Adelaide coach Neil Craig finally falls on his sword
By Courtney Walsh
WITH other senior positions likely to become available, the market for a coach is expected to be competitive, but the exit of Neil Craig yesterday after 166 games in charge gives the Crows a head start on rival clubs. Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg yesterday refused to clarify whether the Crows would prefer a coach with senior experience, saying only that they were seeking the best available person. "I have an idea, but it would be totally inappropriate for me to roll that out here at the moment," Trigg said. Untried candidates include former captain Simon Goodwin and another ex-Crow in Nathan Bassett, both of whom played under Craig during the period he took the Crows to five successive finals campaigns. Despite stepping down, Craig remains an employee of Adelaide, given an unusual agreement -- at least in football -- struck earlier this year. While Trigg yesterday said Craig, who will take a leave of absence until October, would not assume a position similar to that of Malthouse at Collingwood, he was too valuable a resource to lose.
Coaches want all power or none at all
By Patrick Smith
THE messy part of the season is with us. At Adelaide, coach Neil Craig has pondered whether his time has come. It has. He has been a professional coach, successful too, with a 59 per cent winning record before this season. He has also taken the club to nine finals. But the team has not played well this season. Four wins from 16 games is not an encouraging strike rate, especially when Craig has been a zealot in spruiking the skills and potential of his playing list. Who do you sack when the club’s going belly-up? The answer would have to be the person with the most responsibility and that would be the coach. Craig is on Adelaide’s staff so he will presumably take up some position that still utilises his much admired coaching and strategic skills next year. How this will quite work with a new coach is for Adelaide to figure.
Herald Sun
Resigning as Adelaide Coach right call from gentleman Neil Craig
By Mark Robinson
ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig's resignation was swift, graceful and the right decision. Not even the gentleman of South Australian football could escape the brutal fall-out following Friday night's 103-point capitulation against St Kilda. As usual, he handled his exit with dignity. No song and dance, just an honest self appraisal of his performance as coach/educator/motivator. He said numerous times he would coach the Crows until he felt he was no longer the right person for the job. It's time. We have underperformed this year and I take responsibility for that," he said in the press release. To the end, he was classy and respectful. No one in coaching history had been asked more than Craig if he was going to walk from his job. Craig never lost his cool, however, and despite the blood-thirsty ways of AFL media, Craig answered every question with honesty and was never personal. Always, he would say: I love the Adelaide Football Club.
Ricciuto back Burns for Crows job
By Grant Baker
CLUB legend Mark Ricciuto says the Crows would be "absolutely stupid" not to look outside Adelaide for it's next coach. The Brownlow medallist has nominated former Collingwood champ and current West Coast assistant Scott Burns as the best of a long list of candidates. “If you limit yourself to the best ex-player that is available, well you are doomed unless you strike it lucky - they will be trying to get whoever they can,” Ricciuto said. “And who is available because it looks pretty thin at the moment. “(Bickley) has been saying he is not ready, so I would be surprised if Bickley is the next coach - but as we have seen with caretaker coaches, it is their job to lose. (Burns) is an ex-Adelaide boy, he has been involved with Collingwood, he has been at West Coast through the rebuilding stage, which is what Adelaide is going to have to go through.” During the press conference, Crows CEO Steven Trigg said, "this fellow (Craig) has an extraordinary range of skills and experiences - high performance, conditioning, people management, media, whatever you like." "What we will do is just let the dust settle and see what comes in the next three months, he needs a break."
Sydney Morning Herald
Crows to woo AFL Premiership coaches
By Steve Larkin
PREMIERSHIP mentors Mick Malthouse and Paul Roos will be wooed as Adelaide pledge to land the best AFL coach in the nation to replace Neil Craig. "If I could quarantine the pressure to myself, it would be OK," Craig told reporters. "But I can't do that, of course, because it starts to effect everyone in the football club ... so in the end, you need to make a call about what is best for our club." Adelaide's only premiership captain, Mark Bickley, was appointed caretaker coach for the remainder of the season but was warned by club hierarchy he didn't have the inside running to replace Craig. "For Mark, it comes with no guarantees," Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg told reporters. "But believe me, from next week, we are going after the best possible coach in the nation. Along with Malthouse, who will step down as Collingwood coach at the end of the season, and the retired Sydney hero Roos, Hawthorn premiership coach Alastair Clarkson can expect to be contacted by the Crows given his negotiations with the Hawks are on hold.
ABC Online
Craig gone as Adelaide Crows coach
MARK Bickley will take over duties for the remainder of the season, until a senior coaching decision is made for 2012. Craig took over as caretaker coach of Adelaide in 2004 and then as senior coach for more than seven seasons. Craig, 55, took the team to 92 wins and 74 losses from 166 games and to the finals five times, but they famously crashed out in 2005 after finishing the home and away season on top. The final nail came after the Crows plunged to a 103-point loss to St Kilda last week. “We have clearly underperformed this year and as senior coach I take the responsibility for that." The turmoil at the Crows comes just days out from the Showdown against Port Adelaide, which is on the bottom of the AFL ladder.
The Advertiser
Neil Craig quits as coach of the Adelaide Crows
By Michelangelo Rucci
IN the end, Neil Craig was trapped by his vision for the Adelaide Football Club, rather than by his personal ambitions. Craig yesterday fell on his sword, recognising that his well-earned right to see the Crows squad through an inevitable rebuilding program would come at a heavy off-field cost to his under-performing club. "It would have been a personal indulgence," said Craig, who made his decision to quit 24 hours after Adelaide's 103-point loss to St Kilda at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne on Friday night. He told his players of his resignation at 1pm yesterday. Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg and club chairman Rob Chapman met Craig for several hours after they returned to the team hotel in the wake of the St Kilda debacle, in which the Crows recorded their lowest score in the club's 20 years of AFL football. He put club first," said Trigg, whose board has spent the past six weeks preparing for a transition to a new coach. Craig denied himself a "farewell derby", recognising this would come at a cost to his club. He said he would have stayed at West Lakes to work through Adelaide's down cycle "only if the fight was winnable". "Otherwise," he added, "you do yourself and the club a disservice.”
