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Time for Sheedy to step aside at Giants

15th July, 2013
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Kevin Sheedy is in talks to return to Essendon. (AFL Media/Slattery Images).
Expert
15th July, 2013
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This time last season the Gold Coast Suns were an embarrassment on the field in their second season in the competition.

They were hardly competitive and, in fact, GWS, who were in their first year in the AFL, were actually performing better and there were arguments and debates claiming that the Giants would have on-field success before the Suns.

There’s an old saying that we use all the time in this game that a week is a long time in footy. Well, a year seems like ten eternities, because there is no way now you could argue in favour of GWS having success before the Gold Coast now.

The Suns have won five games and although they have been a tad disappointing in recent weeks, have shown in the first half of this season that they are starting to build with their form at home in particular much improved.

The Giants, on the other hand, have gone backwards at a rate of knots with every team bar the Western Bulldogs boosting their percentage with huge thrashings against them, including several exceeding 100 points.

They almost beat the Dogs in Round 15, but with all due respect to GWS, that performance probably says more about where the Bulldogs are heading at the moment.

Many of the Giants’ star young recruits they picked up as first round picks in 2011 such as Toby Greene, who burst on the scene last year and was runner up in the best and fairest with some outstanding displays as an inside midfielder, have struggled to replicate that form this year.

Stephen Coniglio, Taylor Adams and Devon Smith to a lesser extent are in the same boat along with Thomas Bugg.

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It appears that the dreaded second-year blues have hit and the Giants are in danger of being winless this season, the first team since Fitzroy in 1964.

Every now and again they produce a competitive quarter and half but they are few and far between and no doubt it would frustrate coach Kevin Sheedy.

Sheeds, though, is the classic spin doctor. Publicly he remains optimistic about the future in what will be his last year as a senior coach with Leon Cameron set to take over next season.

There’s a school of thought that Cameron already coaches the team and Sheedy leads the publicity machine as the AFL continues its almost obsessive push to ensure AFL footy has a major presence in the west of Sydney.

If that’s the case why not push forward the seamless transition from Sheedy to Cameron next week? The four-time premiership coach at Essendon should coach the Giants this week, ironically against the Bombers at home at the Showgrounds; have a celebration and then hand over control to Cameron.

It would be a fitting way for Sheedy to end an extraordinary career and allow Cameron to properly start putting his stamp on this team and get them ready to be much more competitive at the start of 2014.

Sheedy could be a mentor to Cameron for the rest of the year and continue to do what he does best, promote the game in Sydney’s west.

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We all know how much Sheedy loves coaching, but it comes to an end for everyone and although he realised what a tough task coaching this team from their infancy was going to be, the Giants are now more than ready to move to the second stage of their development and that’s consolidation and making an impact no matter how small that might be.

Sheedy was the right man to build this project and club, but now after a 10-year coaching apprenticeship at three teams, Cameron, who comes with a handsome reputation, is the right man to mould this young list.

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