Geelong premiership captain Tom Harley says rookie coach cannot make it at Adelaide

GEELONG premiership captain Tom Harley is warning untried AFL coaches to avoid the Adelaide Football Club as it seeks Brenton Sanderson’s replacement. VOTE NOW

Mark Thompson and Tom Harley AFL Grand Final Parade, Geelong v Hawthorn

GEELONG premiership captain Tom Harley — a member of the Port Adelaide advisory team that secured Ken Hinkley as coach — is warning untried AFL coaches to avoid the Adelaide Football Club as it seeks Brenton Sanderson’s replacement.

Harley, a longstanding friend and former teammate of Sanderson at Geelong, yesterday delivered a strong broadside at the Crows saying they may have to look at their own faults rather than blame Adelaide’s mediocre results this season on a communication breakdown between Sanderson and his players.

“There are a few holes at Adelaide at the moment,” Harley said of the state of the Crows football department and front office today.

Harley, a prospective club administrator, has spoken with Sanderson since his shock sacking on Wednesday with two years still to serve on his contract. He was left with the impression of a football club that cannot support a rookie coach again.

“The Crows will want to make sure they support the next person better than what they supported Brenton,” Harley said on radio FIVEaa yesterday morning. “That is not going to be easy unless they hire an Alastair Clarkson, John Longmire or Ross Lyon or ‘Bomber’ Thompson.

“It is going to be someone who has not been in the hot seat ... (and he will need a better football department) because there are a few holes at Adelaide at the moment.”

Harley spoke to Sanderson last week by telephone. “And we spoke off the top about great clubs and organisations,” Harley said. “One of the things that they do have is really consistent messaging from key people — and there has not been that from the Crows.

“Whether that has been a deliberate strategy ... we have had the board sort of on the same page, albeit not with a helluva lot of substance.

“Players have been put into it (with reports their critical feedback forced the board to act) but they have removed themselves from it.”

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Harley said he was struggling with the criticism of Sanderson’s poor communication with his players. But the Channel Seven commentator questions the communication skills of other key Crows.

“The only thing that really sticks with me is that communication has to be a two-way street,” Harley said. “Brenton should have been told (leading up to the critical review that cost him his job) that he was on shaky ground.”

Harley expects Sanderson to remain in the AFL. It is anticipated he will return to Collingwood — where he was a player — to join best friend Nathan Buckley’s coaching panel.

“I know Brenton as a person and as a coach — he is outstanding at both,” Harley said. “He will not be lost to the industry.”

Sanderson was a development coach at Port Adelaide in 2007, returned to Geelong as an assistant coach in 2008 and joined the Crows — where he was a player 17 years ago — to replace Neil Craig in 2012. He has the best winning rate (56.5 per cent) of any Adelaide coach.

The Crows this week are expected to reveal its search party for the new coach. This is expected to include new chief executive Andrew Fagan and new board member, Brownlow Medallist Mark Ricciuto.

Originally published as Geelong premiership captain Tom Harley says rookie coach cannot make it at Adelaide