Caroline Wilson believes Gold Coast will, in all likelihood, part ways with senior coach Stuart Dew at the end of the season.
Speaking on Footy Classified on Wednesday night, Wilson revealed that the AFL is frustrated with the situation on the Gold Coast and could come over the top of CEO Mark Evans if he doesn’t make a move.
The Suns currently sit in the bottom four once again and are yet to make inroads up the ladder under Dew, though their list is still young.
“I just want to touch on what I think will be another vacant coaching position by the end of the year, not for certain, but very likely, and that is Stuart Dew at the Gold Coast Suns,” Wilson said.
“I’ve got a very strong view that Mark Evans needs to act in the next three to four weeks and if he doesn’t, I think the AFL will overshoot him and do it for him because I think there are people at the AFL who are starting to really agitate Gillon McLachlan about this problem.
“He’s had four years and he’s finished 17th, 18th, 14th and where they sit right now is 15th … real concern about players who might leave, they are six figures under the soft cap, they’re not paying nearly enough, and Dew just seems to be burning through a lot of assistant coaches for mine.
“I think the head of football Jon Haines is not strong enough to be in that role, I hate to be brutal, but that’s just the fact of life.”
Wilson went through a few candidates Gold Coast should consider for senior positions at the club beyond just the head coaching role.
“And there’s a few things I think the AFL could do, leaving Ross Lyon out of it for the moment, but here’s a few people I think they should be looking at,” she said.
“They could do a lot worse than get Andrew Ireland if he doesn’t stay at the Swans to become an executive chairman, a pioneer of footy in Queensland and New South Wales, ditto Brian Cook who has won premierships as CEO at two football clubs on opposite sides of the country and will be available.
“Graeme Allan, he’s served his penance, and we know what a brilliant job he did with the Brisbane Lions and GWS with their list, he knows how to run a footy club in a foreign territory.
“Brad Scott, I still believe is open to coaching or being a footy boss, if not at the AFL, maybe at the Suns or in fact to coach the Suns next year and Chris Scott’s name just does not go away. Maybe not next year, but maybe the year after.
“These are all people who understand footy in foreign territories.”
Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire however received a text message from a source at the Suns during the show suggesting they would not sack Dew.
“I’ve just received a (text from) an insider at the Gold Coast saying, ‘this is not the situation, there has not been one single conversation about a new coach, we don’t have the money to pay out (Dew) under the soft cap and that is not the situation’,” McGuire said.
Wilson scoffed at the assertation that the club didn’t have the money to sack their coach, saying: “When you’re losing $30 million a year, what’s $32 million?”