ON THE eve of a new football season, a great deal of fuss is made of the new coaches.

And rightfully so. Luke Beveridge and Phil Walsh are stepping into the spotlight for the first time. Rodney Eade, seemingly content in retirement, has stepped back into the hot seat once again.

But as we pause for a moment just before the start of the new season, it is also worth looking at the second-year coaches.

Alan Richardson, Adam Simpson, Justin Leppitsch and Paul Roos (second year at Melbourne, that is) all got through challenging debut seasons and would like to think that 2015 is the season they start building for the long haul.

There will be more about Richardson on AFL.com.au later this week and in the round one edition of the AFL Record, but a series of decisions taken by the Saints over the summer would indicate that the club is being well led and that the processes underpinning the rebuild are sound.

2015 predictions: AFL Media's reporters look into their crystal balls

Over at West Coast, Simpson filled in the very big shoes and the very large shadow cast by his predecessor John Worsfold.

As a dual premiership captain and a premiership coach of the Eagles, you could easily mount the argument that Worsfold is the greatest figure in the club's history.

It is always difficult as the person who replaces a legend. Matthew Knights struggled to fill the massive void left by Kevin Sheedy at Essendon. Overseas, look at what a hash David Moyes made of being next up after Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

But Simpson appears to be making a decent fist of things at West Coast. He has quietly turned over the list at the Eagles and now has 18 players at his disposal that weren’t there under Worsfold.

And the list has become decidedly younger. Since Simpson took the helm, Daniel Kerr, Darren Glass, Dean Cox, Beau Waters, Andrew Embley and Adam Selwood have all retired from the club. This is now his team.

"He found his feet, who he was and worked out the standards he wanted at the club," new captain Shannon Hurn said last week. "I reckon he got that two or three months into the club and since then it has gone ahead in leaps and bounds."

The dynamic at West Coast is interesting. Relatively speaking, it is a new football club. Simpson notes that the Eagles lack the 100-year history of his two former clubs – North Melbourne where he played 306 games and in two premierships, and Hawthorn, where he was an assistant coach for four seasons – yet it still contains salt-of-the-earth types who have been at the club forever.

At West Coast, all the club legends are alive and kicking. At major club functions, they are almost always there.

The handing of the baton from Worsfold to Simpson was so smooth that they were having coffee together within a fortnight of him starting the job. "He comes into the office and he comes and watch training," observed Simpson in an interview last week. "I even sit in the 'John Worsfold Room' when I do media interviews.

"I can't recall a time where a club legend has captained and coached and then left the club on such good terms."

Worsfold's time was clearly up at West Coast, and the Eagles did well to land Simpson, who shaped as a senior coach even while he was still playing for North.

There will be challenges this season. 2014 best and fairest Eric Mackenzie tore his ACL and will miss the season. Forward tyro Jack Darling has yet to feature this year, but all the signs are that Simpson is entrenched at West Coast for the long term.

Adam Simpson has enjoyed a smooth transition to the Eagles' top job. Picture: AFL Media

The same goes for Justin Leppitsch in Brisbane.

He is also operating in the shadows of club legends. He replaced Michael Voss as coach and his line of reporting to the board at the club goes through three-time premiership coach Leigh Matthews, who returned to the Lions 18 months ago as football director and is now the vice-chairman of the club.

The influence Matthews has had over Leppitsch through his football journey has been profound. The Lions coach describes Matthews as very much a "father figure".

But Leppitsch has the makings of something special as well. In just 12 months he has transformed the Lions into a destination club.

Five up and coming players walked out on the club during the trade period at the end of 2013 yet one year later, three big names – Dayne Beams, Allen Christensen and Mitch Robinson – have chosen to join the Lions when in each case, they could have landed elsewhere.

"Well, we still need to win games," Leppitsch cautioned in an interview last week when asked his thoughts on the hype around the Lions.

"But we have built a culture, a family culture and we're striving to be like a country footy club where we have to look after each other."

From the outside looking in – Leppitsch was an assistant coach at Richmond before returning to the club where was a three-time premiership defender – the Lions had got away from the "all in this together" mantra that had been the hallmark of the club when it ruled the AFL landscape between 2001 and 2003.

"It's something I wanted to bring back, and to do it better than any other club," he said.

Having Matthews back in a fairly substantial role and the appointment of the experienced Greg Swann as chief executive has also made things smoother for Leppitsch.

It was Matthews who Leppitsch said taught him the importance of having "the right people and in right areas."

And it was Swann who, not long after his appointment in the middle of last season, declared that the Lions were open for business with a salary cap that needed to be filled.

Swann's message to the club was that it was OK to be aggressive in everything it does. "We're not here to be mediocre and that messaging is very important for me," Leppitsch said.

Lions great Justin Leppitsch has brought back the family vibe in Brisbane. Picture: AFL Media

At the Demons, Roos has already described the differences between pre-seasons one and two as "chalk and cheese".

Speaking at the captains' day last week, Melbourne skipper Nathan Jones backed that up, saying he has never been better prepared entering the start of a new season.

Last summer Roos could only dip his toes in the water as he mapped out the pre-season campaign. He didn't know the players and was unaware of their capabilities.

But after what was pretty much a 12-month familiarisation process, Roos promised his players a hellish pre-season and on that front, he delivered.

"He had a much clearer picture about where we needed to improve," Jones said. "He promised some tough times and it was one of the toughest pre-seasons we faced."

But they accomplished plenty. The Melbourne fitness staff recently gave a presentation to the players about the summer just completed and the numbers were staggering. According to Jones, the minutes, the efforts and the distances covered were double and even three times the numbers of years past.

"Roosy strongly encouraged us to come back in really good condition and credit to the boys we did that.

"We got stuck into footy much earlier and we were even playing some scratch matches before Christmas which had never been done in my time at the footy club," he said.

In terms of game-planning, Roos locked down on defensive structures last year, but the teaching has moved to other parts of the ground this year.

"We have to improve in some key areas in terms of moving the ball and retaining the ball in possession so we're not chasing bums all day. We've worked hard on our offensive ball movement without losing the defensive edge that he likes," Jones said.

"Two-way running is something he values and we showed improvement in that last year, but the flipside is scoring to win games and creating scoring opportunities when we create turnovers.

"We've worked on running patterns and method of movement in the play and forward of the ball. We've seen glimpses of it in the pre-season and hopefully it will stand up from now," he said.

To steal a famous quote from Lou Richards, Roos went from "chocolates to boiled lollies" when he moved from the Swans to the Demons, but according to Jones, Roos remained even-tempered throughout the process at the Demons, who were hopelessly non-competitive at times last season.

"He hates losing, as most of us do, but he stayed patient. He understands there is a process and what he wants from us will eventually become ingrained."

Paul Roos put his Demons through the hardest pre-season any had faced. Picture: AFL Media

Question Time


ASHLEY BROWNE: It's all about minutes in the pre-season. When there were four pre-season games, most coaches said that three were ideal. When it was cut back to three, most coaches picked their players for just two games. I don't think the players want to play any more home and away games than the 22 they do now, but there is general agreement that the season needs to be longer so that there can be two byes per season for each club. Expect that to become a reality from next season. But also look for the entire issue of how much footy is played each year to be a tenet of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations, which will start once the new media rights deal is signed off.


AB: With everyone to pick from, the Hawks will play Brian Lake and James Frawley as their two primary tall defenders. Ben Stratton and Josh Gibson can float between smalls and talls and Gibson could be released to play further up the ground. He might even kick that elusive first goal for the Hawks. Add Grant Birchall to that group and that is pretty much the starting five for the Hawthorn backline. Depending on match-ups availability and game situations, anyone of Taylor Duryea, Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne, Matthew Suckling, Angus Litherland, Matt Spangher and Brendan Whitecross could also play through the backline.


AB: This was in response to the AFL Media writers' season prediction that appeared on AFL.com.au on Saturday. I left them out of my top eight, but a finals appearance this year is not out of the question. There are only two teams I believe can definitely ruled out of finals contention this year – St Kilda and Melbourne. Ryan Griffen is a massive addition to the Giants' midfield while Joel Patfull stiffens the backline. If Jeremy Cameron kicks 75 to 80 goals this year and the team remains relatively injury-free, they have a sneaky chance to make the finals.


AB: It is a hard question to definitively answer before the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal does its thing on Tuesday, but to answer the question, Essendon if mass suspensions are handed down, Carlton or Collingwood if the Dons get the all-clear.