SACKED podcast: Tony Cochrane on Stuart Dew future, Tasmanian AFL team

Gold Coast chief Tony Cochrane has given coach Stuart Dew’s work a ringing endorsement in the clearest sign yet he will lead the Suns well beyond 2022.

Tony Cochrane has warned a Hobart Stadium would lose millions every year.

Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane has given the strongest indication of the club’s desire to back its senior coach into the future, stating this week: “I’m a Stuart Dew fan”.

And Cochrane says the club does not need an Alastair Clarkson-type figure to build its brand in southeast Queensland as he pledged the club would play finals in the not-too-distant future.

Cochrane is adamant the Suns will not make binding statements about recontracting Dew given a pre-season pledge to consider his contract late in the season.

But Cochrane told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast of Dew after a season of significant growth: “For me, I place a lot of emphasis on people that put the hard work in and do the yards.”

The Suns are now expected to recontract Dew given the club’s strong game plan and growth despite the shock loss of star Ben King in the pre-season, with Gold Coast having won four of their past five games.

Cochrane said Dew’s absolute investment in the list of players and improving game plan had to put him in good stead.

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He lauded the bravery of Dew and list boss Craig Cameron to strip back the list and secure a group of tight-knit players of significant character that would remain together for a decade.

“What Mark (Evans) and I said at the start of the year very publicly, and Stu has 100 per cent support on this, he understands it, he sat with the board and discussed this,’’ he told Sacked.

“We said to Stu, ‘Don‘t worry about the contract. Let’s have a year where all you do and your only focus is the progression of our group’.

So we’ve given Stuey a clear set of instructions about just get on, let’s get progression into the young group, let’s observe that in the back half of the year, and, and we’ll make a decision from there.

“He’s comfortable with it and we’re comfortable with it but it’s a really harmonious place.

“One thing that I can truly observe with football clubs is if you‘ve got a whole group of players who love the coach, things are pretty good.

“Stuey has gone about learning his trade but the outstanding thing for me is the camaraderie and the respect and loyalty he‘s built up in the playing group has been absolutely outstanding. And he’s really involved. He has a real commitment. And I think that’s starting to bear fruit all over the park now.

“And, you know, we’re a hard team to play against now. Two or three years ago, you could shoot peas through us so he’s done a very, very good job. I’m a Stuart Dew fan.”

Tony Cochrane says he’s a fan of Suns coach Stuart Dew. Picture: Jerad Williams

Cochrane is one of Australia’s most successful sporting promoters but has a different take on the appeal of securing Alastair Clarkson to sell football in Queensland.

“Firstly, I‘ve never had a conversation with Alistair Clarkson about coaching the Gold Coast suns. I really like Alastair Clarkson, we have had some funny conversations together. He came up and visited me early one Saturday morning, had a cup of tea with me and told me all the reasons why Jaeger O’Meara would be much better at Hawthorn than the Gold Coast. It was a really interesting hour with a football genius.

“(But) I‘m not sure brand is everything. I think the Gold Coast Suns is developing a really interesting brand. When and if we do make it to finals at some stage which we certainly will do in the next couple of years, other than the team we’re playing every other person in Australia is going to barrack for the Gold Coast Suns. We love underdogs and by god we have played the role of underdogs.

“Most Australians go to the Gold Coast and have a bloody good holiday and associate it with fun, family and friendship.

“And there‘s a couple of reasons for that one. We love underdogs. And by God, have we played the role of the underdogs. And we’ll have all that goodwill behind us when we make it to finals, and we will make it to finals. And so I think our brand is actually pretty good.”

Stuart Dew enjoys a win with Oleg Markov.

TASSIE CENTREPIECE COULD COST CLUBS $12M-A-YEAR

Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane says a proposed $750 million Hobart Stadium could lose as much as $12 million a season as he expresses deep reservations about the viability of a 19th licence.

Former V8s Supercars boss Cochrane will make an official call on the AFL’s Tasmanian bid when he sees the final proposal but says “it’s going to take a lot of convincing to get me on a 19th franchise”.

The Gold Coast chairman is uniquely placed to comment given the Suns run Metricon Stadium and he is an entrepreneur with a lifetime of importing massive sporting and entertainment acts to Australia.

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He told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast Metricon Stadium cost $200 million to build and yet still loses around $2.5 million a year.

He has legitimate issues around talent, financing, the Hobart-Launceston split and the state’s population after doing business in Tasmania with the V8s across his career.

“Let me make crystal clear what I really believe because I have been enormously misquoted because it suits some people’s argument,” he told Sacked.

“Firstly, I have nothing against Tasmania. I have everything against the 19th franchise.

“But a 19th franchise, I do not believe the AFL can afford financially at the moment and into the foreseeable future. You know, you’ve got six clubs that are in need of financial help at the moment.

“Then in the competition side I don’t see that there’s another 40 or 50 great players out there. We’ve just all missed them. Right …

“And if you look at what we’ve got right at the moment, the two sides that are 17th and 18th are getting pounded. So I don’t think that helped by adding another group. So that’s sort of my background on Tasmania.

“Now let’s talk about the stadium piece specifically, because I actually think I’ve got a bit of insider trading here that everybody should be inquiring about.

Tony Cochrane has warned Tasmania’s AFL stadium could lose millions every year.

“We are a new club saddled with a stadium from day one. We have been at it for 12 years. And everyone talks about the money we are costing the AFL, but $2.5 million in round figures goes into trying to keep up with that stadium.”

Cochrane says the annual upkeep budget of stadiums is around one per cent of their value, with Tasmania’s added complication in an indoor stadium the budget to keep the grass alive.

“I do not believe the people of Tasmania are going to turn around and say, “Yeah, we’re all up for tipping an average $1500 to $2000 per person in Tasmania in the building of a stadium”.

“I don’t understand how the economics will even vaguely stack up which means either the Tasmanian government or the AFL is going to have a massive, massive annual bill to maintain a stadium that far south in Australia.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Hobart Stadium.

“If we are losing $2.5 million (per year) I will be very generous and say it will lose $5 million and more realistically $10 to $12 million a year. You do that every year, you have lost 100 million dollars over 10 years on running your stadium.”

Asked if the stadium economics meant the AFL could not afford a new stadium, Cochrane replied: “It’s an enormous challenge. Yeah, I mean, look, I’m just coming from a practical sense. I’ve been there. I’ve not only been there, I’m still living it every day. How the hell do we keep our stadium going? Ours only cost 200 million. So generally you say one per annum is about your maintenance budget. Right? How the hell do you afford a $750 million stadium? That’s going to be a covered stadium, you’re going to run up an electricity bill to knock everybody over to keep the grass alive.”

Tony Cochrane at Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium.

Cochrane said he had not already decided he would vote down the proposal but could not see how it could survive given the stadium issues.

Asked if he had already decided to vote against a new licence he said: “I didn’t say that either. I said I haven’t seen this final report. Everybody keeps telling me, ‘Wait to see the final report, cocko. It’s amazing. It’s the way it’s gonna be like the Bible. It’s gonna reveal all. And there’ll be angels singing and the whole thing’.

“To be fair until I see the final report I am sort of trying to keep an open mind but it’s going to take a lot of convincing to get me on a 19th franchise.”

Originally published as SACKED podcast: Tony Cochrane on Stuart Dew future, Tasmanian AFL team