Longmire’s assistant Ben Matthews lives in a one-bedroom apartment away from his family who remain in Queensland while Mark McVeigh commutes from the NSW central coast.
“It’s telling that five coaches across the two clubs have those challenging family issues,” Longmire said this week. “I’m not sure that’s the best way to be looking after some of the most important people in the game. Trying to attract coaches and football staff to Sydney is just a major challenge because the cost of housing is just so significant.
“We’ve been fortunate to have done that, but if you did an analysis of who lives in their own property in Sydney compared with who rents it would be pretty telling. Too often coaches are approached who are based in Melbourne to come here and when they look at the hard, fixed costs it’s just not worth it.
“If they stay in Melbourne the job opportunities are just so much more widespread.”
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While the AFL’s soft cap now allows for a small rental subsidy in Sydney for football staff earning less than $200,000 both GWS and the Swans have continued to lobby for a greater financial benefit in recognition of the housing cost challenges. Sydney are also pushing for the soft cap to return to levels comparable with the pre-COVID era.
The most recent pay deal with the players mandated a major review into competitive balance across the competition, which is being run by new AFL boss Dillon, his football lieutenant Kane and with heavy consultation from veteran football administrator Geoff Walsh and Kane’s team.
Projected headline changes include a national reserves competition, on target for 2026, and tougher restrictions for father-son and academy bidding. Not only are the Sydney clubs looking for a recognition of the prohibitive housing costs, but so are Gold Coast where housing costs have dramatically increased since the pandemic.
In Sydney, where Swans football boss Leon Cameron and two of Longmire’s assistants Mark McVeigh and Amon Buchanan have crossed from the Giants, underlining the restricted nature of the coaching pool, the view is that Dillon’s new head office team is more sympathetic to the market challenges in Sydney.
Dillon has already demonstrated through this season’s opening round a preparedness to make radical changes in recognition of the need to lift the profile of the national game in Sydney and also search for more creative ways to boost the Giants’ low profile and lack of support.
Significant changes to the AFL Commission’s profile – which now includes Queensland football pioneer and former Lions and Swans CEO Andrew Ireland and former Giant Matt de Boer – at the very least guarantees a greater recognition from head office of those challenges.
Swans coach John Longmire is a passionate advocate for better pay for assistant coaches.Credit: Getty Images
But back to the assistant coaching issue. Said Longmire: “The industry thinks it is important to have a psychologist at every club, and it is important, but I can guarantee you if a player has a genuine issue the first person they will talk to about it is their assistant coach. That’s the level of respect they hold.
“The AFL attitude in the past was along the lines of, ‘If they won’t do it someone else will do the job’. But I think the mood has moved from being dismissive to ‘there may be an issue here’.
“As an industry we should be concerned at a deeper level when some of our retiring champions aren’t excited about being an assistant coach. The game in the long term will be worse off for it.”
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