How life lessons at five clubs paved the way for Stuart Dew to go from premiership player to AFL coach at the Gold Coast
NEW Gold Coast boss Stuart Dew has revealed his inspiration for going into coaching was the late Phil Walsh as they worked together to plot Port Adelaide’s inaugural AFL premiership in 2004.
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NEW Gold Coast boss Stuart Dew has revealed his inspiration for going into coaching was the late Phil Walsh as they worked together to plot Port Adelaide’s inaugural AFL premiership in 2004.
On the eve of his AFL coaching debut with the Suns, Dew told the Sunday Mail that working with Walsh at Alberton - when he was a player and Walsh an assistant coach - sparked his interest in coaching and when he was recruited to Hawthorn as a leader in 2008 it confirmed it.
“I think Phil Walsh at Port Adelaide, I used to enjoy talking tactics and strengths and weaknesses of the opposition versus our strengths and weaknesses,” Dew said.
“I spent a fair bit of time one on one with him going through upcoming match-ups and all that sort of stuff, so that pricked my interest in watching footy a different way.
“Then going to Hawthorn part of the responsibility there was I was one of the most experienced outside of (Shane) Crawford and (Trent) Croad so that was part of my role and spiked my interest.”
If a person is a product of their environment then Dew could not have had a better pathway into senior coaching where success has followed his every move.
He found his love of the game at Salisbury North, felt the working class of Central District, learnt about the history of Port Adelaide, the brilliance of Hawthorn and the much-lauded culture of Sydney and has been involved in premierships at them all.
“I’ve been blessed with the clubs that I’ve been exposed to and what it does is give you an appreciation for everyone’s role and what is needed to be successful,” Dew said.
“It’s not about one person, player or coach, everyone in every department has got to be doing the right thing all the time.
“Look at Richmond I think they’ve been a solid, really good club for a long time off the field and once the on-field pieced together the stability there held them in good stead.”
It’s why Dew made a point of getting around to every player and staff member at the Gold Coast after being appointed in October.
“I had two months pre-Christmas where my family was still in Sydney so Monday to Saturday morning I was on the Gold Coast and tried to make use of that time to get to know people in the footy department but upstairs as well and understand everyone’s role, putting names to faces, and also some key partnerships outside the footy club,” he said.
“That time was really busy but it allowed me to embed myself into the club and really get to know people.”
Life lessons for Dew started at home where he grew up playing cricket in summer and footy in winter on nearby Salisbury Oval in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.
“I have two sisters and if we used to leave our plates out they would find themselves in our bed with the quilt over the top, so when you’d go to bed at night you certainly had to put the dishes away,” Dew recalls.
But he got his football education at Central District which was on the verge of becoming an SANFL powerhouse when he arrived and he played in its inaugural premiership in 2000.
“I was going to the footy with my dad when I was 10 watching guys like Rudi Mandemaker, then lucky enough when I was 14 to start my journey with the under-17s,” Dew said.
“It was a great time in my life and I think I took it for granted, now I look back on it and that was a great grounding and I had some really good role models like Roger Girdham and Craig Potter.
“Jona (2000 premiership coach Peter Jonas) was fantastic for me because at that point I was a Port Adelaide listed player and I’d come back if I didn’t get a game.
“But he was like ‘OK, we want to get you back (to the Power side) as quickly as possible so where do you want to play and what do you need to do?’.
“I almost felt like if he asked me where I wanted to play then I had to deliver.”
Dew never stopped loving the Bulldogs. Even during his AFL career when Central District won another eight flags up until 2010, Dew would still turn up to the West End Brewery in Doggies gear to see the colours go up on the chimney.
“That’s my club, they’re the reason I went for Hawthorn because John Platten was a Centrals player,” he said.
“James and Chris Gowans I had some really good years with and I like the way they recruited, to character not talent and I think that’s why they had such a really good period.”
Dew still has an open line with the hierarchy at Elizabeth and just last week hosted Central’s reserves coach Darren Reeves on the Gold Coast for three days to watch how the Suns go about their business.
“And across the time (senior coach) Roy (Laird) has always asked if there’s anyone who’s been delisted that I think they should look at,” he said.
But has Laird forgiven Dew for turning the tables and taking their gun wingman Nick Holman to the Suns’ rookie list last year?
“No he hasn’t,” Dew said with a laugh.
“But that’s the hard part, sometimes it works for them and hopefully it works for us.”
After Centrals it was Port Adelaide where Dew was the youngest member of the Power’s inaugural AFL squad in 1997.
When Dew took day one of pre-season training on the Gold Coast with music blaring from the sidelines and drones flying over head last year, he had flashbacks to his first pre-season with the Power.
“That was down at Fort Largs Police Academy and at that point we couldn’t have water during the sessions because water made you weak, so the industry has come a long way since 1996,” he said.
“Choco was big on the basics and foundation side of the game and the teaching.”
After 180 games at Port Adelaide Dew retired in 2006 and the story of him being lured out of retirement and back into shape at Hawthorn by Alastair Clarkson for the Hawks’ 2008 premiership is now legendary.
“Clarko made you feel like he was invested in you as a person and a footballer and really loyal in that he’d back you no matter what,” Dew said.
“And sometimes to his detriment because he’d back you all the way and sometimes you did need a clip over the ears.
“He was definitely brave, at that time (2007) it was a big risk, his team had just played finals and he would say on the verge of climbing up the ladder so it was a risk in his coaching journey and could have gone two ways, but we made it work and the rest is history.”
After retiring for good in 2009, Dew then took up an assistant coaching post at the Swans under Paul Roos and later John Longmire.
“Watching the way he’s (John Longmire) gone about it from a coaching point of view and even Roosy - totally different coaches - but what you take along the way almost solidifies your own thoughts but there are some things you admire from those people that you’d be mad not to grab a piece of,” Dew said.
After eight years with the Swans from the outside it appeared that Dew was being groomed for a succession plan much the way Roos handed the reins to Longmire in 2011, but according to him it was never discussed.
“It was never spoken about, I just really enjoyed the environment and respected them as an opposition for so long,” he said.
“I found a great mentor in John Blakey, then Henry Playfair and Josh Francou came in and Rhyce Shaw, it was a great group to work with and it was pretty easy to turn up to work with guys like Kennedy, Hannebery, Parker, Lloyd, Buddy.
“It was more my development and each year Horse (Longmire) was good enough to give me more responsibility so when you talked to other clubs I felt I was getting good exposure to things I wanted to chase and Sydney was a good place to get that grounding.”
Dew’s career had plenty of twists and turns and he seemed to thrive on the challenge.
In 1999 he played all 22 home-and-away games but was dropped for the Power’s first ever AFL final against North Melbourne, only to be recalled on the morning of the game and kick four goals.
And at the start of his comeback with Hawthorn, reports from pre-season were he was running one minute on, one minute off at walking pace. But by September he’d played 15 games and kicked two goals in one of the club’s most famous grand final triumphs.
He feels that experience helps him relate to players on their own journey.
“I certainly had some ups and downs and some were self-inflicted, no doubt,” Dew said.
“I guess I had a good experience of football but from a playing point of view I don’t think I cashed in on the talent I was given, and I try to make up for that in my coaching journey.”
Dew has brought a modern twist to Suns training with music during on-field sessions.
“I think they learn best if they’re enjoying it,” he said.
“The music one was purely nothing to do with crowd noise, I find when people exercise they have music going and it seems to lift the mood and we do have some solid days up here with the heat.”
On Sunday he will take charge of the Suns for his first official game in the JLT Series match against Geelong in Townsville.
“I’m actually excited, everyone gets to a point in pre-season where you’re sick of playing each other so it will be good to see some new things for me - the whole group travelling and also the players getting a feel for how I like things done,” he said.
“Whatever the result it’s all part of our preparation for the season.”
What will constitute a successful season in 2018 is up for debate and while Dew is clear on where he wants the club to go, he knows it’s going to take time.
“We’re certainly under no illusions as to where the club and list is at, and we’re in a hurry but that doesn’t mean that it’s just going to happen,” he said.
“We need to be a footy club based on effort and hard work and not on draft numbers or that type of thing, and we are really trying to build this foundation so we can have some sustained success.
“We’re not after a quick, fix, it is going to be a journey, but we are pushing as hard as we can.”
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STUART DEW ON ...
Nick Holman
“He’s a competitor, that’s the part we liked. A mature-age in he’s had a taste of footy and I like the guys who maybe weren’t ready to be on an AFL list at 18 and 19 and get delisted, but they don’t go and give up. The SANFL in particular I know how hard they work and train so to hold a full-time job and play at that level, and you’ve got to respect guys who are chasing their dreams and Nick is one of those.”
Aaron Young
“Youngy is great to have around the club, these guys who come in and really give energy to the place and everyone at Port speaks highly of him. He wanted a great opportunity and Port were willing to give him that, they could have been selfish and held on to him to be a depth player but such is his character they wanted him to have every opportunity to play AFL footy. We’ll give him that at half-forward, bit of midfield, and he has an uncanny knack of getting to the fall of the ball so we look forward to seeing what he can do.”
Harrison Wigg
“He was having a really good start to pre-season and was aware he needed to build his AFL fitness, then he broke his ankle. It did happen really early so he’s back running now and it has been a testing time but I think he’d be the first person to say everyone has got around him and celebrated his milestones when he started to run and run on grass. He’s done everything right and we look forward to seeing him play.”
Sam Day
“From the outside when you talk about it the injury was really significant, but what we did pre-Christmas and our high performance unit did a great job, they held him back a bit and slowly took the reins off. He’s no longer in rehab and will be up for selection like everyone else, is moving really well and slowly getting confidence back.”
Jarryd Lyons
“He did have a good year and sometimes those guys just need an opportunity, the challenge now is to not only back it up but lift again to set an example. He’s raised the bar of expectations and now it’s over to him.”
Originally published as How life lessons at five clubs paved the way for Stuart Dew to go from premiership player to AFL coach at the Gold Coast
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