“Woosha” Worsfold was the bookies’ favourite to be the first coach sacked in AFL 2011 but it would seem that markets would need to have been revised! Even “Dead Man” Bailey might yet walk.
But it’s that time of the footy season where the deckchairs start to get shuffled.
SANFL Club Glenelg last week released Mark Micken from his coaching responsibilities, giving Kris Massie the poisoned chalice for the time being.
They say that there are sacked coaches and those who will soon be…
Mick Malthouse pretends to have dodged this fate this year, but it is really just a gentler nudge.
In some comps it is a question of finding someone willing to take the load and its attendant misery.
You can keep it by default – Primus?
So, who is in the crosshairs in the various comps? And why?
And what coaches do you recall being prematurely ejected?
Norm Smith. Cut down in his prime. Had another couple of decades in him at least.
And have Melbourne ever really recovered?
One sacked coach I feel for who won’t get mentioned.
Wayne Britain. Sacrificed because Jack was trying to save himself with a big name appointment.
Pagan was the wrong coach at the wrong time for Carlton.
Neil Craig must surely be due to retire. Obviously injuries have made the Crows look worse than they are, but I suspect that there is a link between Craig’s training methods and the Crows injury list.
Almost every time Tommy Hafey was sacked (Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong and Sydney) the club that sacked him perormed badly the following season.
“perormed” is the new way of spelling performed.
Based on your comments Dave, Tommy Hafey would have to go close to being the most sacked AFL / VFL coach. Four times.
Didn’t South Adelaide give Don Scott 6 weeks as coach prior to giving him the Khyber?
2003 – Jeff Torborg fired as Manager of the Florida Marlins who sported a 16-22 record at the time. 72 year old Jack McKeon replaced Torborg and led the Fightin’ Fish to their second WS victory in 6 years. Last week 80 year old McKeon was named as the replacement for Edwin Rodrieguez, who resigned as Marlins manager.
If not for Mark Robbins’ goal for Manchester United in their third round FA Cup win at Nottingham Forest in Januray 1990, manager Alex Ferguson would’ve beenn shown the door. Robbins scored the winner in the SF replay against Oldham, United won the cup in a replay against Crystal Palace and the rest is history.
MCR
MCR
St Kilda’s sacking of Malcolm Blight after half a season is the most momentous for me personally.
Grew up following West Torrens in the SANFL, and first VFL memory is listening to ’66 GF on the old bakelite radio with my dad. We hated the Port Adelaide magpies, so any team that make the Victorian magpies bleed was the team for me.
25 years of false hopes, brief elation and extended misery followed. Moved to WA in ’97 and despite marrying the Avenging Eagle, I stayed true to the Saints until that fateful day.
I loved Stan Alves (still do as a man, a commentator and a coach). Sacking him for Watson when they were still finalists was a joke. Appointing an untried media celebrity like Tim Watson was bizzare.
Appointing Blight was a masterstroke. You knew you were getting a left field genius, who would break the corporate mould. Death or glory was worth a go.
But after half a season that moron Butters and his greedy sidekick Thomas, ditch a man with a 20+ year record as coach and player.
On hearing the news I sent the Avenging Eagle an email to the effect that “I totally and unreservedly renounce any affection or respect for the St Kilda football club etc etc”.
I went from Eagles observer to supporter, and the rest as they say is history. Marital harmony (not E Harmony), a premiership, and despite the ups and downs – the sense of a club that knew where it was going.
St Kilda – 10 more years of hubris, heartbreak and hookers.
I rest my case.
Thanks Rod and Grant – your sacking of Blight – saved my sanity, my marriage and my love of footy.
Didn’t Jack Cahill take the South adelaide job a couple of seasons ago, start in a blaze of glory, and then be gone by mid-season?
Wasn’t Bomber Thompson’s neck on the chopping block as the axe was being sharpened at the start of 2007?
Whatever happened to Paul Feltham?
There should be a book written on Vics who went to coach in SA – led by Don Scott and closely followed by Big Nick- and there were a heap others (Weideman, Birt, Teasdale, Phil Carman (even though he started his senior footy career in SA he was originally a Vic), Swamp Fox Patterson, etc).