AFL 2023: Mick Malthouse and Stuart Dew’s sacking the curious case of the interim coach

Gold Coast moved to just a game outside the finals with a win over the Saints, but Stuart Dew isn’t there to see out the season. Mick Malthouse is baffled.

For as long as I live, I will continue to question why boards and committees sack coaches part way through a season. It only undermines their own decision making and compounds problems within the club.

Can an interim coach really produce a big enough turnaround within a season to justify the immediate departure of the senior coach?

Any assistant would jump at the chance to be the interim coach with a faint chance of winning the ultimate role.

But, in most cases, the interim coach doesn’t get the senior gig because they are almost put there as the most-convenient person to move on without fuss or fanfare once the “fill-in” role is completed. 

In fact, of the 24 coaches to be replaced during a season within the last 22 years (not including Stuart Dew, Alastair Clarkson and Damien Hardwick this year), only six interim coaches were given the senior gig. And of those, just three lasted more than two years – Mark Harvey at Fremantle (four years), Grant Thomas at St Kilda (five years and two preliminary finals) and the success story Paul Roos (eight years, one premiership and a grand final loss).

Mick Malthouse will continue to ask why football clubs sack coaches, like Stuart Dew, mid-season. Picture: Chris Hyde/AFL Photos

How committee members look themselves in the mirror and think they’ve done the right thing by the club is a mystery to me.

Dew was less than a year into a two-year contract extension and sacked based on what? Losing to Collingwood and Port Adelaide, the two best teams in the competition?

My observation is that many coaches who are sacked mid-season have had a fallout with the board. That fallout comes about because of distrust, and a lack of communication and support at a highly vulnerable time. 

It has been suggested that Dew and the Gold Coast board grew further apart as the weeks went on.

That is not the case at Richmond and North Melbourne.

Clarkson was not moved on, sacked, or pushed aside, but rather stepped-aside when external factors affected his health.

In Richmond’s case, one has the feeling that Damien Hardwick could see that the dynasty was coming to an end and it got too much for him. He has since regained his appetite and wants to be back in the hot seat, at a different club.

Richmond, as a club, operates better than most, and would have done its homework before appointing Andrew McQualter as interim coach ahead of assistants and former senior coaches, Ben Rutten and David Teague, who could have been easy options.

McQualter is in his 10th season at the Tigers so he knows the club, the game style, and the players. Sometimes familiarity can breed contempt, but I wouldn’t think so in this case. Not judging by the response from the team so far. Four wins, two losses, and a real chance of winning five or more games in the rest of the season.

He got the best out of himself as a player at St Kilda and Gold Coast, and he knows the Tiger psyche.

Will Andrew McQualter be the next Paul Roos-like interim coach success story? Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Given the history of Richmond under Brendon Gale, where he appointed Hardwick in 2010 off his experience as an assistant coach, and stuck by him when the Tigers finished 15th, 12th, and 12th in his first three seasons, this is a deliberate attempt to see how McQualter handles the situation. And that he is a genuine chance of holding on to the job. 

Gale is fair minded, non-fussed, and doesn’t need to smell the liniment because he’s been a footballer, he knows the drill, he’s seen Richmond through the ups and downs as a player and administrator. 

The next seven weeks could well define how McQualter is thought of by the playing group, how he handles wins and losses, deals with injuries and suspensions, and how he brings through the next group of players, because the Tigers are going through a transitional period, no question. 

The team that Hardwick left will not stay together for much longer. As great as it has been, it’s ageing. Robbie Tarrant, 34, has just announced his retirement. Trent Cotchin (33), Dylan Grimes (32), Tom Lynch (31), Dustin Martin (32), Marlion Pickett (31), Dion Prestia (31) and Jack Riewoldt (35) can’t play forever.

So, do the Tigers give McQualter a run at it, someone familiar with the team’s game patterns and the strengths of young players coming through? Or do they scout the field for who’s available? We may have another Paul Roos here. 

Alastair Clarkson and Brett Ratten. Picture: Steve Bell/Getty Images

At North, Clarkson will come back so that takes Ratten out of the equation. 

He has worked hard in the absence of Clarkson, with the knowledge that he was always going to be replaced, so it was a thankless job from the word go – one that was always going to be a challenge. But perhaps, after coaching St Kilda and Carlton, he’ll be happy to remain an assistant coach in the immediate future, a role he is outstanding in. 

Clarkson has a massive job in front of him. He has been under enormous pressure this year from external events, but he will be under as much football pressure in his coaching return.

North has very few superstars. Many good players, but few great players. There is little depth to replace injured and out of form types. Harry Sheezel will be a brilliant player, Nick Larkey is already a terrific player.

Yes, North will get early draft picks, but it needs an influx of a dozen highly-rated youngsters in the next two seasons to be remotely competitive.

And that is where Clarkson’s job commences.

Originally published as AFL 2023: Mick Malthouse and Stuart Dew’s sacking the curious case of the interim coach