Legendary former AFL coach Denis Pagan has offered a scathing assessment of Carlton’s organisational culture amid what has become a tumultuous off-season.
After yet another underwhelming season, which resulted in senior coach David Teague being sacked, the club’s search for his successor has failed to flatter thus far.
Despite newly-installed president Luke Sayers’ well-publicised desire to land a big name as the club’s next coach, Carlton has so far been rejected by its top two candidates: Alastair Clarkson and Ross Lyon.
Sayers made another bold decision on Friday, sacking CEO Cain Liddle despite including him in the team’s ‘coaching subcommittee’ just weeks earlier in another head-scratching move.
Pagan, who coached Carlton during its lowest ebb in the mid-2000s after a successful stint with North Melbourne, said the problems at the club run much deeper than any senior coach.
“We make so much about the coach, and the Carlton situation is not about just the coach. It’s about the board, administration, executives and past players,” he told SEN.
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“I reckon the best thing Carlton could do (is) get all those stakeholders in, give them a chance to say what they think.
“Put it on the whiteboard, give everyone a chance to vote on it and come up with some key result areas. Then say: ‘everyone shut up, we’re backing this bloke in and we’re going to go for it’.
“If you get a club, president and board who are going to make a commitment to the coach – it doesn’t matter if it’s Snowy off the tram or Alastair Clarkson, make a total commitment.
“And everybody in the club knows that, and if everyone’s told if you step out of the line, you’ll be out of the joint that quick you’ll think your pants are on fire… you’ve got a chance.
“That’s Carlton’s biggest problem: being united, getting behind the coach and backing him in. Division, disunity, Chinese whispers, this bloke said you’re no good… you haven’t got a chance.”
After two premierships with North Melbourne in 1996 and 1999, Pagan was lured over to Carlton with a lucrative deal for the start of the 2003 season.
He says the problems the club is dealing with now still existed during his troubled five-year run there.
“That’s been happening at Carlton during my time and right up to now, it hasn’t changed in 25 years. With so many intelligent people there, I just can’t for the life of me work it out why they can’t get a simple thing like that and get everyone united,” he said.
“Once you’ve got that, then start talking about your coach and backing him in. A lot of coaches have been there, good coaches, and failed. Why? Maybe the talent wasn’t there.
“But I can tell you from having been there, it was a snake pit. I don’t know if too much has changed in the last 25 years.”