Gold Coast sacking Rodney Eade says more about the club than the former coach, writes Jon Anderson

RODNEY Eade’s sacking from the Gold Coast coaching job says a lot more about the club than Eade. JON ANDERSON looks at how it all went so wrong for Rocket.

RODNEY Eade’s sacking from the Gold Coast coaching job says a lot more about the club than Eade.

And don’t forget we are talking about a club that was predicted to quickly dominate the competition when it entered the AFL seven years ago, as predicted by Matt Rendell in 2010 when he was recruiting manager of the Adelaide Crows.

“Gold Coast will win its first flag around 2014-2015, and then between them and West Sydney they will win the next 10. No one is going to be able to compete … it is scary,” said Rendell, who was echoing the thought patterns of many in the AFL industry.

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The blame for initially failing to do so was largely, and perhaps unfairly in hindsight, laid squarely at the feet of inaugural coach Guy McKenna, who had four years at the helm (2011-2014) for 17th, 17th, 14th and 12th.

Eade, 59, was hired on the back of successful stints with Sydney and the Western Bulldogs where he largely coached teams that were hard to play against and that made the finals. Under his guidance the Suns have finished 16th, 15th and are currently 15th with a win-loss record of 6/13.

Rodney Eade has been sacked by the Suns. Picture: Colleen Petch

At 56 when appointed, Eade was seen as having the experience to jell a transient group together, to build the culture that is so obvious at successful clubs.

Three years on and nothing much has changed, a wretched run with injuries and defections ensuring he never got the chance to coach a midfield that initially boasted Gary Ablett, Harley Bennell, Aaron Hall, Jack Martin, Jaeger O’Meara, Touk Miller, Dion Prestia, Michael Rischitelli and David Swallow.

Bennell, O’Meara and Prestia wanted and got out, while Ablett’s future remains unknown, although a move to Geelong or retirement currently appear more likely than fulfilling the last year of his contract with a side unlikely to play finals in 2018.

When the early predictions were made of Gold Coast’s potential to dominate, given their concessions, it was assuming their big draft year of 2010 would prove a bountiful one. Instead it was something of a bust, with several good players but few if any great ones emerging.

They also struggled to land a big fish alongside Ablett, Nathan Bock being cruelled by injury. Sometimes that can come down to luck as to who is actually out of contract in that season.

But that has never been rectified, whereas their youthful rivals in the GWS Giants have acquired Phil Davis, Ryan Griffen, Steve Johnson, Shane Mumford, Tom Scully, Heath Shaw and Callan Ward.

How Eade would have loved Davis, Mumford, Shaw and Ward to build a team around, instead of attempting to cobble together teams that rarely played together from week to week.

Rodney Eade coached the Suns for three years. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Now he’s gone in the week he was to have joined Richmond and Melbourne coaching legend Frank “Checker” Hughes on 378 games, placing them 13th on the all-time list of games coached.

That Eade finished his coaching journey without a flag despite four times reaching preliminary finals (and the 1996 Grand Final) will grate, and certainly when he departed for the Gold Coast in the summer of 2014 he left full of belief that he would fill that vacancy in his coaching CV.

Seven to eight years in the sunshine was his plan before grooming a mentor to take over a club that would have been rebuilt into the powerhouse it was initially expected to be.

Three years on and from outside little has changed.

Originally published as Gold Coast sacking Rodney Eade says more about the club than the former coach, writes Jon Anderson