Dare says Eade a victim of ‘life in football’
THE man who convinced Rodney Eade that he had a future as a coach says his exit from the Gold Coast Suns is simply an unfortunate part of life in football.
AFL Queensland coach of the century Norm Dare worked with Eade in the days of the Brisbane Bears at Carrara when the club won the 1991 VFL reserve grade premiership. Dare talked Eade and Mark Williams into becoming co-coaches of the reserves at a time they were winding down their playing days together.
Mark Williams went on to coach Port Adelaide to an AFL
flag and Eade took Sydney into a grand final.
“It’s disappointing to hear what has happened to Rocket but that’s footy,” Dare said.
“If you go by results, and if you know you’re not winning, then you’re in trouble.
“You can’t replace the players – it’s always the coach who gets the blame. It’s the nature of the beast.
“The board wants wins and if you don’t deliver then you’re are in strife.”
Dare feels “quite a number” of players have been disappointing, especially some who have been at Metricon Stadium for four or five years.
“One thing bugs me and that is that the worst players in the team seem to get roughly the same playing time on the field as the good ones do – and I can’t get over that,” he said.
“I feel Rocket has done a good job trying to clean up the culture but for some reason the Suns keep on getting injuries. Surely there is something wrong there because you can’t keep being so consistently unlucky with injuries.”
Dare, who coached the Bears in 1989 before stints as an assistant coach at North Melbourne and Geelong, said Michael Voss or Brett Ratten could be a good fit for the Suns role.
“There are a lot of good players retiring but whether the Suns would go with a firstyear coach is doubtful,” he said.
ONE THING BUGS ME AND THAT IS THAT THE WORST PLAYERS IN THE TEAM SEEM TO GET ROUGHLY THE SAME PLAYING TIME ON THE FIELD AS THE GOOD ONES.
NORM DARE