SACKED podcast 2024: The Tayla Harris moment that was the ‘beginning of the end’ for Daniel Harford

Former Carlton AFLW coach Daniel Harford has laid bare the challenging circumstances that were thrust upon the AFLW’s first stars, and how it ultimately caused his downfall. LISTEN HERE.

Daniel Harford dives into the challenges associated with coaching the first AFLW superstars.

Former Carlton AFLW coach Daniel Harford says his inability to get through to star forward Tayla Harris about team obligations after she left the training track to send a promotional Instagram post was the “beginning of the end” of his coaching career.

Former AFLW coach of the year Harford has laid bare the extraordinarily challenging circumstances that were thrust upon the competition’s first wave of stars as they tried to navigate the pitfalls of fame while maximising their burgeoning profiles.

Harris was the AFLW’s first megastar as her brilliant kicking style was lauded in a famous Michael Willson photo, immortalised in a bronze statue and then attacked by disgusting internet trolls.

PART 1: DANIEL HARFORD ON THE SPRAY THAT SHAPED HIS COACHING

Harford was axed by the Blues in 2023. Picture: Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty Images

Harford says players like Harris are one of the reasons why the AFLW has had early successes, labelling Harris an “amazing human”.

He will never forget her playing through that photo controversy and performing well in a final for the Blues despite the challenging circumstances.

But as he told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast the training episode in March 2021 where Harris did not tell the club she was leaving the track to promote a new documentary ultimately led to his downfall at Carlton.

It “soured the relationship” between him and Harris and led to an “unworkable” situation with some players pushing team with others on a different page.

A small group of powerful players ended up lobbying for his departure in a period where the likes of Bri Davey, Maddy Prespakis and Harris ended up leaving the club.

Harford was sacked in early 2023, admitting it was the right time to leave after back-to-back AFLW seasons in 2022 left him mentally cooked and the players needing a new voice.

He says Harris’ promotion of the Amazon documentary Making Their Mark following the stories of six players saw her leaving the training track late in season five of AFLW.

“That was a bad night for all of us,” he told Sacked.

Harris was one of the first AFLW megastars. Picture: Michael Klein

“Tayla’s an amazing human being and what she went through with that photo (in 2019) and the way she managed it, at the time she was a kid and having that thrust upon you is so unfair. And she managed it unbelievably.

“I could never have done it and what she has been able to achieve and tolerate and have going on in her life all in one little window of time.

“In the end things got a bit much. That Instagram post hurt me …. That hurt me. It was the (Amazon) doco, or whatever it was.

“She had to get off (the track) and she thought she had to post it by 8 o’clock.

“I didn’t know until after training, and she’d gone by then when I found out. And as a coach you’re trying to build team and chemistry and commitment. All that stuff. And looking back, I don’t blame her.

“She was caught up in the whole world of opportunity, and in that stage, there wasn’t a lot of that for particularly AFLW players. And she was the pin up girl.

“So that was a bad night, because we had to sort of come down on her a bit on that one and that soured things for a little while. It just soured the relationship.

“She couldn’t understand at the time why we were being so strong on her.

“I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t understand and we just couldn’t come together on that. So it just soured the relationship a bit, and in the end, it’s a bit like Denis (Pagan) and me, I wasn’t the one for her, and that’s OK because sometimes you’re not meant for people.

‘’I wasn’t the one for ‘Tay’. And she’s done an amazing job going to Melbourne. Mick Stinear has done a hell of a job getting her to be in the place she is. So it was one of those things where we just didn’t match.”

Harford said he and Harris’ relationship became unworkable. Picture: Mark Stewart

Harford said the Instagram post became a lightning rod for what Carlton wanted to be as an AFLW team and culture.

“Yeah, probably. I had a great buy-in from most of the group, because they wanted ‘team’. They wanted all-in and success.

“But there was a little faction that couldn’t see my point of view on that. As a coach you are pretty black and white on these things. So you try to nurture conversations and guide them back where you need them and for whatever reason I couldn’t get through to a couple of them. And that was the beginning of the end, that stuff.

“The majority of the team wanted ‘team’ and they were the ones calling it out, which was great from my perspective. I wanted them to call it out. You are the ones out there on game day.”

Was it toxic in the end?

“Toxic is probably a strong word. But it was unworkable in the end.”

Harford says he doesn’t regret his coaching philosophies. Picture: Julian Wallace

“We lost a lot (of players) in that time because expansion came as well. And if there is any hint or chance of fracture or sign of it and there is an opportunity and some more cash to go with it as well, then you take that opportunity as a player.

“Who knows if they had stayed around. But it was a period of expansion and a period of change, and I was old school (on a team philosophy) but also modern enough dealing with young people and daughters and sons who are teenage kids. I knew that world to a degree.

“But in footy, team is everything and if you can’t get your head around that, you are not going to be much good to us anyway.”

Harford says he has few regrets about staying true to his coaching philosophy, even if it meant that the player dynamic was difficult to manage.

“No, there’s probably a couple of ways I could have handled things a bit differently in some conversations, but now that the philosophy of team, if you’re going to be a coach, if you can’t in a team sport, if that’s not your baseline foundation, then I don’t know how you’re going to succeed.”