Calls for AFL, senior coaches to come together amid ‘unprecedented’ crisis

Dean Laidley is the latest in a string of ex-coaches whose struggles have been revealed after moving on from the job. Now some of the biggest names in the game have called on the AFL to act.

Paul Roos wants the AFL to investigate the mental strain on coaches.

Coaching legends Paul Roos and David Parkin have called on the AFL to use Dean Laidley’s downward spiral and the coronavirus as the catalyst to investigate the mental strain on coaches.

Another former coach Terry Wallace said it was time for an investigation into the toll that working in the AFL took on coaches after they fell out of the system.

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In the past three years, former Tiger coach Danny Frawley has taken his own life, ex-Essendon coach James Hird survived a suicide attempt, and both Mark “Bomber” Thompson and Laidley have battled drug issues.

AFL Coaches Association chief executive Mark Brayshaw said the association continued to offer counselling for current and past coaches but was aware of the extraordinary pressure they were under.

The Herald Sun understands Laidley confided in some of his close friends about his alternate lifestyle while he was a senior coach at North Melbourne but told them he was desperate to keep it quiet.

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Paul Roos wants the AFL to investigate the mental strain on coaches.

Friends have speculated about whether he found a release in drugs as an escape from keeping other aspects of his life private.

Amid what Wallace said was an “unprecedented” crisis in coaching ranks, Roos said there was an extraordinary amount of pressure to perform.

“Thankfully most coaches are pretty healthy but the industry you come into isn’t always a healthy industry. When you put pressure on top of it that becomes more destructive,” Roos, who now conducts Nurture Group retreats specialising in leadership and culture, said.

“The conversation has to start out of all of this (coronavirus), what do we want from a coach?

“Getting the 18 senior coaches together would be a great start.

“A well-balanced coach comes in at 7.30am or 8am and everyone follows. But if you step over the mark as a senior coach that hurts everyone.”

Roos saw the media hound his good friend Ross Lyon out of his Fremantle job last year and says the pay-off for greater media access has to be more responsible treatment of coaches.

“There is always going to be pressure but there is also pressure we should be uncomfortable with,” Roos said.

“The stuff with Rossy was not on. It overstepped the mark. If we can collectively agree with that, we step forward.”

Roos says friend and former Fremantle coach Ross Lyon was hounded out of the job. Picture: Getty Images

Brayshaw said coaching was the ultimate thrill-ride but had pitfalls when coaches fell out of the system.

“We do surveys of coaches every year and the job satisfaction is extremely high but having had a ringside seat to their job I am acutely aware of the intensity of the stress they are under,” Brayshaw said.

“It is a relentless task they perform. We encourage them to complete formal qualifications so when they leave the industry their chances of getting another job skyrocket but some coaches have a Plan B and others don’t.

“There is no substitute for the exhilaration of the game and after that intoxication it can be pretty lonely.

“There is a challenge when a coach finishes because there are very few industries as exhilarating to work in as the AFL.”

Former Carlton coach David Parkin has long been one of the biggest advocates for AFL coaches.

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Carlton premiership coach David Parkin was also the president of the AFL Coaches Association and has long been a pioneer for work-life balance.

“Winning at all costs sometimes overrules the balance you should have in your life,” Parkin said.

“It worries the hell out of me and it always will. Coaching can be totally and utterly consuming.

“Malcolm Blight and I were the last two coaches who believed for all the obvious reasons you needed a work-life balance.

“I did it as much for the joy of doing it as the mental aspects that went with it.

“Danny in the finish was determined that he wouldn’t see treatment or take the medicine he was taking.

“I would like to think of the positives of this (health crisis) is we might get more of a balance.

“It’s not an easy job as a senior coach and it puts you under terrible pressure.”

Former Richmond coach Terry Wallace says the AFL must investigate the toll coaching takes on those after the finish in the job.

Originally published as Calls for AFL, senior coaches to come together amid ‘unprecedented’ crisis