Sacking Dean Bailey was one of Melbourne’s biggest mistakes according to then-Demons captain Brad Green.
Bailey, who passed away in 2014 after a battle with lung cancer, was shown the exit after a record breaking 186-point defeat at the hands of Geelong in Round 19, 2010.
However Green, who is now the backline coach at North Melbourne, has told SEN’s Dee Tales it was a grave error.
“I reckon it was a real shame that we, and Melbourne got rid of him, because no doubt he could coach,” he said.
“I reckon it was one of Melbourne’s biggest mistakes getting rid of Dean Bailey.”
“Dean was an unbelievable tactical coach.
“The nous that he had on the game and where the game is now, I think he was before his time in the way that he developed us to play
“Now that I’m in coaching, I can see the way that Dean was thinking. When you’re a player you sort of brush it off a little bit, but the way that he told us to play was the way the modern game is played now.”
In the wake of the demoralizing loss to the Cats, Green explained why he decided to front the media prior to Bailey.
“Whenever you put out that performance, it comes on the playing group, and me being the captain, wanting to get on the front foot and let people know that the performance that we put out there today wasn’t acceptable and we need to be strong as a playing group and get right behind the club and Dean, because we knew the affairs that were happening,” he said.
“You look back at those times and the way that footy was portrayed – yeah it was a bad loss, but we were still only one-game out of the eight...I still find it bewildering in how it all unfolded.
“Even after the press conference we sat in the change-room and we talked to each other and he basically said to me that he thinks they’re going to get me. So he knew it was coming.
“Once you put in performances like that, as we know in any industry, you’re going to come under fire, but I would have thought the board would have been strong enough to get through that.”
The 254-gamer said that he still kept in close contact with Bailey while he was in Adelaide as an assistant to Brenton Sanderson.
“We were still in correspondence and chatting to each other. (He) was a bit of a sounding board for my game and where it was going,” he said.
“He’s sadly missed.”