Small club beginnings
OCEAN Grove Football Club can rightly boast it's becoming a production line for AFL coaches, as afl.com.au's Paul Daffey tells us in his article The coach factory by the sea.

What other country club could say that two of its former coaches were appointed to senior AFL positions within two days of each other? At the risk of being proved wrong by footy history boffins, we'd confidently venture none.

Mark Neeld coached Ocean Grove to four straight Bellarine Football League premierships from 2000-03 and, following a four-year stint as a Collingwood assistant coach, was officially unveiled as Melbourne's new coach on Saturday.

On Monday, the Western Bulldogs announced that one of Neeld's predecessors at Ocean Grove, Brendan McCartney, who also took the club to four consecutive premierships (1994-97), would take over its senior coaching reins.

Neeld took over at Ocean Grove just two years after McCartney left to coach Richmond's reserves in 1998, having led the 'Grubbers' from 1993-97. He was Ocean Grove's senior coach for four seasons, before leaving to coach the Western Jets in the TAC Cup competition.

The remarkable legacies McCartney and Neeld left at Ocean Grove were captured by a spread of photos the Herald Sun ran on Tuesday. Ocean Grove president Geoff Cunningham posed with the eight premiership cups McCartney and Neeld delivered to the club, Neeld's signature-adorned 2002 premiership jumper, and photos of the eight flag-winning teams.

Former Grubbers player Greg Mervin gave the Herald Sun's Scott Gullan an insight into McCartney's and Neeld's formative coaching years.

"I was lucky because I had two different experiences with two different great people," Mervin said.

Of McCartney, Mervin said: "I describe him as a life coach, because he changed so many lives. Apart from my parents, he had the most profound influence on my life.

"That's probably the greatest compliment a player can give a coach - and there are plenty of my mates who would say the same thing.

"We went from a knockabout bunch of blokes who enjoyed having a kick to this ruthless, hard-edged group that just wanted success.

"That was just by him engaging with us, empowering us and teaching us to chase our dreams."

On the other hand, Mervin said Neeld was not as "black and white" as McCartney but was also a great motivator.

"With 'Neeldy' it was a bit different because I was 30 then, so I went from having a father figure as a coach to almost a brother," Mervin said.

"The biggest challenge for him was to continue to motivate us to do the work after the success we'd had and he certainly did that."

Meanwhile, The Age's Jake Niall argues that McCartney's and Neeld's appointments represent more than Ocean Grove's "mysterious ability to produce coaches".

Niall wrote that their backgrounds as low-profile assistant coaches with a modest AFL playing record (Neeld played 74 matches for Geelong and Richmond from 1990-96) or none at all (McCartney) meant that Neeld and McCartney were "the vanguard of the movement towards 'pure coaches' - ie, those who rise through the ranks entirely on the back of their coaching capacity".

Niall pointed out that most head coaches in America's NFL came from similar coaching backgrounds, with very few having played in the game's elite competition.

Will the Demons' and Bulldogs' coaching appointments start a similar trend in the AFL? Time will tell.

Change at the Crows
Hot on the heels of Neeld's and McCartney's appointments came the news on Monday that Adelaide had appointed Brenton Sanderson as its new senior coach.

Sanderson may be best known for his playing career (199 games from 1995-2005) and assistant coaching stint (2007-11) at Geelong, but he started his playing career at the Crows, playing six games from 1992-93. (He also played four games at Collinwood in 1994.)

However, despite Sanderson's history with the Crows, The Advertiser's chief football writer Michelangelo Rucci wrote that the new coach would usher in a new era at Adelaide.

"The bottom line at West Lakes is the new Crows coach will be leading a new journey rather than being the new face and new voice of (Neil) Craig's program," Rucci wrote.

According to Rucci, Sanderson's presentations to the Crows during the coaching interview process did not involve Craig staying on at the club as his mentor. And, although Craig remains on the Crows' payroll, he will leave soon to pursue roles at Melbourne, Richmond or the Brisbane Lions, Rucci wrote.  
 
As he prepares to usher in his own era at the Crows, Sanderson faces "serious decisions" on the futures of out-of-contract staff such as 2011 caretaker coach Mark Bickley and assistant coach Ben Hart, Rucci wrote.

Both Bickley and Hart are club greats, but it is vital that Sanderson is able to surround himself with the assistant coaching team he wants. After all, responsibility for the success of the Crows in coming seasons will ultimately rest with him.

Most experienced coaches say that when you take on such responsibility you want do things your way, refusing any compromises that you may regret in the long run.

Of course, Sanderson could decide he wants Bickley and Hart on his team. It will be an interesting couple of weeks at West Lakes.
 
Dawes in demand
One of the problems of AFL success for clubs is that it makes it harder to keep their playing lists together.

The salary cap means there is only so much money to reward your growing list of stars, which is exacerbated by the inevitability opposition clubs will be lining up with inflated offers you cannot hope to match.

Already this season, Collingwood has found itself in this position with Dane Swan, Scott Pendlebury and Dale Thomas. Greater Western Sydney reportedly had all three midfield stars in its targets but the Magpies successfully thwarted the Giants' efforts, re-signing all three this year - although Pendlebury's one-year contract extension will almost certainly mean he is a target for the Giants again next year.

It seems the latest player the Magpies will have to work overtime to keep is key forward Chris Dawes.

On Monday, both The Age and Herald Sun reported that Dawes remained out of contract and was being circled by opposition clubs.

The Herald Sun's Sam Edmund wrote that Dawes, who pledged his loyalty to the Magpies in July, wanted to stay at Collingwood but "not at any price".

Dawes' manager, Ben Niall of Scopo Management, told Edmund Dawes accepted he had to take "a significant haircut" to stay at Collingwood but was currently debating with the Magpies just "how big a haircut is reasonable".

Edmund wrote that some rival clubs had signalled their interest in Dawes, who could command up to $500,000 should he decide to leave Collingwood.

The Age's Jon Pierik wrote that Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs were believed to be "firmly in the mix" for Dawes.

Former Essendon captain Matthew Lloyd said on SEN on Monday that Carlton, which some commentators believe is a key forward away from a serious premiership tilt, should make a serious play at Dawes.

Both Edmund and Pierik noted that Dawes would be a perfect fit at Carlton, but both wrote that the Blues had yet to make any inquiries about him.

However, on Monday, Carlton chief executive Greg Swann told Edmund the Blues would look at all available players over the trade period with a view to addressing "pretty specific" needs.      

In short
One of Brendan McCartney's first priorities as Western Bulldogs coach will be meeting with full-back Brian Lake, the Herald Sun reports. Lake endured a disappointing 2011 season that was plagued by injury, but McCartney said: "It's important we understand where he sees himself and what he thinks he offers the club." McCartney said it was possible Lake, who has two years left on his current contract, could be played as a forward.

Teams from Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, NSW/ACT and South Australia have converged on the Gold Coast for the AFL Under-18 Youth Girls National Championship, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports. AFL female development manager Jan Cooper told the paper the youth girls competition (girls aged 13-18) was one of the fastest-growing segments of the game.

Veteran Jude Bolton says the Sydney Swans will target a key forward to support Sam Reid in this year's trade week, The Daily Telegraph reports. "You need an abundance of good forwards in this day and age and certainly we'll look around that area," Bolton said.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.