smiler wrote:
How do you explain their patience with their coaches, Glenn? Example, Gold Coast Suns appointed their head coach in 2017. They hardly won a game for two seasons, but they stuck with him. This season they improved to about 13th out of 18 in the 'ladder', and he is still there looking to improve again next year. That isn't out of the ordinary in that sport.
We see some managers sacked after a handful of matches. Why are we so different?
Is it perhaps that they don't have promotion and relegation, so that they are more financially stable and aren't under financial pressure to change their fortunes overnight?
I suspect there are many reasons for it Smiler. First of all, the sport is confined to Australia so there's no influx of foreign managers which, in football, has heightened expectations, often disappointed, and led to a frequent merry-go-round in the top league - all of which percolates down to the lower divisions. AFL has a relatively small pool of participants and so those that go on to coach are even fewer, therefore it probably pays to hang on to what you've got. There's also significant allegiance to clubs and I suspect (although I don't know) that players tend to move into coaching roles at the same club?
