David Parkin pays tribute to fellow AFL Coaches’ Association pioneer Danny Frawley

Some called him Danny, some Spud, but to David Parkin he was ‘Dan’. The coaching great, like the rest of the football community, has been left shattered at Danny Frawley’s death, and has opened up on the “tough day” the pair shared.

Coaching great David Parkin says he is struggling to come to terms with the loss of Danny Frawley.

Footy legend David Parkin says he is struggling to come to terms with the death of his friend and fellow coaching advocate Danny Frawley.

A sombre Parkin said he was on a plane from Perth on Monday when news broke of Frawley’s death in a single-car accident near Ballarat.

“The bus driver told me about it driving back to my car from Melbourne Airport at 2am this morning,” Parkin, who refers to Frawley as ‘Dan’, said.

Coaching great David Parkin says he is struggling to come to terms with the loss of Danny Frawley.

“I just couldn’t come to grips with it. I said ‘are you sure’ and he said, ‘yes, it’s been all over the news’.”

Parkin, who was the president of the AFL Coaches’ Association when the St Kilda great was chief executive, said the pair had shared a “difficult time” when they departed the organisation together in 2014.

Parkin’s role was voluntary, while the job was Frawley’s main source of income, but the 76-year-old said the former Richmond coach took the disappointment of losing the position in his stride.

“I was bitching and whining as I always do … it would have been twice as difficult for him to handle than me,” Parkin said.

“He accepted it and got on with it without bitching or whining or complaining that he’d been dealt a blow.

“Dan had the courage and character to deal with it in the right way.”

Parkin and Frawley in 1989, promoting a $1.5m sponsorship deal for junior football.

Parkin said he, like many others, was struggling to come to terms with Frawley’s death, given his ability to lighten the load for those around him.

“He just had an incredible capacity to find the good in people and the good in all situations,” Parkin said.

“Everybody I know who worked with or knew him considered him an absolute joy because of this positivity which, obviously, wasn’t enough for him to cope himself. For him not to be able to deal with it himself, that’s the saddest part of it.

“For someobnody who outwardly appeared to be doing so well — but he literally wasn’t coping — I just haven’t been able to come to grips with it, because it’s just a natural contradiction.”

The four-time premiership coach said he was shattered for Frawley’s family.

“It’s impossible to explain and damn difficult for everyone to deal with,” he said.

“If we’re struggling, you think of Anita and the kids, how are they ever going to get their lives back together going forward again?

“My heart goes out to them — they’re the people who are going to suffer the consequences most and how do you help them? I don’t know.”

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Originally published as David Parkin pays tribute to fellow AFL Coaches’ Association pioneer Danny Frawley