AFL coaches ride wave of emotions during the 2015 season, writes Mark Robinson

A FOOTBALL season starts with hope and pressure builds from there.

nathan buckley and paul roos

A FOOTBALL season starts with hope and pressure builds from there.

Carlton coach Mick Malthouse is already feeling the pinch.

It was one game of 22, but questions before Thursday night’s game have become bullet points.

Are we fast enough? Have we the talent? Did I coach defensively with the lack of talent? Jones and Jaksch forward? Bring in Casboult? Where is the goalscoring coming from? Who was bloody accountable as Richmond cut a swathe through the corridor?

Carlton supporters left the MCG full of doubt and frustration.

Ultimately, they will ask themselves one question all season? Is Mick Malthouse the right person to coach Carton.

Blues president Mark LoGuidice said the coaching position would be discussed midyear _ at the earliest. He is a cool cat, LoGuidice. He fobs off media inquiries with a flick of words and nobody knows what he’s thinking.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley was asked on AFL 360 on Monday night if, in fact, he feels he is coaching for his future?

He answered: ‘Every single day.’’

It might be true, but from the outside, the pressure arrives at weekend, as heavy and unyielding as a removalist van.

Carlton coach Mick Malthouse. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Buckley is seemingly judged harshly because he is Buckley _ confident and assured _ and because of the Eddie McGuire-transition of Malthouse to Buckley.

It was an adventurous play by McGuire to keep Buckley, but it has added pressure to the squeeze and, as a consequence, added pressure to Maguire’s decision.

Buckley has coached for three seasons for 17 wins, 14 wins and 11 wins. Last year he started 8-3 and curbed by injuries finished 3-8.

He, like Malthouse, needs improvement.

It is a win-loss furnace for all coaches, but improvement doesn’t automatically mean more wins

If Buckley lost 15 games by less than 10 points and finished 15th, what do they do? Sack Him? No way.

Buckley certainly isn’t helped by comments by Maguire that they can pinch a premiership (whimsical comment) and Gary Pert’s comment the club would be disappointed if they miss finals (serious comment). The job is hard enough without special comments from above.

While the Malthouse move lingers, this is clearly Buckley’s team now.

He has stripped back the teams, tried to changed the culture, and made radical trade decisions. The culture query is a curly one. It’s perfectly fine to develop good people, but successful football teams need their mongrel dogs, too.

Has the mighty black and white gone too vanilla?

Meanwhile, Lynch and White haven’t worked, Clinton Young is injured a lot, Karnezis didn’t get a game tonight, early draft picks have missed entire seasons, Levi Greenwood busted a leg and Keeffe and Josh Thomas won’t likely be seen again.

It is a shit sandwich at the moment and Buckley somehow has to conjure a ham and salad sandwich every weekend.

Essendon coach James Hird. Picture: Paul Loughnan

Season 2015 might be the making of him.

Let’s be honest, pressure is on all coaches.

James Hird would’ve won very season of Survivor if he played, but now that he’s back coaching, it’s all about winning for Essendon.

Bomber Thompson helped prepare the team, the players wanted Hird, so let’s the see the players play for him.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick will be satisfied this morning. His team played high-end footy. They strangled Carlton for two quarters defensively and ran like the wind when they had the ball. It’s a strong combination.

But he needs a finals finish and a finals win to continue to the upwards graph.

Pick any coach and a footy team.

Brad Scott can’t let slip the momentum towards a premierships. Adam Simpson would want to find consistency. Al Clarkson is hunting a third with an ageing list. The Swans are good but can’t prove to be great. And Ross Lyon is a genius but a flawed one without a flag.

Who else? Alan Richardson desperately needs his team to compete for longer. And I mean desperately. Rocket apparently has been handed a platter, the same with Leppitsch with a squad of A nd B grade midfielders and nothing short of a premiership would see Ken Hinkley and Port Adelaide be judged as an opportunity missed.

And then there’s Paul Roos and Melbourne.

He is seen to be the coaching master. Wooed by the AFL and Peter Jackson, he is pragmatic with his philosophies and beliefs and confident he his setting up the foundations for bright future.

He improved the team defensively in 2014, but scores of 51, 30, 47, 38, 28, 34, 36, 51, 34 and 53 are simply not good enough.

The master coach is being tested.

Originally published as AFL coaches ride wave of emotions during the 2015 season, writes Mark Robinson