ON SEN Breakfast las week, David King asked AFL Coaches Association CEO Alistair Nicholson how his organisation can allow coaches to be sacked then not have their full contracts paid out.<\/p>\n
It comes as Stuart Dew will only be paid out a portion of his contract after being sacked by the Gold Coast Suns.<\/p>\n
Brett Ratten signed a contract extension with St Kilda in 2022, with that extension not even kicking in before the club decided to move on from him.<\/p>\n
He was still only paid out a portion of that contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlistair, how have you allowed as a coaches association for coaches’ contracts to not be financially binding and to be paid out in full at point of termination?\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
Nicholson said it remains his organisation\u2019s top priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s a really important issue for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a player in a CBA you get full payout, you get retirement fund, you get three years of welfare support, but the coaches don\u2019t have a CBA, they have employment agreements with clubs and in 2020 the AFL, for clubs that were getting extra money, restricted the amount of payout that a coach can get.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something we would like reversed or at least have coaches better compensated if the deal is torn up early.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at the Brett Ratten situation. He hadn\u2019t even started his contract. Stuart Dew was 30 per cent through his contract, so the boards of these clubs really get a free swing at that, and I think there needs to be more consequences for the decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicholson said he believes the onus is on the AFL, not the clubs, to remove this clause from contracts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it needs to start with the AFL and going if I walk into a football club, whether it\u2019s as a development coach or a senior coach, that job security and some certainty is just one of the top three things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is something we\u2019ve absolutely pushed with the AFL and another example of that volatility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you stand back and look at the value the coaches bring to our game, they\u2019re the face of the club, they drive the culture, it\u2019s something that is worth considering and there\u2019s a lot of international precedent for it as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy challenge to the AFL and obviously the new CEO is how are we making this profession better?<\/p>\n
\u201cOur surveys show that from a mental health and wellbeing point of view, 42 per cent of coaches are either average or below.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a significant number of coaches who don\u2019t think they\u2019re well regarded by the AFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s a priority issue in the game, looking after the health and wellbeing of the coaches and also the attractiveness of the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes slammed the contract clause in the wake of Ratten\u2019s sacking, labelling it \u201ccruel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis six-month payout clause, I cannot get my head around how the Coaches Association and how the industry has just accepted that we can sign coaches for a tenure, but then sack them and only pay out six months of the contract,\u201d Cornes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are the agent of one of these coaches, you cannot let one of these deals slip through.<\/p>\n
\u201cSt Kilda rely on the AFL [financially] clearly, but they only have to stump up six months of a two-year contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrett Ratten on October 17th has to go look for a job when everyone else has already shored up their football departments. It\u2019s cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n