STRONG BONDS
DEW RESPONDS TO AXINGS:
SUNS coach Stuart Dew says his bond with axed assistant Dean Solomon is strong and the difficult decision to make him and other staff redundant had been made early to give them the best chance at finding another job.
Solomon, who nearly won the race to become Fremantle coach last year, was one of 14 Suns staff axed this week.
Rival clubs have expressed frustration at the Suns’ costly decision to offload Solomon and four fellow assistant coaches.
Payouts for the five will be excluded from the 2020 soft cap under a special AFL termination clause to assist clubs push under next year’s $6.3 million football department spending limit.
It was suggested that a strained relationship between Dew and his deputy may have been behind the move.
But Dew said his bond with Solomon was strong and he would go into bat for any of the departing coaches, should they need a reference.
“We have had to make difficult decisions and it’s purely because of this environment,” Dew said.
“We knew, and we have been saying it internally to everyone, that footy clubs and departments are not going to look like what they did last year and we have been trying to prepare everyone as best we can to give them as much notice.
“That is part of the reason for doing it five weeks out from the end of the season, so they can look for other opportunities and get a headstart on some of these other clubs.
“If it were me I’d just want to know, the earlier the better.”
Suns football manager Jon
Haines said any suggestion of a breakdown in the relationship between Dew and Solomon was “complete nonsense”.
“There’s no rift,” Haines said. “The working relationship between all the coaches has been outstanding.”
Nick Malceski, Ash Prescott, Justin Koschitzke and Andrew Swallow will also depart the club.
All but one had contracts extending beyond 2020 but all the outgoing coaches have individual contracts with variations in their termination clauses.
Malceski and Solomon both attended overseas personal development trips last year and it’s understood they were part of Gold Coast’s long-term plans before COVID-19 struck.
The Gold Coast club could land on a final coaching group of five to six, including Dew, for 2021.
Among those left are Josh Francou (midfield), Josh Drummond (defence), Tate Kaeslar (stoppages) and Tim Clarke (development).
Several other clubs have let go some assistants, who may yet find a home at Adelaide, which want to give Matthew Nicks more support.