Dean Sayers quits as Woodville District Cricket Club coach

DEAN Sayers has quit as Woodville District Cricket Club coach after falling out with the Peckers over a lack of trust and a captaincy dispute involving his son.

Dean Sayers has returned to Woodville District Cricket Club as coach.

DEAN Sayers has quit as Woodville District Cricket Club coach after falling out with the Peckers over a lack of trust and a captaincy dispute involving his son Aaron.

Sayers, a state representative, dual premiership coach and former medium pacer at Woodville, resigned last month with a year remaining on his two-year contract.

It came after the Peckers’ committee sought to replace his son Aaron as vice-captain because of what it saw as a conflict of interest, considering his brother Chadd was already captain.

Sayers’s sons Aaron, a top-order batsman, and Chadd, a Redbacks paceman, are expected to also leave the club.

Sayers said the push to change vice-captains was “part” of his reason for leaving, though there were other factors.

“We had a bit of a falling out with the hierarchy,” Sayers said.

“I like to work with people I can trust and I don’t feel like I can do that (at Woodville).”

Sayers said his sons had captained under former coach Carl Hooper “and I went on with that, but people tend to think there’s a conflict of interest with our surname”.

Sayers said his sons had “made their own decisions – they’re old enough and ugly enough”.

Aaron has begun training with Port Adelaide, while Chadd has been tipped to move to Glenelg.

“All three decisions have been made pretty seriously and you lose a bit of sleep over it because they’re tough decisions,” Sayers said.

Sayers, who played for the Peckers for more than a decade during the 1970s and ‘80s, led the club to back-to-back premierships from 2007-09.

He stepped down in early 2010 to give the players “a new voice”, only to return to the role in May last year.

Woodville reached the semi-finals in the two-day competition last season.

Peckers committee member Tim Pillion said the club and Sayers had a “misunderstanding” over the direction of leadership for the new season.

“Going forward with Dean as coach, Chadd as the club captain and Aaron as vice- captain, we offered that as a conflict of interest, which Dean didn’t agree with,” Pillion said.

Pillion said the committee had “done everything” to keep Sayers, whom he described as a club legend.

Former Peckers batsman Sam McNally has replaced Sayers – now coach at Adelaide Turf club Woodville Rechabites – in the role.