Leading AFL journalist Caroline Wilson has responded to Gold Coast’s decision to sack coach Stuart Dew on Tuesday.
Wilson originally broke the story seven days before the call on Nine’s Footy Classified, stating that the coach’s days were “numbered” on the Gold Coast.
While she was widely criticised for her story, Wilson was again proven correct.
Wilson said she was surprised by the backlash of her original report and how Dew seemed so blindsided by the impending decision.
“I'd gone with a story on Footy Classified just after my return (from holiday),” Wilson told the Don’t Shoot The Messenger Podcast.
“I was predicting that he would be gone by the end of the year, and potentially, I felt by the end of the month that he'd be replaced in an intermediate fashion by Steven King. I also believed that Damien Hardwick would replace him.
“There was a bit of a backlash, huge backlash really, led by Stuart Dew I have to say, which just staggered me at the time.
“It's really awful what's happened to him, but you know, that's our job. You've got to report these things if you get a story.
“It just astounded me that he was so blindsided by it.”
While Wilson was certain her report was right, she did admit that she pondered whether the Suns would put off the decision because she predicted the decision would come within a month.
Even though the Suns originally came out in support of Dew immediately after her story broke, she wasn’t convinced anything had changed given the fractured relationships between key personnel at the club.
“Putting the story aside for a moment, obviously you're not nervous after you go with something like that, because I was so certain I was right,” Wilson said.
“But I did wonder whether they might put off the decision until the end of the year because of what I'd said and because they'd sort of done that press conference and said he was contracted.
“But nothing they said in that press conference really made me think that they were denying what I'd said.
“There was so much disharmony. I mean, the CEO and Stuart (Dew) were not getting on.
“The head of football (Wayne Campbell) and Stuart hadn't fallen out, but their relationship was strained.
“This happens all over the AFL when you're not winning games, or you're losing important games, like the one against Collingwood, which was their first sell-out in something like nine years.
“It does bring it (a decision like this) on.”
Wilson believes that the Dew sacking proves the Suns are yet to get things right, with the club still yet to break their finals drought after joining the AFL in 2011.
“It probably was a bit disappointing that they re-signed him when they did last year,” Wilson said.
“Now they're going to have to pay him out an extra $300,000, or the AFL will because it's the AFL's money that's supporting the Gold Coast.
“They just haven't got it right up there.”
As Wilson originally reported, Steven King has taken on the role on an interim basis.
The club is yet to announce its head coach for the 2024 season and beyond.