Adelaide Football Club needs a new coach who can immediately inspire the fans

THERE are two balconies at the Adelaide Football Club at West Lakes — each telling a symbolic story.

Adelaide Crows 1997 premiership flag flying at Football Park. /Adelaide/Football/Club

THERE are two balconies at the Adelaide Football Club at West Lakes — each telling a symbolic story.

There is the one leading out of the board room with a flag pole on each side of the balcony. Occasionally, the Crows fly their 1997 and 1998 premiership flag replicas from these poles — and for 16 years the faithful have been waiting for a third flag pole to be bolted to the balcony.

The other balcony runs along the western concourse of the “New Shed” that is becoming a monument to Adelaide’s failed $25 million gamble at Football Park.

In a city where the Crows are portrayed as football royalty, those balconies are Adelaide’s equivalent of Buckingham Palace. And each time they open the balcony doors to present a new monarch at West Lakes the masses need to believe in king and empire.

In the next fortnight — or perhaps it may extend to the next month — Adelaide has to wow its fans with the coach who replaces Brenton Sanderson. The profile of the next Crows mentor is not that difficult to put together.

Beyond the football realities — such as creating a winning team and being quick on the tests of match-day coaching — Sanderson’s successor needs to rebuild faith in a supporter base that can be described as disillusioned, frustrated and angry at either its club or its decisions.

This is not the environment that will suit a first-time coach. The comparisons with Sanderson’s win-loss record — the best in the club’s record at 56.5 per cent — will haunt a rookie coach. The only contender who could endure this challenge is former Crows defender Nathan Bassett, who already has proven himself by leading Norwood to two SANFL premierships.

As glowing as the references are for Sydney assistant coach Stuart Dew, can the Port Adelaide and Hawthorn premiership player pass up on a succession plan with the Swans to gamble everything at Adelaide where a long-term career could be put at risk? Ask Sanderson about that.

The same logic applies with Hawthorn assistant Brendon Bolton, who made quite an impression as a stand-in coach for five weeks this season.

Adelaide clearly needs a proven coach who can step onto the balcony at West Lakes to unite a fractured supporter base as much as battered player group. The field is, as club chairman Rob Chapman noted, very limited.

West Coast premiership coach John Worsfold is saying no as he still feels the scars from a demanding job. Former Brisbane coach Michael Voss may not consider Adelaide the right place for his renaissance as a coach, although Crows board member, fellow Brownlow Medallist Michael Voss, may be able to paint an encouraging picture. And then there is former Carlton coach and current Hawthorn assistant Brett Ratten.

And if Adelaide wants a guaranteed wow moment on the balcony, it need only repeat its 1999 act of luring contracted Geelong coach Gary Ayres to West Lakes. This time the man in that frame would be Hawthorn premiership coach Alastair Clarkson who served his coaching apprenticeship in the SANFL at Central District.

What would the cost be? If Roos cost Melbourne $1.5 million, Clarkson would command $2 million. That gets a wow.

Originally published as Adelaide Football Club needs a new coach who can immediately inspire the fans