Carlton coach 2021: How Alastair Clarkson’s future will affect David Teague and Ross Lyon

Alastair Clarkson could coach any of three clubs next year if he wants to. As Jon Ralph writes, what he does next will have huge ramifications.

Mick Malthouse marched into Princes Park in May 2015 having lit the fuse for his own demise with a deliberately provocative radio interview calling out weak boards for “ego trips” when they sacked coaches.

Having strolled across the city and up Royal Parade on that fateful morning with more than a hint of theatre, he was gone by the afternoon.

Four years later a tearful Brendon Bolton was applauded by reporters at his departing press conference, admitting “the threshold just got too much”.

On Monday as the media camped outside Ikon Park awaiting the latest chapter of what Carlton does better than anyone else — sacking coaches — the press was instead met with a pregnant pause.

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Brendon Bolton was applauded by reporters for the way he handled himself after he was sacked in 2019 by then Carlton president Mark LoGiudice (centre) and CEO Cain Liddle.

Luke Sayers first real act as the Carlton president was not to summon Teague and deliver the bad news, but to issue a lesson in accountant-speak via a letter to Blues members.

Having spent 10 weeks assessing the club’s problems, having known the content of the review for weeks, having officially assessed it for a week, having discussed it with the board on Sunday, Carlton now needed “the necessary time required to absorb this review”.

Teague might well have been wondering what else he needed to do to be put out of his misery.

No one wants to see Teague, a good and honest man whose greatest flaw is that he cannot replicate Clarko’s Cluster or the Weagles Web, sacked by Carlton.

Even Carlton coach David Teague admitted he expected to learn his fate on Monday.

So if Teague could present to the board on his potential vision for 2022 and find a way to save his bacon then any amount of time he needed would certainly be well spent.

The problem is that Carlton has allowed the news of his certain sacking to be spread far and wide — never challenging it, never painting an alternative vision — so much so that in the end even Teague started bashing them himself in his weekly press conferences.

To return him to power now, having undermined him so comprehensively, would surely be a recipe for an even greater disaster than sacking him.

The review was always going to produce a document charting specific failures of Teague and his football department but also shades of grey and even outright positives given an eight-win season.

Teague (front left) shares a joke with Eddie Betts and a group of Carlton players at Betts’ last training session at Ikon Park.

Some players believe Teague has failed to develop strong relationships, while others absolutely love him but believe the main issue was a side confused by the defensive structures that cost it so badly.

Football boss Brad Lloyd, seemingly under the gun, has been described by some coaches who have been in extremely successful programs as doing exceptional work the equal of any they have seen.

Others have pointed to fitness boss Andrew Russell having too much in his portfolio when his leadership responsibilities are effectively a once-a-week leadership group meeting.

Teague has said several premiership coaches had reached out to reassure him that the progress made in his 50 games was satisfactory.

In the background Alastair Clarkson gets to sit back and laugh at the absurdity of it all, sacked by Hawthorn and yet eagerly pursued by the Blues, Collingwood and Gold Coast if he deigned to move north.

Gold Coast continues to make strong noises that Dew is their man — without publicly confirming it — just as the AFL registers its discontent with the club’s lack of progress through its usual channels.

The football world — especially Carlton and Collingwood — are awaiting Alastair Clarkson’s decision on whether he wants to coach again.

At Collingwood, Hawthorn assistant Craig McRae had been the clubhouse leader, having shot the lights out in good early conditions and now waiting for the heavyweights to finish their rounds.

That changed on Monday night when Pyke DQed himself, more than happy to stay with Sydney for at least another year and finish what he started at Collingwood.

Clarkson seems unlikely to be interested given his latest comments about a spell, but Collingwood have to keep asking.

Put it this way, if it emerged Clarkson was very keen to coach the Pies and they knocked him back given old enmities, how would the fanbase already fretting over Scott Pendlebury’s future receive that news?

Football subcommittee member Luke Ball said on Sunday the club might or might not need more interviews depending on whether candidates committed.

“That will be decided coming out of this weekend, depending on some potential candidates, what they want to do,” he said.

Clarkson and Brad Scott are clearly two of those names, but Pyke’s decision means McRae must be considered a strong favourite.

Teague has grown increasingly vocal about the lack of support internally during his time at the helm.

Pyke was believed to be enticed by the idea of senior coaching again, of writing the wrongs after his inglorious exit from Adelaide.

But alternatively he and wife Jodie have enjoyed their move to Sydney, he doesn’t need the money, he would be committing to a full-blown Pies rebuild that might take five years or more.

And for a senior coaching figure who bemoaned the increasing spotlight thrust upon senior coaches, was Collingwood the best fit for him and his family?

Eddie McGuire says the next Pies coach will want for nothing in terms of support and facilities, and he is absolutely right.

But in a media industry where increasingly only the power clubs truly sell Collingwood and bad news always sells, Pyke would have realised escaping the spotlight would be a pipedream at the Pies.

So Dew and Teague and McRae will sit it out patiently as the powerhouses assess their options as the yearly coaching circus becomes a distraction just as the final football we have truly craved rolls around the corner.

Originally published as Carlton coach 2021: How Alastair Clarkson’s future will affect David Teague and Ross Lyon