AFLCA CEO pressed on coaches’ contract clause

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.

It comes as Stuart Dew will only be paid out a portion of his contract after being sacked by the Gold Coast Suns.

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.

He was still only paid out a portion of that contract.

“Alistair, 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?” King said.

Nicholson said it remains his organisation’s top priority.

“It’s something that’s a really important issue for us,” he said.

“If you’re a player in a CBA you get full payout, you get retirement fund, you get three years of welfare support, but the coaches don’t 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.

“That’s something we would like reversed or at least have coaches better compensated if the deal is torn up early.

“You look at the Brett Ratten situation. He hadn’t 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.”

Nicholson said he believes the onus is on the AFL, not the clubs, to remove this clause from contracts.

“I think it needs to start with the AFL and going if I walk into a football club, whether it’s as a development coach or a senior coach, that job security and some certainty is just one of the top three things,” he said.

“That is something we’ve absolutely pushed with the AFL and another example of that volatility.

“When you stand back and look at the value the coaches bring to our game, they’re the face of the club, they drive the culture, it’s something that is worth considering and there’s a lot of international precedent for it as well.

“My challenge to the AFL and obviously the new CEO is how are we making this profession better?

“Our surveys show that from a mental health and wellbeing point of view, 42 per cent of coaches are either average or below.

“We’ve got a significant number of coaches who don’t think they’re well regarded by the AFL.

“I do think it’s a priority issue in the game, looking after the health and wellbeing of the coaches and also the attractiveness of the profession.”

Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes slammed the contract clause in the wake of Ratten’s sacking, labelling it “cruel.”

“This 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,” Cornes said.

“If you are the agent of one of these coaches, you cannot let one of these deals slip through.

“St Kilda rely on the AFL [financially] clearly, but they only have to stump up six months of a two-year contract.

“Brett Ratten on October 17th has to go look for a job when everyone else has already shored up their football departments. It’s cruel.”

– NIC NEGREPONTIS/ SEN