Sacked Podcast: Former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson on 2005 AFL semi-final loss to Swans

Geelong fans will never forget Nick Davis’s heroics in the 2005 semi-final, but Brenton Sanderson says he still blames himself for the moment that ruined his last AFL game.

Brenton Sanderson says he still blames himself for failing to marshall Geelong’s defence in the famous Nick Davis semi-final that became the final contest of his 199-game Cats career.

And the premiership-winning assistant coach says that while he would pick Gary Ablett Jr over his brilliant father Gary Sr, Nathan Ablett had enough talent to be the best of that football family.

Sanderson’s 209-game career with Adelaide, Collingwood and Geelong came to a close when Davis kicked the last four goals of the 2005 semi-final at the SCG to steal the game from the Cats.

In that dramatic last-gasp ball-up with seconds on the clock the Cats defenders were perfectly positioned to clog the stoppage before Sydney’s forwards dragged them away to clear space in a set play for Davis.

Cats half-back Sanderson had already announced he would retire before that finals series but Davis’s left-foot snap became his final moment in 14 seasons as a player.

“We just hadn’t been put in that situation where we had the maturity or the leadership, and I am mostly to blame because it was my last game and I was in my early 30s, I should have been able to see that coming at such a critical time in the game,” he told Sacked.

“In the spur of the moment sometimes you miss those things and it was heartbreaking,

A devastated Brenton Sanderson after his last match, the incredible 2005 second semi-final.

“‘Bomber’ even in the rooms after the game, you sometimes see the crocodile tears in the changerooms from players, but this was an outpouring of emotions I hadn’t seen before. It was crazy.

“It was a really tough loss, you pack up your boots for the last time and you get on with your life. For the other boys, it was a real turning point.”

Asked to choose who was the greater Ablett – junior or senior – Sanderson makes the incredible call than Nathan could have been best of the lot.

“I am going to go with Junior, but I am so grateful to have played with both. I think (Darren) Milburn, (Peter) Riccardi, Ben Graham and myself are the only four to have played with all three, to have played with Nathan as well. They are almost equally as good, but little Gary Jr is an absolute freak. He is probably my most favourite player to ever see play.

“If we had seen more of Nathan, six foot four (193m), and he had that same talent. He could have been the best, he was unbelievable, but he just didn’t love footy. He had the talent, don’t worry about that.”

Gary Ablett Jr and assistant coach Brenton Sanderson.

Geelong’s players would endure a disastrous 2006 campaign but after a season as a Port Adelaide coach Sanderson returned to help the club charge to three premierships in five seasons.

“You try to patch over memories and sink them deep into your soul. This game gets replayed on Fox Footy once a week. It is an incredible game. At three-quarter-time we are seven goals and Sydney are three, and this is a final,” he said.

“They have got to double their score in the last quarter without us scoring. We were out on our legs, Steven King was injured, we had no ruckman. Cam Mooney was our centre half-forward, he played the rest of the game in the ruck. We were out on our feet, we were gone, and then Nick Davis kicks four goals on his own in the last quarter.”

Sanderson: I hope Bucks coaches again

Nathan Buckley’s great mate Brenton Sanderson says he hopes the Collingwood legend coaches again at senior level because the flame still burns to win that elusive AFL premiership.

Sanderson and Buckley have been best mates for decades in careers that at one stage saw both coaching 2012 preliminary final teams that could have met in a grand final.

Then they were both part of the Collingwood coaching panel that was beaten by a Dom Sheed goal in the 2018 grand final.

Buckley left Collingwood by mutual consent last year and will work with Fox Footy as part of a two-year deal but Sanderson told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast he had too many great qualities not to coach again.

“I hope he does coach again, to be honest, I really do,” Sanderson said.

“Because I think he’s got all the attributes to be a really successful senior coach, and he already has been. He’s an absolute star.

“He’s got so much to offer the industry. But it’s up to him. He might really enjoy his role in the media. And I know he’s passionate about some other things he’s got bubbling under the surface. Coaching is hard.”

Buckley and Sanderson have been friends for decades. Picture: Getty Images

Asked if Buckley would be unfulfilled if he didn’t coach a premiership side, Sanderson replied: “I‘m not sure, it’s probably a question you’re gonna have to ask him because I actually don’t know the answer to that.

“I’m so proud of what he’s achieved as a person in footy and I think he should be too, but he’s probably got that little flame burning somewhere in his body that says, ‘How good would (a premiership) be?’ He will achieve a lot more in life outside footy as well.”

Sanderson still cannot believe Collingwood did not win that 2018 premiership after being reminded of it constantly while on the road during Covid.

“We were in isolation a lot in the last couple of years when you can’t leave the hotel rooms and you have free-to-air or the Fox Footy channel and then the grand final is on, so you just watch it,” he said.

“We had a really good first quarter, the first 28 minutes of the first quarter were unbelievable, really. And even now when you‘re watching you think, ‘We’re gonna win’.

“And I know the history books will show they won that game. But Collingwood are five goals to zero at the 28-minute mark of the first quarter and then (West Coast) scrub a couple of goals. And so they come in and quarter-time and it’s five goals to two instead of five goals to zero.

Sanderson with Collingwood assistant Scott Selwood. Picture: Michael Klein

“If those two goals don’t go through it’s five goals to zero and I’m not sure of the mindset of the West Coast players coming in. But to their credit they had a self belief that day they were never out of it. And they weren’t.”

He told the Sacked podcast he believes in Jordan De Goey despite his continual misadventures and is confident he will one day make the most of his wondrous potential.

“I get on really well with Jordy, I think he’s a fantastic character. I really do. I really love him. I do really actually care about him,” Sanderson said.

“Because I’ve coached him and I’ve sat with him, and I’ve seen him at his best and at his worst, he’s a really good kid. But he’s made some mistakes.

“I have got young kids and young daughters and he’s done some really silly things which he‘s going to regret and he’s gonna have to live with. But his heart’s in the right place. He needs some good support around him.

“He just needs to ensure that he‘s making better decisions. But I hope we hope we see the best of him on the footy field. And I hope we see the best of him off the footy field too, because he’s a great character.”

Brenton Sanderson has joined the Sacked Podcast. Picture: AAP Images

‘I was ashamed’: Sando’s family feared coaching might ruin him

Former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson says his sister was so worried about the pressures of his job coaching the Crows she was relieved when he was sacked because of fears the stress might kill him.

Sanderson told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast that her immediate response when he was brutally sacked mid-contract was: “I am happy. Because the stress was going to kill you.”

Sanderson was sacked despite an 11-win season and a round 23 victory over St Kilda by 79 points.

The Crows had stamped his papers because they had fallen in love with the idea of brilliant footy strategist Phil Walsh coaching the club.

A reflective Sanderson admitted he internalised too much and did not handle the sacking of older players in a turbulent period in which key mentor Dean Bailey died and the club was stripped of picks in the Kurt Tippett affair.

Brenton Sanderson was sacked by the Crows after an 11-win season. Picture: Sarah Reed

Amid a conversation on the immense pressures senior coaches are now facing, he said the unique pressure meant he would never again put himself up for a senior coaching role at AFL level.

Club great Chris McDermott called Sanderson’s termination “the most brutal decision the club has made”.

Sanderson said he was rocked by the decision only a year after being given a coaching extension.

“I was three years into what I thought was going to be a long career,” he said.

“And I really loved being a senior coach at the time. There were some stressful years there. And there were a lot of things we had to overcome. (When I was sacked) they are very difficult phone calls.

“I called my dad. I called my mum. I called my wife. And I called my sister. And her response was, ‘Oh, that’s good. I am happy. Because the stress was going to kill you. Your stress was going to kill you’.

“She said, ‘You have changed. You have changed as a person. I could see you were deteriorating. And you’re so stressed. You were so anxious. You had this awful bitterness in your personality’. She said, ‘I’m glad’.”

In a coaching career that spanned Port Adelaide, Geelong, Adelaide and Collingwood, Sanderson learned to delegate and be more inclusive but said it was a challenge as the walls closed in.

Brenton Sanderson with his daughter. Picture: Sarah Reed

Brenton Sanderson and his wife Veronika.

When he was sacked he shut off those around him including his closest mates.

“I was embarrassed. I really took it hard. I was ashamed,” Sanderson said.

“I’d let a lot of people down and myself down and my family and even my parents. They’re still in Adelaide and I just felt that I let myself down. I shut a lot of people out. A lot of people tried to help me and call me and I just shut down.

“Bucks (Nathan Buckley) rang me every day. Mark Thompson rang me every day. There were a lot of people who did reach out but I did shut down. That’s the industry that we are in.

“If you have to accept the role as a senior coach you have to be prepared that one day you’re going to lose your job. But you have to hold your head high and understand you did the best job that you could and get on with the next challenge.”

Sanderson reunited with good mate Nathan Buckley at Collingwood at a side that nearly won the 2018 premiership, but said the toll on his family would be too intense for him to want to be a senior coach again.

Brenton Sanderson giving his senior players a dressing down. Picture: Sarah Reed

“It‘s really quite difficult. We all get into it because we dream about standing up on the premiership dais and going into immortality as a premiership coach but the reality is there is a lot of heartache, a lot of stress, a lot of public pressure,” he said.

“The scrutiny is stronger than ever and coaches are more accessible than ever before. So there’s nowhere to hide.

“So personally, I won‘t ever do it again. And I thought about it, but I’ve got a young family, I’ve got three beautiful young kids. I never want to put them in a position where they have to defend me at school.

“And I think my wife would say the same thing.

“I‘m probably happier not being a coach. And that sounds crazy, because it’s such an important role and a role that’s imperative to success and winning premierships.”

Originally published as Sacked Podcast: Former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson on 2005 AFL semi-final loss to Swans