Stuart’s plotting new era
STUART Dew admits it is a risk taking on the Gold Coast senior coaching position but says the bigger the challenge the bigger the rewards.
Dew – who signed a threeyear deal at the Suns – has tasted success at every club with which he has been involved, winning a flag at Port Adelaide and Hawthorn as a player and another as an assistant with the Sydney Swans.
Gold Coast have finished no higher than 12th in seven seasons and could struggle further if Gary Ablett gets his trade to Geelong and co-captain Tom Lynch departs a year later.
It doesn’t put off Dew, who said most coaches only get one shot at taking on a senior role.
“When you take any opportunity there is always a risk element but it was not front of mind (when deciding to accept the Suns position),” Dew said.
“It may have been in the past about other opportunities but certainly not with this one.
“All I saw was a great opportunity for me and the Gold Coast Suns to work together.”
Some of those prior opportunities included the chance to succeed Paul Roos at Melbourne in 2013 and the Brisbane Lions this time last year.
The 38-year-old, an assistant at Sydney since 2009, was ready to be a senior coach but wasn’t interested in those jobs.
So why take on the Suns who some say are the biggest battlers of the AFL? Because they are just that.
“We are all competitive so no one looks and thinks worstcase scenario,” Dew said.
“You certainly strive for the best-case scenario and you don’t put a ceiling on anything.
“Most clubs you take over are going to have things that need to improve and you back yourself as a senior coach to make those improvements.”
Dew said his relationship with Suns chief executive Mark Evans, who was football manager at Hawthorn during his time there, was a key driving force behind his decision.
“It’s not often you walk into a club where you have the relationship already so that was certainly a key driver that opened my eyes,” he said.
Sorting a list that has failed to produce results and deciding who the team of assistants will be around him are two of Dew’s highest priorities.
The assistants have been in limbo since Rodney Eade’s axing in August, growing irritated by the lack of clarity about their futures while Evans conducted his review of the football department.
Dew also said he’d be after inside midfielders and is eager to bolster key defensive stocks but was adamant many players were more than capable.
Dew said wife and TV presenter Sarah Cumming, and daughter Frankie, 5, and son Jack, 1, would move soon.