Out with the old: Dockers poised for coaches clean-out, but Ross stays the boss
Fremantle is poised for a clean out of assistant coaches as public assurances remain strong that head coach Ross Lyon will continue in charge into next season.
A host of Dockers assistant and specialist coaches are on notice that they could be moved on at the end of this season.
Hawthorn premiership big man David Hale is contracted for next season, with futures shaky for long serving defensive coach Michael Prior, Simon Eastaugh, Anthony Rock, development specialist Marcus Webb and two-time Peel Thunder WAFL premiership coach Cam Shepherd.
Another Hawthorn premiership player Brent Guerra has already left Fremantle after four years in development assistance.
Guerra had not worked his Dockers development duties for more than a month with absence on personal leave.
Dockers support staff have been advised by head of football Peter Bell that “all positions” are under full review.
The first-year football boss has been conducting extensive reviews of football, fitness and conditioning and medical procedures at Fremantle for much of this season.
Bell has reviewed all positions and told his staff that no guarantees can be offered until the end of home-and-away commitments later this month.
Beleaguered strength and conditioning coach Jason Weber is understood to be contracted for 2020, despite a full review of his training program and repetitive soft tissues and stress related injuries that have could be attributed to Fremantle’s late season results decline through the past three seasons.
Under AFL Coaches Association guidelines assistants are supposed to be given indications from August 1, whether they will be offered new contracts for the next season.
Early notice allows coaches to begin talks with other clubs on employment prospects.
Even Dockers recruiting and talent scouts are believed to be extremely unsure of whether they will have jobs in Bell’s reassessment of football operations under Lyon for next season.
Lyon is trumpeting his job security and brazenly declaring he will be in control of Dockers finals aspirations next season in the final year of an ambitious premiership plan.
That’s a plan hatched in March of 2016 when Lyon announced he would win an elusive Fremantle first ever flag by 2020 in the final season of a highly controversial five-year contract extension.
A cleanout of assistants is looming under Lyon as Dockers management move to rejuvenate support and operations around the besieged senior coach.
Carlton playing great and Blues list manager Steve Silvagni has been linked with a switch to Fremantle in talent identification and recruiting and potentially still operating out of his home town Melbourne.