Even by its own high-risk standards, this has been a dangerous year for AFL senior coaching.
St Kilda’s sacking of Scott Watters on Friday meant there have been six changes in the role – a third of the 18 clubs.
Not all have been sackings, with the legendary Kevin Sheedy handing over to Leon Cameron at Greater Western Sydney.
John Worsfold resigned after more than a decade in charge at West Coast.
But Watters joins Melbourne’s Mark Neeld and Brisbane’s Michael Voss in the sacked coaches club.
James Hird is also only out of action for 12 months, suspended by the AFL for his role in Essendon’s supplements scandal.
At the end-of-season AFL Coaches Association awards night, their chief executive Danny Frawley showed a photo of the 2009 senior coaches.
Only one of them – Hawthorn’s Alastair Clarkson – was still senior coach at the same club.
“The pressure on senior coaches now – I think the whole industry needs to take a deep breath,” Frawley told AAP.
“The industry really needs to look at the pathway of coaching now and we really need to look at what is required to be a senior coach.
“It’s just becoming so brutal.”
Frawley said some clubs looked after their senior coaches well, but it is far from uniform.
“Strong clubs readily identify that they need to take the pressure off the coach, not put pressure on him,” he said.
“We’re lucky enough as an industry to have some really good football clubs that surround the coach with some great supporting networks.
“But sometimes we just find that the coach is nearly in a position to fail before he starts.”