Bosses must get the right coach at right time
SUNS supremo Mark Evans insisted he wouldn’t start talking to prospective coaching candidates until the season ends – but this time next week he should be hitting the phones like a telemarketer.
It is a tough assignment because the likelihood is which- ever way he goes, the decision will not be universally popular, unless he is pulling Alastair Clarkson or John Longmire out of contract.
And there would be a rightful backlash from rivals if an AFL-owned club received extra funding to lure a flagwinning coach out of contract.
Evans is mulling over the profile of coach he wants but there is danger in determining the mould of coach first and then finding the person who best fits it. They did that with Rodney Eade.
Every candidate will have pros and cons on their CVs.
The knock on Suns interim coach Dean Solomon is that he has been part of the system that has failed for seven years.
Yet Barker, who has been at the battling Blues since 2011, is considered a frontrunner. Under that criteria, Sydney’s Stuart Dew would be preferable. He may be busy until late September.
Brad Scott is the bookies’ favourite and while Port Adelaide chairman David Koch was quick to issue a “hands off’ warning when Ken Hinkley was linked to the job, the silence has been deafening from the Kangaroos. The talk around Scott has it as a fait accompli that the job is his.
Scott has experience and a proven track record but he is also coaching the side that could win the wooden spoon.