Stuart Dew has jumped in at the deep end for his AFL senior coaching debut.
The two-time premiership player and highly-respected Sydney assistant will be confirmed on Thursday morning as Gold Coast’s new coach.
The 38-year-old beat Carlton assistant John Barker and newly-appointed Hawthorn deputy Scott Burns for the role.
Dew will take over at the expansion club after the Suns finished second-last this season, having finished no higher than 12th in their six seasons.
By contrast, fellow expansion club GWS started a year later and have made the last two preliminary finals.
Gold Coast are also likely to lose inaugural captain Gary Ablett, who has requested a trade back to Geelong for the second successive year.
Co-captain Tom Lynch will become a free agent at the end of next season and he will field massive offers from Victorian clubs.
Lynch’s manager Robbie D’Orazio said the key forward will see how Gold Coast progress under Dew before making the call on his playing future.
“I’m sure by midway through next year, if they’re 0-11 but they’re competing, that might be OK,” D’Orazio said.
“But if they’re 0-11 and getting smashed then we’ll wait and see.”
Inaugural coach Guy McKenna was sacked at the end of the 2014 season and Rodney Eade suffered the same fate with three games to go this year.
Dean Solomon saw out the season as interim senior coach and he is one of several Suns assistants who are yet to have their positions confirmed.
Late last month, Dew briefly postponed a coaching interview with Gold Coast when speculation ramped up that Port Adelaide’s Ken Hinkley might put his hand up for the role.
But Hinkley re-signed with the Power and it came down to Dew, Barker and Burns – all of whom were yet to join the full-time senior coaching ranks.
Dew played 180 games for Port Adelaide and was a member of their 2004 premiership team.
He retired at the end of 2006, but former Port Adelaide assistant coach Alastair Clarkson lured him back to playing under him at Hawthorn in 2008.
While Dew was overweight and unfit at the start of the season, he regained fitness and his return paid off superbly in their upset grand final win over Geelong.
He played a crucial cameo role in the grand final, kicking two goals.
Dew retired from playing for good at the end of 2009 and joined Sydney in a coaching role.
He rose to become John Longmire’s senior assistant coach and had a significant role in their 2012 premiership win.
For several seasons, the popular thinking around the AFL was that Dew was a senior coach in waiting.
Dew has strong links to Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans, who was football manager at Hawthorn in 2008-09.
