McGowan to assist Clarkson at Hawthorn.

[ElizabethVCRThief]

Are you taking the piss 1980TM?

[bluegirl2002]

With Macgowan's resignation Sturt now move up into equal 2nd position in SANFL coaching turnovers in the past 25 years only surpassed by, wouldn't you know it, GLENELG.
Sturt is indeed an unstable club.
Going back a little bit further, at one stage in the 14 years from 1982 they had EIGHT coaches. That's ridiculous.

The ladder is:

Glenelg 11 coaching changes
Sturt 10
South 10
West 10
Centrals 7
North 7
Norwood 7
Port 6

To create further discussion - Can you name all of these coaches?

[Barto]

Almost half the clubs in the league are unstable. The sky is falling.

[godoubleblues]

With Macgowan's resignation Sturt now move up into equal 2nd position in SANFL coaching turnovers in the past 25 years only surpassed by, wouldn't you know it, GLENELG.
Sturt is indeed an unstable club.
Going back a little bit further, at one stage in the 14 years from 1982 they had EIGHT coaches. That's ridiculous.

The ladder is:

Glenelg 11 coaching changes
Sturt 10
South 10
West 10
Centrals 7
North 7
Norwood 7
Port 6

To create further discussion - Can you name all of these coaches?

for the record here are Sturts
83-84, Halbert
85-88, Keane
89, Davies
90, Higgins
91-92, Trigg
93-94, Bunton
95-01, Carman
02-06, Phillips
07-08, MacGowan
09-, ???

not counting any stand in coaches and only Brodie Atkinson comes to mind

[Old but Smart Dog]

So Centrals dominance has been rewarded with an entry to the AFL, under the name of Hawthorn Football Club? Excellent news.

Clarkson spends a season at CDFC, gets sacked, & you claim him as your own?

except he was there for 2 seasons for 2 GFs - I win and one loss.

I'd say him being a premiership coach allows us to count him as one of ours

2 sesons still doesn't make him Centrals- he probably can't even remember where the club is located...

Anyone that coaches us to a GF is an excellent coach! Ok he did lose one, but he learnt from his lose the following year and made up for it! At least he one!

[Old but Smart Dog]

So who else is Sturt planning to taking from Centrals to coach...McCabe's just retired perhaps grab him up.

[Zathrus]

Clarkson spends a season at CDFC, gets sacked, & you claim him as your own?

except he was there for 2 seasons for 2 GFs - I win and one loss.

I'd say him being a premiership coach allows us to count him as one of ours

2 sesons still doesn't make him Centrals- he probably can't even remember where the club is located...

Anyone that coaches us to a GF is an excellent coach! Ok he did lose one, but he learnt from his lose the following year and made up for it! At least he one!

Actually he won one and then lost one, then parted ways (agreed to disagree ?) and Roy took over in 2003. And Alistair has two of our players, Dew and Guerra, there to help him remember where we are

[therisingblues]

With Macgowan's resignation Sturt now move up into equal 2nd position in SANFL coaching turnovers in the past 25 years only surpassed by, wouldn't you know it, GLENELG.
Sturt is indeed an unstable club.
Going back a little bit further, at one stage in the 14 years from 1982 they had EIGHT coaches. That's ridiculous.

The ladder is:

Glenelg 11 coaching changes
Sturt 10
South 10
West 10
Centrals 7
North 7
Norwood 7
Port 6

Dude, your credibility has taken a huge battering with this post.

How? he has articuated a fact in the last 25 years Sturt have had 10 coaches to be the equal 2nd most unstable club. A coach every 2.5 years. Yes I know we are worse one every 2.1 years.

I don't think using statistics (related purely to coaching changes) from pre 1995 can suggest the stability of a club (as a whole) at the end of the 2008 season. I'll agree that what happened during the years leading up to 1995 was ridiculous and we were unstable, (we almost folded!) but since then we have had 3 full time coaches and one caretaker in 14 years. But that also doesn't mention all the other factors that would go into suggesting whether a club is stable or not.
It's an interesting graph, but I have to disagree with the spin ML put on it.

[Zathrus]

A coach leaving to further improve his lot is not a sign of a club being unstable. Coaches being regularly sacked, or walking out with nowhere to go leaving the club in pretty much the same situation or worse, to me is a sign of instability. As Tassie says three coaches in 14 years isn't bad at all. But before that ..........

[cennals05]

Actually he won one and then lost one, then parted ways (agreed to disagree ?) and Roy took over in 2003. And Alistair has two of our players, Dew and Guerra, there to help him remember where we are

Speaking of Stewie Dew, I ran into him in Amsterdam yesterday. He said Clarkson had been trying to get MacGowan to Hawthorn for quite a while.

[Pseudo]

Speaking of Stewie Dew, I ran into him in Amsterdam yesterday.

In a coffeeshop, or parading up and down the red light district?

[Dogwatcher]

Cennals is a good girl, Stewie on the other hand....

[MagareyLegend]

I'd heard about this rumour a little while back but kept my peace until I heard definitely one way or the other.
I cannot blame Macgowan for accepting a contract in the AFL. Coaching is his career now, and he deserves to make the most that he can out of it.
Think back to two years ago, and we almost finished bottom and got royally spanked 6 weeks straight and looking a right rabble. We were suffering financially (to put it mildly) Almost everybody with an opinion on the SANFL reckoned we'd need a long time to rebuild, many tipped us for the spoon.
Macgowan took over the club in that atmosphere and made an immediate impact. We made the finals in his first year with largely the same playing group that almost finished bottom the year before. We beat the Dogs at Unley for the first time since 1985. We beat the Pies at Alberton twice. etc. Roll on 2008 and suddenly people are expecting Sturt to make the grand final, maybe even win it. We are attracting quality recruits from all over. Our juniors are carving it up. Memberships are up. Our investments are doing well and our financial position is much improved.
Macgowan played a huge part in all that, in his short tenure he has put us way ahead of the position almost everybody expected us to be at almost every turn. To my understanding of the situation he has been very good for the Double Blues and I wish him every success in the AFL.
Farwell Macgowan and all the best.

In all due respects this is misleading.
When Rick started it coincided with the club deciding to turn around its financial siutation including real estate assets and being prepared to commit $ into recruiting which it had not done in the last 2 years under Phillips.
Re: "Juniors now carving it up" - juniors have been strong for a long period of time and a lot of this is due to the legacy of Phillips as a development coach. In fact, some would question Rick's success as a coach who developed juniors well.
Re: "Our investments are doing well" - I am not sure of this and would like to see your evidence - this is not how I underatnd it to be.
Re: "We are attracting quality recruits from all over" - Really? Who and from where and when?
Even Rick admits that by not making the GF at least once in the past 2 years meant that he has failed - at least he is a realist even if you are not.

[sturtpeter]

Macgowan put his family above Sturt which is admirable.

How many Glenelg guys sacked did the same?

[am Bays]

Macgowan put his family above Sturt which is admirable.

How many Glenelg guys sacked did the same?

yep people asked to get sacked for the sake of their family....

[Pseudo]

Macgowan put his family above Sturt which is admirable.

How many Glenelg guys sacked did the same?

When igNoble walked out on the club, he made claims of "his family coming first".

Personally I'd have found it more admirable if he hadn't used his family as a lame excuse for abandoning the club.

[Blue Boy]

Seeing A.Clarkson @ a couple of Sturt games this year had me always thinking that Rick was obviously a good target for Hawthorn still.

I wish Rick all the best as he has given us some good depth @ Sturt which alot of other coaches in the past havent thought of !!!

I really hope that they give the job to Luke Norman as there seems to be a bit of a succession plan already in place.

Go you double blues in 2009 !!!

[therisingblues]

Magarey, this list should answer about half your questions:
Bar Zaar, Castle Tavern, Macglone, Gum, Crane, Wicks, Cubillo, Perrie etc.

2 years? Even Jack Oatey required 3 to make a grand final. If Macgowan is so hard on himself to declare his achievements at Sturt a failure, then he is someone who aimed a lot higher than I expected him to achieve in just two years.

Juniors? Okay they started a while ago under Philips, and the U17's took home the big prize while Magowan was senior coach. U19's also made the grand final, the reserves are pretty young overall and they took home a bit of silverware also. You can get into the nitty gritty of who exactly caused what to happen, but it is all part of the healthy situation the club found itself in under Macgowan.

I'm not a realist? Whatever dude, I don't care.
I hope that answers all your questions about the little piece I wrote.

[smac]

Macgowan put his family above Sturt which is admirable.

How many Glenelg guys sacked did the same?

When igNoble walked out on the club, he made claims of "his family coming first".

Personally I'd have found it more admirable if he hadn't used his family as a lame excuse for abandoning the club.

Did you think he was at Glenelg to do anything other than propel himself back into the AFL as quickly as possible? I think you would be more than a little naive if you did. He is a career coach looking to get the most cash at the highest level. Can't knock him too much for succeeding in his short term goal.

[MagareyLegend]

Thanks, good response.

Magarey, this list should answer about half your questions:
Bar Zaar, Castle Tavern, Macglone, Gum, Crane, Wicks, Cubillo, Perrie etc.

2 years? Even Jack Oatey required 3 to make a grand final. If Macgowan is so hard on himself to declare his achievements at Sturt a failure, then he is someone who aimed a lot higher than I expected him to achieve in just two years.

Juniors? Okay they started a while ago under Philips, and the U17's took home the big prize while Magowan was senior coach. U19's also made the grand final, the reserves are pretty young overall and they took home a bit of silverware also. You can get into the nitty gritty of who exactly caused what to happen, but it is all part of the healthy situation the club found itself in under Macgowan.

I'm not a realist? Whatever dude, I don't care.
I hope that answers all your questions about the little piece I wrote.