THE LATE Allan Jeans always remarked: "There are only two types of coaches; those who have been sacked and those who will be sacked one day."

How true his words were.

In the last two weeks we have seen two senior coaches removed from their positions in season, which has changed the coaching landscape immediately and certainly for the 2012 season and beyond.

Every senior coach goes into this honoured position with his eyes wide open, understanding the responsibilities but also well aware of the public scrutiny and criticism that comes with the job.

Despite this awareness, I do not believe that any training or preparation can have you ready for the backlash that comes your way when your team is down and out and the clouds of the media storm are looming.

Any senior coach has already achieved so much just reaching this position as an elite manager at the pinnacle of his industry.

Unfortunately only one coach can be successful each year, and only a few others are recognised as doing their jobs effectively. From a media and public perspective, all the others are considered failures.

The most difficult thing is that you are working up to 100 hours a week to try to assist the club, yet the general football fraternity and public perceive that you have no credentials and no idea what you are doing.

Some will say that you need to suck it up as you are well paid and in a privileged position, but like a player under pressure, your pay packet doesn't determine how that pressure will impact on you or your family.

Neil Craig and Dean Bailey are not too dissimilar in character. Both are reserved men who think carefully before speaking, and at their respective press conferences they handled themselves extremely well and with class.

By the time you get to that final press conference you have almost settled down - the reality is that the storm has now passed and all that is left is to check the damage and make a report.

Many will ask if it was the correct decision to remove these coaches from their positions immediately.

In most work places, once a decision is made to leave it happens almost immediately, as both parties are clearly heading in separate directions. I believe this is the correct approach.

In the case of Adelaide, once the Crows decided Neil Craig was not going to be their senior coach in 2012, they wanted to get ahead of the game.

It is very difficult to be transparent and effective in a search for a coach if the senior man is still in place.

In Melbourne's case I believe that the board also had come to the decision that they were not going to continue with Dean Bailey, and did not want the waters clouded if he happened to win his last three games and fall into the finals.

It would be much more awkward to explain if the club were to sack its coach after making the finals for the first time since 2006. 

It is also important for the mechanisms of the football club to quickly get back to normal once a coach has departed - from the board to management, sales and marketing, and all the way through to the football division and players, they need to get back on with doing their jobs.

I was asked a month after I left Richmond whether I agreed that the players appeared to be playing with more freedom.

The obvious answer was, of course they are - once the senior coach is sacked the media storm passes and everyone at the club can breathe again without every move being critically analysed and assessed.

The same has happened to the Crows and will happen to the Demons.

With the professionalism of the game I am still bemused by how much responsibility is placed on the senior coach's shoulders.

A few fleeting words are normally spoken by the club about how everyone needs to take responsibility, but the reality is that board members, management and the football division all keep their jobs and the coach is the scapegoat.

One day a club will break this mould and will probably get success by looking deeper.

My last words are to both Neil and Dean.

Congratulations on climbing the mountain, as only the bravest trekkers even attempt the challenging ascent - and some in the industry that have been critical have had the chance but not the courage of their convictions to take the risk.

In my eyes you blokes are winners.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs