AFL clubs have started to juggle the coaching chips as a host of assistants are moved on

BOTH Adelaide and Port Adelaide are set to part ways with assistant coaches, highlighting the increasing trend for AFL clubs to shuffle the decks in search of success.

Port Adelaide assistant coach Matthew Nicks may soon leave Alberton. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz

WHAT do Damien Hardwick at Richmond, Adam Simpson at the West Coast, Leon Cameron at GWS, Simon Goodwin at Melbourne, Alistair Clarkson at Hawthorn, Nathan Buckley at Collingwood, Ken Hinkley at Port Adelaide, John Longmire at Sydney, Chris Scott at Geelong, Brad Scott at North Melbourne, John Worsfold at Essendon and Don Pyke at the Crows all have in common?

Their short to mid-term coaching futures are secure at their current football clubs (as secure as any coaching job can be).

The same cannot be said for Ross Lyon at Fremantle, Luke Beveridge at the Western Bulldogs, Alan Richardson at St Kilda, Chris Fagan at Brisbane, Stewy Dew at the Gold Coast or Brendon Bolton at Carlton.

Despite statements to the contrary for most of them, they are all living on the edge, potentially two weeks away from unemployment.

All of them need a much better 2019 to guarantee their futures at their current home.

The problem is no longer whether to keep them or not, it’s who could possibly replace them.

It’s better the devil you know than the one you don’t and change simply for change sake is rarely the best recipe for success.

Richmond has proven it. Collingwood has followed suit.

If you have to interview a range of coaches, instead of having your sights set on an obvious candidate, stick with and work with what you’ve got and change those around him.

Assistant coaches are the new whipping boys in the AFL. The disposable commodities.

It was the Richmond way as recently as two years ago when they shuffled the deckchairs around Hardwick and success followed.

Alastair Clarkson has become a fixture as senior coach at Hawthorn. Picture: AAP

It is now also the Collingwood way and it is soon to be the St Kilda way.

As usual it is “monkey see, monkey do”, in the AFL. Don’t innovate, replicate!

The Crows and the Power are treading a similar path.

Matthew Nicks and Aaron Greeves are about to leave Alberton. Ben Hart and Ryan O’Keefe appear to be on the move from West Lakes.

Recent history shows premiership winning coaches are rarely instant success stories.

Hardwick took eight years to win his first premiership as a coach after five years as an assistant — that’s 13 years in the caper.

Beveridge had a similar lengthy apprenticeship through the VFL and the AFL and was 46 when his AFL premiership came.

Clarkson’s AFL coaching career began in 1999 alongside Tim Watson at St Kilda and while he was a premiership coach by 2008 after taking the Hawks role in 2005, he would wait another five years for his second flag.

Geelong coach Chris Scott is the recent exception winning his first premiership as coach of the Cats in his debut season of 2011.

Suns head coach Stuart Dew with assistant coach Matthew Primus. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

The cupboard has been bare ever since.

So who’s next? Who is the best choice, the most ready?

Luke Hodge is the most interesting but not the most ready.

Peter Sumich ticks a few boxes but at 50 years of age its now or never.

Simon Lloyd has a low profile and he has recently taken a sidewards step from coaching to take Stephen Hocking’s old job as general manager of football at Geelong.

The older brother of Matthew, Lloyd’s journey has seen him at Hawthorn, Collingwood and Fremantle before arriving at Geelong. It’s an impressive apprenticeship.

He is at the perfect age to take over the reins, much like Chris Fagan has done at Brisbane in his mid-50s.

The AFL has had its fascination with young coaches and it has had minimal success.

It is time to bring back the mature-aged mentors. The elder statesmen of the game and surround them with the new age assistants.

Recent history shows AFL coaching is now about the sum of all parts not just one man.