The process and the people involved are outlined below for your interest. However, please note whilst being as transparent as possible, there are of course areas of our Football and Commercial strategies (and progress) that will need to be kept confidential. I’m certain that members and partners will appreciate the need for us to be discrete in our dealings with various candidates.
The following is a quick summary of the way forward:
Playing List
A key consideration in selecting our new Senior Coach is the status and needs of our List. We invest an enormous amount of time into planning and developing our List, and the type of coach is obviously critical in that process.
Our List is currently the 12th youngest and ranks 13th in experience in the competition. The playing group also has the second most 20-24 year olds in the League. It has certain needs, and opportunities for development.
Our list - in short - is young and inexperienced, but with the ability to learn and develop very quickly under the guidance of a quality Senior Coach and his team (within a strong program).
The New Coach
The recruitment and selection of the Senior Coach is vital to the Club’s future success. With this in mind, there are several essential attributes that we will be looking for with just some of the key areas being:
• Personal qualities - A person with strong guiding values aligned to the Club, who can create a culture of learning and achievement;
• Communication - Ability to guide the development of our young list through effective planning and communication;
• Leadership - Develop and put into action a game plan that will be a consistently competitive, and with a style that is exciting and entertaining;
• Management - Manage a group of assistant coaches and support staff and empower them to develop winning strategies; and
• Football or technical skills - Established football knowledge (strategy, tactics, development etc) gathered over years of playing and/or coaching plus a strategic view of where the game is heading tactically.
Recruitment process
The Club is currently in the process of identifying a list of prospective coaches. The aim is to reduce this list to several candidates who will be interviewed in stage 1 with a strong focus on personal, managerial and leadership qualities.
Stage 2 will comprise of a series of interviews with the most outstanding 3-4 candidates selected from stage 1. These interviews will seek further information regarding football philosophies, coupled with presentations on game style and winning strategies - and the needs/development of our List.
The selection panel will comprise:
Nigel Smart (Deputy Chairman) - who will chair the panel
Steven Trigg (CEO)
Andrew Payze (Football Director)
Phil Harper (GM - Football Operations)
Craig Mitchell (Consultant - CrankSports)
Note that in the stage 2 interviews, we will utilise the expertise and vast experience of Leigh Matthews as a consultant to the selection panel.
The views and recommendation of this selection panel will be communicated to the Adelaide Football Club Board as per our governance model for the final decision.
Timeframe
The selection panel has no deadlines in finding the best possible person to coach our Club. It will aim, however, to make its final recommendation to the Board by its (late) September meeting, with an announcement soon after.
The candidates
There will be no discussion, nor will the Club enter into any speculation regarding the potential or likely candidates through any media channels (including our own).
As we all know, there will be considerable public discussion and much speculation over the coming weeks. However the majority of candidates will simply not wish to have their intentions made public, and it not to our advantage to be commenting on individuals. All of which means there will be little more we can say until a decision has been made.
To that end, the only spokesperson will be the CEO.
Finally, we are very confident of securing a new Senior Coach who will be very successful with us given the work and assessments we have already undertaken.
In the meantime, it’s a challenging and different time for us. We’ll still be putting all our support behind Mark Bickley, the coaching team and the players, so that we can finish the season on a positive note.
All the best.
Steven Trigg
