AFL 2020: Gold Coast Suns deny Dean Solomon conspiracy after sacking
Gold Coast his angrily responded to conspiracy theories and criticism after one of the AFL’s most popular coaches was discarded.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Gold Coast Suns chairman Tony Cochrane has blasted critics of the club’s decision to sack popular assistant coach Dean Solomon.
Earlier this week Solomon was one of five members of the franchise’s coaching staff not to be offered a new contract in 2021 as the financial pressures of COVID-19 bite in a very real way.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Watch every match of every round Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
All up the club was forced to retrench 17 employees from its football department, a decision which Cochrane described as “really tough”.
Solomon’s former Essendon teammates went into bat for him when his departure was announced. Ex-Bomber and Channel 7 star Andrew Welsh suggested there was more to Solomon’s axing than meets the eye, questioning whether head coach Stuart Dew was threatened by one of his right-hand men.
“This smells a bit for mine, perhaps a senior coach seeing how good @SollySolomon is and is threatened but will hide behind soft cap decision,” Welsh wrote on Twitter. “No doubt every club will want to talk to him but the call doesn’t seem like a GC best interest call.”
Champion forward Matthew Lloyd told Nine Dew “obviously doesn’t want Solomon on his coaching panel” while another former Essendon star, Robert Shaw, suggested the Suns were prioritising money over people.
However, Cochrane denied there was anything untoward about Solomon’s axing, insisting it was the result of AFL clubs having their soft salary caps slashed because of coronavirus, meaning cuts need to be made across football departments.
“I’m not going to get into the individuals because I’ve got nothing but respect and I would say Solomon is one of my mates and I would hope he would say that about me,” Cochrane said on SEN Breakfast.
“This was a really, really tough decision by the football department and by (CEO) Mark Evans and I can tell you we lamented over it for a period of time.
RELATED: Power star hits back at Ricciuto trade claim
RELATED: AFL gamble ‘reeks of desperation’
“Every other club will go through this, we went a bit early because we wanted to give these guys every opportunity to try and find new jobs, but every club is going to have to go through this.
“Every club is getting their salary cap cut from $9.8 million roughly to about $6.3 million roughly. That’s a third.
“Unfortunately, the soft cap of football departments is all spent on people. We have had to lay off 17 people in total at the end of the season and by god it was hard.”
Cochrane blasted critics who thought there was something sinister happening on the glitter strip, and said all employees not staying on with the organisation will be paid out in full.
“Some of the commentary around the money and the contract, it’s just ill-informed and is just wrong,” he said.
“We are going to get into September, we’ve tightened our belt, we’ve watched every dollar, we’ve run the place on the smell of an oily rag. I’m really proud of the job our guys have done.
“Everybody on our end has been doing it tough. We hate losing anybody. We certainly hate losing these people and I can assure you they will be looked after in accordance with the pay outs in their contracts.
“It’s easy to criticise and throw stones from a couple thousand kilometres away. Let me tell you, it’s a lot harder when you’re sitting around the table and you’re talking about peoples’ lives and those people really matter to you.”
Originally published as AFL 2020: Gold Coast Suns deny Dean Solomon conspiracy after sacking