Why so many people are rejecting the Eagles’ coaching job

West Coast’s overdue decision to part with Adam Simpson six weeks ago and almost immediately embark upon the recruiting mission to replace him has exposed a radical cultural shift in Australian football.

At least four of the leading candidates approached by the Eagles’ new chief executive, Don Pyke, have knocked back the prospect of the Eagles’ senior coaching job and, despite speculation to the contrary, in the case of all four no seems to have really meant no.

West Coast have endured years of on-field hardship.Credit: Getty Images

Only one of the four candidates – who spoke on condition of anonymity – pointed to doubts over the Eagles’ playing list and questioned the challenges facing the club on the road back to success.

All four appear to have informed Pyke that they were choosing, at this point in their lives, lifestyle and family ahead of senior coaching, which was once considered the Australian rules pinnacle after playing retirement.

Those rejections back up Chris Scott’s view when he stated back in 2021 that he hoped his brother Brad would not return to coaching “because it’s not a very good job, to be honest”. And John Longmire, when he told Andrew Dillon in March that the game would be worse off if coaching was no longer an attractive pathway for the game’s most respected retiring champions. Sam Mitchell has also warned the AFL that coaches are not the respected figures in the AFL pecking order that they once were.

Dean Cox was clearly a preferred candidate if not the preferred West Coast candidate, but knocked back the role early on. Cox is eight years into an assistant coaching role at Sydney and while the Swans repeatedly deny he is part of a contracted succession plan with Longmire, the six-time All-Australian ruckman is seen as Longmire’s logical successor.

Still, you would have thought the opportunity to coach his old team would have been tempting. Clearly not tempting enough. Cox was not prepared to move his young family at this stage of their lives.

Cox’s West Coast premiership teammate, Ashley Hansen, deliberated for some three weeks about the Eagles’ job for which he was another key candidate, but ultimately declined for family reasons. A successful assistant or VFL senior coach for the past 12 seasons and the father of a one-year-old, Hansen is highly regarded at Carlton, where he is Michael Voss’ right-hand man. He was not prepared at this stage of his life to move his family to Perth.

Nathan Buckley, too, said no to Pyke. Unlike Brad Scott and Ross Lyon, who returned to senior coaching two years ago, Buckley seems less inclined to do so. For the divorced father of two teenaged boys, a move across the country would prove personally challenging for him, too.

Buckley, who came so close to a premiership in 2018, was linked with the Tasmania Devils coaching job but seems to have lost the coaching bug, preferring to focus on other things and predominantly working in the media.

Dean Cox is a legend at West Coast, having played 290 games, including the club’s 2006 premiership triumph.Credit: AFL Photos

The other strong candidate to have decided against the Eagles’ senior job was former West Coast player and assistant coach turned Fremantle assistant Jaymie Graham. Graham, 41, harbours senior coaching aspirations and was a contender for the Collingwood position that ultimately went to Craig McRae, but did not want to put his hand up for West Coast.

Unlike new father Hansen, Graham’s children are coming to the end of their school years. Friends of the respected assistant, asking not to be named for reasons of privacy, said that the prospect of the pressure cooker football/media climate in Perth at such a crucial time for his family, combined with the personal enjoyment of his role at Fremantle, led to Graham’s decision to turn down an interview with West Coast. But he has not ruled out trying for a senior job in the future.

Brisbane Lions football boss Danny Daly was also approached to take part in the senior coaching process but told the Eagles he saw himself as a football administrator and no longer a coach despite his strong previous experience as an assistant. Despite several approaches, including one from Collingwood, Daly will remain in Brisbane.

Another highly respected assistant with coaching aspirations, Essendon’s Daniel Giansiracusa, has also chosen not to take part in the West Coast process.

None of the above seem motivated by money. Cox has significant business interests outside coaching and Buckley, a key figure in the game, is well established and earning a comparable sum in the media. And while Hansen and Graham still hope to coach in the future, they – like Cox and Buckley – prioritised personal happiness and family commitments over one of the biggest jobs in football and a big pay rise.

Even though coaches bore the significant financial brunt of the pandemic and still earn less than they did pre-COVID, the West Coast position and the financial benefits for Eagles leaders away from football – Simpson purchased two Hungry Jack’s franchises during his time at the club – present a significant wage increase. And it’s the only senior job going in the game.

“That’s the plum job in the competition. God, how could you want anything better?” four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson last week opined. “… They’re a really historically successful side, really well-financed and supported, and they’re just going to go up. I’d be grabbing that as quickly as I could if I was an assistant out there.”

Clarkson was correct, but social attitudes have significantly shifted since he took over at Hawthorn 20 years ago.

It is true that leading football figures have for decades rejected coaching in favour of an easier and more enjoyable life while remaining influential in the game through the media. Gerard Healy, Jason Dunstall, Dermott Brereton and Garry Lyon, to name a few, reflect the current roles embraced by Luke Hodge, Joel Selwood and Trent Cotchin. But two decades ago and probably even 10 years ago the above-mentioned senior assistants, led by Cox, and a former senior coach such as Buckley, would have pushed aside personal doubts and concerns for the opportunity to coach West Coast.

Not everyone has rejected the Eagles, with GWS assistant Brett Montgomery, the Bulldogs’ Brendon Lade and Melbourne’s Andrew McQualter all contenders for what Clarkson calls the “plum job”. But the AFL Commission, chief executive Andrew Dillon and his football lieutenant, Laura Kane, would do well to take notice and treat the West Coast rejections as another red flag for the coaching game.

They should be asking themselves why highly competitive successful former athletes with strong standings in the game are putting their personal lives ahead of senior coaching and a supposed pathway to football fame, fortune and potential glory.

In the words of Chris Scott, one of the game’s most successful coaches, on Footy Classified more than three years ago: “It’s just hard work. It’s a stressful existence ... There’s a cost to that position and it needs to be weighed really carefully.”

History shows that Brad Scott did not heed his brother’s advice and gave up an influential role and promising future at the AFL to coach Essendon in a role which to date has proved as stressful as anticipated. Not only was Simpson heckled out of West Coast by the media until the end, but Ken Hinkley was bronx cheered and savagely booed at the Adelaide Oval only eight weeks ago.

Hinkley’s Port Adelaide sit second on the ladder at the start of round 24. The June 22 booing shocked opposition coach Chris Fagan, who expressed his disappointment. Fagan’s Lions were rock bottom when he took over and in the past five years have not finished lower than fifth for three top-four seasons and a narrow grand final loss last year. He has coached them into finals again in 2024 and yet, the media scrutiny on his coaching continues to intensify from some leading commentators.

There remains a long list of football leaders genuinely well-equipped, if not born, to coach. Who embrace their roles as father figures and mentors to the game’s most precious assets and are more than prepared to weather the emotional tempests from within and without.

But the West Coast predicament indicates that fewer are now prepared to climb into the true trenches of Australian football.

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