‘Eye off the ball’: Sacked coach whacks AFLW program after ‘oily rag’ support

Sacked Carlton coach Daniel Harford says the club has been too focused on the men’s program, to the detriment of AFLW success which operated on “the smell of an oily rag”.

Speaking on his breakfast radio show on RSN, Harford called for the Blues to “get serious with the program” after the club “took their eye off the ball with the AFLW”.

An independent review into Carlton’s AFLW program found that the senior coach position needed to be full-time, and that there was “at times confusion with the game plan and lack of alignment and consistency with its implementation”.

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The program wasn’t given the same attention as the men. (Photo by Albert Perez/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Supplied

“You’ve got part time athletes who have other lives, who are trying to find and squeeze this life into their world – it’s a challenge for all involved in the competition let alone the players and the staff,” he said on RSN.

“It’s a bit of chicken and the egg stuff – if you can pay them to a position where you can make this a more full-time or almost full-time situation, then those things will rise with it.

“I think perhaps there was an eye taken off the AFLW program. They give themselves a bit of a clip in the release (from the Blues’ AFLW review), as well, where they say that the review found a clear vision for AFLW was required.

“They’ve admitted they took their eye off the ball with the AFLW program and left us to run our own race a bit, without the support that perhaps we needed off the smell of an oily rag.”

Carlton president Luke Sayers said Harford, who played 153 games for Hawthorn, wasn’t able to “service the role in a full-time capacity”, and subsequently had parted ways with the club.

Harford was contracted in the role for a further 15 months, but when asked on air whether the parting of ways was mutual, he was less than diplomatic.

“I think if you’ve got a year to go on your deal, you’re probably sacked. That’s ok. We can say that,” he said.

He said judging a part-time program on full-time standards was a skewed position and that players likewise couldn’t be judged on part-time schedules.

It’s been a rough patch for the Blues. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images