JOHN Barker has declared he will never return to coaching, such is the hardships of the industry.<\/p>\n
Barker started his coaching career at St Kilda before moving to Hawthorn and then spent 10 years at Carlton, most noticeably featuring as the club\u2019s interim coach following the sacking of Mick Malthouse.<\/p>\n
He won three of his 14 games in charge and was at Ikon Park for one of Carlton\u2019s most scrutinised periods.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Saturdays in SA, Barker revealed his true feelings about the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss certain aspects but one thing I can categorically guarantee is I will never coach again,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s bits you really love, the coaching and interaction with your players, I love that connection piece and the ability to extract high performance out of individuals, there\u2019s a real buzz that comes out of that. So I do miss elements of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in the overall scheme of things, it\u2019s not a job I would ever want to do again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barker\u2019s comments come in the midst of a new wave of concern for senior coaches and their assistants following Alastair Clarkson stepping away from the Roos and Damien Hardwick resigning from Richmond.<\/p>\n
Reports have indicated there is significant dissatisfaction among the coaching ranks and Barker highlighted the workload from a decrease in the soft cap as a primary reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019ll find it continues to happen, they don\u2019t work out the best way to balance the actual lifestyle of a coach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a few variables at play. One is when you reduce the soft cap, obviously you reduce the money involved. If you want good people, you have to pay for good people, it\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smarter people are going to go into fields that they love and want to do, but go into fields that earn more so they can look after their families to a better extent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time that\u2019s allocated towards coaching is significant and once the soft cap is reduced and there were less numbers, it meant there was a bigger workload\u2026 when you\u2019re coaching, your weekend will be working on a Saturday, a sponsorship function on Saturday night, on a Sunday you\u2019ll go watch the<\/p>\n
reserves play which is three hours, six or seven hours of editing\u2026 there were some Sunday nights I\u2019d be writing reports at 11pm, 12pm, at night. Then you kick off again on a Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barker also detailed the impacts on family, both in being able to spend less time with loved ones as well as the secondary pressure on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you lose games of footy, the drama around you being a really poor coach or really poor outfit\u2026 it changes within a couple of weeks or a month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe roller coaster of the scrutiny is significant too. It\u2019s not necessarily just on the coaches and how they feel about it, a lot of it is about their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they see their families feel a lot of that, that\u2019s when it affects the coaches I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
SEN\u2019s Tom Morris reported earlier this month there had been a 37 per cent drop off in money for coaches since COVID, and that\u2019s only just starting to return.<\/p>\n
Barker left the Carlton Football Club in 2021, the same week as the club launched an external review of its operations.<\/p>\n