I agree that the job of Head Coach in the AFL has become too onerous for any one person. I think back to James Hird’s time at Essendon: the team was playing well, and he seemed to have the trust and admiration of the playing group, but he wasn’t across the details of the entire football department so when an element of the club was pushing past the boundaries of legal and ethical behaviour he didn’t provide the necessary oversight. No-one did. It torpedoed the club for a decade.
My uninformed view from the outside is that the best structure would be to divide the responsibilities along the following lines:
Football Manager – as Shane suggests, I think this person should oversee everything other than pure coaching and strategy.
Head Coach – manages the end-to-end strategy, works closely with the players and is the leader of the coaches.
Captain – I think they should have a bit more say on gameday on the field, and work more closely with the Head Coach.
List Manager – I think they should have a slightly elevated role – probably closer to the decision-making power of the current Football GM - and should probably sit outside the coaching structure so they can make better long-term decisions.
I’d tend towards a more senior presence as the Football Manager, and lean a little younger with the Head Coach. I think given how closely they’d be working together you would almost need them to come as a package deal and be hired and fired together. If you put the Head Coach’s position in the hands of the Football Manager it is going to make that a very fraught relationship. I think that’s probably why it doesn’t happen now - no driven and competitive Head Coach-in-waiting will want to subject themselves to all the scrutiny of the gig when so much of performance of the team rests in another person’s hands, especially when they also have the chance to be scapegoated when things go badly.
Thinking about Freo’s next appointment, you’d love to get someone like Brett Ratten to be the Football Manager, and someone like Justin Longmuir to be the Head Coach.
I think at some point a club will end up splitting the roles, but I’m not sure Freo has the cache to be the first.
