Please Explain: Glenn McFarlane says Brisbane Lions should be bold when appointing new senior coach

IN this week's Please Explain, Glenn McFarlane urges Brisbane to be bold when appointing its next senior coach.

Adam Simpson

Dear Brisbane,

How long is long enough to prepare an assistant coach for the all-important senior gig?

Three years? Five years? Or even longer?

It's a question that you probably have to start asking yourselves as you close in on a replacement coach for Michael Voss, the club legend you showed the door.

Dean Warren, the chairman of your coaching selection panel, this week spoke about how the club is chasing the best available coach.

We should hope so, given the amount of angst from the Lions' faithful - as well as some past greats - surrounding the trigger finger action in jettisoning Voss, in the hope/desire/belief of signing Paul Roos.

The reality is that Roosy knocked you back, and took the Melbourne job, instead.

And now Neil Craig, the man who was caretaker coach of the Demons for much of the year after being senior mentor to Mark Neeld for one-and-a-half seasons, is right in the frame to become senior coach with an eye to a coaching successor.

If we can believe the stories doing the rounds - as much as Warren said all options are open - Craig could well be appointed to the main gig with a senior assistant coach underneath him with the plan for him to take over after two years.

There is no problem with that if you think Craig is the right man for the job.

If that's the case, appoint him now. Not for two years, but for longer.

But if Craig is only seen as the stop gap coach to help nurture one of the AFL's best young assistants into the role, then it doesn't make any sense.

It's fair to say that the assistant coaches you have interviewed - along with Craig - are not guys who have just retired from the game or coaching aspirants who have just completed their Level One coaching course.

Far from it, they all have impressive resumes and loom as very good options.

Justin Leppitsch has been an assistant coach for seven seasons, not seven months.

Leaving aside his obvious qualities as a footballer - three flags from one of the greatest teams of the modern era - you would have to be impressed by his stints at two clubs in terms of his senior coaching aspirations.

'Leppa' spent three seasons as an assistant coach at the Lions after his retirement in 2006, with two of them under one of the greatest coaches in AFL history, Leigh Matthews.

And it is fair to say that if you talk to people at Richmond – where he has spent the past four seasons – you will understand the work he has put into the Tigers' backline.

He might be a perfect fit if, as a club, you want to win back some of the disaffected Lions fans/members by appointing a former club star, even if the Voss appointment ended the way it did.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is also in contention, and so he should be.

His four seasons as an assistant to premiership coach Alastair Clarkson read as a very good apprenticeship to us. Does he need another two years as a senior assistant to be ready? We doubt it.

Leigh Tudor has the Grand Final touch as an assistant coach, and deserves a senior job. He has been at a number of clubs - Geelong, St Kilda and Sydney - and has been a part of that Grand Final experience, with his role at the Swans in recent years imperative to their success.

Even Simon Goodwin, less experienced than the others, has spent three seasons as an assistant at Essendon, albeit under the most trying of circumstances this season due to the club's supplements scandal.

And Goodwin has even coached one game of AFL football – Round 23 this season – when Hird started his 12-month suspension.

The only reason we are leaving Scott Burns out of this mix is that he is heavily in the frame for the West Coast senior gig.

If you see one of these young assistant coaches as your long-term future coach, then be bold and decisive and appoint them now.

If you think they need some more assistance, then appoint Craig as a senior assistant and mentor, not the senior coach who will hand over the reins in a few years.

The Melbourne "succession" plan is a different one. Roos is a premiership coach and one of the most sought after men in the game, so it makes sense to have him for as long as he wants, and then hand over to the right man.

As a footy club, you should take the lead of Hawthorn from late 2004. They didn't take the easy option, or a succession plan, they were bold and decisive.

The Hawks liked what they saw of Clarkson, but knew he was going to be a harder sell than past club greats Gary Ayres and Rodney Eade, who were in the mix and who are legitimately good coaches.

Leigh Tudor

They chose the man they wanted for the long term, and in nine days' time, that bloke could be a two-time premiership coach.

So if you think 'Leppa' is the man for the long-term, or 'Simmo', or Leigh Tudor or even Simon Goodwin, don't fear that they haven't had a good grounding.

They have, and they have earned their chance.

Your Sincerely,

Glenn McFarlane