Any club arrogant enough to appoint a coach with zero coaching experience just because he knows the game plan are in for a rude shock. Norwood are starting to see this. Ben Warren may see the year out but Norwood will look back on this appointment with regret. Quiz question: have Norwood ever won a flag coached by a coach who was appointed to the job with any substantial prior coaching experience?
2012/13: Bassett. Basically nil.
1997: Rohde. Nil. Straight out of VFL/AFL playing career.
1982/84: Balme. Nil. Straight from VFL playing career.
1975/78: Hammond. Nil. Appointed as playing coach.
1946/48/50: Jack Oatey. Nil. Appointed, and won all flags, while still playing.
1941: Perc McCallum. Seemingly nil. Retired from playing 1940, appointed coach immediately.
1929: Walter Scott. Nil. Playing coach.
1925: Syd White. Nil. Playing coach.
1922/23: Tom Leahy. Seemingly nil. Retired from playing 1921, appointed coach immediately.
The flag that Norwood won prior to that was 1907, and the first entry in the Norwood club history of a coach being appointed is the year 1909, i.e. for all Norwood flags prior to 1922 there was no coach.
Might be just a coincidence. But equally it might mean something that Trevor Hill, when appointed, had more coaching experience and credentials than all of the above coaches put together. It might mean that if you've got the right dude, experience is vastly overrated. Whether Norwood have the right dude remains to be seen. But if Nathan Bassett was judged exclusively on his first 4 minor round games, he was one of Norwood's worst appointments of all time, and at the time some keyboard warriors no doubt had a ball delighting in all of the 'sack Bassett' threads that were going to be raining down come the end of 2010.
