Tiger’s head-coach Damien Hardwick has proposed an idea that would allow clubs to trade their coaches as draft picks. It is believed that this would be a positive way to combat the increasing instances of coaches leaving a contract-position with one club to work at another; a trend that has angered some AFL clubs.
Most recent examples of this include assistant coach Mark Neeld from Collingwood moving to the Demons and Geelong’s assistant coach Brenton Sanderson moving to the Crows, who both accepted senior coaching jobs last season.
Hardwick says that while he wouldn’t try to stop someone wanting to take a more senior coaching position, it is important that the club losing their coach is appropriately compensated. The system could involved a coach being exchanged for a number of draft picks, similar to the method used in the American National Football League. Monetary compensation could also play a factor.
This suggestion comes as an alternative to AFL chief executive Alex Demetriou’s move to place fines on the clubs that head-hunt coaches from other teams. Hardwick says that if a team wants a coach, they may be willing to forgo a first-round draft pick to have them.
