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Opinion
With the 2020 season now heading towards its pointy end, some of the coaches of near-guaranteed finals teams can broaden their horizons and start thinking strategies for the exciting finals to come and, in particular, their performances in the finals against the rival coaches they are likely to meet.
To this end, no Round 14 match will provide a chance for rival coaches to revise their head-to-head gameday coaching strategies against their weekend counterpart, as not one of the eight matches to be completed over the four days involves coaches who have met before in finals.
While this is understandable to some extent in the last four matches of the round that feature fledgling coaches and/or teams that have not participated in finals in recent years, the first four games of the round feature teams coached by experience coaches – seven of whom have won premierships – who have been recent and in most cases regular finalists since 2015.
Game 1 (Hawthorn vs Essendon) shapes as a must-win game for the Bombers to keep their finals hopes alive in this twilight match at Adelaide Oval. Coached by the two most experienced managers in the game, the win-lose ratio in the clubs’ 163 meetings to date is over 60 per cent in favour of Essendon, who will be looking for their 99th victory over the Hawks.
While it’s surprising that John Worsfold and Alastair Clarkson, who have coached in 45 finals between them, had never crossed swords in these matches, it’s shocking that premiership winners Damien Hardwick and Adam Simpson, coaches of Thursday’s second game of the round between Richmond and West Coast at Metricon Stadium, have also never had a finals duel.
This game will have a big bearing on which club gains the double chance by finishing in the top four, and with both coaches having won three of their six home-and-away battles, Simpson will be hoping the Eagles overall win-loss ratio of 26-18 prevails.
The coaches in Game 3 on Friday night, also at Metricon Stadium, have to go back a little bit further to recall their last premiership achievements, but Luke Beverage (2016) and Chris Scott (2011) will both move up the all time top 100 coaches list on the weekend.
Scott is currently level with the great Ted Whitten on 228 games but will move past him and remain two games behind John Longmire, who he may equal and perhaps pass during this year’s finals. Beveridge will join coaches Chris Connelly (Hawthorn and Fremantle) and Robert Shaw (Fitzroy and Adelaide) on 130 games.
The Saturday night game between Melbourne and St Kilda at Traeger Park in the Northern Territory will also be important in shaping the final eight, yet these two coaches have only ever coached against each other once. Brett Ratten won that battle and will be hoping that the Saints, who will be warm favourites, can prove their worthiness to be finalists in 2020.
The term ‘traditional rivals’ certainly is appropriate for the earlier Sunday game between Carlton and Collingwood, although it is some time since the meeting of these two clubs has had such importance. After playing each other 257 times, there is only one win separating the two clubs with the Blues in the ascendancy.
The game at the Gabba will be Nathan Buckley’s 200th game and his first as opposition to David Teague. The Magpies showed some reasonable form after halftime last week but will be up against a Blues team desperate to play finals.
In the other games of the round, Port Adelaide and Gold Coast should gain the points, while the Fremantle-Greater Western Sydney game will put the 2020 fate of the losing team beyond doubt.
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