The Sydney Swans are facing a coaching dilemma ahead of their clash with Essendon this weekend, with assistant coach Mark McVeigh emerging as the hot favourite for the Bombers’ vacant senior coaching position.
McVeigh has been widely tipped to land the Essendon job, with officials at AFL headquarters believing he is the frontrunner for the role.
The timing of any announcement could prove crucial for the second-placed Swans as they prepare for their finals campaign.
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If McVeigh is appointed in the next few days or immediately after this weekend’s match between the two clubs, the backline coach is expected to leave Sydney immediately.
However, if Essendon delays their announcement until during the finals series, Sydney would be happy for McVeigh to remain with the club for their premiership push.
Essendon great James Hird is also still in the running for the Essendon position.
But the potential departure of McVeigh would leave the Swans with a reshuffled coaching panel that includes former Demons coach Simon Goodwin, Ben Matthews, and possibly VFL coach Nick Malceski.
Sydney’s head of football (and former Giants coach) Leon Cameron will not step into a coaching role if McVeigh departs.
The approach is different at other clubs, with Fremantle on the record as saying they’d be happy for Jaymie Graham to stay on until the end of their finals campaign if he landed a senior coaching position.
AFL great Luke Hodge says the prospect of McVeigh leaving Sydney ahead of finals is far from ideal, while veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson said it was “a fascinating call”.
“It’s such a disruption to your finals (campaign),” Wilson said on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.
Hodge, one of the all-time great finals players, said stability during the spring was crucial.
“I’m a big believer that if you’re in a finals race, if you’re second on the ladder, you’re doing a lot right. And … the players want continuity from the message that they’re getting, even the personal message, one-on-one with the player, or the group feedback, what they show week in, week out,” Hodge said on The Agenda Setters.
“Players want to know exactly the same message from the same coach. So throwing in a different coach, it might be the same fundamentals, but they want consistency in what they have been getting for the whole year.
“If it was a coach of a team that was 11th, 12th, 13th, it doesn’t really matter. But if you’re second on the ladder in Sydney, I would keep that same line group as they’ve had the whole year because it’s working.
“And who knows, six more games and Sydney could be sitting there as premiership, not contenders, they could be winning the flag with him as their line coach.”
Hodge stopped short of saying it would derail the Swans’ final campaign, but said it could be a problem.
“If you’ve got to rotate and swing things around, you want that same coach giving (the message), especially in the pressure of finals where some things can get thrown up that you’re not used to,” Hodge said.
“I prefer and I know in the past a lot of other players have preferred that same coach to be there.”
If McVeigh does get the job, interim coach Dean Solomon will not necessarily be at Essendon next year.
Solomon has previously said he has had a contract and was keen to stay, regardless of his position, but that message has noticeably softened in recent weeks.
