Those reviews are routine,but the term “independent panel external to the club”,which appeared in Carlton’s press release last week,is a different proposition.
In 2010,the AFL commissioned Craig Mitchell,a consultant with Ernst and Young,to report on best practice in appointing and assessing a senior coach.
He identified seven areas and gave them a weighting adding up to 100 per cent. They were:leadership and culture 25 per cent,personal qualities 20 per cent,management 17 per cent,technical skills 13 per cent,coaching history 10 per cent,communication 10 per cent,commercial focus 5 per cent.
The area that jumps off the page for its relatively low weighting is technical skills,which is the fancy name for knowing footy stuff. The coach still needs to be the smartest person in the match committee room on game plan,technical skills and tactics,but this is only one small component of being a successful senior coach.
This is why coaches who haven’t done the correct apprenticeship generally fail. It’s never the Xs and Os,it’s the ability to handle the pressure.
There have been four “super reviews” in recent times. The2006 Geelong one conducted by CEO Brian Cook,the2016 Richmond review led by Brendon Gale and assisted by Mitchell,the 2017 Peter MurphyCollingwood inquest and the2019 Adelaide review conducted by Jason Dunstall and Matthew Pavlich.
Each had its own circumstances,but all had their genesis in the fact that boards believed the general reviewing process by the CEO or football department wasn’t giving sufficient detail.