The AFL’s teaching business is dealing with a “crisis” following Damien Hardwick’s shock resolution to give up Richmond.
The three-time premiership profitable coach’s name to go away the Tigers shocked the AFL group on Monday.
Watch each match of each spherical of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Coupled with Alastair Clarkson’s transfer to take an indefinite break from teaching at North Melbourne, the Hardwick news had business pundits questioning if there’s a larger concern among the many sport’s teaching fraternity.
Speaking on Channel 9’s Footy Classified, Caroline Wilson mentioned coaches have been handled appallingly since spending caps had been pressured upon golf equipment throughout the Covid disaster.
“This is a crisis for the industry,” Wilson mentioned. “The AFL has botched the soft cap.
“Coaches feel like the scum of the industry, one coach said that recently to Gillon McLachlan.
“Coaches have been told, ‘you’re paid too much, we are going to cut your wages, we’re going to cut your programs by $3 million a year’, after capping them in the first place.
“And now, when the game has never been richer, according to Gillon McLachlan, they’re giving them $2 million less than they were getting pre-Covid, while the AFL’s (executives are) bringing home fat salaries.”
The comfortable cap, also referred to as the soccer division tax, was applied to equalise membership spending outdoors of the laborious wage cap.
It was scaled proper again as a cost-cutting measure throughout the Covid disaster, however has since been elevated by $500,000 this season and an extra $250,000 in 2024 to a complete of $7.2 million. That remains to be over $2 million lower than the pre-Covid comfortable cap.
Hardwick is anticipated to handle the media on Tuesday to clarify his resolution and his plans transferring ahead.
Wilson doesn’t assume Hardwick will probably be misplaced to teaching for lengthy, tipping him to return to a different mentoring function within the close to future.
But Footy Classified host and media identification Craig Hutchison drew a parallel between Clarkson’s resolution within the wake of the Hawthorn racism scandal and the Hardwick news.
Clarkson is without doubt one of the sport’s most profitable coaches, main the Hawks to 4 flags between 2005 and 2021.
But he in the end had an acrimonious departure from the membership and had been concerned in a confrontation along with his substitute, Sam Mitchell, previous to stepping away from the Kangaroos.
“You do wonder whether Clarkson staying too long at Hawthorn, and then seeing what he went through last week, is in any small way a factor in this (Hardwick decision),” Hutchison mentioned.
It was solely late final week that Hardwick was requested about Clarkson, his mentor at Hawthorn earlier than he grew to become a head coach on the Tigers.
It’s not unreasonable to take a position that Hardwick was contemplating his personal teaching future when he made these feedback to the media.
“It’s always sad when you see someone that you love walk away from the game,” Hardwick mentioned final Friday.
“I don‘t think he’ll be lost to the game, the game will be worse off if he’s out of it.
“What I do hope is that, you know, this is the only thing I’ll say on it, everyone just gives him the privacy and the time that he needs.”
Hardwick, 50, added that the teaching caper is troublesome sufficient with out having critical exterior points to confront.
“The game is hard enough as it is, especially with this cloud hanging over him at the moment,” he mentioned.
“And he unfortunately has been the face of it. I challenge any person to handle the workload and then the nature of that report and what is hanging over his head for eight months.
“It’s a challenging time, so let’s just step back, give him the time that he needs, and I and probably every other footy person in the industry want him back ASAP.”
Wilson went on to reference an article she wrote about Hardwick two years in the past and believes the longest serving coach in Richmond historical past is making the proper transfer.
“I wrote a column two years ago saying don’t do the same thing Alastair Clarkson did at Hawthorn and stay too long,” she mentioned.
“So I think this is the right thing.”
Originally printed as Damien Hardwick, Alastair Clarkson strikes proof of a deeper AFL concern
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
