Gold Coast chairman Bob East says his chief executive Mark Evans was right to publicly back coach Stuart Dew despite the AFL club sacking him less than a week later.
Dew, who was contracted until the end of next season, was voted out in a Monday night board meeting with the Suns 7-9 for the season and highly likely to miss finals for a 13th-straight campaign.
Speculation around Dew’s position has been a constant in recent seasons and was amplified last week, prompting Evans to join the coach at his weekly press conference.
Evans offered his qualified support without guaranteeing Dew would remain in the job, and denied he had spoken to former Richmond coach Damien Hardwick as a potential replacement.
East said he’d wait for Evans to frame the “next steps” to replace Dew. “No. I want to deal with this bit properly,” Evans said when asked if he would now reach out to Hardwick.
The Suns led second-placed Port Adelaide at halftime on Saturday before conceding nine goals in the third term, the loss serving as the final chapter in Dew’s five-and-a-half season stint at Gold Coast.
The 43-year-old’s axing comes just six days after Evans stepped in to stand alongside Dew at his weekly press conference.
“I’ve got a coach, this club’s got a coach,” Evans said last Wednesday. “There would be no reason why we would buy into comments about who’s available. It serves no purpose.”
Pressed again on if he had spoken to Hardwick, Evans said, “Absolutely not. “You should judge performance over medium to long term. If you get stuck in the weekly cycle you’ll be champions one week and chumps the next.”
“I’ve said time and time again, Stuey’s our coach, contracted for this year and next year. If he does a good job, he’ll be contracted well into the future. All I can say is that he’s got my support to get on with the job, manage our players and staff as well as we can.”
Evans stood alongside East this time when they fronted media on Tuesday to confirm Dew’s exit and defend last Wednesday’s show of solidarity.
“Mark … did the right thing by coming out and supporting Stuart,” East said. “Every effort was made to make this club a success.
“I don’t think it’s misleading … there should be a process of continual evaluation and continuous improvement. It did crystallise over the weeks and months that there were gaps.
“There is a clear gap between where we currently sit and where our expectations lie. The senior coach selection process will be solely designed to close that gap.
“It’s crystal clear to us that this decision was a necessary decision.”
East said he’d been to “every function, every stand, every bar” to gauge the expectations of the club’s supporters, and that the feedback aligned with the board’s decision to search for a new coach.
He added that Evans, who was Hawthorn’s football boss and AFL football operations manager before arriving at Carrara, had his backing to lead the exercise.
“Mark is absolutely top shelf and fully capable,” East said. “We all have a role now to step up … and make this decision worthwhile.”
Evans said last week’s vouch of support was made in an attempt to stabilise Dew’s position following intense public speculation, but that the situation changed when the board met on Monday.
“I can’t come out and say that once a decision has been made, and that happened last night,” Evans said.
“This time last year we were better placed in terms of wins and particularly in percentage, so it feels like there is a gap between us and the rest of the competition.
“Once we’ve identified that Stuey wasn’t going to be the ongoing coach for us, the best thing to do was to deal with it immediately.
“We think we’ve got a great list …. some experts in our football department and we think that we’ll need a new senior coach to actually go to the (desired) level.”
Suns assistant Steven King will fill in as interim coach for the remainder of the season.
Hardwick departed the Tigers in May after 14 years at the helm and has spent time travelling. However, the 50-year-old confirmed last month he was determined to return to coaching following a break.
“I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t see myself doing it,” Hardwick told the Dyl and Friends podcast. “I love it. I miss it. I’ve been out for two weeks and I wanted to miss it, if that made sense.”
with AAP
AdamDilligafThompson
Roar Rookie
Last week was 13. 14 this week maybe.lol.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
You won 14 in a row is that correct
AdamDilligafThompson
Roar Rookie
6 changes for Port this week. Not good.lol.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
He won’t be coaching the dogs but it’s a funny prospect. He’ll head North :cricket:
AdamDilligafThompson
Roar Rookie
Hardwick doesn't like marvel stadium though.lol.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Yep
AdamDilligafThompson
Roar Rookie
That would be an impressive get. Your over bevo aren't you.?
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Breaking news Hardwick to coach dogs in 24’ & beyond(rumour file) :silly:
AdamDilligafThompson
Roar Rookie
Most definitely. Man they had a list and a half in those days. I'd say even now in these days they'd be a dam good team.
Bangkokpussey
Roar Rookie
No, but you assumed without proof none the less.
Bangkokpussey
Roar Rookie
Horses for courses I guess Cat.
Goalsonly
Roar Rookie
they couldn't give it to Southport because they didn't want to alienate non Southportians.... this was an opportunity missed....... local rivalry is the community feeling you want... the local derby rivalry is now the cornerstone of interstate games..... thats why even GWS V Sydney is going to do all the marketing work for AFL in the long term.... imagine if GWS could get more than a few hundred to their games.... Tassie' will need 2 teams to really fly ..... Bendigo V Ballarat would light up Central Victoria..... more teams and divisions are the way the National Game could best serve the Counrty..... but too many AFL execs would lose their closed shop gravy train free ride privileges.... AFL is still Wild West ......with blatant inflated crowd figures..... gray area rule chaos..... and losing good people early with over emphasis on win/loss and resulting over roughness with intent to hurt... rant over
Macca
Roar Rookie
Ok Don you are in your, the evidence doesn’t support me but I won’t admit I’m wrong phase so I will leave it at that
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Squeaky clean, those Blues.
Macca
Roar Rookie
Which ones? Not the Blues for 1.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
A few.
Macca
Roar Rookie
How many of those teams have lost by those margins that often this year?
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Very Carlton, very Freo, very Richmond, very Doggies...
Ace
Roar Rookie
Apart from the indiscretion by Morris I quite liked him and his reporting and the usual smile he had to go with his stories. And he was , or is , nor provocative Do you think Wilson is related to Kane Cornes? :stoked: :stoked: :happy:
Macca
Roar Rookie
A shocker or two - but as I said above the Suns lost by 10 goals twice in 3 weeks, also lost by 7 goals to the Lions, 8 goals to the Swans & 9 goals to the Saints so that is 5 shockers- not counting the loss to Port where the got outscored by 8 goals in the third quarter.