After sixty three games in eleven years, ‘Chicken’ Nixon hung up the boots and seemingly walked away from the game in 1993. Almost twenty years later he was voted the fourth most influential football person of the past decade. Fast forward a handful more years and in 2011 he was given a two-year suspension and left the player management game. You know the story from the papers perspective, ‘the super agent who fell from grace’, but what about the story from the man himself?   

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From the man Tom Hafey coined the ‘bloody back-pocket plumber’ to arguably the greatest coach of all time. Kevin Sheedy’s impact on Australian Rules Football is immense, as is his quirky personality and incredible story. Three premierships as a player, four as a coach and a first class AFL Hall of Famer. But behind the cups and confetti lies a tale of dodged bullets, career saving moves, hard calls and lucrative deals to trade in his red and black sash for enemy colours.  

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The moment Tony Shaw lifted the Magpies drought breaking premiership cup aloft in 1990 he cemented his place as a black and white legend. But could the favourite son lead the Magpies to another flag, this time from the coaching box? The answer came swiftly and cruelly as Shaw had his wings clipped after just four years at the helm. He reveals the truth behind his departure, the Pies attempted Damian Drum coup that left him fuming, the barbecue meeting that saw Tom Hafey sacked, Nathan Buckley’s transformation and the biggest regret of his coaching career.  

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‘Spud’ Frawley was the potato farmer turned St Kilda legend. But in 2000, the Saints Hall of Fame inductee traded his halo for yellow and black stripes as he took on the Richmond top job. While he ultimately fell victim to the Tigers revolving coaching door in 2004, Frawley knew his days were numbered all the way back in 2001. In a cruel twist of fate, his coaching peak was also the first sign of his eventual demise.  

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Mark ‘Choco’ Williams might have his knockers, but there is no denying he saw history in the making through his twelve year tenure at the Power. He lifts the lid on the 04’ flag, the ’mutual’ parting that was anything but, the payment backflip that left him stumped and the numerous top jobs which have slipped through his fingers.  

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After an unceremonious ending to his black and white days, Malthouse took on the the Carlton job with a simple goal at task. Restore the Navy Blues to their former glory and crest the coaching ‘Everest’ he felt he fell short of at Collingwood. What followed is now history, but it turns out the scriptwriters on Malthouse’s Carlton years missed a few key chapters.  

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In April 1967, Robert Walls took to the field as a tall, skinny 16-year-old in his first game for the Blues. Thirty years later he coached his final game with a Hall of Fame career in tow. Walls is one of footballs true coaching doyens, and has a lifetime of stories to tell. He lifts the lid on his fallout with the Blues after premiership glory, the ‘Bad News Bears’, his role in the death of State of Origin and Carlton's current coaching search.  

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Scott Watters thought he knew the challenges facing the Saints when he signed on the dotted line. In his two short years at the helm he tried desperately to fight against an ageing list, salary cap handcuffs, a voiceless board and a culture, as he describes, still “stuck in a haze” after coming so close to Everest in 09’ and 10’.  

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Guy McKenna was handed the AFL's million dollar baby, only to have it cruelly ripped away four years later. Was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Go behind the curtains on the sacking without a review, Ablett's case of cold feet, the Karmichael Hunt experiment and the Brownlow night he knew it was all over.  

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Grant Thomas is no stranger to controversy, in fact it shrouds most of his 123 game coaching career at the Saints. Did refusing to tow the party line cost him his career? That's up for debate, but don't expect him to change his uncompromising style anytime soon! He lifts the lid on the true story behind Blight's sacking, his rift with Demetriou and the culture he believes is still broken at St Kilda.  

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