The AFL’s kingmakers: How the next premiership coach will be found

David Noble had long left the Brisbane Lions when they won back-to-back premierships. Same with Peter Schwab. Neil Balme had been out of Geelong for eight years for their last flag. Their contributions to those clubs are still being felt today.

Noble, Schwab and Balme are among the 150 to 200 industry figures since the turn of the century who have been on subcommittees tasked with the job of finding senior coaches. Their role is one of the most important for a club, capable of setting them up for a dynasty, or failure.

This masthead has compiled each club’s subcommittees, stretching back to the start of the expansion era in 2011, to find those with the best records in unearthing successful coaches – and their tips to pick the right candidates.

We have not limited success to just winning premierships. Coaches who have taken their sides to a grand final or multiple preliminary final appearances and have longevity can also be considered as having enjoyed prosperous tenures, even if they did not achieve the ultimate.

Coaching subcommittees typically consist of the chief executive, football manager and a board member – usually, but not always, the football director. Most also include a respected external figure – sometimes from another sport – and a non-football person with experience in psychology, leadership or recruitment.

The net has been cast wide. Former Tottenham and Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou (Brendon Bolton at Carlton), former Hockeyroo and Olympian Danni Roche (Alan Richardson at St Kilda) and netball international Simone McKinnis (Brad Scott at Essendon) have all been involved.

Just as being a champion footballer does not lead to success in the box, being a premiership coach does not necessarily transfer to identifying coaching talent. Four-time flag winner Leigh Matthews, the late Robert Walls, Paul Roos and David Parkin all had misses.

Walls, though, backed in an untried Ross Lyon at St Kilda, Roos helped Melbourne find Simon Goodwin in his Kirribilli agreement, and Parkin was involved in the selection of Ken Hinkley, who led Port Adelaide to four preliminary finals in his 13 years at the helm.

Of the six serving coaches to have lifted the cup, only one – Luke Beveridge – was chosen by a premiership coach, John Worsfold. Some of the figures with the best records in finding coaches did not lead their teams to glory.

Noble, a former football boss at Adelaide and Brisbane, has arguably had the most success. He oversaw the process in 2017 that delivered Chris Fagan to the Lions. Before that, he recommended Don Pyke and the late Phil Wal