HOLDING NERVE

Short-term pain is all part of the long game

COACHING at the elite level is cutthroat and the Suns had already axed two coaches when Stuart Dew came on board.

So with four and then three wins coming in his first two years at the helm in 2017 and 2018, you would be forgiven for pushing the panic button and ditching the plan in search of short-term gains.

Two things stopped Dew from doing that.

The first was how comfortable both he and the board were because of the clear fiveyear plan Dew, football manager Jon Haines and list manager Craig Cameron had.

The salary cap needed sorting, a new game style was being implemented and the list needed work.

Dew knew he had time. The second was the overwhelming response from the playing group who voted with their feet, with more than 20 of the core group re-signing in the past 18 months.

“We knew there would be a bit of pain going forward but we wanted to have a clear picture of what winning looked like, even if the scoreboard wasn’t ticking over,” Dew said.

The club planned to be playing “finals-like” football by the end of 2020 but the exit of former co-captains Tom Lynch and Steven May in late 2018 had them wondering if it would set them back 12 months. It hasn’t.

The foundation has been set both on and off-field and Dew has been clear about the shift in expectations internally over the coming two years.

“We want to be another footy club capable of contending,” Dew said. “That is what drives us every day. We have got our development goals within the footy club.

“When you become teams who think they can walk down the race every week and actually believe they can win, we are right in the thick of that at the moment.”