Gold Coast Suns coach Stuart Dew says he’ll speak to Rhyce Shaw and Matthew Nicks about his own tough times as a senior coach and the importance of staying the course.
Dew told Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN Breakfast that he was fortunate to have the support of the entire club throughout the difficulty of the last two seasons on the Gold Coast.
“It was really difficult. I felt really blessed that I had Mark Evans, Craig Cameron and Jon Haines right through to the board we had really good alignment on where we thought the group was at,” he said.
“You really do have to stick the course because you can ebb and flow and get caught in the week to week and we thought it was important we had a medium to long-term view.
“I’ll speak to Rhyce and Nicksy a little bit, they’ve just got to make sure everyone around them is on the same path and aligned as well because you can get emotional on the week to week.”
In his third season as head coach of the Suns, Dew said the outlook of the group has shifted to the short-term, and that the players can feel something special building.
“That’s the shift we’ve been able to make this year particularly with the playing group in that we’re in the real short-term view at the moment,” he said.
“They can feel it in the locker room and out on the field that we think something special is building.
“We’d like to have a couple more wins in our back pocket to show for it, but they’ve lost no faith at all in how we want to play the game.”
Dew also revealed what Matt Rowell’s role has been since injury ruled him out for the remainder of the season and joked that a succession plan for him to take over as coach had been put in place.
“He’s wired up to our midfield coach and he talks constantly to our playing group,” he said.
“What we’ve grown to know about Matt is he sees the game fantastically and in such a mature way.
“He’s not looking at kicks, marks and handballs he’s looking at the shape of how the opposition plays and the running patterns.”
The Suns take on Carlton at TIO Stadium in Darwin on Friday night in what will be inaugural Sun David Swallow’s 150th game for the club.
Dew said it’ll be a great honour for the 27-year old to play a milestone match in primetime.
“Dave is one of those player that we’ll look back on and he’ll leave a fantastic legacy at the footy club,” Dew said.
“He leads by example on the field, but I love what he does off it for the group.
“Sometimes those players who can be quite brutal on the field are the softer types off the field.
“He’s got some great ideas on how the culture should be built.”