Fremantle coach Mark Harvey talks to his players during the AFL Round 20 match between the Fremantle Dockers and the St Kilda Saints at Subicao. GSP Images/Daniel Wilkins
When Melbourne announce that coach Dean Bailey – who has presided over a total of seven wins in his two seasons at the helm – has been given a new contract, effectively extending his stay by a year, you have every right to question what the world is coming to.
The guy has lost 37 of 44 games. He’s collected the wooden spoon the past two years. We’re yet to see clear-cut evidence he’s the right man for the job long-term.
But underneath outside appearances, as ridiculous as it may sound, there does appear to be some method to the Dees’ madness.
You see, Bailey’s in charge of a young, rebuilding list. That fact alone, in this day and age, guarantees a coach a certain amount of breathing space.
For good reason, too. Any coach in charge of a list like what Melbourne have had the past few years would struggle, no question. Bailey’s real test will be to have his team showing signs of improvement over the next two years, not the last two.
Then there’s the pressure of being an out of contract coach, which Bailey would have been this year if not for the new deal. You only have to look as far as Terry Wallace at Richmond last year to know how intense the scrutiny can get in a short period of time.
A couple of early losses for an out of contract coach who’s yet to even take his side to the finals – that’s just asking for trouble. Trouble that Melbourne and all their inexperienced players don’t need to go through.
So maybe Melbourne had to act. Maybe what they did was actually quite smart. And maybe now a certain other club needs to do the same.
Because with Bailey now sewn up, Fremantle’s Mark Harvey remains the only coach out of contract at year’s end. Unless you’re including the already-planned departure of Paul Roos, that is.
What complicates things further is that last year an array of coaches were under the microscope because of their contracts. This year Harvey has nobody to deflect the spotlight on to.
Worse still, Freo’s first four games are big asks for a side that didn’t win in Melbourne last year: Adelaide at home, Essendon at Etihad, Geelong at home then St Kilda at Etihad.
By not signing up Harvey beyond this year now, Fremantle are asking for trouble.
Of course, a potential media circus and a rough draw alone shouldn’t be enough to land a contract extension. But just like the Demons, the Dockers have been blooding an abnormal amount of youth lately too.
The club had an incredible 11 debutants last year. During the off-season going into that year, they lost over a thousand games worth of experience.
Now, is it really fair to judge Harvey on a year with so much change?
Clearly, it isn’t. But if the Dockers drop a few early-season games – which is entirely plausible – that’s exactly what will happen.
And it isn’t as though the justification for a contract extension ends there. Unlike the Demons, the Dockers are already starting to show serious signs of progress. There have been some woeful performances over the past few years, like that insipid 1.7 (13) effort against Adelaide, but the bigger picture does not seem so broken.
As I wrote last year: “Sure, they may not be winning all that often. But rebuilding teams are not supposed to be judged on winning.
“To check the pulse of rebuilding teams, one must look for indications that young guns are in fact plugging the holes left by retirements, that there is improvement within the list’s core and, above all, that there are elite players – or players well on their way to that status – to build around.
“That describes this Fremantle team right now to a tee.”
The likes of Stephen Hill, Nick Suban, Hayden Ballantyne, Greg Broughton et al, are indeed plugging holes. The older players, as Paul Duffield and Chris Tarrant showed last year, continue to show improvement. And they have a couple of absolute A-graders to build around in Aaron Sandilands and Matthew Pavlich.
Harvey’s rebuild is on track. So just what is holding Freo back?
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