Andrew McQualter leaves Punt Road after missing main job [merged]

[one-eyed]

McQualter's steady rise to become top Tiger

After a 10-year coaching journey largely out of the spotlight, Andrew McQualter is now in the hot seat at Richmond.

By Callum Twomey
AFL Media
23 May 2023

The man known as 'Mini' is now in a massive job.

Andrew McQualter's rise as an assistant coach has been done largely out of the spotlight until now, with the Richmond right-hand man to be installed as the Tigers' caretaker coach for the rest of the season after Damien Hardwick's shock exit.

Hardwick's phenomenal three-premiership, 14-season, 307-game coaching career at Richmond has come to a quick end, with the Tigers handing the reins to interim coach McQualter, an under-the-radar operator who has bit by bit built his coaching resume to be ready for his next step.

He was on Carlton's shortlist for its senior position when Michael Voss claimed the role at the end of 2021, going deep into the process, but the 36-year-old now has his first taste of the hot seat.

The former Saint, nicknamed 'Mini' as a kid when he was a smaller version of his older brother, was one of Ross Lyon's much-loved role players throughout his 89-game career at St Kilda, which included playing in the 2009 and 2010 Grand Finals.

He was selected as a first-round draft pick, having captained Vic Country at under-16 and under-18 level as well as being the skipper of his school team Caulfield Grammar, where he was a boarder having grown up in Traralgon. But things didn't come easy.

After 23 games and three seasons with the club, he was delisted by the Saints at the end of 2007. He kept chasing an opportunity, training at Hawthorn in an attempt to get a second chance, before the Saints surprised by re-drafting him as a rookie selection. Again, he fought his way onto the senior list to become a consistent member of a star-studded midfield as the Saints came so close to clinching an elusive premiership.

So tight is McQualter with Lyon that last year, when Lyon resumed the role of Saints head coach, his former player was one of his first targets as he assembled his new coaching panel.

McQualter knocked back that advance, and those from other rivals as well, to continue at Richmond, where he has served as a key lieutenant throughout the Tigers' magical premiership run.

Though he has done it without the spotlight of other rising assistants, McQualter's coaching path has been mapped out. He joined the Tigers' VFL team in a coaching and playing role in 2014, before taking on the midfield stoppage position for Richmond's senior side for its 2017 season.

He was central in getting the Tigers humming in their breakthrough flag campaign that year, working with midfield superstars Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin and fitting recruit Dion Prestia into the mix seamlessly, but has had a number of other portfolios throughout his time at Punt Road, having also focused on offence and the forward line.

McQualter will go into the senior seat with eyes wide open. He has worked under Hardwick, Richmond's greatest-ever coach, for a decade. He has also worked alongside Craig McRae (Collingwood) and Adam Kingsley (Greater Western Sydney) at Richmond as fellow assistants. Former Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch was also on the Tigers' coaching panel, as has been Port Adelaide premiership coach Mark Williams.

He will also have recent senior coaches Ben Rutten and David Teague alongside him, fresh from their exits at Essendon and Carlton, with Hardwick tapping into the experience of ex-coaches for his panel.

McQualter is the 10-year 'overnight success', having built his reputation at Richmond on some of the qualities that embodied Hardwick's approach: loyalty to his players, good humour, dedicated work ethic and a strong view. He now gets his shot.

https://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/1338363/mcqualter-s-steady-rise-to-become-top-tiger

[Tigeritis™©®]

All the best Andy. Hopefully you can revitalise this group into a more consistent team and bring back some of the connection that has been missing.  I’m sure Dimma resignation should put a rocket up some of the senior players backsides.

Raise the standards (our skills are deplorable)

Fix our ball movement (especially inside 50)

Fix our defence (some really dumb moments the last couple of years)

Find what can motivate them to increase their work rate across 4 quarters.

[MintOnLamb]

All the best Andy. Hopefully you can revitalise this group into a more consistent team and bring back some of the connection that has been missing.  I’m sure Dimma resignation should put a rocket up some of the senior players backsides.

Raise the standards (our skills are deplorable)

Fix our ball movement (especially inside 50)

Fix our defence (some really dumb moments the last couple of years)

Find what can motivate them to increase their work rate across 4 quarters.

All highly desirable

But you have to ask

Who has been driving our team in all the above areas these last 4 weeks??

The same spuds as we have now IMHO.

I expect no change

[Tigeritis™©®]

All the best Andy. Hopefully you can revitalise this group into a more consistent team and bring back some of the connection that has been missing.  I’m sure Dimma resignation should put a rocket up some of the senior players backsides.

Raise the standards (our skills are deplorable)

Fix our ball movement (especially inside 50)

Fix our defence (some really dumb moments the last couple of years)

Find what can motivate them to increase their work rate across 4 quarters.

All highly desirable

But you have to ask

Who has been driving our team in all the above areas these last 4 weeks??

The same spuds as we have now IMHO.

I expect no change

Sometimes it’s the intangibles that are the catalyst for change.
Who knows?
This resignation might make our on field issues become markedly worse or it could become the ignition we need to get our season back on track.
All the coaches will need to step up as do our senior players who were woefully nonexistent last week.

[TigerLand]

Watching all the media stuff today, I agree with the 360 comments that its the best retirement of an AFL coach. He leaves at a time where we are all really sad, a bit of frustration but ultimately hugely grateful for what he has worked towards and thus provided us everything we wanted.

Every coach gets sacked and it's either ugly or sad. We will look back on this and always feel fairly positive about it. Compare that to so many legend coaches it ends ugly. Sheedy, Malthouse, Clarkson, Thompson all ends ugly. Good on ya Dimma. We will always wished for things to last but looking back how lucky we were for the 2017-2020 years.

[Willy]

Watching all the media stuff today, I agree with the 360 comments that its the best retirement of an AFL coach. He leaves at a time where we are all really sad, a bit of frustration but ultimately hugely grateful for what he has worked towards and thus provided us everything we wanted.

Every coach gets sacked and it's either ugly or sad. We will look back on this and always feel fairly positive about it. Compare that to so many legend coaches it ends ugly. Sheedy, Malthouse, Clarkson, Thompson all ends ugly. Good on ya Dimma. We will always wished for things to last but looking back how lucky we were for the 2017-2020 years.

Totally agree. The timing is actually really good.

The writing is on the wall that we meed to rebuild, but he's left before it gets sour and given the club plenty of time to canvass the market.

[pmac21]

I really hope he changes things up either at selection, positions or game style.

[TigerLand]

Another few things I found interesting was comments that it wasn't enormously surprising.  Which to say that about a mid year exit is extraordinary. Benny Gale and Jack said it was a shock but not surprising so it absolutely is the right call sadly if it wasnt a surprise he started to go less than 100% makes him even more impressive and what a positive way to finish.

[Francois Jackson]

yeah i think it was a fantastic way to go out personally.

No issues for me...unless he opts to head over to princess park to coach that rabble.

[one-eyed]

WHY RICHMOND PICKED MCRAE-LIKE MCQUALTER TO TAKE THE REINS AS INTERIM HEAD COACH

Lachlan Geleit
SEN
24 May 2023

Richmond senior club advisor Neil Balme expects interim coach Andrew McQualter to succeed in his new role at the Tigers.

McQualter stepped into the top job at Richmond on Tuesday following Damien Hardwick’s decision to resign as head coach, with the 36-year-old to take the reins for the rest of the 2023 season.

After a 94-game career with St Kilda and Gold Coast, McQualter joined Richmond in 2014 as a development coach before joining Hardwick’s group of assists in 2017.

Having spent five and a half years as one of Hardwick’s understudies McQualter is well-acquiped for the role and Balme was asked by SEN’s Dwayne Russell about what we should expect from the man they call ‘Mini’ in his new job.

“He's not that dissimilar in some ways to Craig McRae,” Balme told SEN Afternoons.

“He's certainly a bit understated, quite humble, but he really knows his footy, he’s really bright about his footy.

“He’s a good people manager, gets on well with people, doesn't take himself too seriously, but really understands the game well.

“He's genuinely got the qualities to be a damn good senior coach.

“We'll give him the opportunity to see what he does with this group and then we'll make those decisions later on.

“He's in a great spot really with the fact that we've given him the opportunity to do this.

“He gets on well with the players, they understand him and we're going to keep coaching the same way in a sense that ‘Dimma’ did so he doesn't have to all of a sudden come up with a whole new plan, which would be hard at this time of the year.

“He is in a good spot, so it'll be interesting to see how he goes.”

While Balme says any of Richmond’s assistants could have viably taken the role on an interim basis, he says the decision to pick McQualter came as the club felt he deserved a chance at a head role with the likes of fellow assistants David Teague and Ben Rutten already having experience as senior coaches.

“It honestly wouldn't have mattered (who we picked),” Balme explained.

“We've got so many good (assistants), all of our coaches could have done it.

“But you just got to say, ‘Well, what are we going to do? Let's have a look at it’, and we thought it was worth just giving him the opportunity.

“That in itself is important to him, but it's probably not important to us and that’s because all the other blokes could have done it.

“’Clarkey’ (Xavier Clarke), he presents well, they all do their bit, they're all great line coaches in their own right.

“It could have been any one of them, but it was just a feeling across the board that, oh, let's give 'Mini' a chance.

“We genuinely think that he's a really competent coach.”

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2023/05/24/why-richmond-picked-mcrae-like-mcqualter-to-take-the-reins-as-interim-head/

[one-eyed]

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has revealed he attempted to pry interim Richmond coach Andrew McQualter back to Moorabbin.

"I tried to pinch him, to be honest. He probably never told the Tigers that." Lyon told reporters.

"We sort of went pretty hard. If I was going anywhere else I had him lined up to come - if I could get him."

Lyon also threw his support behind his own assistant coaches to potentially pursue the Richmond job saying, saying: "I would endorse them without hesitation."

https://www.zerohanger.com/lyon-reveals-plan-to-poach-richmond-caretaker-would-endorse-assistants-for-vacant-job-137645/

[WilliamPowell]

I really hope he changes things up either at selection, positions or game style.

 I'm not sure why people keep going on about needing to change our game style

Others Clubs currently play the same game style the only difference is they are executing it so much better than us. IMHO the game,e style isn't the issue, the execution of it is

yeah i think it was a fantastic way to go out personally.

No issues for me...unless he opts to head over to princess park to coach that rabble.

Take out your disdain for Teague for 30 seconds and think. Reckon it is is fair to say Dimma won't coach Carlton. He was disgusted with how Teague got treated. Remember that the bloke who sacked Teague is still their president. Can't seeing him coaching there, working with those people

[Francois Jackson]

I really hope he changes things up either at selection, positions or game style.

 I'm not sure why people keep going on about needing to change our game style

Others Clubs currently play the same game style the only difference is they are executing it so much better than us.

yeah i think it was a fantastic way to go out personally.

No issues for me...unless he opts to head over to princess park to coach that rabble.

Take out your disdain for Teague for 30 seconds and think. Reckon it is is fair to say Dimma won't coach Carlton. He was disgusted with how Teague got treated. Remember that the bloke who sacked Teague is still their president. Can't seeing him coaching there, working with those people

a president who was also the ceo of PWC at the time of their poo show.

Anyway I dont think think Dimma will as i think he will have a few other suitors, and that rabble to ruin his career wouldnt be one of them.

[eliminator]

Jack spoke very well on 360 about Dimma. Believe one day in the future Jack would be a good coach if he chose to go down that path. Dimma left on his terms. It was the right to go. So many coaches at this club have left the way eg Bartlett, Northey

[Gigantor]

Hope I got this right , But Balmy on SEN this afternoon  indicated that there won’t be any change in style of play .
As pointed out earlier a lot of clubs play our style just execute better than we do now. Having a list that at it’s core is ageing and injury prone would make it so much harder to execute a game based on speed and chaos.