Andrew Fagan and Mark Ricciuto say the Adelaide Crows will search far and wide for the right man to take over form Don Pyke
Crows staff, officials and players attended outgoing coach Don Pyke’s house on Thursday night to thank him for his service and start the process of replacing him, with Mark Ricciuto and Andrew Fagan expected to be included on the search panel.
Adelaide board member and club great Mark Ricciuto has branded Don Pyke’s decision to step down two years before his contract expired as “extremely brave and courageous” and indicated he will be part of the panel to find a new leader.
Ricciuto revealed he was one of many players, officials and staff at Pyke’s house on Thursday night “to say thank you and well done” after the coach of four years earlier announced his resignation. He commended Pyke for making the tough decision.
“That is a big call, most coaches in that position with two years to go wouldn’t have done what he has done,” Ricciuto said on Friday morning.
“I think it’s extremely brave and courageous what he’s doing for himself and for the footy club.
“Don Pyke is an absolute A-grade person, as good a bloke as you can get.”
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Ricciuto said Pyke’s 60.75 per cent winning record — the highest of any Crows coach — spoke for itself.
“He’s left a club after four years, he’s made a grand final that’s a great effort,” Ricciuto said on Triple M Breakfast.
“I played for 16 years and played in one grand final. It’s hard to get to, you need to look at that as a success. Yes, they didn’t win but it’s a still good effort and still a great win -loss record.
“It hasn’t gone to plan the past two years. He’s putting his hand up as the senior coach in charge to say he’s part of that, ‘I’m responsible for that’. He also feels he’s not the guy who can guide them out of it. That’s a big call.”
Ricciuto, who is also the club’s director of football, said he expected to be on the panel to begin the “extensive search” for the new coach, with chief executive Andrew Fagan, another board member and an external voice also expected to be involved.
Fagan said on Friday the club would finalise the panel as quickly as possible.
“There are some people we’d like to talk with and we need to do that pretty quickly,” Fagan said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“There are people associated with teams currently playing finals and we’ll work through that in the next couple of weeks and look to make a decision that our fans will see as one that gives us the best possible chance of being successful in the future.”
Fagan said they would leave no stone unturned in finding the right man to lead Adelaide in 2020 and beyond.
“We’ll look across far and wide,’’ Fagan added.
“There are some talented coaches at existing clubs both in and out of finals.
“There will be some that are still involved in the finals series and some that we can reach out to,’’ he said.
Ricciuto was unable to say what sort of coach the club would be targeting.
“I do like the experience and maturity an older coach brings but I also know the game is changing and we’ve got a different generation of players that need different things to what we needed 10 or 20 years ago.
“As long as we get the right coach, that’s right for me.”
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Fagan refuted claims that up to 10 players were wanting to leave the Adelaide Football Club in the off season.
“That’s not true,’’ Fagan said.
“We’re working through what our list needs to look like moving forward, it’s obviously a bit of a transition period for the club,’’ he said.
Fagan said Adelaide would continue with the changes to their list while they search for a new coach.
“We won’t wait as such,’’ Fagan said.
“List management has a number of people that sit on it and we have a number of people
So of those, decisions sit with the club and not the player.
“We’ll continue with the plan we’ve got, but obviously as soon as a coach is appointed we’ll feed that into the decision process.”
Fagan also clarified the details of a potential pay out on the two years remaining of Pyke’s contract.
“The fact is its resignation not a termination,’’ Fagan said.
“There is normal exit payment, that’s reflective of a resignation and will have no impact on the football club,’’ he said.
Ricciuto said the club wanted people to exit properly.
“There’s an exit payment of a smallish amount that won’t impact on the football soft cap next year.”