SACKED: AFL

A stellar career with the Magpies, an AFL assistant coach, married with three young kids. From the outside Gavin Crosisca had it all, but on the inside his world was falling apart. Crippled by a drug, alcohol and gambling addiction he lived his life from one fix to the next. For twenty-eight years that addiction ruled his life, until one day his wife Nicole forced him into the car and drove him to a rehab centre. Nine years later he is free of his demons and ready to offer a helping hand to lift those still stuck in their vices up into the light with him.   

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From the Tigers on the eve of the millennium, to the building of the Cats dynasty. The Bombers on the precipice of the drug saga and then into the doghouse at the Bulldogs. Fourteen years after his first role as an assistant, McCartney was finally given the keys to the top job. Three seasons, twenty wins and one departed captain later and he was forced to hand them back. Two years later the Bulldogs broke a 62-year premiership drought. So where did it go wrong for Brendan McCartney?  

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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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