative rarity. If we were discussing fudball, the situation is somewhat different with nil-all, or one-all draws commonplace.

For two aussie rules teams to find themselves on exactly the same points tally at the end of four quarters of hectic football is, and should be widely acknowledged as, a testament to the never-say-die courage and determination of two groups of athletes fighting each other to a standstill over an allotted period.

Far from seeking mechanisms to thwart draws, we should be celebrating these rare occurrences and lauding the athletes involved.

Watching the game on television from the comfort of my lounge chair, the excitement of the finish was almost stolen by the presence on the screen of a countdown clock. If not for the derring-do of Mitch Morton, the tension would have been gone from the game with more than 90 seconds still to play. Earlier this year, amid proposals to place countdown clocks on the main scoreboard, I challenged the rationale for countdown clocks. I am firmly of the view that countdown clocks should be banned full-stop — none in the media, none for the teams, none on the scoreboard.

Aussie rules audiences have suffered the tension of not knowing how long a quarter would run for a hundred or more years. Strategically, the game is different if you know exactly how much time is left, and it's UGLY.

Lets remove ALL countdown clocks. There's nothing to be gained and many moments of heart-rending tension to be experienced.

As the writing on the wall looms ever larger for Terry Wallace at Richmond — and with another six senior coaches potentially coming out of contract at the end of the year — attention will turn, inevitably, to the potential choices for seven AFL clubs.

In a series of previous posts, and this one follows on, I've looked at one relatively crude criterion that might be applied when clubs decide who to look at seriously. I'll be spending some effort in bringing a slightly more scholarly approach to the question as the season unfolds, but a superficial analysis right now serves to illustrate the minefield that club administrations are entering.

Following on from my previous arbitrary measurement (Premierships equal success), I decided to look at premiership years as players — playing in a grand final is not intrinsic as I'm focusing on cultural exposure rather than on-field experience of the last Saturday — of five current, and one recently-discarded, coaches. This is, of course, absolutely ad hoc and unscientific.

It's also interesting to note that a very low number of naturally-talented footballers have achieved the ultimate coaching success: Blight (2), Jesaulenko (1), Roos (1), Coleman (2), and, stretching the definition in my view, Matthews (4).

Gritty players who got the most out of their (limited) talent are over-represented: Parkin (4), Sheedy (4), Hafey (4), Jeans (4), Barassi (4), Kennedy (3), Malthouse (2), Pagan (2), Williams (1), Thompson (1 and counting) [and Clarkson (1)].

See Coaching credentials 2