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So, it finally happened. Just nineteen hours after the Brisbane Lions’ 2016 season concluded with yet another big-margin loss, this time to the St Kilda Saints, Justin Leppitsch’s tenure as senior coach of the club was brought to an end.
Leppitsch’s time as the Lions coach was doomed from the start. He was the wrong choice three years ago, and he’s the wrong choice now. The Lions need a great many things in a senior coach and while Leppitsch has many commendable qualities, he was simply not the right man for the job.
However it would be a mistake to suggest that all the Lions need to do this off-season is find the right senior coaching appointment. They have many other tasks that need to be done if this club is ever going to make it out of the AFL wilderness.
The method of Lepptisch’s sacking offered some insight into that. To hear that he was sacked after a ‘secret ballot’ among the board, that he was notified of the decision by phone call, and the players via email – that is gutless, cowardly behaviour from the supposed leaders of this club.
If you’re going to make the decision to sack a man from his job, especially when it’s arguably the most important job in the organisation, you’ve got to own it. There can be no hooded hangman here. Brisbane’s biggest problem right now is that no one wants to take ownership of the club.
That’s who Brisbane’s next coach needs to be – someone ready to grab this bull by the horns and wrestle it into some semblance of competent function. Someone ready to lead a revolution. Someone ready to own the Brisbane Lions.
For too long the Lions have just put at the helm of the ship whoever they can get from the 2001-03 premiership era – the last time they were successful – that wants to be there. Their last two coaches have been players from those days, the last one hand-picked by the coach of those days. That’s the kind of incestuous thinking that leaves a club trapped in the past, as Brisbane have been.
What the Lions need more than anything is to make a clean break with that era, say to themselves that was then, this is now, and find a senior coach who will drag them, kicking and screaming if need be, into the modern day.
My first thought here was that the best choice would be a successful coach with senior experience – but the prospects there look to be dwindling.
Paul Roos after three years bringing Melbourne up out of the mud would be an ideal choice and is worth placing a phone call to, but there’s a good chance the conversation ends with him laughing in your ear and then hanging up. Enjoy Hawaii, Roosy.
Mark Thompson would be the coin flip proposition of the lot. I could easily see him being Brisbane’s next premiership coach. I can easily see him being the last coach of Brisbane ever before the club is driven completely off the rails and goes defunct.
He would provide that revolution and ownership I’m looking for no doubt, but whether his new regime would be any better than the old one is a dicey proposition to gamble on.
Generally only coaches who’ve won a flag get a second shot, but Brett Ratten could be an exception to the rule.
He was mildly successful at Carlton before being shoved out the door in what has proven to be a very poor decision. However it’s not so much his time at Carlton as his time spent at Hawthorn in the years since that makes him an attractive option.
That said it’s highly doubtful that he will seriously consider a return to senior coaching, especially interstate, with family no doubt being the number one priority after the tragic death of his son last year.
That doesn’t leave much in the way of experienced senior hands to take on the job, but maybe that’s a good thing. For every Paul Roos at Melbourne, there’s a Mick Malthouse at Carlton, or a Malcolm Blight at St Kilda.
Perhaps a fresh face, hungry for the chance to really make the club their own is the best choice. Ken Hinkley at Port Adelaide, Luke Beveridge at the Western Bulldogs.
The AFL is likely to have the final say in whatever decision the Lions make and that suggests that someone who has completed the AFL’s level four coaching accreditation program will be in the box seat.
John Barker was mooted on the AFL website as the most likely appointment “according to industry insiders.” He has a little experience of being in the top job, having taken over at Carlton in the period between Mick Malthouse’s sacking and Brendon Bolton’s arrival.
That said it’s also fairly common practice to pinch the best assistant available from a successful club. After all, Brisbane can hardly recruit Barker, a Carlton man, on the pretense of wanting to be more like Carlton.
That being the case someone like Brett Montgomery from the Western Bulldogs or Stuart Dew from the Sydney Swans may prove to be the preferred option. They both know what a well-run club looks like and that arguably gives them the best chance of turning Brisbane into one.
Dew would be my pick of the bunch at the moment. The Swans are one of the best-run clubs in the league and, given that both find themselves in the northern states, would be the wisest choice for Brisbane to seek to emulate. The things Dew has learnt in Sydney would be invaluable to Brisbane.
Give him a chance, and give him the support and improvement in other areas of the club he needs to succeed, and he could be the man to lead Brisbane into the new era that they so desperately need to begin.