Rodney Eade

Rodney Eade (born 4 April 1958) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach in the Australian Football League. He is a former coach of the Sydney Swans, the Western Bulldogs and the Gold Coast Football Club. He has, to date, coached 377 games of AFL football, placing him first on the all-time AFL/VFL list of most games coached without a premiership.

Rodney Eade
Eade in June 2017
Personal information
Full name	Rodney Eade
Nickname(s)	speed, rocket
Date of birth	4 April 1958
Place of birth	Tasmania
Original team(s)	Glenorchy
Height	183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	84 kg (185 lb)
Position(s)	Wingman
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1976–1987	Hawthorn	229 (46)
1988–1990	Brisbane Bears	030 0(3)
Total		259 (49)
Coaching career^3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1996–2002	Sydney	152 (81–69–2)
2005–2011	Western Bulldogs	162 (88–72–2)
2015–2017	Gold Coast	63 (16–46–1)
Club total		377 (185–187–5)
2011	Representative Australia	2 (0–2–0)
Total		379 (185–189–5)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1990. ^3 Coaching statistics correct as of the end of 2016[1].
Career highlights
VFL Premiership: 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Playing career

Recruited from Glenorchy, while still a schoolboy, young Rodney Eade made his VFL debut for the Hawthorn Hawks as an 18-year-old. Playing with a lot of dash and blistering speed, Eade capped off his debut season by playing in the 1976 premiership team. He went on to play in the Hawks‘ 1978, 1983, and 1986 premierships sides. In all, the winger played 229 games and kicked 46 goals for Hawthorn between 1976 and 1987. His time at the Hawks finished when he moved to the Brisbane Bears in 1988. Suffering injuries later on as he got older, Eade managed to play 30 games and kicked three goals until his retirement in 1990.

Coaching career

Immediately following his retirement at the end of 1990, Eade took up coaching. In 1991 he was the reserves coach of the Brisbane Bears and led the Bears to the reserves' premiership in that season.[2] He later coached the North Melbourne reserves, and led it to the premiership in 1995. These successes at reserves level gave Eade a strong case for a senior coaching job in 1996.[3]

Sydney Swans

Eade became coach of the Sydney Swans in 1996, taking them to a grand final in which they lost to North Melbourne. In his second year, in the 1997 season, he took Sydney to sixth on the ladder but they were eliminated in the qualifying finals to the Western Bulldogs. In the 1998 season, he took Sydney to a better performance to third on the ladder where they defeated St Kilda in the qualifying finals before being beaten by Adelaide, the eventual premiers, in the semi finals. In the 1999 season he took Sydney to eighth spot on the ladder where they were eliminated in the qualifying finals to Essendon by 69 points. In the 2000 season, he took Sydney to eleventh spot on the ladder, missing out in the finals. In the 2001 season, he took Sydney back into the finals finishing with seventh spot on the ladder before being beaten by Hawthorn in the elimination finals. In the 2002 season, with Sydney's record becoming worse week by week and being placed fourteenth on the ladder, Eade resigned following a narrow Round 12 loss to Geelong; he was replaced by Paul Roos for the rest of the 2002 season and Roos was eventually appointed full-time.

Western Bulldogs

Eade spent 2003 and 2004 as a media writer and commentator before being appointed coach of the Western Bulldogs for the 2005 season. In his first season as their coach he took an under-achieving Bulldogs side within a goal of a finals series berth, after they had finished with less than five wins in the previous two years, but just missed out on the finals, finishing in ninth spot on the ladder. In 2006, he took the Bulldogs to a finals series for the first time since Terry Wallace in 2000, where they defeated Collingwood in the elimination finals but lost to eventual premiers West Coast in the semi finals. In the 2007 season, Eade took the Bulldogs to thirteenth on the ladder and, consequently, his job was in jeopardy due to the sudden downturn in the team's performance. But rather than firing him, the club limited his expansive duties.[4]

In the 2008 season, Eade coached the Bulldogs to third on the ladder and then to the club's first preliminary final since 1998, but they were eliminated by Geelong who were the eventual runners-up. In 2009 and 2010, Eade took the Bulldogs two more consecutive preliminary finals, falling to St Kilda on both occasions.

The Western Bulldogs did not progress well in the 2011 season, being placed twelfth on the ladder. Following a big loss to Essendon by 49 points in Round 21, it was announced on 17 August 2011 that Eade's contract would not be renewed at the conclusion of the 2011 season.[5] The following day, Eade stepped down as coach of the Bulldogs.[6] He was replaced by caretaker coach Paul Williams for the remainder of the 2011 season.

Collingwood

On 3 October 2011, Eade was appointed by Collingwood to the position of Football and Coaching Strategist, replacing outgoing coach Mick Malthouse, who had originally planned to step into that role after the 2011 season.

Gold Coast Suns

On 30 October 2014, Eade was appointed the Gold Coast Suns' second senior coach, replacing Guy McKenna. On 8 August 2017, with 3 games left in the season, Eade was told his contract would not be renewed. Eade departed immediately and was replaced by Dean Solomon.

Statistics

Playing statistics

[7]

Legend

G

Goals

B

Behinds

K

Kicks

H

Handballs

D

Disposals

M

Marks

T

Tackles

Led the league after season and finals

AFL playing statistics

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)							Votes
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
1976†	Hawthorn	26	9	4	3	130	28	158	25	N/A	0.4	0.3	14.4	3.1	17.6	2.8	N/A	0
1977	Hawthorn	26	22	6	8	248	76	324	45	N/A	0.3	0.4	11.3	3.5	14.7	2.0	N/A	0
1978†	Hawthorn	26	25	5	7	362	86	448	89	N/A	0.2	0.3	14.5	3.4	17.9	3.6	N/A	2
1979	Hawthorn	26	21	9	6	317	70	387	48	N/A	0.4	0.3	15.1	3.3	18.4	2.3	N/A	2
1980	Hawthorn	26	20	2	1	305	84	389	99	N/A	0.1	0.1	15.3	4.2	19.5	5.0	N/A	6
1981	Hawthorn	26	14	5	4	170	61	231	45	N/A	0.4	0.3	12.1	4.4	16.5	3.2	N/A	0
1982	Hawthorn	26	23	3	5	311	149	460	69	N/A	0.1	0.2	13.5	6.5	20.0	3.0	N/A	4
1983†	Hawthorn	26	22	1	3	297	132	429	72	N/A	0.0	0.1	13.5	6.0	19.5	3.3	N/A	3
1984	Hawthorn	26	22	4	6	260	100	360	71	N/A	0.2	0.3	11.8	4.5	16.4	3.2	N/A	3
1985	Hawthorn	26	21	5	3	233	88	321	76	N/A	0.2	0.1	11.1	4.2	15.3	3.6	N/A	3
1986†	Hawthorn	26	14	1	2	171	64	235	46	N/A	0.1	0.1	12.2	4.6	16.8	3.3	N/A	0
1987	Hawthorn	26	16	1	0	188	74	262	39	24	0.1	0.0	11.8	4.6	16.4	2.4	1.5	0
1988	Brisbane Bears	26	13	1	4	178	53	231	62	13	0.1	0.3	13.7	4.1	17.8	4.8	1.0	0
1989	Brisbane Bears	26	12	1	3	129	37	166	39	21	0.1	0.3	10.8	3.1	13.8	3.3	1.8	0
1990	Brisbane Bears	26	5	1	0	68	22	90	19	5	0.2	0.0	13.6	4.4	18.0	3.8	1.0	0
Career			259	49	55	3367	1124	4491	844	63	0.2	0.2	13.0	4.3	17.3	3.3	1.4	23

Coaching statistics

[8]

Legend
W	Wins	L	Losses	D	Draws	W%	Winning percentage	LP	Ladder position	LT	League teams

Season	Team	Games	W	L	D	W %	LP	LT
1996	Sydney	25	18	6	1	74.0%	1	16
1997	Sydney	23	12	11	0	52.2%	6	16
1998	Sydney	24	15	9	0	62.5%	3	16
1999	Sydney	23	11	12	0	47.7%	8	16
2000	Sydney	22	10	12	0	45.5%	10	16
2001	Sydney	23	12	11	0	52.2%	7	16
2002	Sydney	12	3	8	1	29.2%	14^	16
2005	Western Bulldogs	22	11	11	0	50.0%	9	16
2006	Western Bulldogs	24	14	10	0	58.3%	8	16
2007	Western Bulldogs	22	9	12	1	43.2%	13	16
2008	Western Bulldogs	25	16	8	1	66.0%	3	16
2009	Western Bulldogs	25	16	9	0	64.0%	3	16
2010	Western Bulldogs	25	15	10	0	60.0%	4	16
2011	Western Bulldogs	19	7	12	0	36.8%	12^	17
2015	Gold Coast	22	4	17	1	20.5%	16	18
2016	Gold Coast	22	6	16	0	27.3%	15	18
2017	Gold Coast	19	6	13	0	31.5%	15	18
Career totals		377	185	187	5	49.07%

^Eade resigned twice mid-season; in 2002, Sydney were fourteenth when he resigned and in 2011, the Western Bulldogs were twelfth when he resigned.

Cricketing career

Eade was a talented junior cricketer, making his senior cricketing debut for Glenorchy Cricket Club aged 14. On his debut Eade scored 31*, sharing a match saving partnership with future Australian Test cricketer Roger Woolley.[9]

References

1. "AFL Tables – Rodney Eade – Coaching Record".
2. Glenn McFarlane (29 September 1991). "Brisbane breaks the ice". The Sunday Herald-Sun. Melbourne, VIC. p. 72.
3. "Roos' turn to celebrate". The Sunday Age (Sports Liftout). Melbourne, VIC. 1 October 1995. p. 13.
4. Smith, Patrick. "Eade Cops Rocket after Review." The Australian. 8 November 2007. EBSCOhost: Newspaper Source. Accessed 16 December 2007, http://web.ebscohost.com
5. Wilson, Caroline; Brodie, Will (17 August 2011). "Eade to leave Bulldogs". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
6. Kogoy, Peter (18 August 2011). "Paul Williams take reins after Rodney Eade walks". The Australian. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
7. "AFL Tables - Rodney Eade - Stats - Statistics". afltables.com.
8. "Rodney Eade's coaching profile". AFL Tables.
9. Gandy, M., "Tasmania", Australian Cricket, February 1973, Modern Magazines: Sydney, p. 65.

External links

• Rodney Eade's playing statistics from AFL Tables