Ayres puts up his hand for coaching recall
Brent Diamond | April 23, 2009
FORMER Geelong and Adelaide coach Gary Ayres has added further intrigue to the Richmond coaching saga after declaring himself ready for another crack at an AFL senior coaching role.
The former Hawthorn premiership player and former teammate of besieged Tigers coach Terry Wallace said he would apply for the Richmond job if it became available.
"You'd have consider it for sure," Ayres told The Age.
"The situation being that you've been in the system for a long period of time and you believe that you've got the necessary attributes to coach, but having said that you certainly need someone to be wanting you and obviously someone's got to believe that you can do the job.
"I've never discounted the fact that I would never coach again but once again, it also comes back to what type of personnel they are going for as far as the different types of coaches," he said.
The 49-year-old could also be favoured by the fact that Kevin Sheedy is at Richmond. Ayres served for two years under Sheedy at Essendon as an assistant in 2006-07.
"If you spend two years with one of the best coaches of all time … then you might go a couple of steps back if it does mean that you develop and improve, so going to a club like Essendon after being a senior coach for 10 years, you probably would ask how many people would do that," he said.
Since moving from the Bombers at the end of 2007, Ayres has taken stand-alone VFL club Port Melbourne to last year's grand final and become an ambassador for the league.
Denis Pagan, another former AFL coach who also said he was ready to coach again at AFL level, has taken a similar path to coach TAC Cup team the Northern Knights.
"From a timing point of view, it's only been just over 12 months. And being involved at the next level in the VFL competition and being involved in a stand-alone club, you try and get a group of players together to play in a certain way. If it's a matter of being out of the game for 12 months, I'd like to think that it's a good thing," he said.
"You've got to take a couple of steps back sometimes to really evaluate what coaching's all about rather than have the resources that are available to you at AFL level."
Ayres also suggested, from experience, that Wallace should walk away on a positive note. Ayres was told by Adelaide that it would not renew his contract at the end of 2004, with nine games to go in the season, and he quit to give caretaker coach Neil Craig an opportunity.
"I thought there wouldn't be any significant advantage for the club or any particular individual to actually hang around for the next two months. I always thought Neil Craig was going to get the job anyway and it gave him the chance to audition for the role he does now."
Ayres said he had yet to speak to Wallace.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/rfnews/ayres-wants-senior-job/2009/04/22/1240079730122.html
