Year Bailey and mcwaket better options that Ayers
Bailey & McQualter are development coaches and development coaches are in a lot of cases recently retired players (eg Joel Corey at the Bulldogs). Choco is probably one of the exceptions because of his history with younger players originally at Port when he moulded them into a premiership side. But one of his roles now as Senior Development Coach is to not only develop players but young coaches as well.
Ayres has been out of the AFL system for what nearly 10 years? And what was his record like at developing players at Adel & geelong? Think he inherited fairly strong lists at both of those. As for Port Melb; being one of the wealthier clubs in the VFL they can spend on players and they do, hence why they have (compared to other VFL lists) an older list. Yes they bring in kids but they are more likely found running around in the development league not in the senior side
So yes based on that the 2 young coaches we've bought in are probably a better option at this stage.
TBH I am not sure why people are bagging Bailey. I think as a development coach he's an astute pick up. He went through a helluva lot with 4 (or was it 3?) knee recos. So he knows a bit about the tough times in footy and fighting through adversity to keep playing. That is IMHO something that could well be invaluable to our players if they have to face long stints on the sidelines