West Coast Eagles coach Adam Simpson has strongly refuted suggestions fewer assistant coaches will result in producing more attacking footballers.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, clubs have been forced to clash costs in order to stay afloat.
As part of that move, football department spending is expected to be dramatically cut which is expected to result in fewer people employed at clubs.
While some have suggested this could mean players are freed up to play a more natural game style, the premiership coach there was no logic in the argument.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“The number one priority we have as a coaching group is to get them to play at their strengths and to make them feel like they’re good enough to do anything they can.
“The support mechanisms we put in place now – and our whole football department is based around getting players to play at their best.
“I don’t buy into the fact that we’re restricting players to play with more flair, we encourage it and we want it. A bit of a freedom inside a discipline I suppose when we have styles of play that we have.
“The notion that you pull back (the number of coaches) and you’re going to score more – it’s not that restrictive, it really isn’t.
“We spend a lot of our time trying to get our players to players with freedom and flair.”
There’s also been suggestions of cutting back list sizes in the coming years, something which Hawthorn midfielder Jaeger O’Meara endorsed on Monday.
But Simpson said he feared that would mean clubs could take fewer risks with players who were naturally talented but need more hands-on guidance.
“The AFL has got a massive job in front of them and we’ve got full support for them – there’s going to be some serious change to everything we do in the industry,” he said.
“We want to get through all this and still have the diverse group of players on your list that are exciting to watch and aren’t on the front page every couple of weeks (and instead) are on the back page.
“That’s the challenge the AFL have got in front of them and I’ve got full confidence they’ve get it right.
“You look at every list – you’ve got some players who will do whatever it takes to make it and have had a great upbringing and a great grounding for what it’s going to be to play AFL. Then you’ve got the one who has massive talent but needs care and nature because he hasn’t had it in their upbringing.
“We’ll get around a table and work through that at draft time and recruiting players as well.”
You can listen to Adam Simpson on SEN Breakfast in the player below.