AFL 2023: Mark Robinson on Gold Coast and the sacking of Stuart Dew

A rat in the ranks on the Gold Coast was said to have left Stuart Dew ‘filthy’, and then soon later he was out the door. Go inside the sacking of the former Suns coach.

Coach sackings are dastardly affairs, if not bastardry.

When journalist Caroline Wilson laid out last week what was about to happen to Stuart Dew, clearly the Gold Coast Suns were caught out.

Their plan was afoot and suddenly it was afloat for all to consume.

Dew’s been blindsided. Certainly he was last Monday night when Wilson said Steven King would replace him and that he could be gone by the end of July.

On Tuesday night, Dew told this masthead that he felt he had a target on his back and that Wilson had been writing about him for 18 months.

The confidence to speak out came after Dew was assured by chief executive Mark Evans that Wilson’s comments were unfounded.

As the kids like to say, that didn’t age well.

The rat in the ranks who spoke to the journalist apparently apologised to Dew in what was an edgy day of meetings last Tuesday.

Loose lips sink ships — and kill trust — and Dew was said to be filthy that a key person — or was that key people? — were talking to the media behind his back.

That would’ve driven him bonkers. Footy’s about tribes and trust and committing to each other and here he had at least one senior figure playing a role in the media assassination of him.

Stuart Dew wasn’t coaching for his future on Saturday night – it had already been decided. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos

It’s a contradiction to the “unequivocal’’ demand for high standards to meet high expectations which the president Bob East spoke of on Tuesday.

Still, Dew departed those meetings a week ago and the press conference with Evans the next day believing he would remain as coach.

It was misguided thinking.

The Suns got caught red-handed. They should’ve told him last week it was over.

Dew deserved a quick cull and not another week of heavy scrutiny because, in the end, he thought he was fighting for his job when in fact he had already lost it.

There will be a market for Dew’s replacement and Damien Hardwick will be $1.10 favourite.

Who would really know if the Suns, or the AFL, courted Hardwick when he was Richmond coach, gave him a wink and nod, and the events of the past week were concocted so Hardwick could speak to the Suns with a clear conscience with good mate Dew gone.

Because clearly the Suns can’t talk to Hardwick while Dew is still there.

It’s only a theory and the Suns can deny everything and anything, but right now I’m not sure there’s much belief in what the Suns are saying.

As harsh as it played out, Hardwick to the Suns sounds like a wonderful partnership. He has three flags and cache and an attitude to coach again.

And if he’s available and gettable, why wouldn’t you throw the big pineapples at him.

He will follow Guy McKenna, Rodney Eade and Dew into football’s most hazardous chair and we say hazardous because the three of them coached with hurdles all around them.

Suns chairman Bob East and chief executive Mark Evans front the media on Tuesday. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

McKenna built with a bunch of kids, Rocket went through a semi-rebuild and then fell out with Evans and others and Dew inherited a salary cap which was $2 million over and an ordinary list, which is the perfect storm for a football club.

Dew won four games, three, five, seven, went 10-12 last year and was 7-9 when he was sacked.

It was tracking OK considering the s**t sandwich he was given when he arrived, but clearly not OK enough.

Evans has been given the task to find Dew’s replacement.

His ledger stands at two sackings (Eade and Dew) and one appointment (Dew).

He and the Suns can’t afford a third coaching failure.

And he said on Tuesday: “We think we’ve got a great playing list.’’

That’s not right. Collingwood has a great playing list, so does Port Adelaide. The Suns are only average. Maybe part of the problem at the Suns is their inflated opinion of themselves.

If Hardwick is appointed coach and the Suns still suck, what happens then?

Another round of excuses and scapegoats and rats talking to the media?

Originally published as AFL 2023: Mark Robinson on Gold Coast and the sacking of Stuart Dew