The Roar
The Roar

AFL
Advertisement

Wrong time, wrong place for unfortunate Leppa

The Lions had no choice but to release Leppitsch. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Editor
29th August, 2016
7

The idea of a club’s favourite son returning to coach the team to success is one of footy’s most coveted fairytales.

Unfortunately, the last few seasons have demonstrated this daydream often turns into a nightmare. Matthew Primus, James Hird, Michael Voss and Nathan Buckley have all had their once-stellar reputations blemished after taking the reins of the clubs they once led onto the field.

Buckley’s career is hanging on a knife’s edge, while Primus, Hird and Voss were all unceremoniously shown the door.

Yesterday, Brisbane’s champion premiership defender-turned-coach Justin Leppitsch joined that list.

On paper, Leppitsch’s record speaks (poorly) for itself. The club regressed from ten wins in the season prior to his tenure, to seven, four and just three wins, each year during his reign.

But as poor as the win-loss record was, the manner in which the team lost games was even worse.

In Voss’ last year in charge the club lost twelve games by an average of 36 points. While the club lost an additional three games in Leppitsch’s first season, the average losing margin blew out to 56 points.

2015 saw the losing margin trimmed slightly to 48, although any goodwill that generated was offset by the club losing three more games again, before it completely unravelled in 2016, with the club losing 19 of its 22 matches by a staggering average of 61 points.

Advertisement

Attendances at the Gabba dropped by 20 per cent, from an already low starting point, over the course of Lepptisch’s tenure.

For the psychological wellbeing of everyone involved at the club, there needed to be change.

Whenever a new coach takes over at a football club, it’s important they avoid making the same mistakes as their predecessor. But looking back on the brief career of ‘Leppa’, it’s hard to see what mistakes he could have avoided making.

Was this just a case of wrong place, wrong time for a man finding his feet as an AFL senior coach?

Michael Voss’ time as Brisbane coach started positively but unravelled quickly, and although things seemed to finally be on track once more in late 2013, in August of that season he was abruptly sacked.

The timing of his departure was very odd. The Lions had won four of their past six matches, and had only gone down to then-top four fancies Richmond by 23 points when his time was up.

Brisbane went on to win two of their three games under caretaker Mark Harvey to finish the season at 10-12.

Advertisement

Speculation was rife at the time that Paul Roos was considering coming out of retirement to coach again, and in 2014 Voss made an explosive accusation that Brisbane had dumped him to secure Roos.

Whether or not Voss’ claims are true, the idea that a club would sack its coach with three games to go in the season, having won four of their last six, strongly suggests a lucrative opportunity had arisen.

In the end Roos went on to revilatise Melbourne instead, and Brisbane settled on then-Richmond assistant Leppitsch.

But before a game had even played, Justin’s job got off to a horror start with five former top-30 draft picks demanding out of the club.

Elliot Yeo (West Coast), Sam Docherty (Carlton), Jared Polec (Port Adelaide), Billy Longer (St Kilda) and Patrick Karnezis (Collingwood) became known as the infamous ‘go home five’ in one of the most devastating trade periods any club has ever suffered.

The draft picks the Lions received in those trades netted them Lewis Taylor, Daniel McStay, Tom Cutler and Nick Robertson, while Collingwood also sent them Jackson Paine.

From that point onward, according to Leppitsch, Brisbane’s goal shifted from short-term success to long-term development, although their trade period activity suggests differently.

Advertisement

At the end of 2014 they surrendered picks 5, 21 and 25 to acquire Dayne Beams and Allen Christensen, in addition to signing delisted free agent Mitch Robinson.

The following season, they traded away top 30 draft picks for Tom Bell and Ryan Bastinac, although they did stockpile some later picks from the losses of James Aish, Jack Redden and Matthew Leuenberger.

In last week’s press conference however, Lepptisch claimed there was more he could’ve done at the trade table had he known wins and losses would be one of his key performance indicators for 2016.

Naming free agent Matthew Suckling in particular, he insisted youth development was what he was told he was there for, and that the club had pulled out of deals that would have brought players into the club as it would have meant losing draft picks.

In hindsight, Brisbane needed more experienced bodies on the park this season. Their more experienced recruits struggled mightily in 2016, with Dayne Beams not even playing two full games, Allen Christensen and Ryan Bastinac’s form dipping and Josh Walker being dropped to the NEAFL more than once.

The decision to go for youth last trade period may prove to be a masterstroke down the track, but in 2016 it left them totally incapable of competing.

Coupled with the disaster that was the 2013 offseason, it’s hard to remember a coach in modern times who’s tenure has been so badly crippled by circumstances and decisions beyond their control.

Advertisement

While it’s highly unlikely Justin Leppitsch will ever get another gig as a head coach in the AFL, the harrowing experience of the last three years would no doubt make him a valuable assistant.

Over the last three years, the Brisbane Lions have emerged as one of the most troubled clubs in the competition. They need a lot more than a change of coach to become a regular competitive outfit in the AFL.

Was Justin Leppitsch the man to guide the Lions through the turbulent next few seasons? Probably not, they needed a change.

But would any coach currently in the competition have done significantly better with the absurdly poor set of circumstances Leppitsch suffered?

Again, probably not.

Footy is a ruthless business, and in any case it’s very unfortunate Leppa’s career has been cut short.

Nobody in their right mind would turn down a head coaching role in the AFL, after all, there’s only 18 positions available in the world. But sometimes, even in this prestigious role, you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Advertisement
close