Marcus Barclay, above, has been replaced by Mark Greenshields as head coach of Albion Football Club. 61126
BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
A DOMINANT home-and-away season and a grand final appearance were not enough to save former Albion coach Marcus Barclay.
Barclay, who took over from 2010 premiership winning coach Paul Harrison, was told last week his contract would not be renewed at the Cats.
Albion appointed former player Mark Greenshields as its new senior coach on Wednesday.
Club president Terry Cooper said Albion’s grand final loss was not the sole reason Barclay was sacked.
“I think the decision was more based on the two finals and areas surrounding both finals,” Cooper said.
“It was hard for Marcus to come in after we won a premiership in the previous year. It was one of those situations where we won a premiership then got a replacement coach. Maybe that made it more difficult.”
Cooper also suggested that Albion’s coaching model, where Barclay shared duties with playing co-coach Glenn Manton, may have
compromised both coaches’ capacity to do their job to the best of their ability.
“In our fervent desire to develop Glenn Manton’s role and leadership, we may have inadvertently saddled Marcus with some things that were a little difficult to overcome,” Cooper said.
“We believe perhaps things could have been done a little differently.
“I thought there were areas we could hone, but hindsight will be the judge of that.”
Cooper said Albion went through a yearly review process and Greenshields’ application merited his appointment as head coach.
Greenshields, who played for Albion for seven years before retiring in 2006 due to injury, had applied for the job in previous years and narrowly missed out.
He was head coach of Riddell District Football League side Melton Centrals from 2007/09, and again this year.
Greenshields completed his Level 2 coaching course this year, and had Western Jets coach Steven Kretiuk as his mentor.
Barclay is expected to find an assistant coaching role within the Western Region Football League.
