BACK ON THE TRAINING WHEELS
Blues face first-timer ride... again
CHRIS Judd once famously suggested Carlton didn’t want a coach “with training wheels on”, but the Blues may have little choice but to consider appointing another first-timer as the list of available candidates shortens.
Carlton president Luke Sayers, who was on the board that appointed Brendon Bolton and David Teague, made no secret of the fact he was searching for the biggest, best option to lead the team next year.
Moments after he announced the sacking of Teague late last month, Sayers said: “We’re looking for a coach and we’re looking for leaders here at Carlton that will leave no stone unturned in going after absolutely everything to win games of footy.
“Now we pivot and we’re looking for the best coach that we can possibly get to get a fantastic group winning games, into the finals next year, and away we go.
“We’re going to try and accelerate through the process.”
That acceleration has been met with a series of unexpected speed humps in recent weeks, changing the parameters of the search.
Four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson and Ross Lyon - the club’s two preferred options - are out … at least for now.
Of those who have coached at AFL level before, Justin Leppitsch won’t take a call from the Blues as he is joining Craig McRae at Collingwood; Brad Scott is in the running for the AFL footy operations job; Don Pyke wants to stay in Sydney; Nathan Buckley intends to be in the media next year; and Michael Voss is understandably wary of going through another process, having been overlooked by Carlton when Teague got the job in late 2019.
Carlton will ask the question of Chris Scott when Geelong’s 2021 campaign is over, but it would be hard to pry the 11-year coach away from GMHBA Stadium.
That means the Blues’ sixperson coaching subcommittee - including the great David Parkin - will have to cast the net wide in what some have deemed a lean market.
Richmond assistant Adam Kingsley narrowly missed out on the Collingwood job and is a highly rated football mind.
Jaymie Graham is undoubtedly an AFL coach-in-waiting, but is only 38 and seems to have time on his side.
Adem Yze, Blake Caracella, Daniel Giansiracusa and Jarrad Schofield have made good impressions in successful programs. Robert Harvey has stepped out of Collingwood after a decade.
Carlton’s strong preference is to secure a coach who has been there and done it before as an AFL senior coach.
It has offered Hail Marys or the monetary equivalent - to pique Clarkson’s interest.
But even if the Blues can secure outgoing Cats chief executive Brian Cook, it is unlikely to change the Hawthorn master coach’s mind.
Former St Kilda and Essendon great Brendon Goddard says Lyon could still be tempted if the Blues get to the end of their process and realise he is the best candidate.
“(Carlton) need an experienced coach, and if it is not Alastair Clarkson, then it has to be Ross Lyon,” Goddard told RSN this week.
“He would be perfect and (he) is exactly what that footy club needs. He is obviously annoyed at things … and the things they (Carlton) have told him and (now) gone against the grain. As he said, he has done an audition for 13 years now.
“I think they are going to come out of the end of it and say the guy at the head of the line after the process is an inexperienced coach, and, ‘Do we want to go down that path?’ I don’t think they can, so they will just resort back to Ross.”
Leppitsch said on SEN: “No, I’m not (going to consider the Carlton job). It’s got nothing to do with Carlton, it’s got nothing to do with anything else other than not now.”
If Sayers can’t get what he wants, the Blues could be forced to seek a coach who - in Judd’s words - might still have training wheels on.
That mightn’t be as bad as it sounds. In running a thorough, exhaustive process devoid of the “messiah complex” the club has so often subscribed to, they just might unearth a gem and put an experienced team of support staff around him.
After all, of the 21 flags won since 2000, only two coaches (Leigh Matthews and Mick Malthouse) had coached at a previous AFL club.