redback wrote:
Walls is there for a couple of reasons.
Firstly for advice, match day or otherwise. Secondly for assessment and reporting to whoever is in power to make decisions.
I hope this is wrong.
If Walls’ role is to be available in the background for mentoring support to the coaches (not just Bolts), then that’s OK. As a development idea for our young coaches, then it makes sense. For example, if the club felt Bolts was spending too much time on developing the likes of Stanton & Davenport, having Walls come through a couple of days a week for them to chat to is one less thing for Bolts to worry about.
It gets murky for me if the ‘sounding board’ is then reporting to the Board on performance. As a coach, if I’m grappling with a problem or challenge, why would I go to Walls if he’s going to turn around and report to the Board (who decide contracts)? By all means, have a transparent performance review process - but don’t mix it with the mentoring function.
A seperate issue is Walls’ time out of the game. He should be kept away from the players and not have a vote in the coaches box. I don’t mind him being in the box (AFL & VFL) occasionally to observe - and debrief with the coaches afterwards - but he should not interfere. If the club want someone to contribute that way, they should have got a person with contemporary experience in different areas of football operations (eg. Tony Elshaug? Rodney Eade?), but then they probably would have to pay (I’m assuming Wallsy is doing it for free).